neufuture » interactive

Networked Chessboard

Michael — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 03:44:58 +0000

photo by Tom Igoe

Michael Lewis proposed an idea for creating a physical chess board that can be linked to the online world. I had bounced a similar idea a while back when working on the augmented reality table for Hackday NYC. I imagined using fiduciary markers as modular playing pieces with a screen based system. This would allow an unlimited number of games you could play. For this project though we decided to take a more conservative approach that upheld the aesthetics and materiality of the timeless game of chess.

One of the exciting advents for the game of chess is that it’s expanded to an online environment where players from different countries and across many miles can now meet on the Web and play in tournaments or with family and friends. However one of the difficulties with online chess is that players still lose certain qualities that you get with the physical board. Our game brings these two worlds together by allowing players to see on a physical chess board what moves their online opponent player is making. In our discussions with chess venues near NYU players mentioned that this could have great value for teachers as well as be an innovative development for the game. Something that is unique about our board is that it doesn’t require expensive technology such as projection and tracking as do other augment reality chess boards.

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Michael — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 22:24:02 +0000

The future of bar tending is NOW.

Juncture LA

Michael — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 19:00:23 +0000

Juncture Website
“Juncture is a participatory, public space, media environment about historical memory, cultural identity, and collective recognition in Los Angeles. The core content component of the environment is the Remapping-LA interpretive media database, containing thousands of historical images, videos, and sounds enriched by layers of metadata including temporal and geographical information, descriptive texts, and extensive tagging…”

“Junction is a colaboration between REMAP/UCLA, California State Parks, Walt Disney Imagineering, and CENS/UCLA.”

I took part in this project after being involved with REMAP during my final semester at UCLA. My contributions included creating some of the original interface mock-ups, being part of creative discussions, and producing the designs for publicity (website/postcard). On the website you can find more information about the project itself.

The concept for the website was to closely tie the design to the project itself and the themes of space, time, and community. I also wanted to showcase the vast image and data library of Los Angeles history put together by REMAP. This lead me to create a website that randomly picked an image from a small selection of the library and overlaid information extracted from the meta data from that image. Each time you visited the website you would be therefore transported to a new marker in Los Angeles history.

I kept with this same concept for the postcard and choose two images that I felt most representative to the project. The backside contained further location information and used graphics to convey a sense of physical architecture.

The project was documented by creating a “memory map” that contained snippets from various quotes and photographs take over the course of the project. These snippets were put in a grid styled reminiscent of late 20th century road maps.

The opening and exhibition was a success, attended by the mayor and other community leaders. There are plans to work on future projects with REMAP in the near future.

Articles:
UCLA Today