exhibit research | NCM | PC07 Greenscreen Poster

exhibit research | NCM | PC07 Greenscreen Poster Exhibit Type: AV | Full-body interactive
Producer: WOED | Kevin Walker


plan	elevation	elevation	elevation	model	camera front	camera rear	camera door

Status 7/2/02 New SUPPORT page is here!

Schedule

Oct

Nov

Dec

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

D E S I G N

I N S T A L L A T I O N

information design

interaction design

interface design, poster design

optimization

P R O G R A M M I N G

networking

buttons/video in

compositing

capture/display

user test

calibration

Communication Goals

A wide range of movies have featured cowgirls. This exhibit allows visitors to appear on a cowgirl movie poster, which will be displayed in the gallery, and can be printed as a souvenir.

Description

This exhibit is near the entrance to the Pop Culture gallery, and actively engages visitors in a fun "dress up" activity. The space consists of a large chroma-key green background wall, with a pair of large, flat-screen monitors -- one facing the wall, the other facing outward. A vintage box camera is on a tripod facing the screen. Five images on an adjacent wall show poster choices. A visitor dons accessories such as a hat and a gunbelt, which are stored on a rack, then presses a button to select one a poster.

The monitors show visitors on how to position themselves. (A computer composites the image in real time, so the visitor can see on the monitor exactly how the final image will look.) A countdown appears on the monitor, and at zero the picture is snapped, complete with an old-time flash and sound. The composited image is displayed for 10 seconds on both monitors.

A printer at the exhibit spits out a barcode which visitors can take to the gift shop to purchase a printout of their poster.

Only hats and accessories are provided, not boots or clothing.

In Attract Mode when there are no visitors in the staging area, both monitors display a loop of past visitor snapshots.

Storyboard

Previous posters are on screen as attract loop.

Visitor chooses a poster image from five buttons on wall.

Visitor accessorizes as the chosen poster background appears on the monitors.

Visitor steps in front of greenscreen, sees self in poster on screen for positioning. Screen counts down then snaps picture, triggers flash and flash sound.

Visitor's image stays on screen until next visitor poses. After timeout, several posters cycle on screen as attract loop.

Flowchart:

Posters Approved and completed

poster 1

poster 2

poster 3

poster 4

poster 5

Hardware

	Type	Qty	Make/Model
Source	Computer	1	Powermac G4/933MHZ/512MB
Display	Monitors	2	Hitachi CMP307XU
Audio	Speakers	2	in monitor?
Input	camera	1	JVC GR_DVP3u
Input	buttons	5	lighted buttons
Control	show controller	1	MMSC
Output	Label printer	1	Dymo LabelWriter330 Turbo
Output	Flash	1	SP100

hardware.gif (14k)

PDF version here

One computer (SVGA resolution) feeds two plasma monitors via a simple RGB splitter. Both monitors are oriented vertically, thus the camera is mounted sideways (and the software is authored to fit the vertical format). One monitor faces inwards towards the visitor who poses in front of the greenscreen. The other faces outwards for other visitors. The buttons on graphic panel #3 on the wall will activate Capture Mode. When a visitor pushes a button to select a background poster, the monitors display a real-time recording of the staging area. When the "active" visitor steps into the staging area, s/he will see him/herself composited into the selected poster. A countdown clock is also displayed on the monitors. At zero, the computer grabs a frame of the visitor. The resulting file will be stored on the computer and displayed on the outward-facing monitor for 10 seconds.

The computer is housed in a box on the floor near the camera. Video camera is cabled to computer via Firewire.

Software

Authored in Director 8.5 for Mac. Steps:

Button press comes into serial port (ASCII 1 to 5). Computer sends receive string (ASCII "a" thru "e"). This tells the show controller to light the selected button, don't light the others, and lock out any button presses. Computer puts up appropriate poster image, starts live video stream and countdown.

Each second during countdown, computer sends command to show controller (ASCII stuvwxyzST) to play a countdown sound. (Playing sounds from the show controller takes the processing load off of the computer so it can devote as much as possible to realtime masking.)

At zero, a snapshot is taken and displayed. Computer sends command to show controller to play camera shutter sound (ASCII "U") and trigger flash (ASCII "f").

Image is saved to local drive, and remote computer for later printing. (If remote volume is not mounted, image is not copied.)

Receipt is printed (includes thumbnail image, barcode, code number, instructions).

After 10 seconds of image display, computer goes back to live video. It sends "r" for reset to controller, which activates all buttons and turns on their lights, and waits for button press.

If no button press within 30 seconds, computer goes to attract loop, which shows last 10 snapshots.

Calibration: Countdown time, image display time, attract loop time, color masking, remote directory can all be set from a calibration screen.