As I brainstorm environments for the next big project (a responsive animated world), I’ve started painting and drawing again! Considering I haven’t painted in like 6 years, this has been a lot of fun. These are super low-quality scans, but it gives an idea. Will post more soon…

I considered possible implications for exposing typically hidden measurable body states to others. What happens when others know how your heart-rate changes when they are talking to you?  How might this information be expressed and shared in a more playful manner? How might users interact if they are “trying” to synchronize their heart-rates? May 2011.

I created a 3D printed amulet with multi-colored LEDs which pulsed at different rates and colors reflecting the average speed of the wearer’s heart-rate.

I didn’t create good documentation for this, since it was a pretty rough prototype overall. However, below demonstrates some of the various processing screenshots and odd sounds created by the heart-beat levels.

I worked with MEML as a research assistant in summer 2011. We developed a series of in and out of car interactive experiences designed to deepen driver engagement with their car as a vehicle for mobile storytelling.

The comics were developed to illustrate certain types of experiences as part of a larger design document book and presentations.

Scavenger Hunt

As a couple step inside their new Mini Cooper for the first time, they are led through a scavenger hunt type puzzle within the car’s interior. The pieces encourage the drivers to explore the features of the car, initiating them into a new relationship with the car as a vehicle for playful interaction. The puzzle leads the drivers to name their car, further personalizing the experience, activating the mobile application, and developing the storytelling environment.

Unexpected Achievement

While washing Nigel, the family car, for the first time, a son and his mother realize that the son has unlocked an unexpected life-log achievement. As the relationship between Nigel and driver develops, the mobile application cues the driver to unexpected moments which are meaningful to Nigel, enhancing the sense of car as character.

Déjà vu:

As part of the life-log application, drivers can take and view embedded photos, pinned to GPS map locations. Here, the application cues a daughter to find a location where her parents had previously placed a photo. Through searching this personal family archive and adding her snapshot, she is led on a tour through both actual and historical space, guided by photos.

(this is the cover of the book)

This video, from August 2011, demonstrates pilot VR research and games prototyping being developed in relationship with OPTT-RERC. I worked as a research assistant on this initial phase of the project.

Marientina Gotsis and her CM&BHC team demoed more recent progress on the game prototyping at the March 2012 IEEE Virtual Reality conference in Costa Mesa.

Documentation from the event:

The idea was to embellish a stylized courtyard archway with boat-like portholes through time, telescope portals into archival memory footage. Original content here:

These digital toy blocks have embedded LCD touch screens which respond to one-another. Users can draw or download pre-made animated designs which can move between screens and respond to user movements such as touching other blocks, shaking, spinning, stacking, etc. The blocks encourage an integration between digital, virtual, and tangible play.

See a brief demonstration of the concept in action below:

(Thanks to iMAPper, Laila Shereen Sakr’s family for starring in the concept video.)

At the time, I was working with over-the-top goth-romantic imagery, inspired by doodles I had made in the margins of poetry notebooks from the summer when I was 14. Sigh.

This picture is from when the petals were placed along-side “108″ at the Shambhala Art Festival in 2007.

  final design (geometric tree)

This collaboration provided an opportunity to incorporate Jen’s design of a data visualization tree into the development of a simple playful 3D tree, while learning the technology involved with producing 3D Prints. We considered how user activity within the USC Cinematic Arts complex, as measured with the PUCK iPhone application, would correspond to growing branches and flowers on the tree over time. Each branch represents a week. Its length corresponds with time spent in the building. Flowers petals reflect days within the week, while bumps on the tree represent features engaged within the application. Throughout the building, iPads display 2D animated visualizations of related data. The 3D print is a bonus souvenir and toy artifact which the building gifts to users after they have interacted with it for a certain amount of time. July 2011.

(alternate succulent-style design)

Inspiration:

Each year will see a new mythical creature…