The Empathy Dome or "ED" is an interactive, immersive, video installation in which the participant has a dialog with an avatar that stimulates an empathetic response.
ED is intended to be used in sites all over the world in many different cultures. Ed will be installed in many different public and private spaces such as museums and schools. A particularly interesting and intriguing space is airports. Talk about a captive audience.
Conceptual Design
ED aims towards empathy and cross-cultural dialogue will be explored using new media practices The abilities of the newest technologies for virtual representation, sensual stimulation and interactivity in electronic systems are so wide and varied potentially have huge impact on an individual. Through ED, we want to explore in a particular way, using these technologies to induce empathy and cross cultural communication.
This work investigates meanings and the pragmatic use of terms particularly important to the field of new media art practices such as; embodiment, virtuality, immersion, emergence and interactivity.
Also, ED inspires more universal questions. If we have the ability to measure physiological empathetic responses then we can see when it doesn’t happen such as in autistic children. Will this lead us down the path to be able to fix or reprogram these cases? Also, ED encourages questions concerning can and how does an interactive exchange without human contract evoke a genuine emotional response?
In our world of ever increasing conflict, there is an overwhelming need for people to understand each other. ED aims towards the generation of empathy will help serve societies entrenched in conflicts of various sorts.
Design constraints: Scanning face, Reading physiology reactions showing empathy, Dialog with avatar.
Design process: how it functions and evolves
Description of key features Scenarios - Provide concrete example (or two) of how your project will engage users/participants/audience
Design documents - mock-ups, visualizations, flowcharts Technical specifications (space, equipment, power, materials, security arrangements)
When the participant lies down in the dome motion detectors are triggered and the sky slowly brightens and sounds of nature turn up. There is a specific location within the cushions with an indentation for head placement. The participant’s face is scanned for facial feature dimensions will either run through a morphing program or find a similar face among the video library database. Also, the eyes will be tracked.
The 180 degree projector is hidden within the cushions and is in the middle of dome on the floor for a full panoramic projection. Within this same area are speakers and scent generators.
A voice will ask the viewer if they are comfortable. If they have ever talked to a virtual avatar before. The computer also asks the Viewer have they feel. The participant's replies will be run through a program for voice stress and their voice will be recorded.
From the data collected, the avatar is produced in real time and projected upon the top of the dome reminiscent of a picture of Jesus in a Byzantine copula. Now, the avatar both looks and sounds like the participant.
Scenerio to be inserted here
Dependent upon the emotional state of the participant culled from the various biometric readings and the conversation base human computer interaction, a story is generated. The narrative with hyperlinked videos is generated through an algorithmic program that presents a situation in which a decision must be made for an action that may appear immoral. Perhaps, the narrative is generated that tells the story of the man that must steal the bed to feed the starving family. The participant realizes that they also would steal the bread under those circumstances. An empathetic physical response is manifested if the participant.
Biometric recording devices within the system such as, brain waves and heart rate, voice tension to eye movement, will be used for this to project capture and record the date. For example, the participant’s head is cradled gently in an EEG that is specifically programmed to specific places in the brain that have the mirror neurons.
Insert Matt's schematic here.
Insert or See ED Schedule
In this section I need to breakdown my project in smaller pieces,
1.) The script and writing dialogue that can inspire empathy drawing on Aristotle's philosophy and history of theater.
2.) Film interviews with subjects of diverse physiological features and interesting cultural stories.
3.) Finding the programs that can read a face and morph that face into another ethnicity while retaining the participant's features.
4.) Creating a seamless interface for conversing with a avatar and participant, using tagging "jitter" program to cue various video selection matched with the participants spoken words and biometric readings.
5.) Apparatuses for reading biometric empathetic responses and recording the data. This may be as simple measuring the amount of time they look or speak by tracking the participant’s eyes, reading the voice stress levels to skin.
6.) Create the "igloo" virtual reality space.
Many of these elements can be worked upon concurrently.
