Perhaps I would not have been as underwhelmed by the Bathysphere if I had not seen Robert Bach’s demonstration of Project Natal yesterday. The two projects invite comparison: each attempts to translate real-world motion into virtual motion. While Natal uses the body itself, the Bathysphere tracks the motion of three objects—a geodesic “beach ball,” a fishing rod, and a multicolored umbrella—and translates the user’s interactions with these objects into the movements of computer-generated sea life projected onto the walls of the exhibit.
The octopus, ray, and school of fish mimic the movements of their respective controlling objects, but do not allow the user to interact any more deeply with the virtual environment. Effectively, they are cursors, with the ball, rod, and umbrella functioning as novelty trackballs. Building this system must have been a tremendous technical challenge; hopefully, more will be done with it with time.
Edit: HASTACer Adam Rogers has a more positive take, including a video of the Bathysphere here.
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3 comments:
So we get compared to Microsoft - OK! But we had 5 days in the space, and maybe 0.01% of the resources Microsoft has. And, unlike us, Microsoft didn't actually let you experience their system: Bach just showed you a video of a demo; with that, we could promise you much more as well! But thanks for the comparison...
Francesca,
I certainly was not trying to be unkind. I do think the platform underlying the Bathysphere is amazing, and has a lot of potential. Categories where something like Natal couldn't even compete: unleashing interactive environmental graphics in public spaces, or engendering collective experiences for small groups of people in semi-private ones.
But my honest impression upon seeing the project in action in Gerrard Hall was that its full potential has not been realized yet. I wouldn't be doing anyone a service to say otherwise. In particular, I think a deeper level of interactivity or more complex behavior on the part of your virtual inhabitants would help the Bathysphere live up to billing.
If it's any consolation, a lot more people experienced the Bathysphere in person than read about it on my little blog! ;-)
Darren
Hey Darren,
Thanks for the note!
And you're right: we actually had a whole game designed which we were unable to implement - we did keep refining, so the last show had more than the first, but far from everything that was intended. You can see video at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pq39MMtRBHc
But you know, we could have claimed all that if we were just presenting our product, like Bach did, rather than let you experience it, as we did!
Keep bloggging, Darren, whatever the audience: better to have a dialog than not, and better to have it with an articulate person like you!
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