Assignment: Final Project 1: Progress Report
Collaborators:
For my final project, I would like to explore the use of face detection as a way of augmenting peripheral awareness. The human face is very unique and it has been studied extensively in the field of psychology. Infants are able to recognize a human face and mimic it from a young age, and our brains are hard-wired to recognize faces everywhere we look. The human face can represent attention, among other things.
There are many uses of face detection, some of which have been applied towards graphical user interfaces, and there have been projects where face detection has been used to play computer games and to interact with mobile devices. I would like to take a different approach with face detection and use it as a form of ambient media, to become more socially aware of one's environment.
One project that I refer to is the Haptic Radar (http://www.k2.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp/perception/HapticRadar/index-e.html). This is a system in which "optical hairs" have been used to help detect nearby objects, and then the sensed data used to provide haptic feedback to help avoid collision. It acts as an "enhanced skin", or to borrow from the Marvel comic, "Spider-sense", a reference to Spiderman's superhuman reflexes. What I am thinking of is to produce a face detection version of such a system in which a person becomes more aware of when others are looking at them. This can be valuable in a number of situations.
- Suppose you are working at a public computer terminal, and you are about to work on some sensitive information, it would help to know if someone is looking at you when you are about to use the system.
- For myself personally, it is difficult to know if someone is trying to get my attention because I can't hear them well. If in a crowded situation and someone were to be looking at me directly, then I could be alerted in their direction.
- When an grade school teacher is trying to teach a class, it can be helpful to have an idea of who is paying attention and who is not. It is desirable for a teacher to be able to have a student's attention, and if not, then the teacher should provide proper reprimand.
- In crowded situations or in public, knowing whether you have someone's attention can be a means of self-defense if a would-be attacker might be following you.
From a GUI perspective, face detection could be useful as well if the computer needs your attention for a task. If a user is not actively looking at the computer, it could pause and save energy, or if the user is in an instant-messaging application, the other party could be informed that the user is not present.
Another potential use of face detection is if you are given a task to look at a particular object, and then you would be notified if you have been looking at the right object (could be applicable to star-gazing?).
For the purposes of this final project, I would require some small webcams, and possibly some vibrators. The vibrators could alternatively be replaced with LEDs for a different feedback system.
