Engaging with a digital experience today, often means sitting alone in front of a screen. Yet, there are other people behind that screen. They are as far as a single text message, a social media post, an email. One wonders if we can truly connect with others when these means of communication reduce human relationships to their bare minimum. Probably not. Fortunately, the creative and cultural industries are leading a digital revolution that invites people to meet in spaces enhanced by imagined, meaningful digital worlds, projected human sized screens and amplified through sonic soundscapes.
So yes, we can meet and have a good time together simultaneously in a digital universe and in real life (IRL). Digital technology at the service of wonder and authentic connections between people.
It’s a technological shift, but is technology ready to bring the worlds and stories imagined by creators to life? Are technologies mature enough to allow people to come together in digital worlds? The answer lies somewhere between yes and no: developing this kind of creation remains very complex even today.
At the Lab148 cooperative, our goal is to develop technologies that help foster cooperation among participants in these digital experiences. To achieve this, we are gradually developing a language for collective interactivity that ensures the digital world and the unfolding of its narrative are shaped by the coordinated actions of the participants.
So here’s where we stand: the two videos below demonstrate certain features of Pose.cpp and Lissn, the software we’re developing and currently integrating into our hardware solutions. For this, we’d like to thank PME MTL for its support.
Pose.cpp works with depth cameras under almost any lighting condition. It enables:
See the video here.
Lissn uses microphones to understand the acoustic environment of the location where it is installed. It enables:
See the video here.
We’ll be attending several events to discuss our vision and our solutions.
We’re getting ready for the finals of the Alchimia competition, organized by E-AI and Prompt. See you at MT Lab on June 1 at 5 p.m. Register here
If you’d like to learn more about on-premises AI and open-source software, we’re offering training sessions on May 11 and May 12 at the Trillium Theatre in Ottawa. Information here and here.
We will also be participating in the ACFAS conference titled “Esthétique de la rencontre” on May 14 in Trois-Rivières. Panel 2: The Interface. Moderated by Louis-Philippe Rondeau (NAD-UQAC), the participants are Nicolas Bouillot (Lab 148), Luc Courchesne (UdeM), Jean Dubois (UQAM), and Marie-Eve Morissette (UQAM).
We’d love to hear your thoughts. You can take the survey here (2 min, in French)
To support the development of our tools and our cooperative, you can:
