Audrey Zheng – Looking Outwards -08

ROBOTIC VOICE ACTIVATED WORD KICKING MACHINE

The physical part of the piece consists of four bells of baritone horns, tubing, microphone, speakers, a mechanical foot and a projector. The software is written in openFrameworks.

When the software starts, it launches a web browser and creates a WebSocket connection to it. When someone starts speaking, the software sends a message to the browser to tell it to start speech recognition. Once the person finishes speaking, the browser sends words back as text back over the WebSocket connection. Each word is then added to a Box2D physics simulation as a series of rectangles linked together with springs. There’s a mesh for each letter and shadows are created in GLSL with a shadow map.

When a word is near the foot, the computer sends a message to an Arduino telling it to kick. The foot is actuated with a linear actuator driven by a Pololu Dual VNH5019 Motor Driver Shield. There is also a foot polygon in the physics simulation. Every time the mechanical foot starts to kick, the virtual foot in the physics engine is animated with a timeline that has been matched to the actual movement of the mechanical foot.

Neil Mendoza – Neil’s work uses digital and mechanical technologies to bring inanimate objects and spaces to life. Using this medium, he explores the absurd, the humorous, the futile and the surreal. He has an MA in math and computer science from Oxford University and an MFA in design media art from UCLA.

Neil is very accomplished: He has created digital artworks and installations for a wide range of clients including Accenture, Adidas, AntiVJ, Arcade Studios, Audi, Bentley, Brother, Burton Snowboards, Doritos, Ford, Guild LA, HTC, Jason Bruges Studio, LCF, The Light Surgeons, Moving Brands, New Angle, Nokia, Nuit Sonores, O2, Orange, Poke, Swatch, Universal Everything, Wieden & Kennedy and Wired Magazine. He was also a co-founder of is this good?

I first saw his work at The Festival of the Impossible in San Francisco. The festival of the Impossible is an event that celebrates artists who are pushing past the boundaries of Reality. The event features many brand new works in new media, including AR/VR. It’s inspirational to see the rise of new creative technologists and the blurring of medias and genres.