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…

Today the proximity sensors we are going to use to enable users to interact with the large display wall arrived. We are going to combine two different types of sensor, each with a different range, into panels below the display wall. The combination of the two different sensors should enable us to detect users between 0.5m and 5m. Having put together a quick test circuit and following some callibration tweaks they are up and running.