We are the Public Interactives Research Lab

PIRL is a research-design project led by Dr. Anne Balsamo. The term Public Interactives names the broad category of mediated experiences that are now on offer in communal and public spaces.

Public Interactives are technological devices that serve as the stage for digitally mediated conversations with audiences members in communal spaces such as museums, theme parks, tradeshows, outdoor entertainment plazas, and urban streets.

Public Interactives include works of public art that evoke new experiences and perceptions through experiments with scale, mobility, built space, and modes of human engagement in public spaces;

Public Interactives are a mode of public communication designed to engage people through the use of digital media in conversations for the purposes of information exchange, education, entertainment, and cultural reproduction.

A compelling example of a Public Interactive was British Airway’s The Magic of Flying advertising campaign situated in London, England, United Kingdom – 2013 by Ogilvy & Mather UK. Photo from fastcocreate.com

Members of the Public Interactives Research Team include SMS Head of Creative Technologies Dale MacDonald, SMS Associate Professor Diane Mitchell, Sarah Lawrence College faculty member Angela Ferraiolo, and students from various New School programs.

The team’s current research design projects include:

The AIDS Quilt Touch Digital Experience – funded by grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Microsoft Research, and The New School. The team recently presented the project at SIGGRAPH 2015 in Los Angeles.

Development of an Online Gallery of Public Interactives.

Prototyping Experimental Embodied Interfaces.

Exploring Interactivity in the Wild.

The team always welcomes new members. For more information please contact research assistant David Wilson at wilsd575 at newschool.edu.

Sunny Sale, a sundial QR code developed by E-mart, is another interesting example of a Public Interactive situated in Seoul, South Korea – 2012. Photo from displaypro.wordpress.com

Featured Image – The BCP Affinity, Banco de Crédito Building located in the San Isidro District of Lima, Peru is an example of a Public Interactive as a large media facade. The facade’s LED display is controllable by the public via a large touchscreen. Photo from http://www.colorkinetics.com/showcase/installs/BCP-Affinity/

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January 25

The Fish Project

Winsor McKoi Interactive Fish Project is an experiment in delight and engagement. Using gesture-based, haptic technologies and holographic display, the interactive window-front installation presents an animated origami fish. Named for cartoonist and early animator Winsor McCay, Winsor McKoi (the virtual fish) responds in real-time to physical presence and gestures, transitioning from shy state (at the back of the display) to a curious state (in the foreground of the display). From a project-based Twitter account, Winsor McKoi registers hashtag pings and tweets status updates (including “sadness” warnings indicating lack of interaction), thus encouraging in an audience continued interaction with Winsor McKoi while away from the physical site of the installation. Ultimately, the project endeavors to cultivate a community of participants who actively maintain the “life,” that is, animation of the virtual fish over time. The project’s interaction design is inspired by the 1990s popular Japanese digital Tamagotchi pet.

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January 25

International Parking Lot Museum

What is a ubiquitous, voice-activated interactive experience found in Suburbia?

Drive-thru restaurants.

Can one have a white table cloth dining experience in an automobile?

Perhaps.

How does one have a cultural experience in an automobile?

International Parking Lot Museum.

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January 25

Augusta App 2.0

AUGUSTA App is the digital supplement to Finding Augusta: Habits of Mobility and Governance in the Digital Era (2014), which earned the Anne Friedberg Innovative Scholarship Award from the Society of Cinema and Media Studies in 2015. The book explores how mobile devices, GPS systems, haptic technologies, and related media alter individuals’ experience of themselves and by extension shape the social collective. Augusta App takes up this thematic. It tracks participants geo-locatively and in relation to the various Augustas documented by travelling insurance agent and Augusta, GA native Scott Nixon during the 1930s – 1950s. It invites participants to contribute their own images of Augusta (whatever “Augusta” might mean) to the repository of images that populate the Augusta App map. And it provides, by means of QR codes printed in the book, fun facts about the amateur filmmaker whose 16-minute homemovie The Augustas informs the book’s title (see: https://digital.tcl.sc.edu/digital/collection/p17173coll6/id/1139/rec/1). In the process, Augusta App attempts to cultivate a community of participants who think more reflectively about how, like highways and plumbing, mobile technologies have become infrastructure that regulates habits of thinking and doing.

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January 25

Celestial Celebration: Music, Art, and Technology

On September 7, 2019 an extended family of PIRL collaborated with Maestro Clay C to produce Celestial Celebration: Music, Art, and Technology, a multimedia performance and installation inspired by the 50-year anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon Landing. PIRL designed and built six interactive exhibits and collaborated with Dr. Christine Veras (ATEC/UT Dallas) and Dr. Donna Cox (AVL/NSCA/UIUC).

Touching Histories

UTD Celebrates 50 Years

Project Leads: Heidi Rae Cooley and Dale MacDonald

Design / Production Team:

Alex Remington
Danai Bavishi
Anthony Inga

Materials:

Ideum Presenter display
UT Dallas official 50^th anniversary web-based timeline available at: utdallas.edu/50
Archival materials provided by UT Dallas University Archives, Treasures @ UT Dallas, SMU Libraries, Internet Archive, The City of Dallas Vault

Project Description:

Anthony Inga demonstrating the Touching Histories table to a visitor. The 50-year history of the University of Texas at Dallas is deeply intertwined with Texas Instruments, the City of Richardson, and the technology-rich region of North Texas.

This large format touchscreen displays the official University timeline, produced by the UT Dallas Office of Communications, that describes the most important milestones in the 50-year growth of the University. The chronology references the contributions of noteworthy people, significant events, the expansion of the campus, and the launch of innovative educational and research programs.

This installation presents four additional interactive historical episodes. Guests are encouraged to explore the content to read how UTD campus traditions, institutional aspirations, and regional influence evolved over five decades.

Interactive History Episodes:

Campus Traditions
UT Dallas Connected
Views from Above
The Calculator: An evocative object for STEM education

Listening to Apollo 11, 2019

Project Leads: Dale MacDonald and Heidi Rae Cooley

Design / Production Team:

David Wilson
Caroline Trotter
Eva Jacobus

Special thanks:

John Hansen, Center for Robust Speech Systems, UTD

Materials:

3 channel interactive audio installation
Archival audio material from analog Apollo 11 mission audio, digitized by the Center for Robust Speech Systems at UT Dallas
Raspberry Pi, speakers, RFID cards, RFID reader

Project Description:

Neil Armstrong’s proclamation, “One small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind,” is the most famous testimony of the historical significance of the first moon landing on July 20, 1969.

Over the course of eight days, many other voices, statements, and conversations marked other significant moments of the mission. For example, during the descent of the lunar module on that same day, a tense and extensive conversation ensued among people at distributed stations of Mission Control about an alarm emanating from the flight control computer. The public never heard this conversation, but for the engineers and astronauts it was extremely significant given the riskiness of the mission. In this interactive, you can listen to the multi-channel conversation about the “1202 alarm,” which is one of twelve short multi-channel conversations from that historic mission.

Ground-breaking research by the Center for Robust Speech Systems (CRSS) at the University of Texas at Dallas allows us to hear the conversations as only a few people in Mission Control would have heard. CRSS successfully digitized 1000s of hours of recorded communications between astronauts, mission control and back-room staff.

Listening to Apollo 11, a public listening experience, draws on this vast audio archive. Visitors can listen to mission conversations never before heard by the public. The installation highlights the importance of research into speech processing technologies, as well as the role that audio research plays in understanding complex historic systems of communication.

Astrotables, 2019

Celestial Powers of 10
Touring Holst’s Planets
Following Apollo 11

Project Lead: Dale MacDonald

Design / Production Team:

Danai Bavishi
Eva Jacobus
Caroline Trotter
Solvay Linde

Materials:

Astrotables by Onomy Labs
SpaceEngine (Universe Simulator)

Project Description:

The Astrotables display custom-designed interactive visualizations using the Space Engine Universe Simulator. Originally produced by Onomy Labs, an Astrotable enables body-scale explorations of the Universe. The table becomes a computer interface device. Animated visualizations of space data are projected on the tabletop. Spinning the tabletop controls the magnification of the visualization; tilting the tabletop slides the image to change the view.

