The Electric Garden like the Bayou and Edge before it was
the happening place. The Design was very intense with chain
link fence surrounding everything. However some spots were
hard to find. The "Multi-Mega Book in the CAVE" by F.A.B.R.I.CATORS
and the Electronic Visualization Lab was one of those.
Never-the-less, even with a not so primo location, the
Multi-Mega Book sporting a new Immersadesk and spiffy Onyx2
looked great! The app itself seems endless and you can really
get lost in this virtual world.
Another big winner in the Garden was the "Morphing Mirror". It's
official title was "Magic Morphin Mirror: Face-Sensitive Distortion
and Exaggeration" and had a real fun house feel to it. Everyone
who passed by stopped and giggled at their face contorting on the screen.
My personal favorite was "d-rhum" an interactive installation,
where a set of drums beat in relationship to your physical presence.
I thought this had a lot of potential and I really liked the
"hacker" feel to it. However, the interactivity, using optical
sensors, was not very apparent. Despite this huge flaw the overall
feel of the piece was exceptional and the sound coupled with the
raw construction was perfect for the setting of the garden.
Another display of merit was the "Direct Manipulation Scene Creation
in 3D: Estimating Hand Postures from Multiple-Camera Images". This
was fun to interact with yet it was still clumsey and the gesture
recognition seemed a bit off for most symbols. However, it was a
very interactive piece and there were results albeit not what you intended.
For more pictures from the Electronic Garden click here.
