Thursday, January 20, 2011

Assignment 3 Proposal


Proposal

The installation will be a exploration the realm of Architecture and Gaming. The pastiche of these two spheres culminates in a world of design which is interactive fun and ultimately creative.

Derived from the idea of prefabricated and modular architecture which offers lower costs, faster erection and higher quality construction, the project will seek to design architecture based on a simple module. The repetition of this one module through rotation and translation forms a plethora of varied building “blocks”, each one unique from the other. Each building block will be constructed using 3Ds Max, and consequently, the process of piecing modules together to create building mass, and removing modules to create voids, will be brought to life through 3Ds Max animations.

The so called “construction” of the architecture from these modules is reflected in the concept of “Tetris Architecture” which is inspired by the popular puzzle video game. Through this balancing act of construction the simplicity and repetition of each individual module is broken and thus, creativity is pushed to its limits as a new order appears. Subsequently, the key to this gaming style architecture is its ability to offer the designer ultimate creativity through unlimited choice and endless possibilities for what can be created from a set of varied modules.
The installation will display this creative design process through an interactive Augmented Reality real-time experience. By designing a series of markers, one for each module, designers will be invited to pick any marker aim it at the webcam and thus activate an animation for that module. By repeating this process, the designer will view their modules coming together to form an architectural building. Additionally, the building blocks will be 3D printed at a small scale to allow designers to physically construct many different designs from the set of modules.

Assessment Criteria

Have thought and care been invested into the design and its process and presentation through technology experimented in throughout the course. Has the technology been engaged with in a creative and successful way?

Blog Is your blog neatly laid out and easy to follow, with all task requirements posted to your blog?
Does your blog contain your design process, include the successes, failures and insights into the technology used?
Images Are your images of an acceptable quality, showing thought and consideration to image selection and camera framing? Are all images not your own referenced correctly?
Text Is any text you have written concise and informative? Is the text significant to your project, outlining aspects of your process that may not be immediately apparent through visual material?
Installation Does you installation work? Is there a novel approach to the interaction between real life and digital content?

Submission Requirements

  • Supporting sketches of your design ideas in progress. These should be a continuing exercise used to help with your design process.
  • Images/Screenshots of design process.
  • 10 Visual references – including images/videos which must be all referenced.
  • Architects Statement describing the project – concise but insightful.
  • 6 High quality images/ renders of 3DS max final design
  • 3D hand-made model of tetris shapes and board. 
  • Minimum 1 x 30 second video (polished, and with sound), of the Augmented Reality Installation.
  • Minimum of 9 Augmented Reality Markers, each marker activating a related model/animation/content.


Inspiration

Prefabricated Architecture

Ensamble Studio - Hemeroscopium House. Spain - Madrid,2005




Model Images
















Building Process Images







































Finished Work Images




























Copenhagen Apartments - Tetris Architecture

A new block of flats on the edge of Copenhagen, designed by Bjarke Ingels and Julien De Smedt of PLOT. Specifically, there are "76 floor plans in 221 units," Vanderbilt writes, "with none repeated more than a dozen times and well over a dozen of them unique."





















































TETRIS - ARCHITECTURE - AUGMENTED REALITY


During today's class, Josh gave me an idea: "what if you could play the computer tetris game and have markers on each block with a webcam facing the screen, so each time a block appears, BuildAR will generate the Augmented Reality Model" of the modular architecture form and the designer can thus create Architecture with ultimate control over how to rotate and translate each module to form an inspiring new design each and every time.


The PROBLEM - how to design a Tetris Game that will allow me to alter the faces of the blocks by uploading a marker image. Considering we only have 2 weeks to complete the project, i would prefer to deter myself from learning coding or Flash. I also believe that IF i manage to design a tetris game where i am able to upload marker images on each block, the markers will be too small for BuildAR to recognise.  


