C. Line OrientedThe red lines mimic the laser pointer device. These lines give the insects hints where they should go. With the lines, the audience can tell that the end of the lines is the future position of the insects. If insects move without a line, that means the insects are wandering around with-out a specific target.

INSECT PROJECT: Simulation of the Crowd Behaviour of Insect / Chinese Calligraphy ( Single / Dual Screen )

Technical Statement

Insect project simulates the crowd behavior of small flying insects. Two different flying behaviors are simulated. Behav-ior one is random flying without a specific target; brownian motion is used to generate this behavior. Behavior two is strict flying with a specific target. In this project, targets can either be the foreground objects or the moving objects identi-fied using the video frames captured from a web-cam or a video capture card. The foreground objects identification is calculated by the difference in color and luminance of the incoming video frames and the pre-recorded background image. Simple identification calculation is used for ensuring the interactive performance. The moving objects are identi-fied by the algorithm based on [Bradsky00] and [Davis97]. Once the foreground objects or the moving objects are detected, they are segmented into different regions for the insects to trace. Since insects trace on difference regions as their target, insects can be evenly distributed on the targets.

[Bradski00] G. Bradski and J. Davis. Motion Segmentation and Pose Recognition with Motion History Gradients. IEEE WACV'00, 2000.

[Davis97] J. Davis and Bobick. The Representation and Recognition of Action Using Temporal Templates. MIT Media Lab Technical Report 402, 1997.

Overview

BackgroundThe idea of insect project is come from the current news in Hong Kong in 2005. There is a news reported about worms (red blood worms) was discovered in the public swimming pool. In the first beginning, the Hong Kong Government denied that it is their problem. They suspected that there might be some people bought the worms into the swimming pool. Few weeks after, a numerous public swimming pools were reported finding worms. And the Government decided to close the swimming pool and the life guard start to clean the worms, eventually, the more they clean, the more worms had been discovered.

I personally like swimming a lot and found this news is so amazing. Let's imagine, while we are swimming, u see thousand of different kind of worm are chasing u inside the sea/pool. And, the faster u swim, the more they are coming out. In order to stop there, u need to stay alone, not even move a bit. The more you are not moving, the more they will b e leaving. It is completely anti our normal physical experi-ence. Normally, we try to use our hand or body to remove the worms / insect immediately from our body.

What is Insect Project?There will be thousand of insects virtually cashing our human bodies, which aims to provoke our awareness of the understand about the relationship between our physical reaction to speed with virtual speed during the exhibition, I try to project a situation that the body is virtually cover by differ-ent flyinsect ) ! The most innovative is those flying objects would be able to chase the moving bodies by the motion detection system. This custom-made computer capturing system is also allowing for further application and integration continuity and flexibility.

Methodology

Web Cam

PC Computer

Projector

Digital image generatedby the software

Screen shot of the interactive software

Video Projetion

web-cam / video camera

Personal Computer

Interactive Software(Control Panel)

Interactive Software

Visualization of the interaction system with the control panel

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Custom-made Control PanelWe could control the visual effect by changing the parameter in the section of control panel. It aims for further application and integration continuity. And it is written and implemented by xml. In the control panel, we could configure the size of insects, level of detection, chasing speed, number of insects...etc. We could control the visual effect by the control panel based on our needs.

Version

A. Single Screen OrientedIn this version, flying objects(insects) are chas-ing with a specific target by detecting the differ-ence in color and luminance of the incoming video frames and the pre-recorded background image.

B. Dual Screen OrientedIn this version, targets can either be the fore-ground objects or the moving objects identified using the video frames captured from a web-cam or a video capture card. The foreground objects identification is calculated by the differ-ence in color and luminance of the incoming video frames and the pre-recorded background image.

Insects can across dual screen

In the work, you can see two of yourself at the same time; on the left is you, and the further you walk away, the calligraphies follow you even faster, yet at the same time, the you on the right, the further you walk away, the calligra-phies are unable to follow you.

When you move, the calligraphy will move to right screen and chasing the objects by motion detection.

When you freeze, the calligraphy will move to left screen and chasing the objects by detecting the difference of color and luminance.

MODE 1 MODE 2

D. Chinese Calligraphy + Dual Screen Oriented

Flight objects with different flying modes ( speed/shape/size/combination, etc.) would be able to chase the movement of the bodies by the motion detection system.

School of Design, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Konginnov + media lab, Hong Kong

Principle Investigator & Artist: HUNG Keung ( Director of imhk lab , Assistant Professor of SD, PolyU )Research Associate: Iu Ka Chun, Bartholomew Research Assistant: Chung Chun Sing, Lee Tzu Yur

Website: http://www.hungkeung.hk http://www.imhk.hk

Contact: sddhung@polyu.edu.hk

Insects taget the object with line

Demonstration for showing the Insect Project with line version

Once the foreground objects or the moving objects are detected, they are seg-mented into different regions for the calligraphies to trace. Since calligraphies trace on difference regions as their target, calligraphies can be evenly distributed on the targets.

captured object is movingcalligraphy chasing the object in te right screen

captured object is freeze

calligraphy chasing the object in te left screen

Demonstartion of how the Chinese Calligraphy move from left to right

Demonstartion of how the Chinese Calligraphy move from right to left