Total and individual times needed for conceptual design, prototyping, construction, presentation, and documentation Number of people needed for various parts of development and how long each is required Identify parts of project that can be developed concurrently and ones that must take place sequentially.
The Dome Space will be created by using air compression, blown papercrete. 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papercrete, and translucent thin material.
Panoramic Projection of video content will be created by using the cameras and specific projectors equipped with special lens that project in 180 defrees from Elumenati. The Avatar will be large and surrounded by clouds and sky from the top of the dome reminding the participant of Jesus Christ looking down upon them. Sounds of birds and insects would fill the igloo as well as a light breeze as the participant nestles within the pillows. http://www.elumenati.com/support/index.html
Facial Point Scanner - This component adds a dimension of familiarity to the avatar, Also, an audio recording would be taken of the participant and create the voice of the avatar
Hypertexting or Tagging the Video for Interactivity between the avatar characters and the participants.
Insert of See ED Budget
Canvas type material that is easily sewn and strong enough be air compressed. Spraying apparatus for papercrete. Pillows and cushions. Paint for best color for projection. Equipment - purchase & rentals Recording equipment of video and audio content and virtual person speaking 180 degree wide angle Projector Elumenati Facial Scanner Computer to run mathematics of face and morph face into another ethnicity and calculate facial dimensions and other biometric tools that follow eyes and other facial movements.
Writing the narrative that describes the series of vignettes that leads the avatar to a decision and an action. This is universally understood as THE decision anyone is the same position would make.
Video taping people speaking the script.
Creating the morphing Virtual Doppelganger.
Making the dome.
This is for development, installation/presentation, Strike Transportation / Shipping (including crate purchase or construction) Space rental (office, studio, and/or rehearsal space) Administration (postage, phone, printing) Publicity, Documentation (video, still image, sound), Salary - your time Contingency - safety amount if actual costs exceed estimates, usually 10%
Courchesne, Luc. The Construction of Experience: Turning Spectators into Visitors. New Screen Media, Cinema/Art/Narrative. Ed. Martin Rieser and Andrea Zapp. UK: British Film Institute, 2002. 256-266.
Manovich, Lev. The Language of New Media. Cambridge Massachusetts: MIT, 2001.
Burnett, Ron. How Images Think, Cambridge Massachusetts: MIT, 2004.
Grau, Oliver. Virtual Art, From Illusion to Immersion, Cambridge Massachusetts: MIT, 2003.
New Screen Media, Cinema/Art/Narrative. Ed. Martin Rieser and Andrea Zapp. UK: British Film Institute, 2002. 256-266.
Courchesne, Luc (January, 2002) Experiential Art: Case Study http://www.din.umontreal.ca/courchesne/
Tina Gonzalez – http://www.tinagonsalves.com/feelinside.html
Wright, Alexa, Linney, A (March 2006) The Art and Science of a Long Term Collaboration New Constellations, Sydney http://www.alteregoinstallation.co.uk/index.html
Study: People Literally Feel Pain of Others - mirror-touch synesthesia Live Science, 17 June 2007
http://www.peacemakergame.com/ http://www.darfurisdying.com/
http://www2.psychology.su.se/staff/jh/dissertation.pdf Hakansson, Jakob (2003) Exploring the Phenomena of Empathy by Department of Psychology, Stockholm University
http://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/19620/page1/?a=f
Find Douglas Olsen’s work Ickes 1997, 2003 for verification of Empathetic data conclusion. Carr, L., Iacoboni, M., Dubeau, M. C., Mazziotta, J. C., & Lenzi, G. L. (2003). Neural mechanisms of empathy in humans: A relay from neural systems for imitation to limbic areas. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 100(9), 5497-5502
de Vignemont, F., & Singer, T. (2006). The empathic brain: How, when and why? Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 10(10), 435-441
Gallese, V., Keysers, C., & Rizzolatti, G. (2004). A unifying view of the basis of social cognition. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 8(9), 396-403
Jackson, P.L., Brunet, E., Meltzoff, A.N., & Decety, J. (2006). Empathy examined through the neural mechanisms involved in imagining how I feel versus how you feel pain: An event-related fMRI study. Neuropsychologia, 44, 752-61.
