The Robotics Institute

Carnegie Mellon Robotics Institute

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Abstract

Traces is an artwork for the CAVE that uses a novel machine vision system to enable unencumbered full body interaction with a range of semi-autonomous agents without the imposition of any sort of textual, iconic or encoded-gestural interfaces and without physically restrictive wiring, pointing devices, or headgear. Furthermore, Traces does not consist of a ``world'' which is ``navigated''; instead, the movement of the user through the space leaves volumetric and spatial-acoustic residues of user movement which slowly decay. This project was motivated by a desire to explore and critique four central issues in contemporary HCI: (a) embodied interaction with computational systems; (b) rapid and transparent learning of interfaces by untrained users (the autopedagogic interface); (c) immersive bodily interaction with software agents, (d) extension and elaboration of the general conception of ``interactivity'' itself. To explore these issues, we built an infra-red multi-camera machine vision system which constructs a volumetric model of the whole of the users' body in real time. We have also developed custom 3D vision tools, graphical techniques and a range of techniques for generating and managing semi-autonomous agents in immersive environments.

Keywords

Machine vision, CAVE, infrared video, wireless tracking, full-body interaction, autopedagogy, semi-autonomous agents

Notes

Text Reference

Simon G. Penny, Jeffrey Smith, and Phoebe Sengers, "Traces: Embodied Immersive Interaction with Semi Autonomous Avatars," Convergence: the Journal of Research into New MediaTechnologies, Vol. 7, No. 2, 2001

BibTeX Reference

@article{Penny_2001_3848,
   author = "Simon G Penny and Jeffrey Smith and Phoebe Sengers",
   title = "Traces: Embodied Immersive Interaction with Semi Autonomous Avatars",
   journal = "Convergence: the Journal of Research into New MediaTechnologies",
   year = "2001",
   volume = "7",
   number = "2",
}

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