A collaborationbetween BrendanWalker, Equator(UCL, Nottinghamand Bristol) andHealth-Smart.

Video cameras mounted above theseinstallations capture images of theflashlight beams which are thenprocessed by our software whichtriggers various forms out output,including audio and video displaysand also special effects including asmoke machine. The project revisitsthe interactive flashlights technologyfrom the Equator Devices challenge.

Players then see their 3D avatar overlaid on this video view in sucha way that it appears to be falling through the atrium. By workingthe footpad, they can steer this avatar, colliding with other playersand wrestling with them in mid-air.

Schizophrenic Cyborg

Interfaces for public performance

iPoi: Augmented poi

Blurring the frame ofmobile experiences

One Rock

Designing the spectator experience• A framework for considering aperformer’s interaction from thespectators’ perspective.• Manipulations of the interface and theeffects of those manipulations.• Design strategies for hiding, revealingand augmenting these manipulationsand effects to the spectator.

• Augmented reality device overlayszoomable video data on large bottles.• Transitions between bystanders andparticipants.• Negotiating handover the technology.

Flypad

Enlighten atMAGNA

Thrill:FairgroundLaboratory

A wireless telemetrysystem uses wearabletechnologies tocapture live video,audio, heart-rate andacceleration datafrom riders.

The data was then streamed to large public displays and was also recorded.The technology was embedded into a live theatrical event at which riderswere selected from a watching audience and their captured data wassubsequently presented back to this audience and discussed by experts inmedical monitoring, psychology and ride design as part of a ‘Thrill evening.’

Acknowledgements: photos and images by Jennifer Sheridan, Tara Khan, MarinaNg, Stuart Reeves, Hayes Davidson, Martin Flintham, Leif Oppermann, SteveBenford, ArchitectureWeek.com, Visible Interactions Limited

Early explorations Theoretical work

• Involves a performer with a wearabledisplay at a social event.• A hidden orchestrator watches,listens and modifies the display.• Bystanders are unwitting (unaware)of the source of the activity.• The display becomes a ‘magical’ wayfor the orchestrator to engage with theaudience.

Dem

onst

rati

onex

peri

ence

s

Further experimentation

Dem

onstrationexperiences

A collaboration between Equator and the MAGNAScience Adventure Centre at Rotherham with additionalfunding from NESTA. Enlighten at MAGNA opened tothe public in November 2006.

The MAGNA Science AdventureCentre is a massive ex-steel mill.

Six specially constructed searchlights are mounted on therailings of a large steel gantry that runs through thebuilding, enabling visitors to point to disused steel-makingmachinery far away. The interface is both engaging to usebut also engages spectators, attracting them to it, enablingthem to learn how to operate it by watching each other.

This is a collaborationbetween Equator and theartists group Blast Theory.Flypad is due to open to thepublic in the first half of2008.

A permanent multi-playeraugmented reality gameinstallation for a major multi-million pound new arts centrelocated in West Bromwich.

Up to twelve players at a timestand on footpads in front of amounted screen, behind which isa motorised camera looking outinto a large atrium beyond thescreen. On the screen they see avideo display from the camerawhich shows them a view intothe atrium. Additional large-screen spectator interfaces aremounted high above the atriumto attract and engage spectators.

A ‘priming’ interface on each footpaddisplay carefully inducts spectators asthey step up to become players. Players’conduct on the footpads is also highlyvisible to spectators down in the atrium.

• How a performance is‘framed’ through theconduct of performers anduse of props.• Strategies for ‘blurring’this frame:

• Extending theframe: implyingbystanders and objectsare part of the frame.• Shrinking the frame:implying performersand props are outsidethe frame.

• Performers construct the frame forspectators who interpret it.• The frames subdivides, e.g., hiddenbehind-the-scenes work, and inductionof bystanders at front-of-house.• Moves beyond performer andspectator roles: considers bystanders,orchestrators and participants.• Transitions between these roles.

• Realtime visualisationand sonification.• Multiple and mobileperformers.

User testing

Performer

AudienceBystander(implied

performer)

Interface

Actual frame

Apparent frame

Performer

Audience

Performer(implied

bystander)

Interface

Actual frame

Apparentframe

Demonstration experiences

Avatars wrestling

… and mutating

• Explores witting and unwittinginteraction with spectators.• Employs acceleration as amedium.

•A framework describing how a performance is ‘framed’ through conduct and physicalobjects.