From Julie_Kumar@brown.edu Mon Nov 1 12:45:37 2004 Date: Mon, 1 Nov 2004 12:28:17 -0500 From: "Kumar, Julie" To: Daniel Acevedo Feliz Subject: RE: excuse Project Idea 1. Being the Bat. For this project, the viewer experiences a bat's-eye-view of the world. He or she is suspended from the ceiling, and thereby has the illusion of flying through the air by the rapid movement of the environment "past" the viewer. This particular world has a space-age aura--the obstacles appear metalllic and man-made, and the colors are intense and surreal. Because the viewer is flying through space, there are no bounds on this world: it is infinite, and this vastness will be underscored by the presence of objects that appear to be miles away. To simplify the user interface, the harness itself will be the viewer's means of navigation through the world. By twisting in the harness, the viewer may control the direction of flight, and by moving his or her legs in a more or less aerodynamic position, the viewer may control velocity of flight. Data will be coded through streamlines that follow the viewer for approximately 30 feet. At any moment, the viewer may turn around to view these streams and see a visual record of his or her speed, direction, air pressure, and vorticity for the past 5 or 10 seconds of flight. In this way, the viewer can "be" the bat and have the intense visual experience of flying through and exploring the world, while also having the opporunity of seeing the path that he or she has taken. This data will be all the more powerful, because the viewer himself created this data by controlling the velocity and direction of his or her flight. Project Idea 2. Multiple Bats. This project is a depiction of a "timeline" of bat flight through the usage of multiple bats. The idea is that the bats will be lined up in a chain, each representing the same bat at different times. Each bat is x amount of time ahead of the bat before it. The flight takes place in the atmosphere of an unknown ringed planet, so the environment is a traditional space scene with a focus on the topography and geography of the planet below. The effects of gravity on the bat's flight will be explored by the viewer through a toggle button that turns gravity on and off. The viewer may take multiple viewing modes through the interface of "jumping shoes." He or she may ride on the back of any one of the bats, using the shoes to jump from one bat to the next or to jump off the bats and onto objects floating in the atmosphere--meters, rocks, or satellites. The viewer can also "freeze" time for any one or for all bats. When a bat is frozen, the viewer uses a virtual wand to point to areas around that bat, and a menu drops down, giving the exact speed, direction, and air pressure at that point. Data will be coded through icons that float past the bats. In order to see the data, the viewer may view only one bat at a time, or turn off the icons at any time. These icons are color-coded to indicate air pressure, and have an arrow end for direction that lengthens to indicate increased velocity. Vorticity is depicted by spinning wheels with spokes that increase in size to indicate magnitude. Project Idea 3. The Lattice-Work. In this project, a bat flies through a lattice-work of white webbing in a black atmosphere, depositing icons from its wings as it moves. These icons leave a permanent record of the flight. Rotating wheels indicate vorticity, and the value change, length, and size of a standard bullet-shaped icon indicates velocity, air pressure, and direction at a given point. The bat itself is sugggested by a few simple planes, with cylinders on each side of the wings that compress and expand according to air pressure on wings. These cylinders are different colors for the top and underside of the wings. Because the bat moves in relation to the viewer, he or she may assume a number of viewing modes. The viewer may stand stationary and watch the bat fly past, or hop on the back of another bat and fly alongside the coded bat. The advantage to the first perspective is the ability to spend time viewing and using the icon deposits; the advantage of the second is the ability to follow the bat for any given duration of time. The viewer wears gloves that pull up menus when they "grab" an idon. These menus give the actual numbers of vorticity, velocity, and air pressure for each icon. In addition, each icon could be coded with a certain sound or series of musical notes to indicate some other piece of data. The viewer may also view these icons from any position. If he or she moves far enough away from the icons, they will automatically become connected with lines in order for the viewer to see general patterns rather than individual icons.