Designing Multisensory Interaction Experiences for a 3D Online World

Transcription

Kunstuniversität Linz
Universität für Künstlerische und Industrielle Gestaltung
Department of Media
Interface Culture
Designing Multisensory Interaction Experiences
for a 3D Online World
by Christina Heidecker
Masterthesis
to achieve the academic grade
Master of Art
Advisor: Dr. Christa Sommerer
January 2008
c Copyright 2008 Christina Heidecker
°
all rights reserved
ii
Erklärung
Name: Heidecker
Vorname: Christina
Matrikelnummer: 0009950
Titel der Masterarbeit: Designing Multisensory Interaction Experiences for a 3D Online World
Studienrichtung und Studienkennzahl: Interface Culture 771
BetreuerIn: Dr. Christa Sommerer
1. Ich erkläre hiermit eidesstattlich, dass ich die vorliegende Arbeit selbständig und ohne
fremde Hilfe verfasst, andere als die angegebenen Quellen nicht benutzt und die den benutzten Quellen wörtlich oder inhaltlich entnommenen Stellen als solche kenntlich gemacht
habe.
2. Ich bestätige hiermit, dass die Masterarbeit von den Begutachtern und Begutachterinnen
approbiert ist. Die abgelieferten analogen Exemplare und das digitale Exemplar stimmen
in Form und Inhalt vollständig mit der benoteten und approbierten Fassung überein.
3. Ich räume hiermit der Universität fr künstlerische und industrielle Gestaltung Linz das
zeitlich unbefristete Recht ein, die abgegebene digitale Publikation sowie alle damit verbundenen Begleitmaterialien einem unbestimmten Personenkreis
O im weltweiten Internet
O im gesamten Netz der Kunstuniversität Linz (Mehrfachzugriffe)
O nur an einem Arbeitsplatz an der Kunstuniversität Linz (Einzelzugriff)
iii
unentgeltlich zur Verfügung zu stellen. Die Kunstuniversität Linz ist weiters berechtigt,
aber nicht verpflichtet, die digitalen Daten der Publikation zum Zweck der dauerhaften
Archivierung und Zurverfügungstellung in andere Formate oder auf andere Speichersysteme
zu migrieren. Es ist mir bewusst, dass bei einer Datenmigration eine Änderung von Form,
Umfang oder Darstellung der Publikation aus technischen Gründen nicht ausgeschlossen
werden kann. Ich bin als
O alleinige/r InhaberIn der Nutzungsrechte an der Publikation
O Bevollmächtigte/r der InhaberInnen der Nutzungsrechte
zur Einräumung dieser Nutzungsbewilligung befugt. Sollte meine Berechtigung zur Einräumung
dieser Nutzungsrechte von Dritter Seite bestritten werden, hafte ich der Kunstuniversität
Linz fr alle Schäden, die dieser Einrichtung daraus entstehen.
4. Ich wurde davon in Kenntnis gesetzt und erkläre mich damit einverstanden, dass die Kunstuniversität Linz keine Haftung für aus technischen Gründen auftretende Fehler irgendwelcher
Art bernimmt. Des weiteren wird von der Kunstuniversität Linz keinerlei Haftung dafür
übernommen, dass die Masterarbeit oder Teile davon von dritter Seite unrechtmäßig heruntergeladen und verbreitet, verändert oder an anderer Stelle ohne Einwilligung aufgelegt
werden.
5. Ich habe das Merkblatt zur Abgabe von Masterarbeiten der Universitätsbibliothek gelesen
und zur Kenntnis genommen.
Linz,
...................................
Unterschrift
iv
Table of Contents
Page
Table of Contents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
v
Abstract . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . viii
Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
ix
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1
1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1
Theoretical Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3
2 Theoretical Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3
2.1
2.2
2.3
An Example of a 3D Online World: Second Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3
2.1.1
Second Life and Other 3D Online Worlds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3
2.1.2
Discussion on Second Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
6
Communicational Aspects of Space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
9
2.2.1
Human-to-Human Communication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
9
2.2.2
In-world Communication in the 3D Online World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
11
2.2.3
Shortcomings in Human-to-Human Communication in the 3D Online World 13
Bodily Sensations in Real and Virtual Environments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
15
2.3.1
Primary Senses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
15
2.3.2
Secondary Senses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
16
2.3.2.1
Sense of Touch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
17
2.3.2.2
Haptic Interfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
17
2.3.2.3
Olfactory Senses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
20
v
2.3.2.4
2.4
Olfactory Interfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
21
Artistic Explorations of Bodily Sensations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
23
2.4.1
The Idea of Sensual Stimulation and Bodily Interaction . . . . . . . . . . .
23
2.4.1.1
From Passive Beholder to Active User . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
23
2.4.1.2
An Overview of Concepts on Immersion of the Body in the Virtual 24
2.4.2
Art Recreating Sensual Perceptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
27
Art and Prototypes in the 3D Online World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
31
2.5.1
In-world Art in the 3D Online World of Second Life . . . . . . . . . . . . .
31
2.5.2
Attempts to Recombine Physical and Online Worlds . . . . . . . . . . . . .
34
2.5.3
Prototypes Recreating Bodily Sensations in Game and Online Worlds . . .
37
2.5.4
Recreating Haptic Sensations for the 3D Online World of Second Life . . .
40
Practical Research Application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
42
3 Practical Research Application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
42
2.5
3.1
3.2
Do You Feel Your Second Life? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
42
3.1.1
Objective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
42
3.1.2
Project Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
43
3.1.3
Constraints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
45
Interface Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
46
3.2.1
Expanding User Perception in Second Life through “Do you feel your second
life?” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.2.2
Linking Physical and Virtual Interface Elements in “Do you feel your second
life?” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
48
Ready-to-use Interface Devices: USB Gadgets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
51
3.2.3.1
Existing USB Gadgets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
51
3.2.3.2
Choices of USB Gadgets for “Do you feel your second life?” . . . .
53
Extending the Avatar Design in Second Life through Visual Modification .
56
Enhanced In-world Communication in Second Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
57
3.3.1
Modalities of Second Life User Communication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
57
3.3.2
Process of Communication
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
59
3.3.3
Interaction Schema . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
60
3.2.3
3.2.4
3.3
46
vi
3.4
Implementation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
62
3.4.1
Data Circulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
62
3.4.2
Processing Online Data to a Local Machine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
63
3.4.2.1
Linden Scripting Language Basics and Examples . . . . . . . . . .
63
3.4.2.2
Applied Script in ”Do you feel your second life?” . . . . . . . . . .
65
3.4.3
Processing Data from a Local Machine to the Interface . . . . . . . . . . . .
67
3.4.4
Hardware Schematic Diagram . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
70
Evaluation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
71
3.5.1
Issues of Virtual Publicity and Physical Privacy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
71
3.5.2
A First User Test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
72
3.5.2.1
Test Environment and Accomplishment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
72
3.5.2.2
Test Outcome and Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
74
Conclusion and Outlook for the Future . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
77
4 Conclusion and Outlook for the Future . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
77
List of Figures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
79
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
80
Apendix A . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
x
3.5
Apendix B . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xviii
Apendix C . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxi
vii
Abstract
Designing multisensory interaction experiences for a 3D online world deals with the vision of a
sensual interface for the virtual realm. In the process of developing this sensual interface I am
also trying to identify the hype around Second Life, one of many 3D online worlds. I am going to
describe aspects of human sensual perception of virtual and physical presence in research and art.
However, my primary attention goes to human-to-human communication recreated in 3D online
worlds. This analysis leads to an artistic research application called “Do you feel your second
life?”. The application is an experimental interface that stimulates the bodily sensations of a user
engaged in the 3D online world of Second Life.
viii
Acknowledgements
I would like to address special thanks to my advisor Dr. Christa Sommerer for her advice and
support during the work on my thesis and the project development. Particularly I want to thank
Dr. Laurent Mignonneau for his support with the implementation and setup process and his
thoughts and ideas about the application. I would also like to express my gratitude to Robert
Wasinger for his contribution to the physical interface design of the prototype and to the company
“Tischlerei Pugl-Pichler” for the final production. Special thanks also go to Hannah PernerWilson for proof-reading and literal interpretations of German citations. For their commitment
in discussion on the topic of multisensory interaction and the 3D online world of Second Life, I
want to thank all my colleagues and experts who helped and encouraged me.
ix
Chapter 1
Introduction
As a media artist and designer I am frequently engaged in virtual environments and online communication networks. Existing in the virtual world means using visual and audible capabilities to
navigate and communicate within the virtual. My mind browses through the virtual environment
but my body’s sensations remain untouched. My sensory spectrum is anyway limited by the
interface technology I use, namely a screen, keyboard and mouse. The sensation of experiencing
another person’s presence is missing in the online world. I am not the only one who feels this
way.
“Was man mit ‘online’ bezeichnet, ist ein Zustand der virtuellen Präsenz in computervermittelten Kommunikationsräumen.” [Har06]
“What one describes as ‘online’, is a state of virtual presence in computer mediated
space.” [literal interpretation]
Based on Professor of philosophy Richard Schustermann, the body becomes a central medium
again as embodiment of reality [Sch96]. Direct involvement, respectively immersion, is the goal
of existing virtual environment systems. There are many attempts to involve the body in virtual
experiences, both in art and research and development. These are mostly very costly, complex and
time-consuming. Three-dimensional view and three-dimensional sound are already well developed
and established in many applications but other senses are left unaddressed, preventing the feeling
of full immersion.
1
CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION
2
The aim of this thesis is to explore how far it is possible to integrate the physical body of the
user into the virtual environment of a 3D online world. The outline for this thesis covers the theoretical background for the design of multisensory interaction experiences and a practical research
application experimenting with the results of the research. In the first section I introduce and
discuss Second Life as an example of a 3D online world. Human-to-human communication is analyzed on the basis of spatial aspects and compared with in-world communication modalities in the
3D online world. Furthermore the thesis will give an overview of human sensual perception in real
and virtual environments focusing on olfactory and haptic sensations. I explore artistic projects
that recreate sensual perceptions, for example Stahl Stenslies and Kirk Woolfords’ “CyberSM”
or Christa Sommerers and Laurent Mignonneaus’ “Mobile Feelings”. Leading over to the second
section of the thesis, I introduce in-world art projects in Second Life, art-transferring features of
the virtual world in the physical environment and prototypes recreating physical experiences in
games or online worlds.
The practical research application is an artistic project. It is about a sensual interface called
“Do you feel your second life?”. The application experiments with every day technological devices
to stimulate sensual perceptions by the user engaged in the virtual environment of Second Life.
Human-to-human communication in the 3D online world should be enhanced by the physical
excitement of feeling the presence of the conversational partner. The thesis treats the extended
interaction and communication processes as well as interface design and implementation. By
evaluating user tests I try to get a basic idea in order to answer the question of how far the
physical body can be involved in a virtual environment and if this physical engagement helps to
create immersion.
Chapter 2
Theoretical Background
2.1
2.1.1
An Example of a 3D Online World: Second Life
Second Life and Other 3D Online Worlds
Second Life is a hype. Second Life is an advertising machinery. Second Life is a virtual community.
Second Life is the beginning of a new era of Internet. Second Life is a place to unleash your
fantasies. Second Life is boring. Second Life is a new way to spread pornography. Second Life
is not a Game. ”Second Life is a 3D online digital world, imagined, created and owned by its
residents” [sl].
Second Life is or could be all that. Several other 3D online worlds exist such as“World
of Warcraft”, “There.com”, “Entropia Universe” and “Active Worlds“. With “3B” [pag07] the
World Wide Web can be transformed into three-dimensional rooms. Despite all these options I
chose Second Life as a starting point for my experiment, because of its presence in the media and
its promises that it can’t possibly keep.
Second Life is a product of Linden Lab first launched in 2001. The user downloads the
application from www.secondlife.com [see Figure 2.1] and installs it on her PC. When running the
application the first time the user creates her own avatar, her second self. She gives her second
self a name and an appearance. The artists Franco and Eva Mattes describe the basic function of
an avatar as a puppet that follows the orders of the user. But it is even more: “[. . . ] it becomes
the projection of my identity in a public space, the appearance that I wish to have when I emerge
3
CHAPTER 2. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
4
Figure 2.1: Screenshot: “Your world. Your imagination” [sl]
from my private space. It becomes the mask I have constructed to interface with the environment
(be it real or virtual) that I inhabit.” [mat]
Second Life is free of charge as a basic account. If the user wants to develop her second self
further, for example by building a house or a shop on her own land, she has to pay for it – in
real money. Second Life rouses a kind of American pioneering spirit. The user is called upon
to colonize foreign untaken land, settle down and create something of their own. The Austrian
newspaper derStandard [lan07] wrote in July 2007 that the liberty and the void in Second Life
are so overwhelming that users immediately start filling of the world.
5
The user makes her first steps on a tutorial island, which helps her to get to know the surroundings, the graphical user interface and the features of this virtual world. There are two
advantages over real life, avatars can fly without any extra device and they can teleport from
any one place to any other place. These features are free of charge, they increase the speed of
traveling from one place to the other but still they remain a metaphor for a real life journey.
The user soon discovers, that basically all that she can do in Second Life is basically what
she already does in her real life. A virtual currency exists, the so-called Linden Dollar. She can
walk around, talk to other avatars, go shopping, visit a museum, go to a concert or go gambling.
In Second Life she can play games or watch movies, but – as is the problem in real life – where
to get money for all these activities? Now she has to work for her second living too. She can
start a business, build objects, design clothes and hair, or anything else that other avatars would
buy. She can even buy drugs that simulate synthetic and psychoactive intoxication by MDMA
by means of animations and sound. But there is also the collaborative aspect of the production
process. Every object in Second Life is user-generated content, which establishes a social factor
[pag07]. Looking at the downside, Linden Lab charges money from the users which create content
for them, outsourcing part of the production to the actual consumers.
Linden Lab declares several rules of conduct for the Second Life users. These rules were made
to eliminate actions of intolerance, harassment, assault, disclosure, indecency and disturbances
[sl]. Breaking these rules leads to suspension from the world. Linden Lab has the sole right to
exclude users from the community, though there is no court or user based regulation system.
Among themselves the users are anonymous, but Linden Lab still knows about their real life
identities, keeping hold of their email addresses and credit card numbers.
The avatars are inhabitants of a pre-medial society. Communication is bound to space and
limited in reach. Second Life itself does not provide a single channel of communication. Mass
media like newspapers are distributed in different places as PDF files. To read them the user
needs an external “Adobe Reader”. To reach the masses, the communication refers back to
the World Wide Web, blogs and sites. Exaggerating, I would even compare Second Life to the
“Global Village”, a term coined by Marshall McLuhan. He evokes the formation of the culture of
a primitive village based on orality, dissolving the known structures of knowledge [Bol97].
In the middle of the 1990‘s, during the hype of the World Wide Web, the Internet was praised
6
for its geographical independency. For example the theorist Mike Sandbothe favored the loss
of a day-night structure and the decontextualisation of space and time [San97]. Now, stepping
into the world of Second Life, there again appears day and night and spatial allocation. Avatars
occupy virtual space, thus limiting the maximum amount of avatars in one particular space.
Even though time is accelerated, it can be interpreted as a step backwards, presenting a new
medium with an old structure. Unless otherwise agreed, 3D online worlds are only another way
of representation of information, not in from of abstraction as the World Wide Web is, but in
form of a real world simulation. Euphoric supporters of Second Life already see it displacing the
World Wide Web. However, an analysis by the design magazine “Page” reasons that the visual
appearance, the functions, the performance and particularly the usability can not yet match the
WWW in searching and finding information [pag07]. In Second Life communication relies on
conventions of orality, providing additional channels of information, but the “validity” [OD90] of
this information is questionable. To argue in terms of the researcher Brenda Laurel, it does not
provide the truthfulness of a text or even a printed book.
Second Life’s potential lies more in the emotional experience and concepts such as concerts,
events or conferences [pag07]. The use of avatars introduces a level of nonverbal communication to
the Internet, rendering emotions and attitudes visible for example through gesture or proximity to
one another [pag07]. Distance to one another is perceived differently by communication partners
depending on cultural and individual backgrounds. Pheromones and odor play a significant role in
communication [Bak06]. If someone approches to close it can feel awkward and intrusive because
one can sense the other’s bodily condition. An avatar is only visual and therefore cannot trigger
such strong emotions.
To sum up this chapter, first the user creates a new identity in a playground that simulates
a capitalistic society, a bumpy version of real life, governed and ruled by the company Linden
Lab. It focuses on the visual sense with the possibility to chat over a voice channel. It is a closed
