Spatial relationships project #1
We were set this week a project on spatial relationships and were told to use projection mapping. Projection mapping involves the use of projectors to present an augmented reality onto surfaces such as buildings.
My team and I looked around our universities building for possible areas to use. As we entered the library we decided to use the area that had stairs going up towards the group rooms. We knew that students could check the availability of the rooms online but the information was not visible anywhere close to the group rooms.
We explored our area and looked at the possible spots we could project onto. For example, the space next to the sign, the column and the stairs itself. Initially, we wanted to use the space next to the sign and project a table with rows for each room that would project green when it was available and red when it was occupied. We faced the issue of not being able to include the next availability of the rooms due to there not being enough room to also project onto. Not only this but there was a light directly facing that spot so the display of the projection would not be clear. Therefore, we decided to use the wall that was blank on the top of the stairs. However, we realised that this would be inconvenient because someone could go up to see that the rooms are unavailable and the projection would just confirm that. Then, we thought about projecting onto both the space next to the sign and the column below it. The use of the column would allow us to project an animation of a timetable of the availability of the rooms and flick between them. But, with this idea, we would be having to use a number of projectors so there would be many wires in that area so someone could easily trip over them.
I went back to the drawing board and thought that rather than avoiding the use of the stairs we could project onto it. On the side of the stairs we would be displaying different hours of the day and on the first step have the names of the rooms. Then, the projection on the stairs would be divided into columns for each room and rows for every hour. The pictures below show the different fun interactive concepts we had from a parking lot idea to building blocks.
At the end we decided to go with are original concept of using green for availability and red to show that the room was occupied but project onto the stairs the time slots. As time passed, a row would disappear.
(The images were taken by me)