Celestial Powers of 10: Drawing inspiration from Charles and Ray Eames’ 1968 film Powers of Ten, this story enables the visitor to travel exponentially through a simulated universe. Starting at the Eisemann Center, 10,000 meters above, the visitor can leap by powers of 10 from the Earth to the “edge of the known universe.”

Touring Holst’s Planets: Gustav Holst’s orchestral suite, The Planets, composed from 1914-1916, presents a tour of the planets that could be seen from Earth in the early 20^th century. Holst focused his interpretation on the astrological character of the gods for which each planet was named. This interactive experience enables a visitor to travel among planets to uncover astrological and astronomical stories.

Following Apollo 11: Visitors can follow the flightpath of Apollo 11, stopping at significant waypoints to read information about the mission and the views witnessed by the Apollo 11 crew.

Through the Roof, 2019

Ambient Celestial Projections

Project Lead: Dale MacDonald

Design / Production Team:

Anthony Inga
Eva Jacobus

Materials:

Rosco Gobo “Celestial 1618”
HighEnd Systems Solaspot Pro 2000 robotic light fixture
Laser projector
Gpredict (real-time satellite tracking and orbit prediction application)

Project Description:

The U.S. Space Surveillance Network uses radar to track more than 13,000 human-made objects larger than four inches (ten centimeters). This celestial detritus includes everything from the International Space Station (ISS) and the Hubble Space Telescope, to defunct satellites, rocket stages, or nuts and bolts left behind by astronauts. There are millions of other smaller bits of space junk such as flecks of paint and bits of plastic. In 1969, the space around our planet was much less cluttered than it is now. Through the Roof uses lasers and lighting instruments to present a visualization of the moon and hundreds of other objects as they passed over the Eisemann Center on September 7th, 2019.

Far Seeing Apollo, 2019

Project Leads: Sean Landers and Anne Balsamo

Design / Production Team:

Grace Brady
Elise Cobb
Abby Mancini
Ira Murchison
Caroline Trotter
Khadeeja Zulqarnain

Special thanks:

Ron Jennings, vintage television engineering

Materials:

Five-channel television broadcast installation
Archival footage: NASA, Johnson Space Center, Archive.Org
Vintage televisions (1968-1979)

Project Description:

This installation recalls the domestic spaces where millions of people gathered to watch the first lunar landing. In July 1969, people watched on color televisions bought specifically for viewing the historic spectacle. Many others clustered in front of shop windows and around portable televisions set up in offices to experience the first truly global broadcast of a real-time event.

Media coverage, from every nation, focused on the unprecedented technical and scientific advancements that enabled the mission. Television crews recorded spectator reactions of awe, not only of the landing but also of the national display of the technological prowess of the United States. Verbal remarks from engineers at Mission Control and from the astronauts themselves instantly became iconic statements announcing the arrival of the space age.

When the Saturn rocket launched on July 16^th, we entered our mid-20^th century living rooms to watch history in the making, eight days later we emerged into the future.

We All Look at the Same Moon, 2019

Despite our differences

Project Leads: Anne Balsamo and Sean Landers

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January 25

AIDS Quilt Touch

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April 12

Report – New linkNYC Kiosks Operational: 8th Avenue between 52nd and 58th Streets

By Leticia Ferreira De Souza

Recently, Murilo, Manuel, and I went to the new linkNYC kiosks (links) on 8th Avenue, between 52nd and 58th streets. It is very interesting to see the development of the project and, especially in that location, it was nice to see how they are taking the paid phones out and installing links exactly on the same place.

New observations:

Experimentation with Content:

The content on most of the links consisted of messages like: “Connect to Internet on linkNYC”, or other messages from local government, including from the “If you see something, say something” campaign.

We also saw two “ads” targeting tourists, one a partnership between NYC tourism department and Dora, the Adventurer character, and the other advertising the “LOVE” sculpture (the sculpture being situated relatively close to the location of the link). Since the area is a very touristic region, this could indicate some early experimentation with links featuring hyper-local content pertinent to a specific area. This differs from earlier observations we’ve made of links in the Lower East Side area, were advertising content was more of the national brand variety (The Gap, Citibank, etc).

For now, the content of these particular links, in this specific area, seems to be more focused on civic messaging, rather than on advertising. We will probably have to wait and see if this is a trend that will continue as the initiative develops, or if this is situational.

