/ Initiative
My inspiration came from the comic of "The Ungooglable Man". It sounds unusual if someone is "ungooglable" nowadays, because almost everyone has access to the web and possibly has multiple account names and identities simultaneously. Some people also have the tendency to get themselves exposed by twitter post, facebook status, blogs and personal website in order to be seen and linked. I am intrigued by the idea of "web visibility", and want to explore how personal identity is being perceived on the web.
/ Description
The mirror is designed for people to visualize their digital profile in a responsive and playful way. By entering your name in the textfield and click the search button, the system sends query to Google and parse results sends back from it. A typical Google search results is composed of a title, the content, and the url link. The mirror displays the person's body shape dynamically in the forms of text which is the content in one search result. The content represents Google's perception of you and changes sequentially in few seconds.
/ What I have learned
Technical Stuff
Jython, Google API, Exposure lock of iSight, Background Subtraction
Abstract representation
I did user testing on different resolutions of the mirror image, and it seems that the more pixelated and abstract the more intriguing it is to others. The visual studies of image processing started from different size of grayscale squares to varied font-sizes of type. Which results in the bigger the better!
/ Future Directions
Public Space Installation
The project could take place in subway, airport or facade of the building as a public space installation. In the future, when people are carrying IDs/passports embeded with RFIDs, it would be accessible for the system to detect personal identities silently and secretly. It would be interesting to see how people react to the mirror in this kind of context.
Research in Web Visibility
I am interested in researching on people's perception of their own web visibility.
If they have certain tendency towards high-profile or low-profile? Why and how? What's the difference between their digital identity and the self in the physical world? Is their any part of the identity that they want to carry with them across the other world(virtual and physical)? What would it be and how could it be designed with or without material?