system – at the moment – challenging the user in using mouse, keyboard and microphone.
2.1.2
Discussion on Second Life
Due to the general attitude towards Second Life, I’m often asked: “why are you working with
Second Life, it’s so boring.” Maybe that is the reason I started working with precisely this 3D
7
online world - to make it less boring.
Second Life uses user interface features similar to most MMPORG’s (Massive Multiplayer
Online Role Playing Games), but it misses a concrete game logic and a storyline. The cultural
historian Johan Huizinga [Hui81] describes a game as being outside of normal life, separated from
space and time. Second Life is not completely outside of normal life, as it bounds itself to real
life with the use of money. Second Life also misses a conflict that could provide a context for
interaction or rules that would enable only certain actions and give meaning [Juu05]. There is
no winning or loosing. If the user is expecting a game it is quite obvious she will feel lost the
first time she enters this world. As per the game designer Eugene Jarvis, games are about their
limitations [Poo00]. In my opinion Second Life aims at expanding limitations. Second Life is not
a game, but it still needs to be played.
“Die Spieltätigkeit befreit das Leben des Kindes aus der blinden Zweckmäßigkeit des
Instinkts und schafft eine Welt, in der das Kind herrscht und sich selbst wiederfindet.”
[Hui81]
In my opinion the Second Life slogan “[. . . ]a world, imagined created and owned by its residents”
paraphrases this description by Huizinga, of the playing child as an escape from expedience to a
world where it rules and rediscovers itself. Thus I am trying to conclude the phenomenon Second
Life with the help of game worlds.
In total the world is inhabited by about 6,67 billion residents. Second Life claims to have
about 9 million residents in total, but momentarily there are only about 25 thousand online,
that means present in-world1 . This makes the virtual world look very empty. I was wandering
around in Second Life, but I meet hardly anybody, except for at the sandbox areas, the places for
fooling around and building own objects. So maybe this is the most interesting activity in this
world: creating what one can’t have in real life, for example wings, palaces or cars that look like
a hamburger. There could be so much potential in a virtual world if it just wouldn’t try to copy
the existing real world, but instead create a potential other one. Flying and teleporting alone
won’t make the second life so much more interesting than the first one.
Huizinga describes the game world as taking place within the real world, separated by a magic
1
The terms “in-world” and “out-of-world” are used to refer to Second Life and the real world.
8
circle. This magic circle is clearly defined in video games by the screen, keyboard and mouse. In
analogue games this border is not so sharply defined [Juu05]. Assuming that this magic circle not
only exists in games but generally for virtual worlds, will the boundaries of it break if the user
receives sensual feedback from the world? The user will be reminded of her presence in reality,
thus creating a connection between the spaces in both worlds.
Describing a virtual environment, the artist and theorist Roy Ascott said: “In cyberspace
everyone is an author, which means that no one is an author [. . . ].” [Gra01]. The author is a
modern concept that needs an existing society of individuals [Bar05]. One could also say that in
Second Life everyone can be an author, but the reverse can’t be true. Even though Second Life
is propagated as a place of free imagination, it is ruled by one company reigning the system on
the basis of money and capitalism. Some users give away their products for free or let others use
their land, but still there is a market and the goods reference their individual authors.
“Get a First Life: A One Page Satire of Second Life” [fl] is an online parody [see Figure 2.2]
of the actual Second Life site [see Figure 2.1]. It plays with the name and the promises Second
Life makes: “First Life is a 3D analogue world where server lag does not exist” [fl]. The site poses
the questions: “Are five senses enough?” [fl], “What’s this body thing, and what do I do with the
dangling bits?” [fl]. I was thinking of these questions. Second Life itself only addresses two of the
five human senses. For me it was clear, this couldn’t be enough for a second life. “Your world.
Your imagination” [sl] is Second Life’s slogan. My question is: To really enter this world, don’t
you have to be able take your body with you?
Another ironic comment on Second Life was recently posted on “YouTube” [you], an online
video broadcasting system. Real people were running around in their office behaving like avatars,
bouncing against walls, dancing in the middle of nowhere repeating the same moves over and over
again, making typing movements while talking to each other or just standing around with loose
arms and head, the waiting position of an avatar while the user is idle. Clearly thought of as a
joke, it shows the limitations of Second Life’s concept. Looking at the world as a simulation of
reality, it can’t keep up with it since human behavior is far more complex then the avatars could
possibly be at this moment in time.
9
Figure 2.2: Screenshot: “Get a First Life: A One Page Satire of Second Life” [fl]
2.2
2.2.1
Communicational Aspects of Space
Human-to-Human Communication
What does it mean to communicate with a foreigner, with an acquaintance or with a friend?
Communication happens both verbally and non-verbally. Voice and language determine verbal
communication. Nonverbal communication merges facial expression, gesture, posture, eye glance
behavior, acoustic signals, physical contact and spatial behavior [Arg79]. These factors are linked
with the physical and psychological perceptual capacity of the communicators. This chapter
focusses on the spatial behavior and on the physical contact as the social psychologist Michael
10
Argyle describes them.
The distance in-between the communicating parties affects their communication and their
behavioral patterns. Spatial behavior includes proximity, orientation and the level in space, as
well as movement and territorial allocation [Arg79]. These characteristics imply the grade of
familiarity and predominance between the communicating parties, their status and their roles.
Argyle prescribes four “zones of proximity” between communicators, the intimate zone, the
individual or private zone, the social-advisory zone and the public zone. These zones differ
culturally and individually. The following example was researched in North-America in the 1950s.
Intimate proximity happens at a distance of at most 0.5m, where physical contact is possible. Each
can smell the other and feel her warmth. Because of the closeness, both only see details of the
other and whispering is understood. The private zone is measured between 0.5 to 1.20m. Within
this close relation it is possible to touch each other and have a better view of the other, but it
is no longer possible to smell the others breath. Between 2.5 and 3.5m, the social-advisory zone,
impersonal relations are expressed which demand a loud voice for verbal communication. The
public zone exceeds 3.5m and includes for example speeches or lectures. [Arg79]
The level of space is indicated by posture or for example standing up or sitting down. However
more important is the orientation of the bodies of the communicators to each other. Proximity,
level and orientation towards one another are signs for intimacy, a grade of sympathy or respect.
Approaching somebody, communicates the desire for interaction and communication. [Arg79]
Argyle qualifies a move towards somebody as social activity. Correlating with the four zones
of proximity he specifies different territorial allocations. Breaking the boundaries of a territory
and coming too close would cause disruption. A group of two or more people arrange a temporally
limited territory by means of conversation, spatial arrangement or a low voice. Also public areas,
which are generally used by the same group, form a territory, for example a regulars’ table.
Territories used and controlled in privacy are for example a house, a car or even a table in a
restaurant. The most individual territory is the proximate space around ones body. Moving close
or even breaking into this individual space causes emotional excitement measured by electrical
resistance of the skin. Just like the zones of proximity these analysis are affected by culture and
the personal preferences.
The most intimate form of nonverbal social communication is at the same time the most
11
natural one, physical contact. It is perceptible trough force, warmth, coldness or pain. The skin
answers with color, taste, odor and temperature. Physical contact enhances the grade of intimacy
in a conversation, it intensifies the emotional excitement and works as a signal for interaction. For
example a handshake is a sign for greeting and parting. The character of each physical contact
is framed by age, gender, social relation and the cultural background. Therefore a touch can
be interpreted differently and probably cause incomprehension in cross-cultural communication.
[Arg79]
2.2.2
In-world Communication in the 3D Online World
Second Life users build an online social network. Therefor the communication between the users
is an important aspect of the in-world design. In-world communication combines features of real
life communication and online communication, for example adapting chat-rooms them to the 3D
environment. The communication channels consist of text-message, voice-chat and gestures.
Figure 2.3: Screenshot: Chat-window in Second Life
Text-messages work on the principle of chat-rooms. The user types the text with a keyboard
in a command line. The text that has been sent is displayed above and provides the names of
12
the chatting avatars [see Figure 2.3]. In an extra window the history of the chat can be reread.
Text-messages vary in different modes, the user can choose between “Talk‘”, “Whisper”, “Shout”,
“Instant-Messages” and “Region-Messages“2 to send messages to other users. “Whisper” can be
read within the radius of 10 meters, “Talk” within 20 meters and “Shout” within 100 meters.
A “Region- Message” can be read in the whole region. These messages are public and readable
by any avatar present within these distances. The radius is centered on the avatar writing the
particular message. An “Instant-Message” is private and only readable by the addressed user.
Additional to textual and vocal communication, Second Life offers different gestures which
animate the avatars. The user can initiate these animated gestures either through textual request
in the command line or in an extra menu. The avatar then acts out the chosen gesture while
continuing the conversation. Ready-made gestures for example are waving or laughing. To go
beyond the ready-made selection of gestures the user can animate gestures of her own or buy
gestures at different marketplaces.
In August 2007 Linden Lab released the first version of “SL Voice”, the in-world voice-chat
function, which is based on real life communication. “SL Voice” offers a “proximity-based” 3D
sound-scape [Lin07] that is calculated from spatial awareness, distance, direction and rotation of
the sound source and the position and the direction of view of the listening avatar. To guarantee
3D sound, an additional headset is required. Voice-chat is possible in the whole online world,
whereas landowners have the right to disable the function on their property. The user can turn
it on and off deliberately as well. To support “SL Voice”, avatars are marked with visual icons.
Similar to the textual-message, users can freely start talking to any other user. They can start
a group conversation or talk in private to one another. To improve the natural impression of
speaking, Second Life provides a set of ready-made “speech gestures” [Lin07], these gestures are
automatically executed by the avatar, depending on the intensity of the users voice. But again
the user is free to turn this feature on and off.
2
The virtual territory of Second Life is sectioned into regions. Each one measures 256x256m (65536 square
meters).
2.2.3
13
Shortcomings in Human-to-Human Communication in the 3D Online
World
Kant defines space as a “Möglichkeit des Beisammenseins”, a Possibility of togetherness, as cited
by the sociologist Georg Simmel [Sim08]. Space becomes socially significant only through the
interaction of inhabitants [Sim08]. For the individual user therefore, Second Life is about communication, communicating with others and communicating oneself to a public, presenting a self. It’s
about taking part. As mentioned in chapter 2.2.1 communication is bound to verbal and nonverbal aspects. Second Life borrows from these aspects and transforms them into a technologically
feasible and online compatible communication solution.
The basis for communication, in-world or human-to-human, is language or simply the use
of words. Second Life breaks communication down into two functions, text-messages and voicechat. But whereas human-to-human communication is rich with nonverbal aspects, in-world
communication is comparably poor. As Linden Lab has recognized, 3D worlds offer possibilities
for online nonverbal communication.
Summing up, the nonverbal aspects are facial expression, gesture, posture, eye glance behavior,
acoustic signals, physical contact and spatial behavior. Up until now facial expressions were
completely left out of in-world expression. To cope with this problem, users started adding
“emoticons” to their chats to express their moods. For example, a “:-)” stands for a smile. This
technique is popular in all online chat-rooms. Eye glance behavior is not implemented. Even
though the orientation of the avatar shows the principle direction of view, it is not possible to tell
exactly where the user is looking. Another impossible aspect is physical contact, which can’t be
simulated with established interfaces, like screen, keyboard or mouse.
Still, various forms of gesture, posture, acoustic signals and spatial behavior can be found in
in-world communication. Sets of gestures are integrated in Second Life, the user is free to use them
on demand or automatically included them in the “SL Voice” feature. Even though gestures can be
animated and uploaded in-world, the variety is rather small compared to real life gestures and for
the user, choosing a gesture, always interrupts the communicational flow. The posture of avatars
is fixed by their creation, it differs mainly by the modes of locomotion, flying, walking, standing
and sitting and varies with the use of different gestures. Acoustic signals are rather new in Second
14
Life. Text-messages only allow to distinguish between talking, whispering or shouting. Voice-chat
also makes it possible to modulate one’s voice similar to human-to-human communication. The
quality of sound is bound to computer hardware, the microphone and speakers, thus “SL Voice”
has a different overall quality for each user.
In my opinion the biggest advantage of a 3D world over online chat-rooms is spatial behavior.
One avatar can approach another similar to human-to-human communication, which indicates
that she wishes to start a conversation. To finish a chat an avatar can walk away from the
other, indicating that she is no longer interested. Territorial allocations are represented through
ownership of land or objects, but individual space or zones of proximity do not have the same
significance as in the real world. Stimulation of emotional excitement through social discrepancies
or different sensual experiences is missing.
There is a discrepancy between in-world and human-to-human communication, not only in
representation of communicational activity but also in the environment. The user sits in her
private environment, her office, living room etc, but acts in a public virtual environment. She
controls the avatar, a representation of herself, in the virtual world, which is disconnected from
the real world. This spatial distance eliminates excitement, friction, attraction and repulsion,
which are induced by sensual proximity [Sim08].
“In das Subjekt hineinwirkend, löst der Sinnes Eindruck eines Menschen Gefühle von
Lust und Unlust in uns aus, von eigener Gesteigertheit oder Herabgesetztheit, von
Erregung oder Beruhigung durch seinen Anblick oder den Ton seiner Stimme, durch
seine bloße sinnliche Gegenwart in demselben Raum.” [Sim08]
“The sensation of a person triggers feelings of delight or dullness in us, of increase or
decrease of our own feeling, through the excitement or calmness in his appearance or
tone of voice, solely through his presence in the same room” [literal interpretation]
Within human-to-human communication nonverbal aspects are mostly unconscious. The counterpart can tell that something is wrong or when the other person is lying if the nonverbal part is
not coherent with the subject matter. In-world the user can add nonverbal aspects deliberately
and thus manipulate the conversation.
15
To sum it up, in-world communication is minor to human-to-human communication comparing
verbal and nonverbal aspects of both worlds. There is one feature that has not been discussed
yet. It could be both a benefit and a disadvantage, depending on the different situations. The
user always has the possibility to remove herself from any communication. Ears are impelled to
hear any sound in the surrounding, unlike eyes that can be shut. Within the online world the
user can symbolically shut her ears by turning the voice-chat off, or simply leaving a discussion
within seconds with the help of teleportation.
2.3
2.3.1
Bodily Sensations in Real and Virtual Environments
Primary Senses
A healthy person gathers about 80% of the information about her surroundings via vision. Therefore common user interfaces deal mainly with vision and also hearing. Computer and TV Screens
or HMD’s, head-mounted-displays, address the visual sense. Classical art, painting, sculpture,
photography and video focus on the visual channel of the beholder. Sound systems, speakers,
headphones and music and speech in general address solely the auditory sense. With technology
it is possible to create believable sound environments that stimulate hearing almost perfectly. The
other senses, touch, olfaction and taste primarily cause emotions that make them more effective
than vision. But stimulation of these senses is disproportionately catchier. [BK05]
Vision and hearing are called primary senses or distance-senses. They require a distance
between the subject and the object to guarantee full cognition of the object. Common patterns of
cognition insure similar perceptions by different people of the same object. For this reason vision
and hearing demanded the qualities of objectivity and cognitive faculty until now.
Philosophy treats vision as panoramic, spontaneous and individual. Vision is active and
selective as it allows for looking away and closing the eyes, thus the object represents no danger
for the viewing subject. On the contrary the hearing subject is committed to and affected by any
sound. The auditory sense is passive, insistent, directional and of temporal nature. Hearing can’t
be turned off, but on the other hand it is temporal and based on incidents. [Dia05]
Research on visual and auditory interaction systems are advanced and well developed in science
and art. Several HCI (Human-Computer-Interaction) and CHI (Computer-Human-Interaction)
16
conferences present the newest developments and progressions every year, for example CHI2008
[chi] presents topics on art and science and NIME [nim] focuses on sound and music.
2.3.2
Secondary Senses
For the mind and the soul the body is a hindrance. The old Greeks and Christianity alike shared
this consideration. As per Shustermann, Nietzsche was one of the first to declare the body as the
origin of all values and the soul as an illusion [Sch96].
Philosophy and art comparably treated the senses of touch, olfaction and degustation as
secondary senses all through out history. Taking a closer look, what made these senses secondary
to vision and the sense of hearing? Madalina Diaconu, editor at the University of Applied Arts
Vienna, studied the aesthetics and the reputation of the so-called secondary senses in “Tasten,
Riechen, Schmecken” [Dia05]. As per Diaconu, touch, olfaction and degustation were denunciated
by philosophers and artists for their proximity to the object. Their sensitivity only evolves if object
and subject get close to each other. As for the so-called primary senses, it is possible to see at a
distance and to hear distant sounds, thus they seemed more objective and therefore more worthy
for art (see 2.3.1). History describes the secondary senses as “subjective, energetic, compulsive,
asocial, narcissistic” and “hedonistic” [Dia05]. The subject becomes personally engaged with the
object. The subject consumes the object, inhales it and devors it. Without visual or linguistic