Examples of Augmented Reality Tetris










Augmented Reality Tetris from Fabian Gronbach on Vimeo.


http://vimeo.com/11023776


Humans controlling Tetris with their bodies



http://www.motherboard.tv/2010/10/7/human-tetris-in-madrid


The SOLUTION - Instead of creating a digital tetris computer game, it could be more realistic and achievable to create a 3D real life tetris game using big tetris blocks made out of card of foam with markers stuck onto each piece. Using a sloped Board/table, players can pick up a tetris piece, manually rotate and translate it and then watch it slide down the board/table. As each tetris piece moves, BuildAR will detect the marker and the Augmented Reality Begins; a 3d digital model of the architectural module will appear and will rotate/translate as controlled by the player and then as the tetris piece slides down, the 3D digital model will appear to slide down too. 


There is actually a 3D Tetris Tower Game which exists. I considered the idea of buying this game, however the pace of each piece falling down would be too fast for BuildAR to detect the marker clearly as it moves and seamlessly illustrate the digital model. Also, the pieces would be too small to stick Markers on each one. 





































http://www.firebox.com/product/916/Tetris-3D
























http://www.sircollectalot.co.uk/Board-Games/Tetris-Tower-3D-Electronic/prod_886.html


Believe it or not, a physical 3D tetris game exists! 





Tetris analógico // Analogical Tetris from Esferobite-DSK on Vimeo.
http://www.designboom.com/weblog/cat/16/view/10230/physical-tetris-game.html

The REFINED IDEA - To recreate a manual 3D reality game of Tetris using a sloping board/film/table and purchasing large foam tetris pieces. I will then design markers for each piece, attach the markers and ofcourse design 3D digital models of modular architecture for each tetris block. 








http://imagehost.vendio.com/bin/viewimage.x/00000000/xdecor2001/18-pc-a.jpg?vvid=63834205&allow_mailing_list=1&allow_track_link=1&track=027ada8302-dc543&sp=1&vsid=1&vgp=1&vimgs=18-pc-a.jpg,18-pc.jpg,18-pc-b.jpg
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5 comments:

  1. Josh HarleJanuary 25, 2011 at 11:25 PM

    Hi Ivette,

    Did you manage to find something to modify? I found a game that will not be too difficult to add markers to, if you're interested?

    Kind Regards,

    Josh

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ivette BecharaJanuary 26, 2011 at 3:25 AM

    Hi Josh,

    I tried to modify my idea. Rather than playing a real tetris game on the computer with markers. I am recreating a manual Tetris Game - i am making big tetris blocks using cardboard with markers on a few sides. People can pick up a tetris peice, rotate it to a side with a marker on it place it on the top of a sloping table surface and watch it slide down... while al this is happening you will be wearing the augmented reality glasses and will be viewing a modular architecture which is the same shape as the cardboard tetris piece. Once repeated with different tetris pieces, you can actually create your own design depending on how you rotate the blocks and how you piece them together.

    But if you have found a game, i am happy to have a look at it please.

    Thanks

    ReplyDelete
  3. Ivette BecharaJanuary 26, 2011 at 3:47 AM

    The reason why i have resorted to an enlarged manual 3D tetris game is because i thought the size of the markers on the computer screen would be so small - would a webcam be able to easily identify them?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Josh HarleJanuary 29, 2011 at 8:27 AM

    Hi Ivette,
    I worried about this a bit too. The Tetris screen would have to be reduced to get bigger pieces (and therefore bigger markers).

    Maybe mock-up a tetris screen about 6-8 blocks across in Photoshop, put some markers on the centre blocks, and see how the detection goes. Let me know via email if it works okay, and if not that's good documentation to cover why your design changed.

    Kind Regards,
    Josh

    ReplyDelete
  5. Ivette BecharaJanuary 31, 2011 at 3:19 PM

    Thanks - i will try that.

    Have you heard of Qubestack : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBLIvNe5foU&feature=player_embedded#

    Its a 3D tetris augmented reality game. I am yet to find a website with the download link for it though..

    ReplyDelete

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