A combination of experiments in stereography and minimalist interaction. While the codebase uses realtime graphics, I only render one frame at a time, when the user “clicks.” This interaction system allows me much more time to play with various visual effects, as I have 1/10 to 1/2 of a second to draw a picture, instead of 1/30 or 1/60.

With the stereographic element I had to be careful, especially since each image could be placed under considerable visual scrutiny – vertical alignment and attention to depth cues were essential, and I got a much better fix on what rules I could bend and ones I should never, ever break.

After struggling to teach too many people how to use a game controller, I tried to integrate a system involving pointing using the Kinect – someone looking at the image could simply point to where they wanted to go and the picture would update accordingly. The manual dexterity normally required to travel through a virtual space would not be required.

Implementing a pointing system using the hand proved trickier than it might sound, although the “clicking” part, or a way to communicate action through an otherwise passive installation, ended up being the most challenging part. Raising the left hand, the first idea, was counterintuitive, and I’m looking at other ways, perhaps a multimodal combination of pointing and voice, to further develop the system.