Electronic ARTrium

• Fabrication and motion control of mechatronic elements, such as blooming flowers, talking Snowy Owl, honeycomb cells that individually light up and move forward and backward, and a Dancing Snake

• Creation of interactive videos of scenes, animals, and plants

• Lighting control for timed spot lighting and strobe (to simulate lightning)

• Implementation of interactive music and sound effects

• Transformation of the story script into a Python program to control the music, video, and mechatronics in all sections.

• Integration of a bar-code printer at the entrance to the exhibit and four bar code scanners, one scanner at the entrance to each section, to track the player’s progress in the game

• Implementation of LIDAR to detect occupancy in each section

• Implementation of speech/text-to-gesture software to control movements of video and mechatronic characters

• Detecting the player’s pointing direction using a depth camera

• Set building and decoration

• Networking the elements of the exhibit

• Website development

The first generation of this installation was entitled “Raise Your Hand” and ran in a two-week public show in the lobby of the Ferst Center for the Arts, November 1-14 (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bcnNZb77v8 , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gC2FGTFGS2c , or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtsGjhYW__A). 

Our second show, which will take the form of a life-sized four-section interactive video game with mechatronics, will be in the Ferst Center in Fall 2024.  The participant must find the clue in each of the first three sections through game play.  A different interactive mechatronic narrator in each section coaches the participant and converses with Mr. Bee, the main character, who has become lost because of a storm. The participant will help Mr. Bee find his way back to the hive by body tilting to avoid “attack clouds” in Section 1, pointing to the right sequence of mechatronic blooming flowers in Section 2, assuming a series of poses that unlock keyholes in Section 3, and using the clues to unlock the entry to the hive in Section 4.

The new student will be mentored by more experienced students and by L3Harris engineers.  The Sound Design sub-team will work with stems and sound effects created by a professional music and sound effects composer. 

The overall project team includes this VIP team and also, typically, one or more senior capstone design teams, a couple of high school students, and perhaps some undergraduate research students.