Decety, J., & Jackson, P.L. (2004). The functional architecture of human empathy. Behavioral and Cognitive Neuroscience Reviews, 3, 71-100. Decety, J., & Lamm, C. (2006). Human empathy through the lens of social neuroscience. The Scientific World Journal, 6, 1146–1163.
Goldie, Peter (2000). The Emotions, A Philosophical Exploration. Clarendon Press, Oxford.
Håkansson, J., & Montgomery, H. (2003). Empathy as an interpersonal phenomenon. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 20(3), 267-284. Hoffman, M. L. (1978), "Empathy, Its Development and Prosocial Implications", in C. B. Keasey (ed.), Nebraska Symposium on Motivation, 25: 169-218. Lamm, C., Batson, C.D., & Decety, J. (2007). The neural basis of human empathy –
Effects of perspective-taking and cognitive appraisal. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 19, 42-58.
Lampert, K.(2005); Traditions of Compassion: From Religious Duty to Social Activism. Palgrave-Macmillan; ISBN 1-4039-8527-8
Levenson, R. W. and Reuf, A. M. (1997), "Physiological Aspects of Emotional Knowledge and Rapport", in W. Ickes (Ed.), Empathic Accuracy (New York: Guilford), 44-72. Rose Rosetree (2001), "Empowered by Empathy". Women's Intuition
Worldwide, ISBN 0-9651145-8-9. Stein, Edith (1917), "On the problem of empathy". ICS Publications, Washington, 1989, ISBN 0-935216-11-1
Evan Thompson (ed.)(2001), "Between Ourselves. Second-Person Issues in the Study of Consciousness", Imprint Academic, 2001 ISBN 0 907845 14 2; Journal of Consciousness studies, 8, number 5-7, 2001 ISSN 1355 8250
Program for narrative generation: http://www.korsakow.com/ is a movie narrative generator with video database program.
lan Turing, "Computing machinery and intelligence". Mind, vol. LIX, no. 236, October 1950, pp. 433-460.
S. G. Sterrett "Nested Algorithms and the 'Original Imitation Game Test'," Minds and Machines (2002). ISSN 0924-6495 Saygin, A.P. & Cicekli I (2002) Pragmatics in human-computer conversations, Journal of Pragmatics, Volume 34, Issue 3, March 2002, Pages 227-258. Robles-De-La-Torre G. (2006) The Importance of the Sense of Touch in Virtual and Real Environments. IEEE Multimedia 13(3), Special issue on Haptic User Interfaces for Multimedia Systems, pp. 24-30. Stanney, K. M. ed. (2002). Handbook of Virtual Environments: Design, Implementation, and Applications. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., Mahwah, New Jersey
http://inkido.indiana.edu/a100/handouts/cave_out.html The CAVE - Automatic
http://www.moscowcity.com/attractions/borodino.htm
Courchesne, Luc ed. (2002) the Visitor: Living by Numbers www.fondation-langlois.org / \ Gagnon, Jean (1995) Blind Date in Cyberspace or the Figure that Speaks, Artintact. — No. 2 (1995).
Courchesne, Luc (1993) Portraits interactifs (Ottawa : Musée des beaux-arts du Canada.
Courchesne, Luc (January, 2002) Experiential Art: Case Study http://www.din.umontreal.ca/courchesne/
Lloyd Turner – Architect/Artist/Inventor of Dome Building Technology
Valentin, D.,Abdi, H, Edelman, B., O'Toole A. (1997) Principal Component and Neural Network Analyses of Face Images: What Can Be Generalized in Gender Classification? Journal of Mathematical Psychology, 41, 398-412."
Wright, Alexa, Linney, A (March 2006) The Art and Science of a Long Term Collaboration New Constellations, Sydney http://www.alteregoinstallation.co.uk/index.htm
MUST FIND: Forensic Anthropology and Identification of the distinguishing characteristics of ethnicities of the World Faces.
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