Checkpoint
To this point, I have mainly worked on understanding how everything connects and making the baselines work on my computer.
Toy 1: No Phone Rule
My first prototype aims to increase people’s awareness of the overuse of their phones and help them break free from this dependency. In this experiment, I used my phone camera as input. As long as the screen is black, Wekinator doesn't output anything. It produces a strident, very loud, and “unpleasant” sound whenever it is not anymore to indicate that the phone is being used.
(TL;DR: I’m so sick of seeing people unable to focus on ONE SINGLE task, including being in a conversation with another human being)
Toy 2: I Feel v2
For my second toy, I modified our previous sonic poem generator to respond to my facial expressions. The model was trained using only two types of facial expressions: sad and happy. Based on this input, the poem generator then interpolates between the words “sad” and “happy,” with some degree of randomness, to determine how “I feel”.
Toy 3: Is that you Whitney?
The model was trained on my face, mouth closed and mouth opened. The output video simply is someone opening their mouth. The model’s interpolation between mouth closed and opened is retargeted as a time start for the output video. The refresh frequency is high enough to obtain this.
Reflections
I really enjoyed prototyping these toys and exploring the creative possibilities. The ideas behind these toys naturally came to me based on my moods and what the starter codes inspired me. With just three “homeworks”, I felt as though I already had a toolkit with which to experiment and innovate. Despite its limitations and to my surprise, I found that Wekinator provided a suitable interface for modifying and assembling the various building blocks, allowing me to flow through the creative process with ease. I was truly amazed by what I was able to do with such “basic tools” and I am very excited seeing other people’s experiments!
Videos are available here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/147bQA2m6WgOnyQGRzu0wLn6GZQ0BebtC?usp=share_link
— Jean-Peïc Chou
