The Masks Installation
The Masks installation is another project in the theme of interactive artwork.
This installation reacts to passers by: when they look at the wall a haunting white face stares back. This is really intended for some dark and creepy bar over a cosy living room.
interaction and simulation
Step 1: approaching
The installation responds to people nearby. If nobody is near the installation lies dormant.
When a person is detected a haunting mask is projected onto the wall. The mask is a mirror image of the person’s face. If you move around the installation the mask follows you.
Step 2: starting interaction
Step 3: following the participant
Step 4: add more people
When multiple people enter the installation the effect is more haunting. The haunting theme can be developed further to perhaps project video clips on top of the masks. The videos I have in mind are horror clips with screaming or flashes of a knife then returning back to the masks.
kit
So how does it work? The installation needs a couple of things:
- Laptop – to monitor the webcam and project the masks
- Projector – to project the Masks on a nearby surface,
- Camera – to search for people’s faces.
The detecting faces is the tricky part. I use some free face tracking software, with several limitations:
- performance – loading web cam footage is very slow with Processing,
- lighting – face tracking only really works in ambient light looking straight at the camera,
- reliability – it’s hard to find real faces as people move around, etc…
As reliable face tracking entails restrictions on lighting and environment I’ve changed direction for future installations so they exploit or are robust to unreliable face tracking.