Project #6 Experimental Camera

A description for my experimental camera.

My experimental camera project aims to reproduce the scene of my 14 days quarantine in Guangzhou’s hotel. In the days of isolation, except for the windows blocked by the building, I can only use a small peephole to understand what is happening outside. I think peephole is like a very narrow information channel. The information input from the outside world is limited, and I cannot output any information. I can only see the medical staff’s face wearing masks and goggles, but the medical staff cannot perceive me behind the door. This kind of experience made me realize the value of face-to-face communication with people under the pandemic. Therefore, I hope to reproduce this scenario to remind people of the value of face-to-face communication because such opportunities might gradually disappear in the future.

My design process.

I used the clmtracker to allow facial detection and create an AR filter that looks like the medical mask and goggle. I started the outlines of these objects by extracting the points on the face from the clmtracker, and then connect these vertexes together to form a shape. In the next step, I applied a PNG image onto the video to represent the peephole. I was also experimenting with hand tracking but failed to merge the hand tracking tool with my previous design, so I’m still working on this step. here is the hand tracking test: https://editor.p5js.org/xiaoq709/sketches/TRB93uQR8

Your overall reflection on the assignment

I learned how to use createCapture( ) and Array function in this assignment and some small tweaking technique, such as how to flip the video horizontally and create and save snapshots. I think the process of “seeing” is shaped and changed by the many possibilities in the code; I can choose to cover my face with the clmtracker or add filters that distort the image using updatePixels( ); or shaders.

Images