help it would hardly be possible to recognize the touched object or the smelled aroma.
Technical reproduction of odors at first seemed impossible. As contemporary art challenges
the user more and more to participate and interact with the art piece, artists recover these senses
for their use. Art becomes democratic [Dia05] and centers on the body of the user. Technology develops further and makes stimulation of touch and smell possible. The border between technology,
art and every day life becomes permeable [Dia05]. A change in the way of thinking also happened
in philosophy. Phenomenological Philosophers such as Edmund Husserl, Maurice Merlot Ponty
and Paul Virilio share the concept of the human as a “terrestrial being”, who experiences the
environment through its corporality and a so called “primary relation” [Bak06]. The researchers
Joke Brouwer and Arjen Mulder even claim that no act is only rational, meaning that no decision
is made without relying on feelings or intuition [BM05].
2.3.2.1
17
Sense of Touch
Skin is the largest human organ, measuring about two square meters in size. It is an interface
itself that regulates the processes occurring inside and outside the body [Fra05]. Every part of
the skin is part of the haptic sensory system. The sense of touch is two-folded, comprising tactile
sensations and kinaesthesia [BK05].
Tactile sensations are perceived by the skin, communicating pressure, temperature and vibration. Permanent or heavy stimulus can be perceived as pain. Kinaesthesia specifies the position
of the limbs and joints, registering for example muscles movement [BK05]. These cutaneous sensations and the capability to sense the position of the limbs [RDLT06] are responsible for the
movement of the limbs, the feeling for space, spatial borders and interrelation.
This sense of touch is affective and very intimate due to its proximity to the body. It is both
active and passive. On one hand a person can actively touch an object and feel its surface texture
or stroke from A to B. On the other hand she can passively perceive touch to her skin or changes
in the coordination of her limbs or joints.
The researcher Gabriel Robles-De-La-Torre attributes these sensations to be of critical importance “for fast and accurate interaction with our environment” [RDLT06]. This interaction
happens effortlessly and without conscious awareness [RDLT06]. Even though touch can be perceived all over the body, the most sensitive parts are the fingertips, lips and tongue. Hands are
the body part most often used for social and human-machine interaction, for example to establish
contact, to grasp and for fine or gross motor manipulation.
2.3.2.2
Haptic Interfaces
Robles-De-La-Torre defines haptic interfaces as stimulation of “cutaneous and kinesthetic channels
through force feedback” [RDLT06]. Objects involved in interaction “return forces that follow the
physics of interaction” [RDLT06], which is called force feedback. In this context haptic means
“the ability to experience through active exploration” [RDLT06].
Haptic input and output devices are classified as active or passive devices according to their
force feedback capabilities according to Doug A. Bowman, Professor of Computer Science. Common keyboards and mice provide passive haptic feedback [BK05]. The user approves her input
18
by pushing keys and buttons addressing kinaesthetic sensations. The actual shape of the mouse
and keyboard constrain her hands to a certain position and she feels the surface texture with the
tactile sensors on her fingertips.
Selected examples of active devices are:
gesture detection: A camera tracks the movements and gestures of the user. Therefore the
user does not need to wear or handle any extra devices [BK05]. The media artist Myron
Krueger used this technique in 1975 in his installation “Videoplace”. A camera tracked the
gestures of two people in different rooms and projected their silhouettes on a projection
screen creating a virtual “common room” where the two could communicate. [vid]
the stylus: This device developed from the idea of the pen. It is used to operate any touch
screen or graph tablet.
The magic wand: This input device uses a magic wand metaphor in its design and magnetic
tracking for gesture recognition. Acceleration and angular velocity are registered through
built-in sensors and converted into signals accordingly. [et 04]
the spacemouse or spaceball: This input device consists of one track-ball and several additional buttons. It is about the size of a common mouse and is operated with one hand.
The track-ball detects translations and rotations triggered by the user and can record fine
movements. [BK05]
the dataglove: Is both an input and an output device. It’s shaped like a common glove and is
able to track the individual movement of each finger. The user wears the dataglove on one
hand which she can translate and rotate and bend her fingers for navigation and command.
Outputs are force feedback and tactile sensation to the fingertips. [BK05]
the PHANTOM: This haptic interface is an input and output desktop device in the shape of
a robot arm. It uses the tip of the index finger to track motion and to communicate force
feedback. The PHANTOM simulates interaction with solid physical objects “presenting
convincing sensations of contact, constrained motion, surface compliance, surface friction,
texture and other mechanical attributes of virtual objects.” [MS94]
19
Haptic interfaces are frequently employed in teleoperation systems. These systems enable the user
to control remote robotics. The user relies on precise force feedback to evaluate her operations.
The field of application includes flight simulators as well as applications in endoscopical surgery.
Especially the latter requires not only force feedback but also information on the surface texture
claims psychologist Rainer Zwisler. [Zwi98]
A crucial issue in designing haptic interfaces is to combine continuous navigation in 3D space
and discrete commands, for example “select”, “delete” or “create” in one device. Other issues
concern mapping, latency, ergonomics, left- or right-handedness, customizability, adjustability
and hygiene. The dataglove for example needs to be calibrated according to the size of the hand.
A left-handed user has difficulties wearing a dataglove produced for the right hand. The weight of
the glove and wires conducting the interface with the computer interfere with the manageability
of the device. Hygiene is an important issue in pubic exhibitions and the interface needs to be
cleaned repeatedly. [BK05]
Active force feedback devices are already common in the game industry, for example joysticks
and wheel interfaces provide vibrations on several internal game events. EyeToy [eye] for example,
an add-on for the PlayStation 2 by Sony, uses kinaesthetic sensation as input by detecting the
user’s gestures via a USB camera and translating it into a move inside the game. With the
Wii TM [wii] console, by Nintendo, videogame and paddle producer, is momentarily the leading
provider for bodily integration in the game world. The Wii TM includes a wireless motionsensitive controller that is controlled by the movement of one or both arms. This console was first
presented in 2007.
“However, when using an interface to interact with a real or virtual environment, users
must control their body and also figure out how their actions change the state of the
environment they access through the interface. Users must also figure out how changes
in the environment will affect their actions in the future.” [RDLT06]
According to this statement by Robles-De-La-Torre, he sees the main goal in researching the sense
of touch in finding out what kind of tasks are significant and the degree of fidelity that is needed
for a user to handle interfaces.
2.3.2.3
20
Olfactory Senses
Smelling as well as breathing we can’t stop for long. We are committed to breathing permanently
and steadily. Smell is the most intimate sense. Breathing constantly feeds us with information
about our surroundings. The act of breathing totally absorbs the smelled object. Diaconu describes four different ways of perceiving odors [Dia05]. On a biological level, humans experience
the odor of rotten food similar to life-threatening situations. The archetypical level takes account
for the connotation of the aroma of flowers with women for example. Culturally and individually
the perception of odors differs widely. In European culture there is the trend to a “De-odorizing”
[Dia05] of the public.
Strong odors are mainly for private ambience. In Japan scent became significant through so
called “horloges parfum‘” [Dia05]. These clocks release different scents after a certain time has
passed. Geishas used them to measure the time spent with a customer during the 19th century.
Even though scent spread, the perfume clock was still only used in private as a discreet signal.
In public this system would probably have failed because of the competition with surrounding
scents.
Diaconu describes the sense of smell as bi-directional. On one hand humans actively smell
scents describing them as convenient or uncomfortable. On the other hand our bodies passively
smell themselves. In the course of “De-odorizing‘” deodorants or perfumes are used to eliminate
our own natural scents and “aesthetically correct” [Dia05] them with synthetic odors.
Even though the human nose smells all day and builds up a kind of “smellscape” [Dia05] in
which we move, it is impossible to find our way by depending only on our sense of smell. Though
it is possible to detect hidden objects without seeing them first, for example a hidden cup of coffee.
The Psychology Professor Peter Egon Köster describes the awareness of olfaction as an exception.
A person does not orientate or move depending on scent but it influences her performance and
mood. [K0̈5]
“In short, they [touch, kinaesthesia, taste and olfaction] tend to make us feel at home
in our world.” [K0̈5]
Scent is very strongly centered on the subject who smells something, whereas vision and hearing
are object centered senses [Dia05]. The olfactory memory is long-term and episodic [K0̈5]. Scent
21
intensifies commemoration and recognition [Dia05], the smelling person is sent back in time to
the moment when the memory took place and at the same time she is aware of this retrospective.
The olfactory memory is long-term and episodic [K0̈5].
2.3.2.4
Olfactory Interfaces
Unlike vision the nose is rather poor at discriminating the intensity of an odor or identifying
it[K0̈5]. In the 20th century artists started to experiment with scent as an aesthetic component
in their work.
When it became technically feasible the first cinemas tried to attract their audience with smellable movies, which was a complete commercial failure. In the 1960’s, techniques were invented
to trigger odors analogue to sound and vision, but it was hard to synchronize specific scents with
events in the movie, as audio-visual information reaches the audience immediately and olfactory
information needs time to spread within the space of the cinema. Unfortunately, the solution to
change from one odor to another or even to remove it again was unsatisfactory. In 1981 John
Waters used scratch’n’sniff cards for his movie Polyester. These cards effused several odors when
scratching them. The audience was instructed to do so during various scenes [Pat06]. I suppose
this action would have ripped the audience out of their experience.
At the end of the 1990’s several companies started experimenting with scent to enhance music,
games or browsing the Internet. Digital scent technology [dig] promises to create a more immersive
and captivating environment. DigiSents Corp. developed iSmell, a personal scent synthesizer for
the PC in 1999. Digitally produced scents made it possible for example to smell an ocean breeze
while browsing a site about beach holidays. iSmell was intended as a software standard but failed
as the hardware didn’t meet its demands [Kay04].
The company TriSenx developed a similar technology called the Scent Dome TM. The spectrum of the Scent DomeTM reaches from applications for online promotion to enhancing job
training or engaging in music and games [tri]. The device itself “consists of a circular cartridge
containing separate chambers of chemical scents” [Pat06] which can be combined to achieve various smells that are dispersed by a fan. Analyzing these devices the researcher Marc W.D.
Paterson found several levels of olfactory symbolism, including common cultural associations,
learned synaesthetic associations and purely arbitrary olfactory codes for creating a multi-sensory
22
experience [Pat06].
The researcher Joseph Kaye [Kay04] sees the problem in the perception of smell in the fact
that human language has no abstract higher-level categories for scents, but the scents themselves.
Furthermore, categories like floral are not clearly defined. Smells don’t have names of their own.
Smells are normally labeled after the object that emits the smell. Thus the use of scents in humancomputer-interaction would require a dissociation of odor and referent to be accepted. Kaye sees
potential in olfactory displays for “slow-moving, medium-duration information or information for
which an aggregate representation is slow changing” [Kay04].
Research in the field of scent enhanced human-computer interfaces goes more and more in the
direction of ambient media which means media that is not always the focus of the user’s attention.
As odors can be smelled almost immediately, the challenge still lies in how to change from one
odor to another or to dissolve them [Pat06]. “As an element of the human-computer interface,
then, smell and other ambient media can extend the way that information is displayed to the user,
and explore that area between focused attention and peripheral awareness.” [Pat06]
“The capabilities of Scent in a messaging application” researched by Adam Bodner et al.
presented their results at the international conference on Multimodal interfaces ICMI [acm] in
2004. They identified three criteria of notification systems depending on user goals and design as
interruption, reaction and comprehension. During the experiment it was shown that delivering
notifications by olfactory means is less effective compared to auditory and visual, but is less
disruptive. Evaluating user tests, they concluded that with training and habituation the usability
of olfactory notification systems would increase. [CN04]
Still, the researcher Marc W.D. Paterson [Pat06] sees several problems concerning the use of
scent as ambient media. Bad smells for example could be considered an “invasion” on private
space since the spread of odor can hardly be controlled. Smells are hard to remove and can reach
away from the desktop to other areas, disturbing an uninvolved third party. Smell can also invoke
unintended emotions or memories with its individual emotional impact. At present, technology
is sufficiently developed to create smell interfaces for different purposes, but the cultural attitude
still has to change for them to succeed. [Pat06]
2.4
23
Artistic Explorations of Bodily Sensations
2.4.1
2.4.1.1
The Idea of Sensual Stimulation and Bodily Interaction
From Passive Beholder to Active User
In classical art the gesture of touching is mainly forbidden. Art pieces in museums are protected
from the visitor’s touch. The gesture of touch consumes the touched object. Touch dissolves the
distance between the touching subject and the touched object. The intellectual distance seems
to vanish. Touch makes the subject vulnerable and the object breakable. Allowing the viewer to
touch an object makes it possible for her not only to experience the resulting piece of art but also
to feel empathy with the artist.
Interactive art pieces try to overcome this gap between not being allowed to touch and wanting
to in order to better understand what the art piece is about. Interactivity urges the visitor to
touch the object, whose significance would otherwise remain hidden.
“Interactive art is by definition, through its interactivity, non-autonomous. Interactivity works on the network model and exchanges information, energy and/or matter
- an interaction characteristic of open systems. Interactive art is art whose autonomy
must be disturbed by the visitor for it to be art at all. An interactive work of art is a
system that seeks to become a network [. . . ].” [BM05]
The communication theorist Marshall McLuhan [McL68] traces back the fact, that visual perception creates a passive consumer, to alphabetization, when the eye learned to focus on a singular
point, the letter, instead of regarding the whole object. He presumed that the non-alphabetized
would want to take part [McL68]. The Alphabet abstracts vision from sound, thus breaking the
empathic participation, wasting away the sense of touch [McL68]. McLuhan predicted a turn
in society from a linear and mechanic to an electronic and organic culture. Following this turn
would come a change in language and thinking. Individualism would be outrun by the collective
whole [McL68]. Gerfried Stocker, Board of directors Ars Electronica, believes this stance on mass
media will become true. But with the advance of web2.0 and web3D individualization becomes
mainstream and in public the masses practice self-promotion. [SS07]
24
David Bolter [Bol96], Professor for Literature, Communications and Culture, signifies a disembodiment through technology. For example the use of email rids the user of her voice and
denies her gender and ethnicity. He advances the idea of an embodied knowledge, visualized in
cyberspace, thus replacing alphabetic texts. [Bol96]
Interactive art and modern art is trying to further the process to an all-inclusive and organic
cultural being. As every medium has its advantages and restrictions, it enhances and restricts
different perceptions or senses [Sch96]. Chris Crawford [Cra03], a game developer, describes the
impact of the computer as changing our culture by changing the way we think. This happens as
a result of use. A Chinese myth goes:
“Wenn einer Maschinen benutzt, so betreibt er alle seine Geschäfte maschinenmäßig;
wer seine Geschäfte maschinenmäßig betreibt, der bekommt ein Maschinenherz.” [McL68]
“If somebody employs machines, all of her affairs will be machine driven. She who
conducts her affairs mechanically will acquire a mechanical heart.” [literal interpretation]
Hence, behavior and opinions change, leading not only to a gain in new values but also to a
cutback on old ones. Social and cultural processes will be revised through the use of technology
[Har06].
2.4.1.2
An Overview of Concepts on Immersion of the Body in the Virtual
“VR-Technologie erlaubt eine Überschreitung der Grenzen zwischen männlich/weiblich,
Mensch/Maschine, Zeit/Raum. Das Selbst siedelt sich jenseits der Haut an. Das
ist kein Prozess des Abkoppelns oder der Abspaltung, sondern der Verlagerung der
Aufmerksamkeit.”[Kun]
“VR-Technology allows for a transgression of the boarders between male/female, human/machine, time/space. The self is located beyond the skin. This is not a process
of disconnection or separation, but of the shifting of attention.” [literal interpretation]
Looking up “virtual” in the dictionary, one finds something along the lines of the virtual being
apparent, that there is the possibility that it exists [vir95]. Thus, a virtual reality must be a reality
that possibly exists parallel to other realities. According to professor Oliver Grau [Gra01] virtual
25
reality is a paradox, a space of the possible and the impossible, but definitely no simulation. In
my opinion this assumption of virtual reality can be compared to the description of play, as per
Huizinga, “Ausdruck einer Vorstellung von Leben” [Hui81] — an expression of a conception of
life. But does this virtual reality feel real? What is commonly understood as reality?
Fictional novels envision the possibility of diving into cyberspace, the whole body and mind
believing to be in a digital realm. The most famous authors are William Gibson [Gib86], who
first coined the term cyberspace, and Neal Stephenson [Ste93].
“Cyberspace. A consensual hallucination experienced daily by billions of legitimate operators, in every nation, by children being taught mathematical concepts. . . A graphic
representation of data abstracted from the banks of every computer in the human system. Unthinkable complexity. Lines of light ranged in the nonspace of the mind,
clusters and constellations of data. Like city lights, receding. . . ” [Gib86]
Professor for Literature Thomas G. Pavel accredits no truth-value to any fictional statement. It
would be neither true nor false in a non-metaphorical sense [Pav86]. In this case the readership
of Gibson treated his fictional and maybe sarcastic story as a utopia worth achieving.
In the 1980s this vision of cyberspace and virtual reality also caused a boom in technological
research. The promises that it would soon be possible to fully immerse oneself in virtual reality
haven’t come true yet. But technology continues to develop.