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March 7

First Impressions – Samsung 837: Where Technology and Culture Collide

Last week, PIRT member Merrilee went to visit Samsung’s newest New York City retail experience, Samsung 837. She filed this report about what she found.

I went with my class to the Samsung Experience Store on Thursday, March 3. We went around 1pm, after lunch time, so there weren’t very many people inside the store when we got there. The store felt like a museum at first, and then slowly shifted into a showroom. There are two levels to the store and they have distinct characteristics.

The first floor felt a lot like a museum, showing exhibitions of Samsung’s products. It’s laid out pretty logically too so when you are finished with one item, the next one is right there. There are four main stations on the first floor. When you first walk into the store, you go to the left, where there is an employee that asks you if you want to take a selfie with their new Samsung Galaxy S7. After you take the selfie, in about 30 seconds, the photo is shown on these massive TV screens. The photo is then made up out of Instagram photos, like a collage.

After being in awe with that, I walked over to the next stations with their VR set up. The first VR station we went to was like experiencing a 4D cinema theatre with moving seats. We went on a roller coaster ride with the Samsung Gear and moving seats. I was really excited to experience this, but it did not feel the same as being on an actual roller coaster ride; I didn’t get the same adrenaline. I also sort of broke the Samsung Gear as I was putting them on, and the whole time, I thought it was similar to the Oculus, but it’s actually just like the Google Cardboard. The Samsung Gear is Google Cardboard, enclosing a Samsung Galaxy s7 inside to create the VR.

Moving on to the next VR station, this experience was more on the immersive side. It was basically a lounging area where you put on the Samsung Gear and surround sound headphones to experience whatever they were showcasing. In this occasion, it was (of course) a horror setting, where you are sitting on the couch, and it’s raining outside and weird stuff began to happen and a girl suddenly shows up, and then later, kills you. This experience really scared me, but that’s just the type of person I am. I got scared, screamed and immediately took the goggles off in fear. And then I immediately left to the next station.

In the last station, I considered it to be the “best” part of the store. It is this immersive Instagram tunnel, where users input their Instagram handle, and it loads all the Instagram photos that they have ever taken, and then the robot in the tunnel speaks out the different hashtags in your photos. The tunnel only allows three people at a time. The tunnel is sectioned off into three ways and every time a new person enters into the tunnel, the previous people’s position moves forward. Another trip factor of this tunnel is that it is made out of mirrors. So the Instagram wall itself is just half a wall, and then everything else is reflected off from the mirrors. And because the tunnel is made out of mirrors, everyone is required to wear shoe covers so as to not dirty the floor.

That covers the first floor of the store. Going up to the second floor, this is the part where Samsung tries to grab you and never let you leave. There is a coffee shop there with big donuts that you can buy and eat in the dining area. But moving past that, there is this interactive wall where you can see the different appliances that Samsung offers and beside it, a kitchen with their appliances working together, showcasing the wonders of Internet of Things. There were too many people in that area so I did not get the chance to play with the stuff. But moving on from there, there is this photo room, where you compare taking photos from the Samsung Galaxy s7 to its competitors like the iPhone, HTC, and so forth. After you take the photo, you can see a side by side comparison of the photo quality. I think that this was the part that really screamed at me that Samsung was not just trying to convince you to buy the phone because this section is basically like the apple store where they lay out all their tablets and phones for you to play with.

Overall, I would say that this was a good visit and a good experience as a consumer or if you are a Samsung fan. A fair warning for when you go, you will be asked to sign waivers for using the VR sets. I assume it’s just so that if you get sick from it, it’s not their responsibility. And for the Instagram tunnel, you agree that your Instagram account is public. I would like to go again, just because I am curious whether they change up their experiences. For example, instead of a haunted house during the VR experience, I’m sitting down having tea or something. And of course, for the doughnuts.

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March 3

Report – Newly Operational linkNYC Kiosks Between 24th and 27th Streets

A few days ago Letícia and I went out to inspect more newly operational linkNYC kiosks in Manhattan, on Third Avenue between 24th and 27th Streets. We took team member Sean’s advice in terms of his recommendations for follow-up exploration, focusing particularly on the web browser’s content filtering mechanism, what the kiosk’s touchscreen does when it is not being used, and whether or not the kiosk seemed to be drawing attention to itself in its newly operational state.

