AGENTS
TOWARD PLAYFUL MACHINES AND CURIOUS AGENTS
HRI RESEARCH
BY MILOS ROGLIC
OPEN CALL
TOOLS
YEAR
LINK
Medialab Prado, Madrid, ProgramaLaPlaza
Processing, Processing.js
2014
code
The Open Call invited creative coders to come up with exciting sketches or interactive pieces. I loved that tracking people allowed us to integrate a social aspect, and I made an effort to design gameplay in such a way that it encouraged complete strangers to collaborate closely and even hug each other.
The gameplay is simple: Humans compete against Robots to hold a light for as long as possible. At the start of the game, the light is placed at the center of the stage. Players can pass the light to each other upon colliding, and opponents can steal the light. Every player has a “time of immunity,” during which the light cannot be stolen or passed. If players leave the stage while holding the light, it will be dropped at that position until someone else picks it up. The player who holds the light longest wins.
As a side note, I wasn’t able to go to Madrid to see this game running, but I luckily got some positive feedback from my teachers from School of Machines, Making & Make-Believe who coincidentally happened to be a developer for the tracking part at Medialab Prado.
I already used the same principle of shadow calculation in ActionScript (above) several years before this project.
People tracking was provided as API by Medialab Prado.
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