The artist Eduardo Kac describes virtual realities as advancing human activity in synthetic
environments, based on visual, acoustic and haptic feedback. Building on the media theorist Lev
Manovich, virtual reality derives from the tradition of simulation. He compares virtual reality
systems to cinema. Where as cinema anesthetises the body, in virtual environments the body
should be able to move around. He counters that the body has been paradoxically imprisoned by
the technology needed to create the virtual reality system. [Man96]
“Virtual Reality bündelt tradierte Medien zu einem polysensuell erfahrbaren Synthesemedium” [Gra01]
According to Grau, virtual reality is a synthesized medium perceptible with many senses. Presenceresearch is searching for the utmost profound impression of being in the picture, for the allembracing delusion of the user [Gra01]. Within the presence-research intimate interfaces achieve
26
a suggestive presence, “suggestive Anwesenheit” [Gra01], in the virtual environment. He describes
that already by the end of the 19th century attempts had been made to create sensually enhanced
simulations. Panoramas were built supported by sound-, wind- and smoke effects to increase the
illusion of authenticity. The visitor should physically enter into a world of images experienced in
a circular perspective, which quasi takes her to a distant place [Fra05]. But the Panorama was
not to be touched, hence not to interact, only to stand inside and be viewed. In the early 20th
century Làslò Moholy-Nagy called for a Theatre of Totality, “Theater der Totalität”:
“Es mußendlich eine Aktivität entstehen, welche die Masse nicht stumm zuschauen
läßt, sie nicht nur im Inneren erregt, sondern sie zugreifen, mittun und auf der
höchsten Stufe einer erlösenden Ekstase mit der Aktion der Bühne zusammenfließen
läßt.” [Gra01]
“Finally an activity must emerge, that does not allow for the masses to watch in
silence, that does not just excite them within, but allows for them to seize, take part
and on the highest level of a redeeming ecstasy flows together with the action on
stage.” [literal interpretation]
Even though Moholy-Nagy wasn’t thinking of technology enhanced virtual environments but of
theatrical performances, the desire was there to release the spectator from passivity. Morton
L. Heilig had a similar vision for the “cinema of the future”, which should create an illusionary
experience for all senses, including touch, smell and taste. In the 1960s he finally built the “Sensorama” a machine simulating a motorbike ride using vision, sound, touch and smell. Commercially
it wasn’t a success, neither did the attempts to enhance cinema with vibration effects, such as
The Tingler from 1959, or with scent effects, such as Polyester from 1981 enthuse the audience.
In cinema the world is projected at the spectator, but in a virtual world the user should be
projected into the world [Poo00]. Furthermore Grau specifies the attempt to increase the illusion
in virtual environments through assimilation of avatar and user, higher picture resolutions, intensifying interactivity by using intuitive interfaces coupled with natural experiences and emotional
involvement. He concludes a tendency to render the medium invisible. [Gra01]
Telepresence virtually erodes the impact of distance but transforms the classical space perception [Gra01]. According to Grau it means experiencing three different spaces. The real place
27
that the user is in, the virtual space and the remote real space where another user might be.
Terms like artificiality or naturalness are concepts of reflection. Following Grau this means they
name perspectives and relations [Gra01]. He concludes the definition of reality to be a product of
observation [Gra01].
“Für mich schafft die Telepräsenz-Kunst einen unikalen Kontext, in dem die Teilnehmer dazu aufgefordert werden, erfundene fremde Welten aus Perspektiven und
Maßstäben zu erleben, die nicht den menschlichen entsprechen.”[Kac93b]
“In my opinion telepresence art creates a unique context in which participants are
invited to experience imaginary worlds from perspectives and benchmarks that do not
correspond with those of mankind.” [literal interpretation]
For Eduardo Kac [Kac93b] telepresence art means questioning unidirectional communication, as
are classical art and mass media and to aesthetically phrase the cultural change deriving from the
real-time exchange of data, which is individual and bidirectional. Media and reality seemingly
merge into each other. The direct experience turns into a moderated experience. Physical distance
is no longer an obstacle for physical experience [Kac93b]. Two or more users are put in relation
to one another, the intensity of their connection and at the same time the unbridgeable spatial
gap between them account for the fascination of telecommunication projects. [Dan05]
2.4.2
Art Recreating Sensual Perceptions
In many interactive art pieces the borders of the body are extended beyond the skin into a virtual
body. In the following I will have a closer look at different art projects dealing with this topic.
Desire for immortality and perfection constitutes itself, as per the art theorist and critic
Florian Rötzer [R9̈6], in technical utopia. In the middle of the 1990s the body became the center
of interest. Artists like Stelarc [stea] saw the body as an object that could be designed and
shaped, technology should become a body part. The fleetingness of the body made it powerless.
The media artist Jeffrey Shaw [Sha96] detects a conflict in the body as basis for both its living
and its mortality. For him the visualized body is the negation of its mortality. Information and
communication scientist Pierre Lèvy [L9̀6] even envisioned a virtual biological continuum in which
the human senses are virtualised and the body is doubled, creating a collective body.
28
Stahl Stenslie und Kirk Woolford launched their project “CyberSM” in 1994. This project
“was an attempt to create real time, visual, auditory and tactile communication in the world of
cyberspace.” [steb] The users wore bodysuits [see Figure 2.4] that enabled them to communicate
over physical stimuli. By touching a virtual body on a screen the other user felt the touch through
their suite. The suite was made up of vibrators, stimulators and heat conductive materials. “It
allows us to extend our physical perceptions over distances, through computer networks, and beyond
virtual realities” [steb]. With the “Interskin” project they took this vision further moving away
from the screen interface. The bodysuit itself became the interface through which two users could
touch each other over far distances. First it provided a one to one conversion. One user touches
her breast the other feels her breast being touched. Probably, what could have made it more
subtle and interesting would have been to redirect these sensations.
Figure 2.4: “CyberSM” [steb] by Stahl Stenslie und Kirk Woolford, 1994
The idea of “CyberSM” takes advantage of the possibility of the sense of touch to overcome
distances and bring the touched object nearer to the subject. Through touching and being touched
the mind creates a third virtual body, which bridges the gap between the users [Ste96]. But as
Kirkwood later describes, this whole experiment only worked while the users were able to talk
29
to each other and share their sensations not only via touch but also listening to the others
voice. The users were unable to communicate only through touch, as its connotation was mostly
sexual.[Woo96]
With “fuck-you-fuck-me”(TM) Alexej Shulgin goes even further. As an artist he explores the
boundaries between art and technology and their impact on the “real life” [fuc]. In this project
he combines a hardware component, the so-called “Genital Drive” [see Figure 2.5], with software
for Windows 95, Windows 98 or Windows NT that connects two computers over TCP/IP. This
should enable two remote users to perform a sexual act using the genital drive in real time. The
users can choose between a female and a male version.
Figure 2.5: “fuck-you-fuck-me”(TM)[fuc] by Alexej Shulgin
“Improvised Empathic Device” [swa] by Doug Easterly and Matt Kenyon created in the year
2005 focuses on a reality very real for some and for others rather virtual. They monitor a web site
which counts U.S. casualties in the Iraq war. Every time a new name of a dead soldier appears
on the web site, a needle is triggered to pierce the arm of the user wearing the I.E.D. armband.
Thus it immediately draws the attention away from the daily life of the wearer to the realm of a
death in the Iraq war. In the projects of Kenyon and Easterly the “subjects are not released into
a natural environment, but trapped within a synthetic environment whose conditions are tempered
by various systems of information.” [KE06]
30
In 2003 Christa Sommerer and Laurent Mignonneau created “Mobile Feelings”, a mobile art
project that wirelessly communicates the heartbeat and breathing of the user [SM06]. It enables
bodily communication for the users over distance. Going beyond sound and images, it lets the
user feel the heartbeat and the breathing of the distant communication partner. “Mobile Feelings” enables users to share very private sensations and does so over a public mobile network,
disarranging the borders between private and public space [SM06]. Perception of the other person’s breathing establishes a “stronger connection and sense of presence between remote users.”
[Bak06] Within this project Sommerer and Mignonneau explore the emotional quality of touch
and breathing in the communication process [SM06]. One observation they made was that when
users focus on the heartbeat and the breathing of the other, they shut away vision and sound to
fully concentrate on the haptic feedback.
Figure 2.6: “Faith, Honor and Beauty” [fai] by Aziz/Cucher, 1992
The artist and designer Jenny Tillotson [sma] uses the impact of scent on health and wellbeing
in her works. She created a dress as a sensitive “Smart Second Skin” which interacts with human
emotions. The dress releases different aromas, making its wearer aware of her “smell sensory
universe”. “By comparing fabric to skin with it’s own personal scent symphony that changes with
31
emotion, the fabric comes alive through smell by a process in which the wearer gives life to the
dress.” [sma]
Anthony Aziz and Sammy Cucher (Aziz/Cucher) [AC] are digital photography artists in the
beginning of the 1990s playing with the idealization of the body and unreachable perfection. Their
photographs show portraits with extinguished eyes and mouths or female and male nudes without
primary sexual characteristics [see Figure 2.6]. Looking at these alienated photographs I recalled
the avatars in Second Life that also negate or hide gender, unable to speak, see or feel but still in
search for the perfect representation. [AC]
2.5
Art and Prototypes in the 3D Online World
2.5.1
In-world Art in the 3D Online World of Second Life
During the 1980s and early 1990s, the Internet and the World Wide Web were used as platforms
for artists developing their potentials, for example as a communication tool or visualizing lacks
and bugs through subversively and critical interventions. The theorist Marc Ries defines:
“Netzkunst ist ereignishaft, dem Augenblick des Kommunikationsaufbaus und –austauschs
zugetan.” [Rie02]
“Net art is instantaneous, devoted to the moment of creating and exchanging communication.” [literal interpretation]
The spirits were high and the artists tried to get to the bottom of this new medium. The media
artist Jodi states:
“[. . . ] Ich glaube, der Computer ist ein Mittel, in den Geist eines Menschen einzudringen.” [Tri06]
“I believe the computer is a means to intrude upon a human’s mind.” [literal interpretation]
The art scene in Second Life is nothing comparable to what happened back then. Although the
potential is there, Second Life becomes more of a platform to represent real life art than to create
32
Second Life art. Building on the artists and activists Pit Schulze and Florian Zeyfang [SZ95],
avantgarde art works as an outsourced development department if it uses old metaphors like
museum, gallery or city, in a new and undeveloped territory.
“Sie produziert dabei mit Vorliebe Arbeitsweisen und Ästhetiken, die bereits sattsam
bekannt sind und öffnet die Türen für ein gewohntes Zuhause im Neuen” [SZ95]
“In doing so it produces with relish amply known working environments and aesthetics
and opens the doors for a familiar home within the new.” [literal interpretation]
Following an article of Professor Boris Groys [Gro00], net art is fixed in a topology. Each file
or each sign has a distinctive address. Thereby every net art project has the characteristics of
originality. Within the context of Second Life this topology of unique addresses is lost for the
benefit of a 3D territory with ephemeral places of residence for objects and users. As per the net
artist Cornelia Sollfrank, art should break with perceptual patterns and customs [Tri06]. There
are several artists and artist groups thinking about what Second Life is and not only using it as
a tool.
The “Second Life Liberation Army” [lla] is exercising the virtual rebelion. They blast off
virtual bombs to counter the dictatorship of Linden Lab. These bombs do no harm. They only
interrupt the avatars around them for some seconds. The aim of the SLLA is to start a discussion
on the power structure within Second Life and seek for political rights for the avatars. “As Linden
Lab is functioning as an authoritarian government the only appropriate response is to fight” [lla].
But instead of disapproving this attempt of civil disobedience, Linden Lab favors it as an in-world
creative process [reb]. Thus in a way undermining this rebelion.
0100101110101101.org, known as Eva and Franco Mattes, are working on two projects in
Second Life. They started in 2006 with “Portraits”. In 2007 they initiated the project series
“Synthetic Performances”.
“Portraits” is a collection of pictures of Second Life avatars. In the tradition of Andy Warhol’s
“13 Most Beautiful Women” Eva and Franco Mattes take pictures of virtual identities and show
them both printed on canvas and in-world. They reference the virtual and the real in duality.
They exhibit pictures from the virtual in the realm of a gallery, taking pictures from Second Life
that reference a real world artist.
33
“The Mattes’ work questions both the traditional role of portraiture and the nature of
the morphing relationship between identity and public presentation in virtual worlds.
Like Andy Warhol’s legendary Factory, Second Life is about the creation of alternate
identities, of building and living a fantasy.”[mat]
With “Synthetic Performances” the duo is working with a feature of 3D online worlds that the
World Wide Web can’t handle. Performance Art is an experience as opposed to painting or
photography, which are representations recalling absence.
“Man kann nur etwas erleben, was im Wahrnehmungsbereich präsent ist. In der
Telekommunikationskunst führen An- und Abwesenheit miteinander ein Ferngespräch,
in dem Repräsentation und Erleben nicht mehr Gegenpole sind.” [Kac93a]
“One can only experience that which is within the perception area. In telecommunication art, presence and absence conduct a long distance call in which representation
and experience are no longer counter poles.” [literal interpretation]
Performances in their nature only existent during the act of staging can be experienced again only
through representations that are archived, documented by video, photography or text but they
can’t be recalled like films, videos or books. Nevertheless Eva and Franco Mattes discovered a
possibility to restage performances in Second Life. Using their own avatars they performed Chris
Burdon’s “Shoot”, Vito Acconci’s “Seebed”, Valie Export’s “Tapp und Tastkino” and Joseph
Beuy’s “700 Oaks”. But then again, as is in reality, the performances are documented on video.
“Tapp und Tastkino” [exp] for example animates its audience by exhibiting male fantasies. It
follows the tradition of expanded cinema with the commitment of the whole body. In this street
performance Valie Export was wearing a box in front of her naked chest. The box became the
cinema and the chest the screen. The audience needed to reach inside the performance. The
elements of the performance were voyeurism and tactile reception. Where else it is possible to
transform the voyeuristic part to the virtual environment, the tactile part is left aside.
“‘Interaktivität’ ist hier als direkte sinnliche Erfahrung das Gegenmodell zu der medial
geprägten Einseitigkeit der Wahrnemung.” [Dan05]
34
“Here, interactivity as direct sensual experience, is a counter model to the media
coined one-sidedness of perception.” [literal interpretation]
The antithesis of sensual experience, claimed by theorist Dieter Daniels [Dan05], vanishes while
the performance is staged in the realm of Second Life where the experience is mediated only
visually.
Eva and Franco Mattes are not the only artists staging performances in Second Life. Second
Front calls itself a “performance art group in the online avatar based-VR world” [slf]. The eight
members of the group claim to be influenced by Dada, Fluxus, Futurist Syntesi, the Situationist
International and contemporary performance artists. “Second Front creates theaters of the absurd
that challenge notions of virtual embodiment, online performance and the formation of virtual
narrative” [slf]. Their latest performance called Zombie Attack. 28 Days Later . . . took place in
August 2007. Quoting the horror movie 28 Days Later by Danny Boyle, the group turned their
avatars into zombies loosing flesh and spitting blood. During the performance the zombie avatars
approached other avatars and infected them, turning them into zombies too. As do Mattes’,
Second Front also records their performances and makes them available on their blog outside
Second Life.
2.5.2
Attempts to Recombine Physical and Online Worlds
The Ars Electronica Festival 2007 devoted one part of the Festival, the Second City, only to
projects concerning Second Life. A deserted shopping street in the city of Linz was the stage for
several installations. As the first the Ars Electronica Festival in 1995 was almost fully devoted
to net art, it was possible to access these net art projects anywhere through the World Wide
Web. This made the physical space of the festival exchangeable [Rie02]. Dealing with Second
Life’s physical space was most important where the real and the virtual world should merge. By
building the Second City artists wanted to answer several questions:
“What happens when established forms of digital communication are transferred directly into physical, public space? What status does privacy have in that world and in
this one? In which light do digital artifacts appear when they, in their form adapted
to digital space, are transformed into concrete physical objects?” [Bar07]
35
In both worlds, the real and the virtual, a beach was created with canvas chairs, parasols and
computer terminals. Avatars and users were acting in the same environment. The avatars could be
sitting virtually next to their users. This project was launched by the Ars Electronica Futurelab,
especially for the Second City. “The Stiff People’s League” [see Figure 2.7] deals with the same
subject of blending the worlds. It was created by the Sociable Media Group/MIT Media Lab at
the Massachusettes Institute of Technology as a mixed reality soccer game. The croquet game in
Alice in Wonderland, where the mallets become alive, functioned as the archetype. Real players
arrange themselves around a soccer table that is interconnected with a soccer stadium in Second
Life. Avatars and players are playing with and against each other.
Figure 2.7: “The Stiff People’s League”[sti] by Sociable Media Group/MIT Media Lab, 2007
The works of Aram Bartholl, a media artist, questions how the digital world influences our
reality. “What comes back from cyberspace into physical space?” [dat] He takes typical features
of MMPORG’s out in the real world. During the festival he exported a flat low-resolution 3D
image of a Second Life tree into the city streets. “Tree” inverts the common practice of importing
real world images into a virtual environment transforming it to simplify and incomplete versions
of the real objects.
36
Figure 2.8: “Tree” by Aram Bartholl [dat], 2007
Within the Second Life Shop Bartholl invited the visitors to engage physically with the virtual
objects and features. During the “Handmade”-Workshop the visitors designed and tinkered new
clothes for their avatars. “Cut and Paste” passes over the copyrights of virtual objects. Virtual
goods were printed out and duplicated for the visitors to wear them during the festival. “WoW”
quotes the feature of Second Life for easy recognition of avatars. Above each avatar hovers
constantly its nickname, which makes it unnecessary to introduce each other. Everybody knows
the names of the others. In the Second Life Shop the visitors had the possibility to configure their
own name out of paper and plastic and wear it, walking in the streets displaying their identity
to the public. Linda Kostowski and Sasha Pohflepp sold virtual objects in their project “Export
to World”, which were printed on paper. The purchaser could then fold the two-dimensional
representations into three-dimensional objects.
Intrigue E by Silver and Hanne Rivrud takes the metaphor of avatar behavior and transforms
it into human behavior. Using a mobile phone a “user” can trigger the behavior of an “avatar”.
Both are real people acting in real public space with the exception that the person playing the
avatar is remotely controlled and dependent on the “user”. This setting involves passers-by and
37
creates seeming uncontrolled situations.
2.5.3
Prototypes Recreating Bodily Sensations in Game and Online Worlds
Art projects are not alone in their work on the issue of expanding human senses with the help
of technology, the consumer industry is also catching on. The interface of “fuck-you-fuck-me”
by Alexej Shulgin [see 2.4.2] rather satirizes the term of cyber sex and cyber erotic. What at
first sight seems highly ironic, is already sold in mass production. For example the iBuzz [ibu],
a “musical orgasm machine” consisting of a vibrating bullet, can be connected to the iPod, a
portable media player, and vibrates in tune with the music [see Figure 2.9]. This add-on is sold
over the Internet for about £30 Pounds.
Figure 2.9: iBuzz : “musical orgasm machine” [ibu]
But iBuzz is not the first and only intimate interface. The sex industry is already on the
market producing a range of different remote controlled sex toys [see Figure 2.10]. One example
is the Sinulator [sin], a remote control that operates different sex toys via the Internet. Similar
products can be found on highjoyproducts.com [hig]. Prizes range from $ 70 Dollars to $ 140
Dollars per set.
“The world’s most popular vibrator can now be controlled over the Internet! Imagine
engaging a partner in an Online Sex session at Highjoy.com, and having an orgasm
with them hundreds of miles away. ” [hig]
38
Figure 2.10: Online Sex session at Highjoy.com [hig]
In Second Life many laces for virtual sex exist and there are many virtual sex toys for sale. But it’s
still all about cybersex. Kyle Machulis, a computer scientist, first launched a computer controlled
sex toy [see Figure 2.11] in 2005 using a video game console controller to operate the sex toy with
force feedback commands [Kyl06].
In August 2006 he presented a first prototype of an open-source intimate interface controlled
from inside Second Life. As per Machulis a computer controlled sex toy needs an appealing
interface, stimulation through vibration, proper visuals and above all the certainty that there is
another person behind the representing avatar [Kyl06].
Figure 2.11: “SeXBox”: Using force feedback signals for sex toys [sla]
Therefore he created the SeXBox, “an open source platform that allows HCI [Human Computer
Interfaces] researchers to quickly and easily implement interfaces for software controlled sexual
interaction through a computer.” [Kyl06]
39
Browsing the news I found an article with the title “Spielen 2.0: Luftstöße simulieren Beschleunigung und Bremsen beim Rennspielen” [wes07], “Gaming 2.0: Blasts of air simulate acceleration
and breaking in racing games” [literal interpretation]in “derStandard” September 2007. This is one
of the gaming market’s answers to the numerous discussions in art and theory dealing with the
topic of immersion in virtual environments. TN Games [tng] has developed a “3rd Space Vest”
which should simulates for example gunfire in a first person shooter game or acceleration in car
racing games. When the player is hit in the game she will feel force feedback on her body produced
by air blasts. It should be possible for the user to locate the direction of the gunfire that hit her.
Spatial awareness is created through the simulation of killing. This vest has been on the market
since October 2007.
Figure 2.12: “LifeCycle”: First Life Locomotion in Second Life [lif]
But there are also other projects out there trying to melt virtual and real worlds that do not
40
deal with sex or violence. For example on the blog of Andy Fundinger [wor] one can see that
several experiments have been done in trying to connect Second Life with real life. In January
2007 for example he connected a real life control panel to an in-world control panel. Turning
knobs and pushing buttons in each world triggers the same action in the other world.
“LifeCycle” [see Figure 2.12] is another project by Kyle Machulis. It merges real life and
virtual locomotion in Second Life. The user pedals a stationary exercise bike, driving any in-world
vehicle. The speed of the bike controls the speed of the vehicle. Machulis envisages multiple user
applications such as pedal-boats, tandem-bikes, bike races or even feedback loops for the user,
telling her how much she has worked out.
The research group Tanikawa Lab at the University of Tokyo, Japan, under the leadership
of Professor Michitaka Hirose developed a position-tracking system that enables the Second Life
user to navigate through the 3D online world using only her body. The system uses a web cam
and tracking markers to compute the position of the user in physical space and translate it into
the three-dimensional virtual space. If the user turns around or jumps her avatar executes the
same movements. [Tab07]
Assistant Professor Junichi Ushiba of the Laboratory for Biomedichal Engineering at the Keio
University, Japan, went even further. He developed a Brain-Computer Interface [bra07] that
enables the user to navigate Second Life by controlling their brain waves through imagination.
The user wears electrodes that are embedded in a headset. The electrodes measure brain activity
in the sensory-motor cortex, the part of the brain that controls the movement of the limbs. For
example if the user thinks about her feet than the avatar walks forward. If she wants her avatar
to turn to the right, she thinks about her right hand.
2.5.4
Recreating Haptic Sensations for the 3D Online World of Second Life
In chapter 2.5 I presented artists and researchers dealing with the convergence of virtual and real
worlds. Among them are projects that recreate real life artefacts in Second Life, for example
Eva and Franco Mattes’ “Portraits” or “Synthetic Performances” [see 2.5.1], on the other hand
some projects also confer virtual artefacts a physical shape, for example Aram Bartholl’s “Tree”
[see 2.5.2]. “The Stiff Peoples League” [see 2.5.2] or the Brain-Computer Interface [see 2.5.3]
demonstrate ways to influence the virtual world with bodily processes in the physical world.
41
The art projects “Mobile Feelings” [see 2.4.2] by Christa Sommerer and Laurent Mignonneau
and “CyberSM” [see 2.4.2] by Stahl Stenslie und Kirk Woolford or the very down-to-earth intimate
interface “SeXBox”[see 2.5.3] by Kyle Machulis arrange remote connections between distant users
by stimulating the sense of touch or perceiving the others breath.
These projects are all likely to include the body in the virtual space through its actions and
physical behavior. Haptic and olfactory interfaces presented in section 2.3 use direct interaction
to immerse the user in a virtual environment. As I explained in section 2.2, human-to-human
communication and therefore relationships are not always conscious and direct. When a person
enters a room she does not touch every object to get a feeling of the objects and thus of the room.
In a virtual environment the user needs to virtually get in touch with the objects and thus the
room. The physical presence of other people has a strong impact on the perception of particular
spaces. This experience is not created willingly, it is an subconscious process.
These facts motivated me to design a practical research application that secretly supports
the immersion of the user in the virtual environment. I chose Second Life as setting for this
experiment, for its openness towards in-world experiments and its presence in the media even
though many actual users are frustrated with the system. The main issue lies in enhancing humanto-human online communication through bodily sensations, going beyond vision and hearing, to
create an affective level and atmosphere. The outcome of this research is a sensitive interface
called “Do you feel your second life?”.
Chapter 3
Practical Research Application
3.1
3.1.1
Do You Feel Your Second Life?
Objective
“Do you feel your second life?” is an experimental art project. It makes use of existing products
both virtual and real life. On the one hand I am testing the 3D online world of Second Life
produced by Linden Lab and on the other hand I am experimenting with USB gadgets, cheap
ready-to-use devices, powered through a USB port and sold online or in IT Accessories shops.
Merging these various components, I create a sensible interface for an online virtual world. [see
Figure 3.1]
My aim is to explore the connection between virtuality and reality and which roles the user
and her self-awareness play. This interface should enable the user not only to imagine the virtual
environment she is acting in, but also to feel it with her whole body. Most haptic/interactive
interfaces use gestures or the human body to modulate the virtual space. In my work I use the
virtual body of the avatar, moving and communicating in the virtual world, to transform the
body of the user in the real world.
This project fulfils two purposes. First I explore how far it is possible to involve the physical
body within virtual environments. Does physical engagement help create immersion? On the
other hand I set a focus on the physical body of users who center their life more around virtual
environments, for example web2.0 or video games, than real environments. Personally I feel a lack
42
CHAPTER 3. PRACTICAL RESEARCH APPLICATION
43
Figure 3.1: Setup: “Do you feel your second life?”
of direct communication. This sensible interface shouldn’t replace direct contact between people
but satirize the virtual connections between them.
Exploring “Do you feel your second life?” the user should get a feeling for the presence of the
virtual space. As the avatar of the user moves between other avatars their presence and thus the
contact with them is represented by changes in temperature, odor or muscle stimulation. The
form of the data is defined by how many avatars are around and how far away they are from
the user’s avatar. The data should infiltrate the body of the user, for example by an increase
in temperature or inhalation. I consider Second Life to be an intact public space. This public
display creates an extreme private sensual experience.
3.1.2
Project Description
“Do you feel your second life?” is itself not a new product. It is an experiment of what can be done
in the field of virtual reality with pre-existing and affordable technology. This approach doesn’t
44
favor high-tech or innovative spirit, rather it emphasizes the accessibility and the modularity of
ready-to-use devices and the online world. It combines these online and virtual products and puts
them in a different and new context. Changing their primary function and extending their scope.
The sensible interface plays with the bodily sensations of the user while she is hooked up to the
virtual realm. The interface renders it possible to experience one’s presence in the virtual world
and expands the communication aspect from audio-visual to multisensory. Communication takes
place over social and physical distance, perceiving intimacy and attraction or disgust towards the
counterpart. Bodily sensations should trigger these emotional excitements.
With this sensitive interface I try to answer several questions:
• Does physical engagement help create immersion?
• Will playing with the sensations of cold and warmth, of scent and pain help the user to
immerse herself or does it make her feel uncomfortable?
• Will the sensual interface enhance or disturb the users online experience?
• What are the reactions of the attached users and the passing avatars?
The project consists of several discrete components that reshape an individual and modular
interface. “Do you feel your second life?” exists in the physical world and also online in the
virtual world. The physical part is deep-seated in the real world (see 3.2). It consists of a wooden
design and several everyday objects, in this case USB gadgets. These objects are products used
by a multitude of users in miscellaneous ways. They are familiar and common in use and could
be easily interchanged.
The virtual part in Second Life is bound to the representation of the user, the avatar. It
measures the distance between the users avatar to other avatars. This distance is transformed
into aspects of communication, both in-world and physical (see 3.3). I have marked the avatar
with a symbol indicating the connection to the physical world (see 3.2.4). This virtual part is
not stationary as the avatar moves around almost unrestricted. It is a new feature in the world
of Second Life, thus unfamiliar and unaccustomed for the user. Once registered to Second Life
the user can log in the world at any computer that has the program installed, comparable to an
internet browser. The user is independent from physical space.
45
My specially developed software guarantees the communication of the virtual and physical
modules (see 3.4). It gathers information online, processes the data on the local computer and
operates the commands through the physical interface. The user herself closes the circle by
interacting with her avatar according to the bodily sensations she experiences.
3.1.3
Constraints
This approach of modularity and using predefined objects sets the limits for functionality and
usability very tight. In Sections 2.3, 2.4 and 2.5 I show many examples and attempts for recreating
bodily sensations in connection with digital or online presence and communication. I mention
different projects using the olfactory sense stimulating the human nose with various aromas and
well-engineered haptic interfaces. I present Second Life related projects that substitute common
interfaces like keyboard and mouse for body actuated input devices.
“Do you feel your second life?” deliberately uses low-tech technology. The USB gadgets
are very simple devices. I chose to use the bare gadgets and not to enhance their functions on
purpose. They draw their power from the computer’s USB port and start working immediately
when plugged in. This way I leave the possibility open to the users to rebuild this interface at a
low cost for their own use.
The USB gadgets are only output devices, meaning that the actual bodily constitution of the
user cannot be measured. This still restricts the user to common input devices as keyboard and
mouse. There exists a big variety of USB gadgets, elaborating purely on their functionality it
comes down to “warm something up”, “produce fresh air”, “spread aroma”, “flash and blink”,
“launch and shoot” and “store”. Thus I have chosen examples that best address the human
sensual perception.
Another constraint is the Linden Scripting Language (LSL) provided in Second Life. It is
rather rudimentary. It limits for example outgoing commands per second thus in sum restricting
the accuracy of the physical feedback. This small detail has crucial impact on the coherence of the
interface and possibly interferes with the user experience. Main purposes of the LSL are creation
of objects and land, visual modification of the own avatar and in-world communication. In this
context I have chosen the communicational aspects in contact with other avatars and the visual
representation of the sensual connection between user and avatar. This way I refer to the verbal
46
and nonverbal aspects of in-world communication discussed in chapter 2.2.
3.2
Interface Design
3.2.1
Expanding User Perception in Second Life through “Do you feel your
second life?”
“Human recognition never perceives the world as it really is but perceives expected patterns. The brain tries to match features as closely as it can with established patterns.”
[Cra03]
Sticking to the semantic level of the terms “Second Life” and “secondary senses” shouldn’t Second
Life address especially the secondary senses? This theory seems far-fetched, as Second Life focuses
mainly on visual and audio output. Taking a closer look at the principles of Second Life it seems
unclear what this world really tries to be, a copy of the real world or a fantastic alternative world.
On the one hand it copies from the real world its atmosphere built on the laws of physics. The
Avatar itself is an anthropomorphic representation of bits and bytes, creating the impression of
a physical body. But on the other hand it is possible to create an avatar that couldn’t survive in
reality because of his bodily constitutions. The body of the avatar is three-dimensional but not
solid as it does not cast a shadow. The avatars can fly, they can teleport and walk under water
for hours, thus neglecting a physical body. The online world seems to undermine exactly this
secondary senses for the sake of creativity and imagination. Steven Poole, a British journalist and
author, describes this separation for the aesthetics in game worlds. The player doesn’t want to
be directly in the game, as this is often exhausting and painful. She wants to imagine it. [Poo00]
“A game is a frame in which we see things differently.” [Juu05]
Following Crawford a game requires the assurance of complete safety, physically, socially and
financially [Cra03]. At least the financial safety is not covered in Second Life. With the possibility
of loosing or gaining money Second Life tries to bring itself into normal life by breaking the
boundaries of the fictional world. Thus Second Life breaks the magic circle and integrates itself
in the process of immediate satisfaction of needs [Hui81].
47
Browsing recent comments on Second Life a link between this online world and the “Metaverse”, Neal Stephenson describes in his novel “Snow Crash” [Ste93] recurs. The “Metaverse” is
described as a borderless online world, where every user is represented as 3D Avatar, gathering in
virtual bars etc and living in their virtual houses, rooms or offices. The design of the avatar is a
fairly important statement in this world. People using public ports to enter the “Metaverse” are
only represented in black and white. To a large extent this is what Second Life and its Avatars
too are about, but there is a big difference, the fictional “Metaverse” has impact on the users. A
computer virus can enter their brain and cause severe damage. “Snow Crash” is clearly a fictional
story, though none the less scientific, and this arouses ideas. Jesper Juul, a game researcher,
mentions that game worlds exist like parallel worlds in real-time. The time and the action of the
user are projected on this world, where they take on fictional meaning [Juu05]. My question is
what happens if this projection is bidirectional and the environment is back projected onto the
user?
One of my issues in experimenting with the interface is to make Second Life sensitive. Very
important for me is not to copy human senses one to one. Second Life lives from its inhabitants,
their productivity and their social interaction. I chose the presence of the avatars to be the
parameters for the interface recreating the desire for communication. The more avatars are
around the user’s avatar, the more she engages her own body and her own physical presence. The
USB gadgets should evoke emotional excitement in the user as it happens in human-to-human
contact (see 2.2.1).
Within the experiment of “Do you feel your second life?” I use the very private sense of
olfaction to indicate the closest proximity to another avatar. Metaphorically speaking the user
absorbs the presence of the others. Where as normally in Second Life users can ignore each other,
it now becomes impossible to do so. Concerning the use of odor impulses, which are perceived
within a minute of being exposed to an aroma [Kay04], I am using this only with caution, for the
most extreme closeness. When approaching other avatars the skin of the user is stimulated by
fresh wind, warmth or vibration.
I am using an indirect transformation of the avatar’s movement for “Do you feel your second
life?”, since I do not believe that real experience can be covered or even doubled by technologically
mediated experiences. The media artists Anne-Marie Schleiner states:
48
“Es geht um die Realität. Das Reale muss von uns erneuert werden.” [Tri06]
Reality has to be renewed not simulated. Merging these aspects, my conclusion is not to try
and create the illusion of transporting myself inside Second Life by simulating reality, but to
experience alternative stimulations. Thereby bringing artificiality to life.
Building “Do you feel your second life?”, I was concerned about extending the borders of the
virtual environment beyond the screen to the borders of the body and even inside it. The body
absorbs the representations of the virtual. Heat and pain break the barrier of the skin.
3.2.2
Linking Physical and Virtual Interface Elements in “Do you feel your
second life?”
Cyberspace, the “Metaverse” or virtual reality have somehow implied a dark, obscure and gloomy
representation for about the last twenty years. In fiction virtual reality is a place, to which to flee
to from a monstrous, technology obsessed reality. This aesthetic can be traced back in literature,
film and even in art projects such as “CyberSM” [see 2.4.2]. “Do you feel your second life”
neglects this apocalyptic aesthetic. The interface design is based on the principle of recognition.
The interface and its in-world representation are linked trough the design. The design is inspired
by a well-known Second Life feature and this virtual element is transported into the physical
world.
Second Life is built on basic geometric shapes. These primitives or simply prims are: box,
cylinder, prism, sphere, torus, tube, ring and sculpted prim. Every complex structure is built out
of these prims. The box is the main building block. Furthermore its relevance is expanded by
Second Life’s use of it as a distribution-kit. The box is used as a container for objects, clothes,
animations and notecards1 . This addition eases the distribution of goods and freebies2 .
The physical interface design of “Do you feel your second life?” reapplies the default values
of the virtual prim-box. The size of the prim-box measures 0.5m times 0.5m times 0.5m. The
default texture is “wood”. The interface box is built of untreated spruce wood and also measures
1
2
A note card is a virtual business card. They are often used to pass on a greater amount of textual information.
Freebies are owner-built objects free of charge. Landowners or Shopkeepers launch them to acquire new visitors
and customers.
49
0.5m times 0.5m times 0.5m. Even though at first glance both boxes look alike, each one stands
for the pros and cons of their world.
The untreated wood is a natural material and builds a contrast to the fictitious and insubstantial wooden-textured box in Second Life. The avatar can lift the prim-box easily, shape it
and transform it. But the user can’t reform the physical box. It is heavy and bulky because of its
size. The user can duplicate the prim-box with one click. Rebuilding the physical box is laborious
and time-consuming. Where as the virtual box is only a visual representation of the concept of
wood, the physical box not only looks like wood and feels like wood but it really is made from
wood. Wood is a warm material. Upon touching it, the fingertips feel the roughness of its surface.
Coming very close, the user smells its distinctive aroma.
Figure 3.2: Prototype of the wooden container box
The first prototype [see Figure 3.2] provides five USB ports on the front side of the box and a
serial port and the connection to the power supply on the back. The title of the project is engraved
in the center of each side of the box: “Do you feel your second life?”. The hollow interior serves
as a storage for the USB gadgets akin to the container function of the virtual prim-box.
The virtual equivalent to the wooden interface-box is a prim-box functioning as container [see
50
Figure 3.3: Screenshot: Virtual container box in Second Life
Figure 3.3]. This virtual container includes the connectivity tag holding all script information, a
note card explaining the project and its objective and two additional gestures to use in conversation. The avatar can open this box [see Figure 3.4] and store the contents in her inventory3 .
After plugging the USB gadgets into the front side of the physical interface-box the user sits
down on the box while she spends her time in Second Life. The user is invited to arrange the USB
gadgets as she pleases or rearrange them, testing various arrangements. The cables connecting
the gadgets with box now surround the user. They visualize the connection between the physical
and the virtual body. One may recall the user caged within technology (see 2.4.1) for the sake of
experiencing and exploring the virtual realm.
3
The Inventory is applied in a folder structure. All belongings of an avatar from outfits to large vehicles are
stored in the inventory.
51
Figure 3.4: Screenshot: Opening the virtual container box
3.2.3
3.2.3.1
Ready-to-use Interface Devices: USB Gadgets
Existing USB Gadgets
Since the beginning of the 20th century industrial objects and goods have found their way into
art. The first one to use articles of everyday use was Marcel Duchamp [rea76]. He defines these
objects, unaltered by the artist, as artworks termed “Ready made”. His arrangements challenge
art itself. This technique of using everyday articles was carried on in different contexts in modern
art. In “Do you feel your second life?” I chose everyday articles in form of USB gadgets for their
affordability and simplicity in use. I take the gadgets as they come from the manufacturer. They
are not treated in any way, but I extend their intended functionality.
USB gadgets are simple electronic devices that draw their power from the USB port, thus
powered solely by the computer. They start working as soon as the computer is booted. I do
not want to give the user the feeling that she will be overloaded with high-tech devices that she
cannot handle. This simplicity of use was very important in choosing the gadgets, they are easy
to find and purchase by the common user.
52
Figure 3.5: USB aquarium, USB missile launcher, USB hamster wheel, singing USB
Santa Clause, USB circus cannon [usb]
There are many stores and online shops that sell all different kinds of USB gadgets. These
gadgets are cheap and very easy to use. Most of them are funny little devices. The ordinary
user disports herself with the following gadgets: a USB aquarium, a USB missile launcher, a USB
hamster wheel, a singing USB Santa Clause or a USB circus cannon [see Figure 3.5]. Some other
gadgets include practical features as well, for example a USB cup warmer, a USB desk lamp, a
USB shaver, a USB pencil sharper or a USB toothbrush. [see Figure 3.6 ]
53
Figure 3.6: USB cup warmer, USB desk lamp, USB shaver, USB pencil sharper [usb]
3.2.3.2
Choices of USB Gadgets for “Do you feel your second life?”
For the interface prototype I chose five different gadgets. The aim was to address bodily sensations
via the olfactory and haptic senses. My choices were an USB aroma-fan, a USB heating-cushion,
a USB warmer-glove, a USB massaging-mouse and a USB ventilator. I bought these gadgets both
online and at an electronics store.
• The USB aroma-fan effuses a sweet scent. [see Figure 3.7]
Figure 3.7: USB aroma-fan [rar]
54
• The USB heating-cushion is placed on a seat to warm up the backside. [see Figure 3.8]
Figure 3.8: USB heating-cushion [rar]
• The USB warmer-glove is worn on the left or right hand and warms it up. [see Figure 3.9]
Figure 3.9: USB warmer-glove [rar]
• The USB massaging-mouse includes two separate pads that conduct current through the
skin when applied. [see Figure 3.10]
Figure 3.10: USB massaging-mouse [rar]
55
• The USB ventilator is placed near the face or the hands to sense the movement of the air.
[see Figure 3.11]
Figure 3.11: USB ventilator [Photo by C. Heidecker]
These USB gadgets are wired to the computer and thus have to be placed around the desktop.
The reach of the objects is therefore very limited. They won’t work anywhere else other than
within close proximity of the computer and the user. This proximity mirrors the proximity one
has to have in order to sense another person’s presence via physical contact or spatial behavior
(see 2.2.1).
In general the user plugs these USB gadgets in when for example she feels a need for fresh
air, or her fingers get cold and she wants to warm them up. In the context of “Do you feel
your second life?” these objects are controlled by the software. They start and stop whenever
the right parameter is hit. The parameters are set in-world by the interaction of the user with
other avatars. The programmers and theorists Alexander Galloway and Eugene Thacker define
interaction as a model of control in a network, “where decision-making proceeds multilaterally and
simultaneously.” [GT05]. In this manner the user is to some extent controlled by the objects
she uses to control herself. The mechanism for control lies within her interaction with the other
avatars.
These five USB gadgets used for the demonstration of the interface prototype are not imperative. A crucial benefit of this interface is its modularity, the USB gadgets are interchangeable.
Different users can obtain and arrange different sets of gadgets. One example would be to use two
different aroma-fans, one with a pleasurable odor, the other with a displeasing odor. Displeasing
odor can be used in unpleasant situations, for example if the user does not like her avatar to be
touched. In this case she would immediately react to the outpouring odor and interact with this
peculiar avatar. The pleasure of a good odor turns into discomfort.
3.2.4
56
Extending the Avatar Design in Second Life through Visual Modification
Second Life is a world where everything is interchangeable. When the user no longer likes the
look of her avatar she just switches from girly to punk. Or would she prefer the fury look? Even
tattoos become simply a fashion statement like t-shirts and sunglasses. The user buys clothes
and accessories, wears them and discards them as she pleases.
Figure 3.12: Screenshot: Second Life name tag
Still, there is one consistency in the visual representation of the avatar. Each has a name-tag
hovering above her head, giving the avatar her virtual identity [see Figure 3.12]. This tag assures
that every avatar can be identified by her name even when she has taken on another shape.
Membership in a group in Second Life is included in the name-tag too. The group name
appears under the avatars name. The visual identification of the in-world feature “SL Voice”
attaches itself to this tag too (see 2.2.2). Activating “SL Voice” extends the tag with a white dot.
This dot emits symbolical sound waves when the user is speaking.
Connecting the avatar with the interface of “Do you feel your second life?” is a statement of
connection. Hence I extend this tag with a symbol of connectivity. The activation of “Do you feel
57
your second life?” in-world marks the avatar with this symbol visible for every other avatar to see
[see Figure 3.13]. On the one hand this symbol works as visual feedback for approaching avatars
by changing in size and color depending on their numbers and distance. On the other hand the
symbol is a reminder to the user that her avatar is sending this information to the interface.
Figure 3.13: Screenshot: avatar marked with connectivity tag
This symbol of connectivity is new and on first sight nobody will recognize what it is, though
it is integrated in the symbolic language of Second Life. As part of the in-world feedback system
of the project it should catch other avatar’s attention and engage them in a conversation on what
this symbol is about.
3.3
3.3.1
Enhanced In-world Communication in Second Life
Modalities of Second Life User Communication
In chapter 2.2 I present the nonverbal aspects of human-to-human communication and how they
are transferred in the 3D online world of Second Life. The three-dimensional structure of Second
Life allows spatial behavior and even a kind of physical contact between avatars. Still, this
58
happens virtually and does not involve the physical body of the user herself.
“Do you feel your second life?” experiments with the features of spatial behavior and physical
contact. The USB gadgets should stimulate the sensual experiences that are missing in-world
(see 2.2.3). The experiences of wind, warmth, odor and muscle stimulation recall the sensations
that happen in contact with another person. The user should feel the emotional excitement that
normally occurs in social contact with other people.
I am building on the four “zones of proximity” by Michael Argyle (see 2.2.1): the intimate
zone, the individual or private zone, the social-advisory zone and the public zone. Each zone
stands for one sensual experience, thus for one USB gadget. Other avatars entering in these zones
trigger the USB gadgets accordingly. The USB ventilator is aligned with the social-advisory zone,
the USB warmer-glove and the USB heating-cushion with the private zone and the USB aromafan with the intimate zone. When an avatar enters this intimate zone she might even touch the
users avatar. This virtual touch triggers the USB massaging-mouse transferring the excitement
of sudden physical contact.
User experience of sensual perception is unidirectional. She feels their presence through her
skin and even inhales their odor. To respond to the avatars triggering these experiences I make
use of the various text-messages included in Second Life (see 2.2.2) by interconnecting different
modes of text-messages with the zones of proximity. For example the range of “Whisper” refers
to the intimate zone, “Talk” to the private zone and “Shout” to the social-advisory zone. An
“Instant Message” is sent to the avatar touching the user’s avatar. The virtual container is given
exclusively to this avatar in reward. The public zone is out of reach for sensual perception. Still,
the avatar sends a “Region-Message” to announce her ability to sensually experience.
The messages themselves are provoking and short. They should draw the avatars attentions
towards the users avatar. The messages attract their attention, enticing them to come closer. But
text-messages are not the only way to give feedback in-world. The user can express her feelings by
activating two special gestures. She can choose between the two gestures included in the package
of “Do you feel your second life?”. One gesture signals other avatars to approach her avatar, the
other one tells them to stay away.
3.3.2
59
Process of Communication
Building on Crawford, this kind of interaction is a recurring process of input - process - output
[Cra03]. The sensitive interface is both passive and active. The user is not only dependent on
the action and the movement of the other avatars but she can actively seek their proximity or
willingly avoid them.
The prototypes that recreate bodily sensations presented in 2.5.3, for example the “3rd Space
Vest”, the “LifeCycle” or any intimate interfaces makes use of direct interaction as do the art
projects presented in 2.4.2. One example is the “CyberSM” project by Stahl Stenslie und Kirk
Woolford. When a user touches a body part on the screen, the remote user feels the stimulation
of exactly this part of her body. I chose to use an indirect form of interaction. The sensual
stimulation happens rather unconsciously, as most avatars don’t know about their impact on
the user. Secondary there are no visible borders between the zones of proximity. The other
users need to estimate how far they are away. The only hints they have are the text-messages
they receive. This unconscious interaction reminds of nonverbal human-to-human communication.
Spatial behavior and the frequency of seeking physical contact with the other in a conversation are
based on personal and cultural background (see 2.2.1). These social actions happen automatically,
linked to the emotional level of communication.
“Do you feel your second life?” starts the communicational process even before intervisibilty is
established, by sending the “Region-Message” and announcing her connectivity with the physical
world. As avatars approach her she sends messages in regular intervals over several chat channels
(see 2.2.2). This heavy traffic of text-messages will cause interference in the conversations of other
avatars. The repetition of forever the same messages could provoke protest from these avatars as
all other conversations are disrupted or blocked, depending on the frequency the messages sent.
At the same time the avatars passively trigger the USB gadgets. In a well-populated area every
gadget might turn on, activating the full range of possible sensual stimulation. Void and scarcely
populated areas causes less stimulation. However, the user herself chooses where to go. So it is
also up to her to actively engage in the interaction process. The ultimate gesture another avatar
can make in this process is touching the user’s avatar. For this most intimate approach they are
rewarded with receiving the virtual container box holding the essential information about “Do
60
you feel your second life?” (see 3.2.2).
The aforementioned provocation could evolve in following possible scenario: The annoyed
avatars start communicating with the user, telling her to stop sending these messages. In return
she explains her motivation. This situation then leads into a discussion about the project and
what kinds of influence they have on each other. Consequentially, the user would be involved in
the content of the conversation but also supported by sensual experiences, creating an emotional
level of communication. The ultimate aspiration would be to connect more than one user to this
kind of sensitive interface, counterbalancing the starting point of the conversation.
3.3.3
Interaction Schema
The following interaction schema breaks down the real life and the Second Life events provided by
“Do you feel your second life?”. It summarizes the enhanced user perception and communication
modalities. This Schema is the basis for the implementation of the project explained in chapter
3.4.
User Avatar touches container-box object:
Real Life –
Second Life Instant Message: “OPEN ME, WEAR ME, FEEL ME!”
User Avatar applies “Do you feel your second life”:
Real Life USB massaging mouse vibrates once.
Second Life Region Say: “DON’T LOOSE TOUCH WITH REALITY!”
61
Figure 3.14: Schema: Zones of proximity transferred into Second Life
No Avatar is in the range of 100m: public zone
Real Life –
Second Life –
One or more avatars are in the range of 100m: social-advisory zone
Real Life The USB ventilator starts rotating. The more avatars are detected, the faster it
rotates.
Second Life Shout: “BLOW ME DOWN!”
One or more avatars are in the range of 20m: private zone
Real Life The USB warmer-glove heats up, as soon as one avatar is detected. If more
avatars are within reach of 20 meters, the USB warmer-cushion also heats up.
Second Life Talk: “GO INTO HEAT!”
One or more avatars are in the range of 10m: intimate zone
Real Life The USB aroma-fan starts.
62
Second Life Whisper: “I LIKE YOUR SWEET SMELL!”
One or more avatars touch the connectivity tag:
Real Life The USB massaging-mouse starts vibrating for as long as the avatar touches the
connectivity tag.
Second Life Instant Message: “CAN’T TOUCH THIS!”. The avatar receives the vitual
container-box object.
3.4
Implementation
3.4.1
Data Circulation
The implementation is divided into 3 crucial parts:
• gathering the interaction parameters online and storing them in a database
• processing these parameters on the local machine
• executing these processed commands in the microcontroller powering the USB ports
The flow of data is applied in a circular manner. The linear in-world events are converted
into discrete values of 0 and 1 where 1 initiates the current flow to the USB port, 0 disconnects
it again. The most important part in this system however is the user. She closes the circle of the
data flow [see Figure 3.15]. She processes the sensations initiated by the simulation of the USB
gadgets into continuous in-world interaction.
63
Figure 3.15: Schema: data circulation
3.4.2
3.4.2.1
Processing Online Data to a Local Machine
Linden Scripting Language Basics and Examples
The in-world scripting language of Second Life is called Linden Scripting Language, short LSL.
It is based on C and Java. The scripting environment is implemented in-world. With LSL it is
possible to control objects and avatar behavior. A script can be applied to any in-world object.
Second Life itself has implemented three different ways of communication from in-world with the
internet and reverse.
E-Mail: A SLS script is able to send an E-Mail from within LSL and Second Life
XML-RPC: An external application can trigger events in Second Life through a XML-RPC call.
HTTP GET-Request: A LSL Script can send a HTTP Request to any outside world server.
64
The following examples are taken from the online LSL Portal [wik].
E-mail works directly from in-world to the specified email account. The connection is extremely
direct but the disadvantage is a high latency.
// sends an email to address with subject and message.
llEmail(string address, string subject, string message);
IIEmail("[email protected]", "Just a LSL E-Mail",
"I just sent you a LSL E-Mail");
With XML-RPC, Extensible Markup Language Remote Procedure Call, an external application
can trigger an in-world event through assigned channels. The LSL script answers the requests in
return.
// creates a channel to listen for XML-RPC calls.
// will trigger a remote_data event with channel id once it is available.
llOpenRemoteDataChannel();
// send an XML-RPC reply to message\_id on channel with
// payload of string sdata and integer idata
llRemoteDataReply(key channel, key message\_id, string sdata, integer idata);
llRemoteDataReply(channel_id, message_id,
"Default Reply", 0);
// closes XML-RPC channel.
llCloseRemoteDataChannel(key channel);
llCloseRemoteDataChannel(myChannel);
HTTP Request sends requests from an in-world script to an external server. The implementation
provides instant transmission and low latency. The LSL script is able to send 100 requests every
100 seconds. It uses the methods GET, POST and PUT. This allows triggering events in-world
from the internet and vice versa.
// sends an HTTP request to the specified URL with the body
// of the request and parameters
65
llHTTPRequest( string url, list parameters, string body );
llHTTPRequest("www.someurl.com", [par_1, val_1], "Default Body" );
LSL implies the function llSensor() to measure the amount of avatars or prims in a certain distance
and at a certain angle in the same region.
// performs a single scan for name and id with type within range meters
// and arc radians of forward vector
llSensor( string name, key id, integer type, float range, float arc);
llSensor( "Princessin Oh", NULL_KEY, AGENT, 96.0, PI);
3.4.2.2
Applied Script in ”Do you feel your second life?”
The LSL script written for “Do you feel your second life?” uses the connectivity tag (see 3.2.4) as
script-holder object. A status flag “start” indicates if the avatar “wears” the script-holder object
and thus is active. Each avatar has her unique identification key, her Second Life name. The
applied script measures the amount of avatars around and their distance to itself with llSensor().
These parameters are then sent via llHTTPRequest() to a PHP script on an external server.
The parameters are updated every second, the maximum outgoing rate possible in Second Life.
The PHP script then filters the incoming parameters and stores them in the database using SQL
statements.
Example 1: A new avatar puts the connectivity tag on and thus connects to the database.
LSL script:
// returns the name of the avatar, that wears the connectivity tag
owner_name_query = llRequestAgentData(id, DATA_NAME);
// sets start to 1
// the avatar is marked as active
start=1;
66
// unique name of avatar and activity flag are sent to external server
urlForStoringStatus = "http://www.xxx.at/PHP/SL.php?agentId=" +name
+"&start=" +(string)start;
http_request_id = llHTTPRequest(urlForStoringStatus,
[HTTP_METHOD,"GET"],"");
// the message is sent to the whole region
llRegionSay(1, "DON’T LOOSE THE TOUCH WITH REALITY!");
SQL statement:
// select the correct avatar using a unique identification key
"SELECT ‘Key‘ FROM ‘SL‘ WHERE ‘Key‘ = ’$agentId’"
// add new avatar to database
"INSERT INTO ‘SL‘ VALUES (’$agentId’,’$start’,’0’, ’0’, ’0’,’0’ )"
Database:
Key
Start
Far
Medium
Near
Touch
Princessin Oh
1
0
0
0
0
Example 2: The avatar called “Princessin Oh” is touched by one avatar, two avatars are in the
range of 10m, 3 in the range of 20m and 4 in the range of 100m.
LSL script:
// detects the number of avatars in the range of 10m
llSensor("", NULL_KEY, AGENT, 10.0, PI);
// unique name of avatar, activity flag, the number of detected objects
// and a counter for the distance are sent to the external server
67
+"&start=" +(string)start +"&number=" + (string)numOfDetectedObj
+"&count="+(string)count;
// whispers message
llWhisper(0,"I LIKE YOUR SWEET SMELL!");
SQL statement:
// update parameters of avatar
"UPDATE ‘SL‘ SET ‘Start‘=’$start’, ‘Far‘=’4’, ‘Medium‘=’3’,
‘Near‘=’2’,‘Touch‘=’1’
WHERE ‘Key‘=’$agentId’"
Database:
Key
Start
Far
Medium
Near
Touch
Princessin Oh
1
4
3
2
1
The complete LSL and PHP scripts are documented in Appendix A and B.
3.4.3
Processing Data from a Local Machine to the Interface
The software processing the parameters and sending the data to a microcontroller runs on the
local machine. The software that processes the parameters and sends it to the microcontroller
is installed on the local machine. I used Processing to develop this software. Processing is an
open source programming language and environment and a tool for software prototyping and
production [pro].
68
The program opens a graphical user interface. The prompt asks the user to enter her Second
Life name and the unique identification key to identify her avatar.
The software includes the Serial library to connect the computer with the AVR microcontroller
ATMEGA16 [see 3.4.4] via the serial port and the MySQL library [mys] to communicate with the
database on the external server.
// creates an instance of the MySQL object
// MySQL( server, database, user, password, parent )
msql = new MySQL( "www.xxx.at", database, user, pass, this );
// open
serial port COM1
// Serial(parent, name, rate)
myPort = new Serial(this, "COM1", 57600);
Three fundamental functions are implemented as dbCheck(), dbRead() and setSerial(). The
function dbCheck() first connects to the database and verifies the entered identification key.
// connects to the server and database as user with password
// returns true if successful
if(msql.connect()){
// queries the SQL command SELECT, the result, avatar name and starting
// flag, is kept internally and can be read with next( )
msql.query( "SELECT ‘Key‘, ‘Start‘ FROM ‘SL‘ WHERE ‘Key‘ =’"+buffer+"’");
if (msql.next()){
// gets the String-value of column "Key" from the current row
agentId = msql.getString("Key");
...
// gets the int-value of column "Start" from the current row
// returns 1 if LSL script is running
69
// returns 0 if LSL script is closed
flag = msql.getInt("Start");
....
}
}
// closes the connection to the server
msql.close();
dbRead() connects to the server and reads out the distance parameters of the identified avatar.
if(msql.connect()){
// queries the SQL command SELECT for each parameter.
msql.query( "SELECT ‘Touch‘, ‘Far‘, ‘Medium‘, ‘Near‘, ‘Start‘ FROM ‘SL‘
WHERE ‘Key‘ =’" + agentId+"’" );
while (msql.next()){
if(flag == 1){
// store the int-values of each column in a global variable
far = msql.getInt("Far");
medium = msql.getInt("Medium");
near = msql.getInt("Near");
touch = msql.getInt("Touch");
} ...
}
// closes the connection to the server
msql.close();
setSerial() sets and resets the ports on the microcontroller. Ports 1 to 5 on the microcontroller
are configured as output. The ports are turned on and off according to different ASCII signs.
// Writes bytes, chars, ints, bytes[], Strings to the serial port
// Send a capital B out the serial port and turn port 1 on.
myPort.write(B);
// Send b out the serial port and turn port 1 off.
myPort.write(B);
"B" : Set Portc.1 // USB ventilator
"b" : Reset Portc.1
"C" : Set Portc.2 // USB warmer-glove
"c" : Reset Portc.2
"D" : Set Portc.3 // USB heating-cushion
"d" : Reset Portc.3
"E" : Set Portc.4 // USB aroma-fan
"e" : Reset Portc.4
"F" : Set Portc.5 // USB massaging-mouse
"f" : Reset Portc.5
The complete software code is documented in Appendix C.
3.4.4
Hardware Schematic Diagram
Figure 3.16: Schematic: hardware
70
71
“Do you feel your second life?” uses the AVR microcontroller ATMEGA16 [see Figure 3.17].
It is connected to the computer via the serial port. It is powered by a 5 volts power supply
unit. The five output ports PC1 to PC5 controlling the USB ports are powered according to the
incoming commands. The five USB ports are supplied by a second 5 volts power supply unit.
Figure 3.17: AVR Microcontroller: ATMEGA16 [fre]
3.5
3.5.1
Evaluation
Issues of Virtual Publicity and Physical Privacy
Second Life is open for almost anybody to enter. It is a public space where avatars meet and
encounter unknown avatars. But behind each of these avatars stands a private user. This user
might be sitting in her office or her living room, somewhere that constitutes her private space.
She seeks a public experience while hiding in privacy. The screen is the separator between public
72
exposure in Second Life and the users private space. She looks upon the online world from outside.
She is safe from any physical harm that could happen in-world (compare with financial loss in
3.2.1).
In human-to-human communication it is not usual to approach a stranger close enough to
smell her breath or even to touch her upon first sight. It is an intrusion upon the individual space
of this person (see 2.2.1). Normally she would be annoyed, draw back and maybe it would cause
anger. In the virtual space this is different. Bumping into ones avatar doesn’t release this heavy
emotional excitement. “Do you feel your second life?” tries to overcome this gap between online
and real life communicational behavior.
The sensitive interface I designed takes the public exposure within Second Life and transforms
it into a very private experience. Avatars, which are part of the general public, generate haptic
and olfactory sensations within the private space of the user. The avatars approaching the user’s
avatar trigger different sensations while approaching. Far away they are felt as a slight breeze.
Approaching, the user feels warmth. And when they are really close she can even smell them.
These sensations are not personalized. She senses the presence of any avatar but cannot distinguish
particular ones. It is not important who the avatars are but that they are there. This leaves the
question of how does the user perceive these sensual experiences. Is it pleasurable or disturbing?
3.5.2
3.5.2.1
A First User Test
Test Environment and Accomplishment
Before I started the design process for the sensitive interface I posed myself several questions
concerning immersion, usability and user experience (see 3.1.2). I performed user tests for different
user groups to answer these questions on the basis of objective data. For this the prototype of
“Do you feel your second life?” was set up in a laboratory situation [see Figure 3.18]. The test
environment included a desk, a PC with a keyboard, a mouse and a screen, as well as the wooden
interface box (see 3.2.2) and the USB gadgets (see 3.2.3). Second Life and the software (see 3.4)
for “Do you feel your second life?” were installed on the PC. To enter Second Life I prepared one
avatar called “Princessin Oh” and equipped her with the in-world interface.
I formed two user groups. One group was experienced with Second Life or other 3D online or
73
Figure 3.18: User test setup [Photo by C. Heidecker]
game worlds the other had never used Second Life or anything similar before. Both groups were
familiar with the input devices keyboard and mouse and the WIMP interface basics, “Windows,
Icons, Menus and Pointing Devices”. The number of female and male users was balanced.
To begin with, the users were informed about the physical and in-world features of the sensible
interface. At first each one was asked to arrange the USB gadgets around the desktop as she or
he pleased. Each user then had up to an hour for individual testing. During the test process I was
available for any upcoming questions concerning the sensitive interface or the use of Second Life.
After the testing period ended I handed out an anonymous questionnaire that included questions
about the user’s previous experiences with virtual environments in general and Second Life in
particular, the personal sensual experiences and in-world impressions during the test.
74
Figure 3.19: During the user test [Photo by C. Heidecker]
3.5.2.2
Test Outcome and Results
“Do you feel your second life?” was received positively by both test groups. Even though there
were several issues with sensual and in-world interaction and Second Life itself.
The evaluation of the questionnaires is briefly summed up to the following. The favorite
arrangement of the USB gadgets placed the USB ventilator close to the left arm of the user for
proximity. The USB heating-cushion was in most cases placed on top of the box in order to sit
on it. The USB aroma-fan was placed near the Screen. The left USB warmer-glove was preferred
to the right one. The most favored area to place the pads of the USB massaging mouse was on
the stomach.
The general tenor was that the sensitive interface was rather comfortable and enhanced the
immersion in virtual environments. Most users felt distracted by the interface at first, but with
time they became accustomed to it. The users were highly interested to test other USB gadgets
for their relevance as some chosen gadgets proved problematic. The effect of the USB heatingcushion was hardly perceivable as it took too long to warm up. The USB warmer-glove worked
75
Figure 3.20: Test user [Photo by C. Heidecker]
quite well but it was rather uncomfortable for male users as it was too tight for their hands.
All users agreed that the USB aroma-fan was quite disturbing. Even though the odor was
pleasurable in the beginning it soon turned into a discomforting smell. The main issue was that
the smell stayed in the room and could not be dissolved. In very crowded areas of Second Life
the USB aroma fan was running constantly as the latency of the script was too high to stop it
immediately when other avatars were out of reach and before the next came within reach.
The communicational aspect was rather disappointing. Conversations happened seldomly [see
Figure 3.21]. This could be traced back to the fact that the majority of the test users went to
the most crowded places in Second Life. Unfortunately these areas were inhabited only by idle
avatars, which earned Linden Dollars for staying in the region to attract even more avatars. Most
reactions were gained in the so-called Sandbox areas where every avatar is free to build their own
objects and test their own scripts.
Several problems arose with Second Life. Every landowner is able to manipulate the preset
rights of avatars on his land. Therefore many areas block external scripts, which means that
the interface does not work in these areas. The application Second Life needs an extensive
76
Figure 3.21: Screenshot: History of the in-world communication during the test.
amount of main memory which lead to sporadic crashes of the software of “Do you feel your
second life?”. Even though some users could imagine using this sensible interface for themselves
at home, experienced users showed an interest in developing the interface further, though they
added that Second Life was not the appropriate medium for it. Commercial applications were
mostly seen to be in the sex industry.
Chapter 4
Conclusion and Outlook for the
Future
As I am finishing my project and write these lines, the hype of Second Life is already diminishing.
Browsing the news again, user drop-out increases and the digital land becomes more and more
empty. According to the Austrian newspaper “derStandard” [slm07] September 2007, Linden Lab
lost more than 5 thousand premium accounts, which the users were paying for in U.S. Dollars
to maintain. Especially business companies seem to have overestimated this hype. The level of
familiarity is increasing but the percentage of regular users is very low according to “derStandard”.
However my personal assessment of the experiment of “Do you feel your second life?” is
positive. The sensitive interface was successfully completed. Research and user testing showed
that the so-called secondary senses are a crucial issue in computer-human interaction and that a
broad interest in the extension of the human sensory system has already been sparked. Second
Life might only be a first attempt at an online virtual environment. Seen as a tool for prototyping
it was an adequate solution.
Future improvements to this sensible interface could lead to a modular interface for 3D worlds
in gaming and serious applications in which the user can choose her preferred grade of sensual
experience and immersion. A first step in this direction is to build a community around “Do
you feel your second life?”. A blog for discussion and the publication of a toolkit and developing
instructions would animate to think ahead and expand the possibilities of user experience. In
77
CHAPTER 4. CONCLUSION AND OUTLOOK FOR THE FUTURE
78
my opinion the crucial issues for the success of such a sensitive interface are to combine sensual
output as I showed with “Do you feel your second life?” with the projects presented in chapter
2.5.3, that showed input devices that involve the whole body of the user.
“I hear and I forget; I see and I remember; I do and I understand.” [Cra03]
Even though this Chinese proverb does not explicitly mention the senses of touch, smell or taste, it
hints that watching and listening alone do not render a person complete. The act of doing makes
her an understanding person. Doing involves the whole body. Isolating single senses constrains
human ability.
List of Figures
2.1
Screenshot: “Your world. Your imagination” [sl] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4
2.2
Screenshot: “Get a First Life: A One Page Satire of Second Life” [fl] . . . . . . .
9
2.3
Screenshot: Chat-window in Second Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
11
2.4
“CyberSM” [steb] by Stahl Stenslie und Kirk Woolford, 1994 . . . . . . . . . . . .
28
2.5
“fuck-you-fuck-me”(TM)[fuc] by Alexej Shulgin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
29
2.6
“Faith, Honor and Beauty” [fai] by Aziz/Cucher, 1992 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
30
2.7
“The Stiff People’s League”[sti] by Sociable Media Group/MIT Media Lab, 2007 .
35
2.8
“Tree” by Aram Bartholl [dat], 2007 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
36
2.9
iBuzz : “musical orgasm machine” [ibu] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
37
2.10 Online Sex session at Highjoy.com [hig] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
38
2.11 “SeXBox”: Using force feedback signals for sex toys [sla] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
38
2.12 “LifeCycle”: First Life Locomotion in Second Life [lif] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
39
3.1
Setup: “Do you feel your second life?” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
43
3.2
Prototype of the wooden container box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
49
3.3
Screenshot: Virtual container box in Second Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
50
3.4
Screenshot: Opening the virtual container box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
51
3.5
USB aquarium, USB missile launcher, USB hamster wheel, singing USB Santa
Clause, USB circus cannon [usb] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
52
3.6
USB cup warmer, USB desk lamp, USB shaver, USB pencil sharper [usb] . . . . .
53
3.7
USB aroma-fan [rar] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
53
3.8
USB heating-cushion [rar] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
54
79
List of Figures
3.9
80
USB warmer-glove [rar] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
54
3.10 USB massaging-mouse [rar] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
54
3.11 USB ventilator [Photo by C. Heidecker] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
55
3.12 Screenshot: Second Life name tag . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
56
3.13 Screenshot: avatar marked with connectivity tag . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
57
3.14 Schema: Zones of proximity transferred into Second Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
61
3.15 Schema: data circulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
63
3.16 Schematic: hardware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
70
3.17 AVR Microcontroller: ATMEGA16 [fre] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
71
3.18 User test setup [Photo by C. Heidecker] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
73
3.19 During the user test [Photo by C. Heidecker] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
74
3.20 Test user [Photo by C. Heidecker] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
75
3.21 Screenshot: History of the in-world communication during the test. . . . . . . . . .
76
References
[AC]
Aziz, Anthony and journal= ”Kunstforum” year= 1996 volume= 132 month= Nov.–
Jan. pages= ”172-175” Cucher, Sammy, title= Nachrichten aus Dystopia.
[acm]
URL, http://www.acm.org/icmi.
[Arg79]
Argyle, Michael. Körpersprache und Kommunikation. Junfermann, Paderborn, 1979.
[Bak06]
Bakke, Monika. Air is information. In Monika Bakke, editor, Going aerial, air, art
architecture. Jan van Eyck Academie, Maastricht, 2006.
[Bar05]
Barthes, Roland.
The death of the author, 2005.
URL, http://www.fit-fuer-
usability.de/1x1/messen/datech.html, 05.07.2007. (Kopie auf CD-ROM).
[Bar07]
Bartholl,
tival
für
Aram.
Kunst,
Goodbye
Technologie
Privacy.
und
Ars
Gesellschaft,
Electronica.
2007.
FesURL,
http://www.aec.at/en/festival2007/program/content event.asp?iParentID=13951,
05.01.2008.
[BK05]
Bowman, Doug A. and Kruijff, Ernst, LaViola, Joseph J., Poupyrew, Ivan. 3D User
Interfaces: Theory and Practice. Addison-Wesley Professional, 2005.
[BM05]
Brouwer, Joke and Mulder, Arjen. Feelings are always local. In Bouwer Joke et al.,
editor, Feelings are always local. NAi Publishers/V2 Publishing, 2005.
[Bol96]
Bolter, Jay David. Virtuelle Realität und die Epistemologie des Körpers. Kunstforum,
132:85–89, Nov.–Jan. 1996.
81
REFERENCES
[Bol97]
82
