CHI 97 Electronic Publications: Demonstrations
Alice Sat Here
Emily Hartzell
Nina Sobell
New York University Center for Advanced Technology
719 Broadway 12th Floor
New York, NY 10003 USA
+1 212 998 3395
parkbench@cat.nyu.edu
ABSTRACT
In this paper, we describe Alice Sat Here, a telerobotic
installation in which participants in physical space and cyberspace are
afforded extended means of interaction. Using live video served to the
World Wide Web, telerobotic camera control (pan and tilt controlled
remotely over the Web), and a wheeled electric throne driven by gallery
visitors, Alice Sat Here becomes an interface at the intersection
of physical space and cyberspace. By designing an installation as a
physical metaphor for the Web, we hope to sensitize the public to the
dynamics at work on the Web (surveillance, control), and to challenge the
collective imagination of the kinds of experiences the Web can offer.
Keywords
Collaboration, interaction, control, surveillance
© 1997 Copyright on this material is held by the authors.
DESCRIPTION
Alice Sat Here is a wheelchair equipped with a wireless
telerobotic camera. Participants onsite sit in Alice's throne and drive
around the space, while Web participants look on through Alice's eyes,
influencing the direction of her gaze with mouse clicks on the Web.
Onsite and online participants engage in a collaborative navigation of the
space: a monitor mounted on Alice's handlebars shows the rider Alice's
point of view, and by looking into her rear-view mirror, participants can
make eye contact through the looking glass. There is also an opportunity
for those passing by outside the space to interact with Alice: a monitor
displays Alice's point of view, and by pressing MicroTouch TouchPads
surrounding the monitor, the participant can control the direction of her
gaze. A tiny camera mounted above this monitor captures the image of the
participant in the act of controlling Alice. By folding this image into
Alice's view, images uploaded to the Web express the dynamic of control as
it is played out between participants in physical space and cyberspace.
CONTROL
Alice Sat Here demonstrates the notion of control, which is central to
interactive media. The installation creates an arena, reminiscent of
Lewis Carroll's Wonderland, in which visitors from different dimensions
can meet and interact with one another. Indeed, when Alice first finds
herself at the bottom of the rabbit hole, she peeks through a passageway
into a fantastic garden.
"How she longed to get out of that dark hall, and wander about among those
beds of bright flowers and those cool fountains, but she could not even
get her head through the doorway; 'and even if my head would go through,'
thought poor Alice, 'it would be of very little use without my
shoulders.'"[1]
Carroll's evocation, in 1865, of Alice's predicament is oddly prescient of
frustrations Web surfers experience today. As often as we feel that
there's a transcendent world just beyond the monitor screen, we're
frustrated that our only points of contact with it are our cerebra and our
mouse clicks. If only we could break through the glass and experience it.
But even if we could get our heads in there, what good are our heads
without our shoulders?
INTERACTION
Alice Sat Here, an installation at the intersection between physical and
cyber space, was first shown at Ricco/Maresca Gallery's CODE show in New
York City in 1995. Visitors to the installation underwent an undirected
process of experimentation, discovery, and play which is difficult to
implement in screen-based computer-human interfaces. Not surprisingly, it
was children who allowed themselves most license with this
process--peering in through the monitor on the street and then hamming it
up once they realized they too were on camera, and, once inside, climbing
gleefully aboard the throne and taking it for a ride. Though more
inhibited around the throne, many adults still allowed themselves to be
transported as they gradually discovered the installation's multiple
dimensions. Our clues to this process were encoded in body language and
captured on videotape: cautious approach, furrowed brow, tentative
outstretched hand--then a smile, laughter, and reaching to share the
discovery with a friend.
IMPLEMENTATION
Alice 1
Users clicked on an imagemap on the Web to send directions (e.g. up, down)
to the camera. These commands were received by a gateway server at NYU
and transmitted to a network server (with a SLIP/PPP connection) at the
gallery. A device interfaced with the parallel port converted the signals
coming out of the computer into voltages which were sent via AM radio from
an altered radio controller. (The voltage corresponded to the amount
which would be output by manipulating the levers on the controller.) The
radio signals, received at the camera, rotated the servos, translating
into camera pan and tilt. A video transmitter sent video from the
throne's camera to another server at the gallery, which displayed it on a
monitor in the front window in real time, sent it to the pointing
motor/network server, and from there to the gateway server, where it was
made available to Web users.
Alice 2
The system has been revised in an attempt to limit noise and interference
with the camera's remote control. An FM radio interfaced directly to the
server is being used to transmit six states over the radio: left, right,
up, down, in, and out. (A zoom function has been added.) The functions
previously performed by two PCs at the gallery have been consolidated onto
one.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Design Engineer Fred Hansen, of NYU's Center for Advanced Technology,
designed and fabricated the servo-controlled unit for Alice 1's camera, in
addition to the mounting and powering of all accessories to Alice's
Throne. David Bacon and Toto Paxia, graduate students at NYU's Computer
Science Department, collaborated in the design and implementation of
Alice's client/server architecture. Paxia also designed and built the
device control system for Alice 1. Bacon designed the Web interface.
Mechanical Engineer Roel Hammerschlag and Electrical Engineer Vlad
Sumarokov, of Digital Image Design Incorporated, executed the revisions
for Alice 2. We thank Brad Paley, President of Digital Image Design, for
his interest in the project. We thank Professor Ken Perlin, Director of
the Center for Advanced Technology; Professor Jacob T. Schwartz, Founding
Director; Cynthia Allen, Program Coordinator; and Arthur Johnson, System
Administrator, for their consistent support. Thanks to MicroTouch for
donation of TouchPads and monitors.
REFERENCES
1. Carroll, Lewis. Alice in Wonderland, p. 30.
CHI 97 Electronic Publications: Demonstrations
