The initial testing of the sensors is now complete so the final circuit boards can now be printed up. The sensors will be arranged in sets of 12 which will be mounted on a run the length of one 42″ plasma screen. Below is an image of the final layout for the board which will go with each sensor bar.

We are continuing to build our initial “cardboard” prototype of the proximity sensors that we are going to use.

We initially though of using a camera based motion tracking system to sense people in front of the display but considering that we don’t know what the different lighting conditions will be in the venues that the installation will travel to, we opted for more reliable IR rangers which work in any kind of lighting conditions. Essentially we will use an array of these sensors that will also allow us to sense multiple people that stand at different positions in front of the display wall.

Plus, we will have fairly accurate proximity readings from the sensors. This means that we will know how far away from the display people will be standing resulting in some interesting sensor data for user interaction with the display.

Last but not least we are creating a modular system, whereby each module will consist of a stripe of 12 sensors. This will allow us to scale our installation to different display sizes.

Whilst all the new hardware has been arriving we have also been developing the visual look and feel for the installation along with finalising the interaction design. Along with the theme of the intallation itself we’ve been relying on the traditional medium of pen and paper to sketch out how the interface will work from the user’s perspective…