Presence

Presence is an interactive kinetic sculpture that is controlled by a viewer’s body. It detects the poses of viewers from a webcam using machine learning, and alters its shape in response to movements and gestures.

What inspired you to make this project?:
I've generally been interested in being able to interact with computers via expressions that reveal our subconscious. I've also been fascinated by the rapid advancement of research in computer vision, in particular its real-time abilities. Until recently, being able to track gaze has been both expensive and cumbersome, as it requires either specialized, pricey hardware that needs to be calibrated for each user, or specific types of cameras that are often unreliable.

I discovered the research paper called Eye Tracking for Everyone which provided a way to do eye-gaze tracking with any rgb camera and machine learning. I was eager to leverage this research to create a new way of interacting with an art installation using eye movements and in its essence the expression of the subconscious. This lead me down the path to create this project.