TROY - Process book

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This project was a part of a INF5591 course, concerned with Advancements in Interaction Design. It lasted for five weeks and the final effect is presented in this process book.

GROUP MEMBERS

Univerity Of Oslo, Department of Informatics

Olga SkachkovaYaron OkunJorgen ValenOskar Galewicz

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Our first step was to grasp the concepts of intelligence and smartness and try to understand how it can be referred to in context of a Artificial Intelligence in our day to day lives.

By creating newspaper collages, and finding exem-plars, we achieved broader understanding of the given domain. Our “design space” started to emerge. By combining our exemplars and analysing the content of our collages, we discovered some similarities in the topics we chose, which later became “themes”. These are the themes we focused on, based on newspaper headers (presented under each theme), followed by exemplars that we found provocative and inspiring for our project:

Newspaper Collage

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AI AS AN AID

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AI AS IMPERFECT

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CREATIVE AI

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AI vs HUMANS

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SCENARIO BASED DESIGNBy defining several “what-if” scenarios, we tried to speculate about Artificial Intelligence in a future setting. Our visions were meant to trigger the curiosity around the AI development, by putting it in different settings, giving it different qualities and looking at it from different perspectives. The goal was to develop a workbook of some sort, that would reflect our thinking process in (more or less) concrete ideas and develop concepts that explore very same issues.

Crit sessions have given us necessary guidance that resulted in many different ideas. One of the early examples, was building upon the idea of AI knowing the mood of its “owner”. Possible scenarios (both positive and negative) are presented in order to consider the possible implications AI could have on the daily routines.

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We then came up with a long list of concrete design ideas. It highlighted the importance of thorough reflection on what makes a device smart. We picked out seven ideas that we felt good, took a step back and reflected on what concept these represented. We formulated them as “what-if” questions and made scenarios to speculate on the possibilities they could bring, thereby narrowing them down.

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AI + Security

AI helping in making decisions.

AI registering dreams. AI describing your day.

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The concept of AI being able to express feelings, was a concept that we found worth further investigation. Impact of AI on the humans and vice versa seemed like an intruiguing topic, so re-considering emotional relationship between them and concretising our ideas, took us further to the prototyping phase.

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Our first step in prototyping phase was investi-gating available software and testing its functions.Based on our earlier discussion, we considered how our artefact could interact with humans. Even though at this point design wasn`t really defined, the accuracy of the software, its possibilities and constraints played a role in further definition of our design artefact.

EyeTracker PedestrianTracker

SOFTWARE EXPLORATION

FaceTracker

FacialExpression Tracker LittleBits

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Reflecting on emotions, and various ways of expres-sion, lead us towards exploration of different forms and representations connected to our concept. Going away from looking at the computer as a task-oriented tool, and considering its integration into physical environment in day to day life set-ting, made us reflect on the values we give to the objects and creatures surrounding us, regardless of their imperfect nature. Combining the value created by the time (sentimental value), emotions the ar-tefact can evoke and reflections it can create, were central in defining its further form and function per se. We decided that creating an artwork personal-ity based on its perception of the world (filtered through its AI) sounded like an interesting concept. It then became an object of our further investigation.

FORM EXPLORATION

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Exploring different forms of artistic expression and getting to know basic ideas connected to generative art paradigm, gave us necessary understanding of how GenArt is created, how it can be manipulated, and customized. Choosing the right piece of art was crucial in order to communicate the intended feedback. We experimented with different codes, considering the opportunities of visual and contextual expression. By combining it with face recognition tool, we could see how the artwork would behave. We trained Wekina-tor to alter the art based on its interpretations of what it saw. We used a lot of time on twitching different codes, to see the degree of expressiveness we could achieve.

GENERATIVE ART

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We ended up using FaceCounter that we modified for our purpose. We trained Wekinator with different number of faces to see how it would intererpret it.

The final choice of visual art that we decided to use in our prototype was based on several factors. We found wave-like mesh to be dynamic and highly expressive through its movement and multidimensionality. The amount of waves generated represents its feelings., ranging from calm to distressed. The color aspect was implemented to strenghten TROYs ability to react on its surroundings.

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CALM DISTRESSED

SCARED ANGRY

TIME ASPECT (ON Y-AXIS)

EMOTIONAL EXPRESSION

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FORM EXPLORATION

We used moodboard as a source of inspiration to refine the aesthetic expression of the prototype.

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Keeping in mind that an artwork can be a form of representation of personal taste, interests and some-how personality, shaped our further design decisions. One of the issues was the size of the artefact. Our thought was to create an unintrusive object that would spark curiosity among its audience , but also express the simplistic style of modern interior. The goal was to make them reflect on its function than its form. In our case using a frame form felt like a good choice.

FORM DEFINITION

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Experimentation with various tangible materials and considering their aesthetical and physical qualities helped us to define the desired frame. Its dimensions were meant to match the size of the components, but at the same time they gave us a choice of exposing TROY. Either through letting it stand or hang, depending on the setting it would be placed in.

MATERIAL EXPLORATION

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webcam

driverboard

10” screen

HARDWARE

These are the components that we used for our prototype. Ideally, we could replace MacMini with Raspberry Pi in order to fully integrate the hardware in the prototype. Unfortunately the software we used was not compatible with the OS on Raspberry Pi. The next step was ordering a compatible web-cam.

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FINAL PROTOTYPE

Camera is sending the picture to Wekinator. It then interprets the visual input it receives based on what it has been trained on. Its perception then guides the emotional response visualized through the shape, motion and color of the art.

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- “Look, it drew some new parts over the night. It`s sort of creepy.”- “Haha i guess someone paid us a visit last night.”- “Stop it!”- “Chill out... you cant take what it draws too seriously”[Yaron rises up and goes to the kitchen.]

- “...make sure you put on some nice colorful outfit, we can see if TROY will react in some way!”[hangs up and looks excited at almost blank surface of TROY]

- “And this is?”- “TROY”

- “Cool, i gotta go.”[He goes towards TROY and corrects it quickly.]

-“Check this out!”[Points at TROY]-“...i just bought it from Peter. I know it still looks kind of odd, but he promised it will fit better after a while.”[TROY draws a new piece of artwork.]-”You see?!”[Tara looks sceptic towards TROY.]-”Yeah, it better does.”

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[Squeaky sound] Magnus slowly rises up, straightens up TROY and sits back again in his rocking chair.

Jan taps Johanna on a shoulder.]-“Look! Another piece of artwork has fallen into place.”

-“Were you home alone last night?”-”Yeah, why?”

[Merry points at TROY.]-”Are you sure about that?”

[John puts newspaper away and lowers his glasses.]-”Are you serious right now?”

[John sighs loudly]-“Seriously? I feel like a slave to that thing!”[Goes towards TROY and straightens it out in irritated manner.]

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