Alpha-Ville and BBC outriders

Check out this interview for BBC outriders with Jamillah Knowles you can hear me around 18:30 mins
talking about GRID 

http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/fivelive/pods/pods_20120103-1137a.mp3

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/outriders/2012/01/jan_3_2012_seafaring_hacking_a.shtml

http://www.alpha-ville.co.uk/pick-of-the-week-36

Grid: Augmented Reality Gaming

Grid is an Augmented Reality environment which provides a spatial configuration for real-time gaming at an architectural scale. This project showcases a prototype of the AR environment devised at one to one scale to test the possibilities of augmented reality in the built environment. The project uses a simple architectural maze which people can navigate through in real-time.  The prototype was developed for the iphone using Qualcomm Augmented Reality SDK and Xcode.

This project aims to explore new ways of inhabiting and interacting in social spaces. To enhance social activities in architectural spaces we can augment the space with interactions which merge reality with digital practices which occur on social networking platforms. More people partaking in the augmented space results in a much more dynamic environment and heightened social engagement. To propose a new way of experiencing and circulating through the city, an architectural playground that allows for increased social engagement with the building and the objects within.  These include gaming hot spots which utilize mixed reality to transform the city with interactive playgrounds

The use of augmented reality technology in architecture was evaluated in light of creating new meaningful spaces of interaction and discourse which can be non-regulated, open source and allow for freedom of expression.  The future of AR provides us with several possibilities on how virtual architecture can impact on urban space. This technology presents a new methodology for implementing some of the key ideas on temporality, and adaptation, social participation and improvisation in the quest for achieving democratic alternatives to occupation and inhabitation in public space.  The synthesis of AR and physical space has a profound impact on shaping human interaction in the same manner as the internet and mobile phones have in recent times. Moreover the overlay of data onto our visual experience fosters new levels of engagement which can radically transcend the limitations of stationary screen based information.  The quest for hybrid spaces of the future should mediate the superimposition of digital and physical in a way which can enrich the experience and inhabitation of the occupants in a site specific manner. This technological liberation should provide citizens with new forms of expression and an extension to the physical, social and cultural characteristics of a location..

Digital Ouija

The i-Ouija is centred on the notion of how we can enhance reality with the use of an additional method of communication with unseen dimensions. This prototype is an example of how we can integrate existing technologies such as smart phones with ancient forms of inter-dimensional communications such as a seance. The iphone in this project acts as a portal to new dimensions that we can’t necessarily see.  This project was inspired by the the late Steve Jobs who revolutionised the mobile phone with smart technologies such as the iPhone. The question wheel is also governed by subjects which steve jobs mentioned in his Stanford commencement speech in 2005, and the message system relays some quotes from that speech.  

This project is clearly hypothetical and although the device captures some of the key tools in traditional ghost hunting events, such as compass and wind chimes, the question and answer system is purely governed on an automated circuit which responds to an input signal from the neighbouring installation. 

Overall the key aims of the project are to merge the ideas of virtual reality with the physical environment. The physical device helps to enhance the use of digital media and materialise the power of digital technology. Technologies that cater to augmented reality will act as portals that link you to information, communities and destinations in real-time.

Haunt

I came across this project recently by usman Haque and I think its pretty interesting and somewhat relevant with my current work!

http://www.haque.co.uk/haunt.php

"Using humidity, temperatures and electromagnetic and sonic frequencies that parapsychologists have associated with haunted spaces, this project aims at building an environment that feels "haunted": a non-visual architecture."

Ghost Mediation!

I think the title says it all! a digital ouija board that communicates with ghosts through mobile technology!

New year in unit 14!

If we assume that superstring theory is correct, the idea of a world consisting of 10 or more dimensions is one we will have to come to terms with and try and understand. However how is it really possible to provide a visual representation of a higher dimension that will truly satisfy the human mind? Although this is a topic which has fascinated artists throughout history, this exercise was conducted to try and break down some simple principles concerned with how we 3-dimensional beings would perceive the built environment from the 4^th dimension.

In the book Flatland:A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edwin Abbott, a Square (the main character in Flatland, 2d dimensional world) travelled to Lineland(1 dimensional world), where he could see their entire world at once. The King of Lineland at first doesn’t know who is talking to him, because he can’t see the Square at all. Later in the story Square moves into Spaceland (3dimensional world), and is able to look down upon his own 2d world.

Taking this book as the main point of inspiration, we can see that If we moved into the 4^th spatial dimension, we would be able to see our world at all once. We would see the interior and exterior of the built environment simultaneously.

final handin!