Bolter, Jay D. Das Internet in der Geschichte der Technologien. In Stefan Münker,
editor, Mythos Internet. Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main, 1997.
[bra07]
Keio University:
Brainwave with Image Offers Access to Second Life. Keio
University Developed of Technology to Stroll Virtual World by Using Brainwaves.
Office of Communications and Public Relations, October 2007.
http://www.keio.ac.jp/english/press release/071018e.pdf,
URL,
19.12.2007. (Kopie auf CD-
ROM).
[chi]
URL, http://www.chi2008.org.
[CN04]
Bodnar, Adam. Corbett, Richard and Nekrasovski, Dmitry. AROMA: Ambient awareness through olfaction in a messaging application. In Proceedings of the 6th international conference on Multimodal interfaces, pages 183–190, New York, 2004. ACM
Press. URL http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1027933.1027965, 06.08.2007. (Kopie auf CDROM).
[Cra03]
Crawford, Chris. The art of interactive design. No Starch, San Francisco, CA, 2003.
[Dan05]
Daniels,
Dieter.
Strategien
der
Interaktivität,
2005.
URL,
http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/quellentext/65, 06.08.2007. (Kopie auf CD-ROM).
[dat]
URL, http://www.datenform.de.
[Dia05]
Diaconu, Madalina.
Tasten, Riechen, Schmecken.
Königshausen & Neumann,
Würzburg, 2005.
[dig]
URL, http://www.digiscents.com.
[et 04]
Cho, Sung-Jung. Oh, Jong Koo et al. Magic Wand:a hand-drawn gesture input device
in 3-D space with inertial sensors. In Proceedings of the Ninth International Workshop on Frontiers in Handwriting Recognitions (IWFHR’04), pages 106–111, Washington, 2004. IEEE Computer Society. URL http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/IWFHR.2004.66,
19.12.2007.
REFERENCES
[exp]
83
Valie Export: “Tapp und Tastkino”. URL, http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/werke/tappund-tastkino, 06.08.2007.
[eye]
URL, http://www.eyetoy.com.
[fai]
Aziz/Cucher: “Faith, Honor and Beauty”. URL, medienkunstnetz.de/werke/faith-honorbeauty, 05.01.2008.
[fl]
http://www.getafirstlife.com.
[Fra05]
Franzen, Jutta. Schnittstelle Körper. Der Körper im Zeitalter seiner Herstellbarkeit.
PhD thesis, Freie UniversitätBerlin, Berlin, Oktober 2005.
[fre]
URL, http://www.avrfreaks.net.
[fuc]
Alexej Schulgin: “fuck-you-fuckme”. URL, medienkunstnetz.de/werke/fuck-u-fuck-me,
05.01.2008.
[Gib86]
Gibson, William. Neuromancer. Ace Books, New York, 1986.
[Gra01]
Grau, Oliver. Virtuelle Kunst in Geschichte und Gegenwart. Reimer, Berlin, 2001.
[Gro00]
Groys, Boris.
Programmierte Magie, aus Kopien mach Originale. Kleine Kunst-
geschichte der Dateien. Die Zeitschrift der Kultur, (711):36–38, November 2000.
[GT05]
Galloway, Alexander and Thacker, Eugene. In defiance of existence: notes on networks,
control and life forms. Source ACM SIGGROUP Bulletin archive, 25(2):2–7, February
2005. URL http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1067721.1067722, 19.12.07. (Kopie auf CD-ROM).
[Har06]
Hartmann, Frank. Globale Medienkultur, Technik, Geschichte, Theorie. WUV, Wien,
2006.
[hig]
URL, http://www.highjoyproducts.com.
[Hui81]
Huizinga, Johan. Homo ludens. Rowohlt, Hamburg, 1981.
[ibu]
URL, http://iskins.co.uk/ibuzz.htm.
[Juu05]
Juul, Jesper. Half-real. MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass., 2005.
REFERENCES
[K0̈5]
84
Köster, Egon Peter. The specific characteristics of the sense of smell. In Catherine Rouby et al., editor, Olfaction, Taste, and Cognition. Cambridge University Press,
New York, 2005.
[Kac93a]
Kac, Eduardo.
Aspekte einer Ästhetik der Telekommunikation.
1993.
URL
http://www.ekac.org/aspekte.html,, 06.08.2007. (Kopie auf CD-ROM).
[Kac93b] Kac,
Eduardo.
Telepresence art.
Teleskulptur,
13:48–72,
1993.
URL
http://www.ekac.org/telepartger.html, 06.08.2007. (Kopie auf CD-ROM).
[Kay04]
Kaye, Joseph. Making scents: aromatic output for hci. Interactions, 11(1):48–61,
2004. URL http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?doid=962342.964333, 19.12.07. (Kopie auf
CD-ROM).
[KE06]
Kenyon, Matt and Easterly, Doug. Bio-fi: Improvised emphatic device. In Dime-Arts
2006, Digital Interactive Media Entertainment & Arts. Research Publishing, Chennai,
2006.
[Kun]
Kuni, Verena.
nen
der
Mythische Körper II. Cyborg–Configurationen als Formatio-
(Selbst-)Schöpfung
im
Imaginationsraum
technologischer
(II): Monströse Versprechen und posthumane Anthropomorphismen.
Kreation
URL,
http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/themen/cyborg bodies/mythische-koerper II/1,
06.08.2007. (Kopie auf CD-ROM).
[Kyl06]
Kyle, Machulis.
An open-source sexual HCI research platform.
In SIGCHI
2006 Workshop, April 2006. URL, http://distro.nonpolynomial.com/docs/KyleMachulisSexualInteractions2006.pdf, 19.12.07 (Kopie auf CD-ROM).
[L9̀6]
Lèvy, Pierre. Kunstforum, 132:85–85, Nov.–Jan. 1996.
[lan07]
Warum so langweilig? derStandard, page A8, 14. Juli 2007.
[lif]
URL, http://www.nonpolynomial.com.
[Lin07]
Linden,
Joe.
Bringing
voice
to
second
life,
February
2007.
http://blog.secondlife.com/2007/02/27/bringing-voice-to-second-life, 19.12.2007.
URL,
REFERENCES
85
[lla]
URL, http://secondlla.googlepages.com.
[Man96]
Mannovich, Lev. Eine Archäologie des Computerbildschirms. Kunstforum, 132:124–
135, Nov.–Jan. 1996.
[mat]
URL, http://0100101110101101.org.
[McL68]
McLuhan, Marshall. Die Gutenberg-Galaxis. Econ, Düsseldorf, 1968.
[MS94]
Massie, Thomas H. and Salisbury, J. K. The PHANTOM haptic interface: A device for
probing virtual objects. In Proceedings of the of ASME Haptic Interfaces for Virtual
Environment and Teleoperator Systems, pages 295–301, 1994.
[mys]
URL, http://www.bezier.de/mysql.
[nim]
URL, http://itp.nyu.edu/nime/2007.
[OD90]
Laurel, Brenda. Oren, Tim and Don, Abbe. Issues in multimedia interface design:
media integration and interface agents. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on
Human factors in computing systems: Empowering people, pages 819–821, New York,
1990. ACM Press. URL http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/97243.97265, 06.08.2007. (Kopie auf
CD-ROM).
[pag07]
Web 3D. Page, 7.2007:22–33, 2007.
[Pat06]
Paterson, Mark W.D. Digital scratch and virtual sniff: Simulating scents. In Jim
Drobnick, editor, The Smell Culture Reader. Berg, Oxford, 2006.
[Pav86]
Pavel, Thomas G. Fictional Worlds. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass.,
1986.
[Poo00]
Steven Poole. Trigger Happy. Videogames and the Entertainment Revolution. Arcade
Publishing, New York, 2000.
[pro]
URL, http://processing.org.
[R9̈6]
Rötzer, Florian. Die Zukunft des Körpers I. Kunstforum, 132:52–71, Nov.–Jan. 1996.
REFERENCES
[rar]
86
URL, http://www.raremonoshop.com.
[RDLT06] Robles-De-La-Torre, Gabriel.
tual and real environments.
The importance of the sense of touch in virIEEE MultiMedia archive, 13(3):24–30, July 2006.
URL http://doi.ieeecomputersociety.org/10.1109/MMUL.2006.69, 19.12.07. (Kopie auf CDROM).
[rea76]
DuMont’s Bild-Lexikon der Kunst. Künstler, Stile, Techniken, page 510. DuMont
Buchverlag, Köln, 1976. Keyword: ‘Ready made’.
[reb]
URL, http://www.rebelart.net.
[Rie02]
Ries, Marc. Netzkunst. Kunst der Netze. In Medienkulturen. Wien, 2002.
[San97]
Sandbothe, Mike. Interaktivität - Hypertextualität - Transversalität. Eine medienphilosophische Analyse des Internet.
In Stefan Münker, editor, Mythos Internet.
Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main, 1997.
[Sch96]
Schustermann, Richard. Soma und Medien. Kunstforum, 132:210–215, Nov.–Jan. 1996.
[Sha96]
Shaw, Jeffrey. Der entkörperte und wiederverkörperte Leib. Kunstforum, 132:168–171,
Nov.–Jan. 1996.
[Sim08]
Simmel, Georg. Der Raum und die räumliche Ordnung der Gesellschaft. In Soziologie.
Untersuchungen über die Formen der Vergesellschaftung. Duncker & Humblot, 1908.
URL http://socio.ch/sim/unt9a.htm, 25.10.07.
[sin]
URL, http://www.sinulator.com.
[sl]
http://www.secondlife.com.
[sla]
URL, http://www.slashdong.org.
[slf]
URL, http://slfront.blogspot.com.
[slm07]
Second Life verliert zahlende Mitglieder. derStandard.at, 04. September 2007. (Kopie
auf CD-ROM).
REFERENCES
[SM06]
87
Sommerer, Christa and Mignonneau, Laurent. Mobile feelings. In Monika Bakke,
editor, Going aerial, air, art architecture. Jan van Eyck Academie, Maastricht, 2006.
[sma]
URL, http://www.smartsecondskin.com.
[SS07]
Stocker,
Gerfried and Schöpf,
tronica. Festival für Kunst,
Christine.
Goodbye Privacy.
Technologie und Gesellschaft,
2007.
Ars ElecURL,
http://www.aec.at/en/festival2007/theme.asp, 05.01.2008.
[stea]
URL, http://www.stelarc.va.com.au.
[steb]
URL, http://www.stenslie.net.
[Ste93]
Stephenson, Neal. Snow Crash. Penguin Books, London, 1993.
[Ste96]
Stenslie, Stahl. Vernetzung des Fleisches. Kunstforum, 132:1178–187, Nov.–Jan. 1996.
[sti]
URL, http://www.stiffpeoplesleague.com.
[swa]
URL, http://www.swamp.nu.
[SZ95]
Schulze, Pit and Zeyfang, Florian. Internet. In Marius Babias, editor, Im Zentrum der
Peripherie, Kunstvermittlung und Vermittlungskunst in den 90er Jahren. Verlag der
Kunst, Dresden, 1995.
[Tab07]
Tabuchi, Hiroko. Japanese researchers makes maneuvering around “second life” more
like real life. November 2007. URL http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21917042, 19.12.07.
[tng]
URL, http://www.tngames.com.
[tri]
URL, http://www.trisenx.com.
[Tri06]
Tribe, Mark. New media art. Taschen, Köln, 2006.
[usb]
URL, http://www.technoskop.de/tag/usb/usb-unheimlich-stromverbrauchender-bloedsinn.
[vid]
Myron Krüger: “Videoplace”. URL, medienkunstnetz.de/werke/videoplace, 19.12.2007.
[vir95]
Das große illustrierte Lexikon, Band 3, page 943. Orbis Verlag, München, 1995. Keyword: ‘virtuell’.
REFERENCES
[wes07]
88
Ego–Shooter Weste macht Treffer spürbar. derStandard.at, 03. September 2007. URL
http://derstandard.at/?url=/?id=3019947. (Kopie auf CD-ROM).
[wii]
URL, http://www.wii.com.
[wik]
URL, http://wiki.secondlife.com.
[Woo96]
Woolford, Kirk. VRB? Kunstforum, 132:189–193, Nov.–Jan. 1996.
[wor]
http://channel3b.wordpress.com.
[you]
URL, http://www.youtube.com.
[Zwi98]
Zwisler,
Rainer.
Virtuelle
Realität
und
die
Rolle
von
Haptik.
http://www.zwisler.de/scripts/haptics/haptics.html,19.12.07. Lecture Notes, 1998.
URL,
Appendix A
LSL Script
// declaration of variables
key owner_name_query;
key target = "";
key http_request_id;
integer start=0;
integer count=1;
integer numOfDetectedObj=0;
integer touched=0;
vector startsize=<0.5,0.1,0.1>;
vector endcolor=<1,1,1>;
float timeInSec=5.0;
float radius=1.0;
string urlForStoringStatus="";
string name="";
x
// default state, avatar activates connectivity tag
// unique name of avatar and activity flag are sent to the external server
// sets start to 1: the avatar is marked as active
// sets start to 0: the avatar is marked as disconnected
default {
state_entry(){
start=0;
}
attach(key id){
if(id){
owner_name_query = llRequestAgentData( id, DATA_NAME);
start=1;
}
else{
start=0;
llResetScript();
}
}
// requests the uniquename of the avatar
dataserver(key queryid, string data)
{
if (owner_name_query == queryid){
name = data;
}
else{
xi
start=0;
llResetScript();
}
// sets "Start" in the database to 1 for the first time
// USB massiging-mouse vibrates once
llRegionSay(1, "DON’T LOOSE THE TOUCH WITH REALITY!");
state GO;
}
}
// counter
// sets the counter for the different distances
// count=0 distance = 100m
state NEXT {
state_entry(){
if(count<3){
count++;
}
else{
count=1;
}
state GO;
}
xii
}
// avatar is active
// measures the amount of avatars the range of 100m, 20m and 10m
// detects if avatar is touched
// sets the values of parameters
// sends parameters to database
state GO {
state_entry(){
if (count==1){
llSetTimerEvent(timeInSec);
}
if (count==2)
{
}
if (count==3){
}
}
sensor(integer total_number){
if(total_number!=numOfDetectedObj){
numOfDetectedObj=total_number;
}
if (count==1){
// sets "Far" in the database to the number of avatars within 100m
// USB ventilator starts
xiii
+"&start=" +(string)start +"&number=" +
(string)numOfDetectedObj+"&count="+(string)count;
llShout(0,"BLOW ME DOWN!");
}
if (count==2){
// sets "Medium" in the database to the number of avatars within 20m
// USB warmer-glove starts if number = 1
// USB heating-cushion starts if number > 1
+"&start=" +(string)start +"&number=" +(string)numOfDetectedObj
+"&count="+(string)count;
llSay(0,"GO INTO HEAT!");
}
if (count==3){
// sets "Near" in the database to the number of avatars within 10m
// USB aroma-fan starts
llWhisper(0,"I LIKE YOUR SWEET SMELL!");
}
}
no_sensor(){
numOfDetectedObj=0;
if (count==1){
// sets "Far" in the database to 0
// USB ventilator stops
xiv
}
if (count==2){
// sets "Medium" in the database to 0
// USB warmer-glove stops if number = 0
// USB heating-cushion stops if number <= 1
}
if (count==3){
// sets "Near" in the database to 0
// USB aroma-fan stops
urlForStoringStatus = "http://www.xxx.at/PHP/hSL.php?agentId=" +name
}
}
// avatar detaches connectivity tag
attach(key id){
if(id){}
else{
// sets "Start" in the database to 0
// USB ventilator stops
// USB warmer-glove stops
// USB heating-cushion stops
// USB aroma-fan stops
xv
start=0;
llResetScript();
}
}
// avatar is touched
touch_start(integer num_detected){
// sets "Touch" in the database to 1
// the virtual container box is given to the other avatar
// USB massiging-mouse starts
+"&start=" +(string)start +"&number=" + (string)touched+"&count=4";
llInstantMessage(llDetectedKey(0),"CAN’T TOUCH THIS!");
llGiveInventory(llDetectedKey(0), "CONTAINER do you feel your second
life?");
}
touch_end(integer num_detected){
// sets "Touch" in the database to 0
// USB massiging-mouse stops
+"&start=" +(string)start +"&number=" +(string)touched+"&count=4";
}
xvi
timer(){
state NEXT;
}
}
xvii
Apendix B
PHP Script
SL.php
<?php
include ’config.php’;
include ’opendb.php’;
// fetches parameters from HTTP Request
$agentId=$_GET[’agentId’];
$start=$_GET[’start’];
$count=$_GET[’count’];
$number=$_GET[’number’];
// select the correct avatar using a unique identification key
$result=mysql_query("SELECT ‘Key‘ FROM ‘SL‘ WHERE
‘Key‘ = ’$agentId’");
if (!$result) {
echo ’request failed: ’ . mysql_error();
exit;
}
$row = mysql_fetch_row($result);
// avatar exists in database
xviii
if ($row[0]==$agentId){
// avatar disconnects connectivity tag
if($count==0){
$update=mysql_query("UPDATE ‘SL‘ SET ‘Start‘=’$start’,
‘Far‘=’0’, ‘Medium‘=’0’, ‘Near‘=’0’, ‘Touch‘=’0’
WHERE ‘Key‘=’$agentId’") or die ("update failed");
}
// distance = 100m
if($count==1){
‘Far‘=’$number’ WHERE ‘Key‘=’$agentId’")
or die ("update failed");
}
// distance = 20m
if($count==2){
‘Medium‘=’$number’ WHERE ‘Key‘=’$agentId’")
}
// distance = 10m
if($count==3){
‘Near‘=’$number’ WHERE ‘Key‘=’$agentId’")
}
// avatar is touched
if($count==4){
‘Touch‘=’$number’ WHERE ‘Key‘=’$agentId’")
xix
}
}
// add new avatar to database
else{
echo "Key : $agentId <br>";
echo "key noch NICHT vorhanden!<br>";
$insert=mysql_query("INSERT INTO ‘SL‘ VALUES (’$agentId’
,’$start’, ’0’, ’0’, ’0’,’0’ )")
or die ("insert failed");
}
// close connection with database
mysql_free_result($result);
mysql_close($conn);
?>
config.php
<?php
$dbhost = ’www.xxx.at’;
$dbuser = ’sluser’;
$dbpass = ’xxx’;
$dbname = ’secondlife’;
?>
opendb.php
<?php
$conn = mysql_connect($dbhost, $dbuser, $dbpass)
or die (’Error connecting to mysql’);
mysql_select_db($dbname) or die( "Unable to select database");
?>
xx
Appendix C
Software implemented with Processing
main.pde
import de.bezier.mysql.*;
import processing.serial.*;
MySQL msql;
Serial myPort;
// variables to set canvas properties
PFont font;
String buff = "";
String idbuff = "";
String titel ="Enter Your Avatars Name!";
String subtitel = "Right Mouse Button Stopps";
String active = "";
String agentId = "";
boolean didntTypeYet = true;
xxi
int leftmargin = 10;
int rightmargin = 20;
// programmstatus
int match = 0;
// valuse of Far/Medium/Near from database
int far = 0;
int medium = 0;
int near = 0;
int touch = 0;
// flag ==1 start flag ==0 stop
int flag = 0;
// number of database requests
int run = 0;
int stopped=0;
void setup(){
// setup canvas
size(200, 200, P3D);
background(250);
font = loadFont("Univers45.vlw.gz");
textFont(font, 12);
// connect to database
String user
= "d0052ddf";
String pass
= "r0ckbar";
String database = "d0052ddf";
msql = new MySQL( "www.princessin.at", database, user, pass, this );
//connect to COM1
myPort = new Serial(this, "COM1", 57600);
}
xxii
void draw(){
switch(match){
case 0:
background(250);
text(titel, 15, 190);
insertText();
break;
// Error connecting database
case 1:
background(250);
text(titel, 15, 190);
break;
// avatar does not exist in database
case 2:
titel = "Couldn’t Find "+idbuff;
buff = idbuff = "";
match=0;
break;
case 3:
background(250);
fill(0);
text(subtitel, 25, 190);
fill(250);
beginShape();
vertex(50, 50);
xxiii
vertex(50, 150);
vertex(150, 100);
vertex(50, 50);
endShape();
dbRead();
msql.close();
// check if avatar is active
if (run==1){
active= idbuff+ " Is Active";
myPort.write(’F’); // Port c5 on
delay(500);
myPort.write(’f’); // Port c5 off
setSerial();
}else if(run>1){
setSerial();
active= idbuff+ " Is Active";
}
fill(250, 0, 0);
text(active, 25, 25);
break;
}
}
// set mouse buttons to start/stop application
// stop = right button , start = left button
void mousePressed() {
if (match == 3){
if (mouseButton == LEFT) {
subtitel ="Right Mouse Button Stopps";
stopped=0;
xxiv
background(250);
fill(0);
fill(250);
beginShape();
vertex(50, 50);
vertex(50, 150);
vertex(150, 100);
vertex(50, 50);
endShape();
loop();
}else if (mouseButton == RIGHT) {
subtitel ="Left Mouse Button Starts";
myPort.write(’b’); // Port c1 off
myPort.write(’c’); // Port c2 off
myPort.write(’d’); // Port c3 off
myPort.write(’e’); // Port c4 off
background(250);
fill(0);
fill(250);
rect(50, 50, 100, 100);
noLoop();
}
}
}
xxv
dbCheck()
// check if there is an id like the entered one
void dbCheck(){
// check if key exists
String[] liste = split(idbuff, ’ ’);
String buffer = join(liste, "");
int x = 0;
if(msql.connect()){
msql.query( "SELECT ‘Key‘, ‘Start‘ FROM ‘SL‘ WHERE ‘Key‘ =’"+buffer+"’");
if (msql.next())
x= 2;
else
x= 1;
// avatar does not exist in database
switch (x){
case 1:
match = 2;
run = 0;
break;
case 2:
if (idbuff != ""){
if(flag == 1)
match = 3;
xxvi
else{
active= idbuff+ " Is NOT Active";
match = 3;
run = 0;
}
}else
match = 2;
break;
}
}
else{
titel = "Connection failed!";
match = 1;
run = 0;
}
}
xxvii
dbRead()
// read from database: Far, Medium, Near, Start
void dbRead(){
if(msql.connect()){
msql.query( "SELECT ‘Touch‘, ‘Far‘, ‘Medium‘, ‘Near‘, ‘Start‘ FROM ‘SL‘
WHERE ‘Key‘ =’" + agentId+"’" );
while (msql.next()){
if(flag == 1){
far = msql.getInt("Far");
medium = msql.getInt("Medium");
near = msql.getInt("Near");
touch = msql.getInt("Touch");
}
else{
//titel = "Avatar Is Disconnected";
//buff = idbuff = "";
active= idbuff+ " Is NOT Active";
match = 3;
run = 0;
}
}
}else{
titel = "Connection failed!";
match = 1;
run = 0;
}
}
xxviii
insertText()
\\ feed of unique identification key / name of avatar
void insertText(){
if(millis()%500<250){
noFill();
}else{
fill(250, 0, 0);
//fill(255);
stroke(0);
}
float rPos;
// Store the cursor rectangle’s position
rPos = textWidth(buff)+leftmargin+5;
rect(rPos+1, 150, 10, 21);
if(didntTypeYet){
fill(0);
}
fill(0);
pushMatrix();
translate(rPos,141+25);
char k;
for(int i=0;i<buff.length();i++){
k = buff.charAt(i);
translate(-textWidth(k),0);
text(k,0,0);
}
popMatrix();
}
xxix
void keyPressed(){
char k;
k = (char)key;
switch(k){
case 8:
//BACKSPACE
if(buff.length()>0){
buff = buff.substring(1);
idbuff = idbuff.substring(0,buff.length());
}
break;
case 10: // Enter
// check if entered key exists in database
if (idbuff!=""){
dbCheck();
}
else{
titel="Enter Your Avatars Name!";
}
break;
// Avoid special keys
case 13:
case 65535:
case 127:
case 27:
break;
default:
if(textWidth(buff+k)+leftmargin < width-rightmargin){
didntTypeYet = false;
buff=k+buff;
idbuff = idbuff +k;
xxx
}
break;
}
}
xxxi
setSerial()
/*
"B" : Set Portc.1 // USB ventilator on
"b" : Reset Portc.1 // USB ventilator off
"C" : Set Portc.2 // USB warmer-glove on
"c" : Reset Portc.2 // USB warmer-glove off
"D" : Set Portc.3 // USB heating-cushion on
"d" : Reset Portc.3 // USB heating-cushion off
"E" : Set Portc.4 // USB aroma-fan on
"e" : Reset Portc.4 // USB aroma-fan off
"F" : Set Portc.5 // USB massaging-mouse on
"f" : Reset Portc.5 // USB massaging-mouse off
*/
// sets and resets serial port
void setSerial() {
// one or more avatars are in the range of 100m
if (far>0){
myPort.write(’B’); // Port c1 on
}else{
}
if (medium>0){
myPort.write(’C’); // Port c2 on
}
if(medium>1){
xxxii
myPort.write(’D’); // Port c3 on
}
if (medium ==0){
}
if (near>0){
myPort.write(’E’); // Port c4 on
}else{
}
// the avatar is touched
if (touch ==1){
myPort.write(’F’);
}else{
myPort.write(’f’);
}
// resets all
if (match == 0){
}
}
xxxiii

Designing Multisensory Interaction Experiences for a 3D Online World

Transcription

Similar documents

EMUKEY Product Sheet

What does it measure? The Visioscan® VC 98 USB is a special UVA

Digital Marketing Trends 2015 - Dundalk

portable usb dj mixer + scratch controll er + dj software

Avatar MX51 - Explora Technologies

3.5" SATA to USB 3.0 External Hard Drive Enclosure

SC-2300 spec

Charging your PowerSLIMTM 9.0 - eshop x

www.globo.com.pl OPTICUM HD 9600 PRIMA id: O9600PRIMA

AccuPower hardware