Shared
Dreaming
A Telepresence Installation in Carnegie Mellon University's Robotics Institute
December 15, 2002 - December 19, 2002
A Telepresence Installation in Carnegie Mellon University's Robotics Institute
December 15, 2002 - December 19, 2002
Concept:We share reality, meaning stimuli has a similar affect upon us regardless. Snow feels cold and wet, red is brighter than gray. Our opinions may differ, but our experience towards a shared event are relatively the same.
This changes completely when we are asleep. Our brain interprets stimulation and creates a personal reality from it. One may dream that an alarm clock is an annoying bird, while another may dream that same sound to be something completely different, such as a space ship.
Shared Dreaming attempts to examine these two drastically different states of our perception of reality, by having them interact with each other.
Synopsis:In a room a person sleeps. Their brain is monitored by an EEG, and their pillow has a small speaker in it. A video camera streams live video of them sleeping onto the internet. The image of the sleeper is combined with his or her own brain wave data to make a composite video.
In a gallery a crowd gathers around an elevated sandbox. The room is pitch black, and the video feed projected upon the box is the only source of illumination. As they sink their hands into the sand, interacting with the video, they trigger music. This music is sent to the sleeper's pillow.
The sleeper reacts, their dreams shift, and the EEG distorts the video.
The Video Projector displays the mixed image of the sleeper on the sand box, encouraging the participants to interact more.
MindPeak's Waverider Pro translates the shifts of electrical current occurring in the brain. This data is interpolated into an algorithm which distorts the video signal coming from a Sony Digital Camera. A small pillow speaker plays out audio streamed from the gallery.
In the Gallery:
A web camera is used to analyze any motion occurring on the sand. These motions are then translated into scalar numerals, which are then applied to an algorithm changing it to a corresponding note in the key of A. These numbers are sent through MIDI to Absynth, a software synthesizer. The sound signal from Absynth is sent to speakers within the gallery, and then streamed back to Dreamer's Room.
Meanwhile, the computer receives the distorted video from the Dreamer's Room and displays it onto the sand.
Project Analysis:
Shared Dreaming was a huge success! Not only did it provide an interesting form of telepresence, but it touched on a topic many had not previously thought deeply on. Furthermore, there were very clear interactions between the guests and the dreamer, where the guests could see the affects they were having on the dreamer's dreams.
There are a few problems with the current version of Shared Dreaming. The main one being that guests need to be able to figure out what is occurring quicker, since it was not immediately obvious. Hopefully, this problem can be addressed by a few more simple audio directions, and video distortions which are more representative of the brain data being received. The other area of improvement is making the entire system easier to set up. My hope is that we will be able to have volunteer Dreamers, and an EEG system easy enough for a gallery attendant to set up.