Out with the old and in with the new!

Here are some latest images from this project. For the movie I will be focusing on the experiential nature of the archi-maton centre, so instead of focusing on the design capabilities of the archi-maton application I will try and demonstrate some of the mobile-interaction capabilities of the finished building, as well as how interactive/augmented reality applications can change the way in which we inhabit and experience buildings.

cross crits

Too many sections!

In order to understand the different spaces in my building I have had to do a lot of work extracting sections from the model to make sense of the complexities in the structural form.

These sections show the key spaces in the building and hopefully now I can finally extract a plan.

Design Development

This week I have been trying to understand the structural system of my proposal in a little more depth. This is slightly tricker than I would have liked, firstly due to the scale of the proposal and secondly due to the form and tesselation. Anyway to make sense of it I started to look at the main roofscape throughout the site and connecting circulation ramps as illustrated below.

In order to understand the structure of the individual buildings, I need to do more studies into the actual program of each building and determine a layout which works in conjunction with the structural lattice detected on site. To do this I started to look at some of the key spaces in my building:

These perspectives are fairly indicative at this stage but they illustrate the irregularities in the structural system that will be present throughout the building. 

Tracking

The drawings below highlight the process undertaken for generating a structural composition on site, using a camera to carry out the 3d detection.

The point cloud data from the detection is then fed into processing and is converted into a 3d lattice based on a particle-spring algorithm which connects neighbouring nodes based on their distance.

Programme Strategy

Having analysed the site in a little more detail last week, I have decided to simplify the programme of the proposed development slightly. The drawing below illustrates a quick study of the proposed programme  strategy.

The Augmented-reality Pavilion will be the central exhibition space which will  feature the Archi-maton application along with other application from the Apple App store. The key aim of this space will be to provide public engagement and interaction with the pavilion through the use of mobile technology.
The AR pavilion also acts as the central plaza connecting the other spaces in the entire master plan. The location of the pavilion is defined through the intersecting point between the main pedestrian routes and key views through the site.

The plan above highlights the location of the key spaces and routes through the site based on the analysis conducted so far. I intend to take this back on site today and start tracking the main spaces in real-time and explore the possible potentials of gestural design.

Site Analysis



Gestural Design

In designing an application which can cater for both the design and construction of automated architectural solutions, a significant factor which can aid in the design process is the use of a gestural interface which goes beyond the multi-touch capabilities of mobile devices. In the quest for intuitive human-computer interaction, pervasive computing in the form of smart phones can allow for experimentation with new interaction methods, which can prove useful for architectural design.  Nintendo's Wii and Apple's iPhone and iPod Touch have made gestural interfaces popular, however with the release of Xbox kinect, the use of this form of pervasive computing provides multiple advantages for a more intuitive design methodology.

Although in this project I probably wont go into the genius that is Kinect, I will however be incorporating some of the basic principles of this technology in the design stages of the building project. Pervasive computing through the use of mobile devices allows for real-time scanning and sketch design of buildings on-site, with combined capabilities of gestural  interactivity. This means that massing and sketch designs can be explored on site using the mobile device as a controller for drawing.

Possible technologies that mobile devices provide include a 6-axis gyroscope, a motion sensor more accurate than the accelerometer, which provides information of gravity. This combined with the use of the accelerometer and GPRS could easily set up the foundations for gestural design capabilities.

Building project Brief

The year is 2021 and in a world dominated by mobile technology, Apple inc. now holds the power to dominate almost any market with the use of applications available on their infamous app store.The power of the mobile platform and open source application capabilities means that architects/developers can now use applications such as ARKI-maton in a way that revolutionises the process of building development and provides automated design and construction in the form of a single mobile application.

The Apple Centre for Innovative Design and Technology will be built as an exposition to the vast number of specialist apps now on offer on their app store. The Expo will host work by different companies making use of the mobile app market place including:  

ARKI-Maton L.t.d  and

ROB Technologies AG

As well as offering retail, conference and social spaces to the general public at Salford Quays, one of Manchester City’s leading technological centres.  

Finally some mobile action!

I have finally managed to do an actual working prototype of augmented reality on the iphone using the ARtoolworks sdk for ios. The image below illustrates a working model being tracked in REAL-TIME (about 15 fps) using specified marker detection.

As far as the coding goes for this, I will probably not do much else in terms of advancing the application for now. However in relation to the coming building project I hope to be able to implement this technique throughout the design stages of the proposed building.