Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Life Speculatrix
Life Speculatrix: an evolutionary physical skin base on local and remote feedback by Nancy Diniz and Cesar Branco
The goal of Life Speculatrix was to design a dynamic membrane with continuously reconfiguring behaviors directed by fitness criteria and dynamic environmental inputs. The inputs for the system include sensors that detect how long visitors stay by the membrane and data gathered by two remote sources: an interface that allows visitors to input whether or not they approve of what they see in the virtual representation of the membrane, as well as randomly selected environmental data from the World Wide Web such as pollution levels and climate features. The processing of the inputs includes a genetic algorithm where the inputs of the users and the environment are the inputs for genetic variation. The system evaluates and evolves the behaviors of the actuators based on what patterns yield greater "empathy", measured by how long people stay near the membrane and how often people positively respond the virtual representation. The membrane consists of levers actuated by Smart Memory Alloys, different types of materials and textiles, sound sources and LED lights.
http://www.interactivearchitecture.org/life-spectulatrix-augmented-architectures.html
