BRIEF
We wanted to positively engage with the people of Shoreditch in an attempt to bridge the gap between interactive technology and the outside world.
THE SOLUTION
SMILE DIAL: an expression powered experiment, combining artificial intelligence, the internet, and human biometrics or in human terms an interactive window to get the people of Shoreditch smiling.
We took inspiration from various places, such as popular culture, the advancements in technology (posthumanism/singularity) and specifically Shoreditch itself. We found that a common trait amongst Londoners is that we tend to not stop, smile or even look up, as we profusely look at the floor. So we wanted to create a system that interrogates this piece of common behaviour and entices user interaction to simply smile.
HOW IT WORKS
The installation uses facial recognition and computer vision to measure the user’s smile to then trigger an audio-visual experience. The triggered content is themed around the internet 2.0, using iconic GIFs, soundbites & memes as a base for the experience.
CONCLUSION
Technologies such as facial/expression recognition, human biometrics, and EEG will all find a commonplace in the market over the coming years, allowing us to create more experimental yet personalised experiences, situating the viewer in the centre of the design process, as an active participant, not just a static user.