User Interface / Web Browsing / Apps: Letícia and I were able to pretty easily navigate the user interface. As Sean mentioned previously, it felt quite familiar, like a standard Android OS (if you’re an Android user).

We were able to use the various features of the Google Maps app with ease…

…and make a phone call to each other (the speaker on the kiosk was, if set at its loudest setting, loud enough to hear from around 20 or 30 feet away…EVEN competing with NYC traffic)

We were able to easily access the web browser and browse various sites, including those based in Brazil.

Content Filtering: Letícia and I were interested as to how/if the browser would filter web content.

Using the web browser, we decided to try searching a fairly objectionable search term (Porn), with the goal of seeing what results would be returned, or if the browser would filter a specific search. We found that the browser did not filter this specific search, that it would supply links (and accompanying graphic images), but that once a link was clicked the content would be blocked from loading.

We found what we considered a little bit of a bug with the content filtering mechanism, in that if a user were to search this specific term and access the IMAGES section of the Google Search, the images shown within the images search mosaic were graphic in nature, and in a resolution that made them clearly visible to the kiosk user and perhaps those passing by. As a result, a user could, hypothetically, access content (in some form) that others might find offensive given that the kiosk is situated in a public place.

The kiosk’s wait state and general noticeability: Letícia and I made this video documenting these aspects ….

We’ll be continuing the documentation process as more linkNYC kiosks come online. In addition to documenting newly operational kiosks in-situ, we’re planning to follow up with those that we’ve already visited. It would be interesting to explore if the location of the kiosk and weather conditions have any specific influence on their usage.

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February 22

First Impressions – Newly Deployed linkNYC Kiosks in Manhattan

This is a first installment of an ongoing documentation series, where Public Interactives Research Team will observe linkNYC kiosks being installed and brought into operational mode. The roll-out process began during late December and early January, where there are now a few operational and non-operational kiosks in place along Third Avenue, between 14th street and 92nd street, in the east side of Manhattan. linkNYC has provided this map of installed kiosks (or “links” as they are referred to)

Of particular interest to PIRT are the media touchscreens featured on each “link”. According to the project documentation, each kiosk should feature hyperlocal content specific to where the link is deployed. linkNYC is one of the largest public touchscreen deployments of its kind, so the team is excited to be in such close proximity to this, and we’ll be right there to document its first months of existence.

PIRT member Sean Landers files this report about what he recently saw of the links on Third Avenue between 14th and 18th streets.

Walking past on my way in this afternoon — decided to perform an informal walking survey of the units between 18th and 14th streets, on the east side of Third Avenue. The screens on the terminals didn’t seem to be enabled on the links situated at 18th – 16th streets. I did find one touchscreen enabled, but it was non-responsive, near 16th street and Third Avenue. The first functional unit I found was on the southeast corner of 15th Street, found a second responsive link working on the west side of 3rd Avenue between 14th and 15th streets.

Kiosk / Link:

Outgoing calls and Internet worked on the kiosk.

Internet: Let me cruise around news.google.com, CBS website, YouTube with great freedom. There’s supposed to be content filtering. While I didn’t intentionally test it to see how inappropriate it’d let me get, I think it filtered a NYT story on me. Not sure if it was content (it might’ve been an article on fundamentalism or ISIS?) or some other reason. I am also curious whether filtering is just linkNYC terminal or if there is some type of filter active on the WiFi as well. The link played full motion video with audio, really smooth and clean, no loading bars whatsoever; audio through the headphone jacks was great.

Outgoing Call: Made an outgoing call to my cell-phone and left a voicemail for myself.

I heard my own voice mailbox message really well through headphones on the link. The incoming voicemail was really garbled, basically garbage. Which I guess makes sense, given that I was using a speaker phone from a foot away on the side of 3rd Avenue in the middle of the afternoon. The incoming number listed on my cell phone was (646)693-4500. Calling it results in a personable error message that the number belongs to a linkNYC terminal, which doesn’t receive incoming calls. The service is provided by (prominently branded) Vonage. I could make a phone call while browsing the web, exactly like a phone or a tablet.

