Hertzian Explorer (2009)

Role	Artist \| Researcher \| Software Developer
Tasks	Research \| Installation Design \| Creative Coding
Client	UCSD Interdisciplinary Computing and the Arts BA Thesis

Hertzian Explorer relates to the notion of “hertzian space”, a term used by designers Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby to refer to the invisible physical space created by electromagnetic radiation radiating from electronic objects. It is also a work that aims to combine art and science by making the invisible more visible.

Electromagnetic (EM) field meters are used to measure the intensity of radiation from electronic devices and generate unique data visualizations of hertzian space. These visualization are shown as an interactive art installation in physical space through wall and floor light projections. They show real-time representations of the radiated energies within and passing through the local installation space.

Different field strengths, their spatial arrangement, and duration of radiation will influence the visual result. Celluar automata and generative designs will reflect the changing and diverse nature of hertzian space and also explore the relations in this ecology of hertzian space and virtual organisms. Inviting interaction is another key element of this installation. A video feed of the user's face is distorted based on the intensity and duration of exposure to mobile phone radiation. The user can choose to continue to watch his or her "face" being transformed or stop the phone call.

To highlight the illusive and unconventional nature of hertzian space, this project also incorporates a sculptural aspect consisting of an array of EMF meters attached to webcams suspensed in midair. The unorthodox juxtaposition of webcams to the emf meters reflects both the strangeness of hertzian space and the difficulty of perceiving it. It reflects the fact that in order to see hertzian space, we need to look at it indirectly through instrumentation. These elements of sculptural interest gives clues as to how the piece technially works, creating more involvement and interaction with the piece.

By bringing to the human scale electronic signals and radiation, the work hopes to help people discover a new perspective on this mysterious but now permanent aspect of our contemporary world, a world immersed in the fleeting and invisible waves of information flow.

This project was built using Processing (with JMyron library for computer vision), openFrameworks, openCV, and commerical off-the-shelf EM sensors.

Links:

Installation space layout design.

Installation space as implemented at UCSD Annex Gallery in June, 2009.

Projection 1 (Side Wall Face Distortion Video Feed) - Real time distortion of the participant's face via infrared camera, face detection and motion detection. The more intense the radiation, the more distorted and chaotic the video feed. When radiation passes a threshold, the viewer's face is rendered with a skull image, denoting potentially hazardous levels of radio frequency radiation exposure. These visuals are projected on the front wall.

Projection 2 (Floor) - Generative cellular automata simulation based on Conway's Game of Life that reacts to electromagnetic radiation. Rule sets change based on the magnitude of EM fields, creating different environments and cell behavior. This is projected on the installation floor space to create an slowly changing ambient environment.

Projection 3 (Side Wall) - Visuals of hertzian space disturbances and "hotspots" projected on the installation side wall. Changes in electromagnetic field intensity are reflected through the emergence of globular hotspots that quickly spread and influence the color and shape of nearby zones, creating a constantly changing colorscape. Like a radarscope, the visualization updates itself in a circular fashion with new hotspots emerging around a spinning sweep indicator (a randomly color changing "organism" comprised of a large ellipse with a trail of smaller ellipses). The speed and direction of the sweep changes based on radiation levels to reflect the dynamism of hertzian space.

When there is no detected radiation, the indicator moves slowly in anticlockwise fashion. When the indicator starts to move clockwise it means that a burst of radiation has been detected. At this moment and from the position of the indicator, there is also an explosion of expanding transparent ellipses and a string of ellipses moving on a curved path. If there is constant radiation, the clockwise rotating indicator will continue to produces these explosive elements. As radiation levels increase, the sweep indicator will rotate faster, making the explosion of expanding ellipses appear further away from the indicator and towards the edge of the 2D colorscape. The overall effect is a more agitated and dynamic visualization of an active space.

Projection 3 (Side Wall) - Radarscope inspired visualization and spinning sweep indicator. sensors

Sensors configured to measure the EM fields:
Top Left: Alan Broadband Co. ZC 190 B meter + webcam
Top Right: Cornet D-15 Meter + webcam combo driving face detection projection. Bottom right of image is side view of face detection webcam.
Bottom Left: Cornet ED-25G Meter + webcam driving "hotspot" visualization.
Bottom Right: Converted infrared webcam with custom AA powered IR led module.

Technical Details

Hertzian Explorer relies on an unconventional configuration of existing technologies to connect with the invisible spectrum. EMF meters are mounted to webcams to perform computer vision analysis of the meter's displays. Motion detection or brightness/color tracking techniques are used to convert and transfer the visual data from the meter's display into numerical data fed into artist written programs running on hidden computers to help generate visualizations of hertzian space.

In my openFrameworks face distortion program, if the signal strength bar on the ED-15 meter illuminates and flashes due to the prescence of radiation, the computer vision algorithm doing motion detection will convert the changes in illumination to a number that becomes a visualization parameter. With brightness/color detection, the brightness of the LED radiation indicator on the broadband meter is converted to a value usable by the Game of Life based Processing visualization. Lastly, to help generate the side wall "hot spot" visuals, my Processing program tracks the y-axis position of the brightest pixel in the webcam video feed of the ED-25's display. This position data directly corresponds to signal strength.

Two webcams are used to implement the face distortion feature. As described above, one webcam is used to transfer data from the meter into software. This camera is doing motion analysis on the RF meter's display to quantify the amount of radiation into data usable for the visualization. A second webcam performs face detection. This specially converted infrared camera is attached to a custom made IR led light for better illumination and face detection and tracking performance. When the face of a cell phone user/victim is detected, a distortion effect is applied over the subject's face area. Using data collected by the first webcam, the distortion modulates its intensity based on the severity of RF radiation.