Hackensack University Medical Center
2005
Products: Versa TILE
Producer: MVMT

It's interesting to me how art plays a role in spaces. The visuals in a space affect the mood. The form can affect behavior and attention. Personally, being a minimalist, I don't care much for paintings on the wall. I think that space should be functional and it should serve an effective purpose. In this case, a new children's hospital contracted some visual displays to be built.

The lobby of the hospital is very open and white, lit by phasing colors on the arced ceilings and walls. To the left is a very thin waterfall running over a display. The thought was that the display under the waterfall was a perfect opportunity to create an interactive toy for children. At first, the display was supposed to be an array of high definition plasmas. However, due to budgetary restrictions, a more cost effective display consisting of 3-inch by 3-inch bright 30-bit pixels was purchased. Obviously, the resolution was much less than that of an array of plasmas. In fact, the resolution in this case was 15X55 pixels. However, I was really excited about it. Because the display was so low resolution, the limitations dictated that the visuals be simple and ambient. This was interesting because the display could not be thought of as a computer display, but more like simple wallpaper, or animating bathroom tiles.

Interaction-wise, it was thought that people should be able to affect the visuals of the display by their movement directly in front of the waterfall. This was done with an overhead infrared camera that measured the changes in people's movements. When people move in front of the display, something happens on the display. Because of the aesthetics of the space, the container of the display itself, and the visual resolution limitations of the display, a ripple-tank seemed like a perfect application/toy. As people move in front of the display, they affect the location of ripples of virtual water colors. The more they move, the faster the colors phase, encouraging children to be more active and playful.

When there is no or little activity in front of the waterfall, the display phases simple rainbow colors and ripples lightly. It becomes a nice wall piece that blends into the space and is active only when you engage it. The interactive application is simple and effective. The framework of the system was built so that multiple applications can be developed and run on the displays. Future application ideas include defined games, body painting, gaseous form manipulation, interactive agents, etc.

Charles Forman
October 16th, 2005