Interactive Media | Installation Art
The Elf Pool
An interactive media incorporating with Rokid's AI technology
My Role
- Interaction Designer
- Unity Developer
- Front-end Developer
- Designed and implemented the interaction logic, visual effects, motions.
Remark
- Won the first prize in the tech expo of Rokid 2018 product release event among 8 AI projects.
Tools
- Unity3D
- C#
- Rokid Alien smart speaker
- Projectors
- PC
Team
- You Mo
- Qi Xiong
- Gonglue Jiang
- Weiqi Zhao
Time
- Apr. 2018 - Jun. 2018
Introduction
The Elf Pool project is an interactive media and installation art that convert the NLP(natural language processing) result fetched from Rokid’s AI cloud service into a vivid visualization of Rokid voice assistant – Melody.
The project was demonstrated along with the other 7 AI projects in the Rokid Jungle 2018 product release event aiming to promote Rokid’s AI technology and products in forms of interactive media.
Inspiration
When we talk about AI, we always come up with products such as a robot, smart speaker, automatic car, etc, which are all “vessels” of AI. However, AI is an abstract concept that can hardly be seen. I have been imaging what AI would be like and how AI would interact with people if it comes out of its vessel. With that in mind, I visualized the Rokid AI voice assistant - Melody, by using digital media technics.
Inspired by the magic mirror in a Disney Cartoon, we want the “AI” to give the user stunning visual feedback and sound effects for an immersive experience. Thus, strong interactivity and feedback is the design principle.
Design Process
Exploring the Technology
Given that the Rolid Alien Smart Speaker has voice localization and we are also able to fetch the weather data from Rokid cloud service, we decided to take advantage of these data and technologies.
Concept Design Draft
I created this concept design animation to deliver the exhibition setup and interaction design ideas. This was used to be reviewed by the team and superiors for approval.
How does the user interact with it? Firstly, the user should say the wake word "Melody" to start the interaction. Then the elf of AI will get out of the smart speaker and move towards the user. After that, the user can ask the elf the weather of any place. Then the visual effects of the weather will be displayed on the table.
Software
- Unity3D
- Adobe Creative Suite
Hardware
- PC
- Rokid Alien Smart Speaker
- 2 Projectors
- Bluetooth Speaker
Key Design Points
- 1. Vertical Projection. We designed to use vertical projection on a round table with Alien on the center point. This allowed the user to interact 360 degree.
- 2. Extended Scale and Experience. We used 2 projectors to extend the scale of the display.This enhanced the immersion
- 3. Intuitive voice Interaction with visual and sound feedback.
Implementation
Demo