Interface: Interface of the link seemed to be Android … had the characteristic “reverse button, home circle, open apps square” features on bottom of screen. Options gear in top right corner lets you adjust brightness and audio. There’s another grey bar which slides up and down just above traditional Android options bar — this bar gives options for what you can access… Outgoing Calls, Internet, 311. There’s a red X you can use to terminate your session — according to the FAQ, they also auto-terminate after 30 seconds (which I presume is ‘inactivity’?). There’s also a “circle-i” button near the gear which brings you to an extended FAQ + licensing information for the terminal.

Free WiFi:

FreeWiFi let me access it without giving it an email address. Apparently, the “Private WiFi” is only available to Apple Devices supporting Hotspot 2.0. The connection really did feel scorchingly fast (although let’s see what happens when everybody on 3rd avenue is using it). Unlike a lot of free wifi, it seemed to have no problem with me streaming music on Spotify. The WiFi signal seemed to drop off somewhere before Union Square east (a few blocks to the west of the link)… I’m not sure what the WiFi range is, exactly. I am also wondering if WiFi is active up-and-down Third Avenue, or just in pockets around functional links?

Recommendations for Follow-Up:

What is the reaction of other people to someone using the terminal? I was really in the experience of using the tablet — I didn’t get a chance to look up and see anyone seeing me.
Do you actually need to give an email address right now, or will it let you access the WiFi without it?
Could be interesting to see how (if) the interface and terminal functions evolve over time.
Was my bad audio recording a result of being too far from the mic, or is the mic just garbage?
I wish I’d run a speed-test on WiFi (BusinessInsider has some data from Jan 17th) and on the terminal.
Longer-term inquiry: see if/how different the capacities of ‘Free WiFi’ and ‘Private WiFi’ are.
Longer-term inquiry: confirm the WiFi connectivity range.
How manipulable is the outgoing call system? Can I call 900 numbers? Can I spoof other numbers? There’s no reason to call collect — but can I? Is there an operator I can speak to?
How many different browser windows and / or tabs can I open at the same time? How far can I push it before it gets sluggish? If the terminal gets sluggish or crashes, does that affect the WiFi? (are the functionality of terminal and WiFi tied together?)
How about the content filter? What is considered ‘inappropriate or malicious” material? What’s the error message inform the user, exactly? (Worth wondering — what does a blocked attempt inform the LinkNYC kiosk — does it track these access attempts? does it align it with any of your data?)

Bigger questions about the Link’s Privacy Policy:

We don’t collect personally identifiable information except what’s required to run the system. “except what’s required to run the system” What does that mean, exactly?

We will never sell your personal information or share with third parties for their own use. “for their own use” But does LinkNYC reserve the right to use your personal information for their own use? Is there something along the lines of a EULA posted somewhere?

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February 21

How Does Designing for Movement Affect the Design of Public Interactives?

The Public Interactives Research Team welcomed special guest researcher and educator Renata Sheppard, whose work focuses on understanding the relationship between movement, technology, and performance. We discussed Laban Movement Analysis, a language system and translation of movement and meaning, and how the system lends itself towards interaction design.

The Laban Effort Graph, for describing, visualizing, interpreting and documenting all varieties of human movement

A point that emerged during our discussions is that, based on our observations, most reactive environmental technology design may not take into account the complexity of possibilities that the movement of the human body could afford. For example, we discussed the fact that most reactive environments that we study (including those that PIRT has prototyped and deployed for research purposes) may only concentrate on a certain SPECIFIC ASPECT of presence, touch, or movement, in order to trigger a media event, like distance from a sensor, the magnitude of a sound, or the fact that a person occupies a specific area of a space. While technological limitations could be a factor, the team understood that Laban Movement Analysis could be an interesting and productive way to discuss and consider human agency in an environment that requires a presence in order to perform its media function.

Discussion also included ways to incorporate Laban Movement Analysis into the design of the interface for the AIDS Quilt Touch Digital Experience. This led to questions about how technology may constrict interaction, on how to achieve a one to one relationship between technology and a person interacting with it (meaning a more exacting mimesis between human movement and technology functionality), while considering that human beings perceive in three dimensions, and that interaction design should take into account that dimensionality.

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