Yunsil Heo, Hyunwoo Bang: Oasis: Tangible Visual Interface

Artist(s):

• Yunsil Heo
• Hyunwoo Bang

Title:

Oasis: Tangible Visual Interface

Exhibition:

• SIGGRAPH 2008: Slow Art

Creation Year:

2008

Category:

• Electronic/Robotic Object
• Interactive & Monitor-Based

Artist Statement:

<Oasis> is an interactive installation that invites visitors to touch and play.

A surface covered with black sand turns into a virtual oasis when people grab and remove a handful of sand. In this micro-oasis, virtual creatures will be born and prosper. People can manipulate the population and spatial boundary of living by shaping the pond or moving pebbles. From a god-like perspective, people can enjoy touching the tactile material of this installation and watch it become full of life.

A real-time machine-vision engine is used to interpret the shape of the pond and positions of pebbles.

Swarm intelligence was implemented to simulate the flocking behaviors of virtual creatures, and their lifelike motions are programmed in Java with OpenGL.