Danilo Gasques, Ph.D.

VideoMob is an interactive video platform and an artwork that enables strangers visiting different installation locations to interact across time and space through a computer interface that detects their presence, video-records their actions while automatically removing the video background through computer vision, and co-situates visitors as part of the same digital environment. Through the combination of individual user videos to form a digital crowd, strangers are connected through the… Show more

VideoMob is an interactive video platform and an artwork that enables strangers visiting different installation locations to interact across time and space through a computer interface that detects their presence, video-records their actions while automatically removing the video background through computer vision, and co-situates visitors as part of the same digital environment. Through the combination of individual user videos to form a digital crowd, strangers are connected through the graphic display. Our work is inspired by the way distant people can interact with each other through technology and influenced by artists working in the realm of interactive art. We deployed VideoMob in a variety of settings, locations and contexts to observe hundreds of visitors reactions. By analyzing behavioral data collected through depth cameras from our 1,068 recordings across eight venues, we studied how participants behave when given the opportunity to record their own video portrait into the artwork. We report the specific activity performed in front of the camera and the influences that existing crowds impose on new participants. Our analysis informs the integration of a series of possible novel interaction paradigms based on real-time analysis of the visitors behavior through specific computer vision and machine learning techniques that have the potential to increase the engagement of the artwork s visitors and to impact user experience. Show less

Contemporary staged performances frequently utilize advanced lighting and projection techniques. The design and creation of these stage effects are rarely accessible to the actual performers and must be designed by professional lighting designers or highly-paid programmers. With MotionDraw we want to create an affordable system that is easily controlled and manipulated by performers. With intuitive gestures, non-specialized users can control the MotionDraw visual library and interact with the… Show more

Contemporary staged performances frequently utilize advanced lighting and projection techniques. The design and creation of these stage effects are rarely accessible to the actual performers and must be designed by professional lighting designers or highly-paid programmers. With MotionDraw we want to create an affordable system that is easily controlled and manipulated by performers. With intuitive gestures, non-specialized users can control the MotionDraw visual library and interact with the captured visual record of their own movements. Possible uses for our system grew out of research with dancers and performers, and the current technical implementation sets a framework for including additional visual libraries and capabilities. Show less

Presentation machines for multimedia declarative languages especially the ones related with Interactive Digital TV (iDTV) and Internet Protocol TV (IPTV) are usually embedded in devices and strongly coupled with the platforms when native code and API for the device's platform are used. Since much of the complexity to implement presentation machines lies on presenting and controlling different types of media (video, audio, image, text), and given that most of the modern browsers natively support… Show more

Presentation machines for multimedia declarative languages especially the ones related with Interactive Digital TV (iDTV) and Internet Protocol TV (IPTV) are usually embedded in devices and strongly coupled with the platforms when native code and API for the device's platform are used. Since much of the complexity to implement presentation machines lies on presenting and controlling different types of media (video, audio, image, text), and given that most of the modern browsers natively support those requirements, it becomes interesting to implement presentation machines using Web technologies to reduce their coupling with platforms. In this paper we discuss the advantages of a presentation machine for declarative multimedia languages implemented on top of Web technologies. As a proof of concept we implemented the WebNCL, a lightweight NCL presentation machine based on the web technologies stack (HTML 5/ JavaScript/ CSS). By using WebNCL, NCL documents can be presented in any device that has a HTML5 compatible browser, such as tablets, smartphones, smart TVs and PCs. Show less