#mobilesingularity

My friends know I'm the one who tries every new app and reports back, so when the AI companion topic came up, everyone wanted my honest take. The short version: I keep recommending SweetDream. Not because the others are bad, ourdream.ai and the rest each have something going for them, but because sweetdream.ai nails the whole experience instead of one piece of it.

What I mean is, the character you build actually feels like yours, from her personality down to her voice. The chat is warm and remembers context. The generated photos and videos look like the same companion every time. And it all stays private, which lets you actually let your guard down.

Branding Personality: AR Finally On A Roll

Finally picked up what im doing with all these programs and making them work together to actually have something to present :D

Collaboration to learn:

There was another student named Kong who was doing Augment reality for his studio project as well. I was having a bit of difficulty making everything work and he helped clear things up with his limited knowledge. He was actually the one who guided me through using Vuforia with unity to get this result. My biggest issue was attempting to get a landing pad that registered instantly, to practice i was shown how to make a quick landing pad where the image would show up too.

What I got Part 1:

I decided to portray my idea in AR because its going to be a realistic way things will be advertised in the future, and I wanted to give a sense of what an ad will consist of when AR is used for simple commercial advertising. Last week i was familiarizing with programs and this week I’m testing to see what i can do with it. As you can see in the image above i haven't yet perfected the positioning but i have a decent sized image appearing on screen.

For part one i manged to get a my first example up and running on my phone. The aim in the image above is to show an older man, aim at the baby boomer generation who like to look well dressed when in public., with his AI companion all dressed up to compliment him and how he would be seen in public. The image has the robot all buttoned up and the man loosely shirted with the goal  to subtly imply youth to an older man by making the AI

Still to do:

I have gotten to the end of semester and looking back over the last twelve weeks I’m pleased that I have learnt some new skills, but I’m a little disappointed with the way things planned out towards the end due to a lack of time and talent. After setting everything up and planning around with the exhibition myself, I couldn't help but feel it was missing a main component to the project concept. 

After having to make changes to the boys robot, I knew the concept would become a little more difficult to visually present but it gave me new goals to reach for the next time. Although it does show the idea of using the robot as a personal branding accessory, it doesn't outrageously show to what extend this concept could change what is acceptable in society. Looking forward into the future I believe i have an idea that needs to just be portrayed in the correct manner. I thought getting the human and androids next to each other for a comparison was the key factor of this exhibition, but for the next exhibition i know to focus on showing the breaking and acceptance of conformity from different generations using a A.I. 

This was the last week I had to put work into my AR presentation, and to be honest I’m not very happy with the way the App visually turned out. I felt that the Augmented reality app didn't quiet articulate the idea in my head after the changing of clothing for the boy’s bot. After going through difficulty trying to clothe a model of a A.I wearing some crazy clothing, I decided that the boys bot should look similar to him for project timing purposes and to show a sibling kind bond. But after i had made the change, it messed up the dynamics of my project as it made the old man’s screen and the child’s screen visual screens look too similar.

Main updates:

- Put the arms of the men and A.I to their side - A AR landing pad with a purpose/added project info - Finalized what to do with the Boy’s A.I clothing - Play-tested my exhibition with family to see if they understood it

PLAY-TESTING:

When this app was shown to my sister with a poster and statements, she said she could barely understand what the point of the AR  visuals were because the visual content is useless unless you read the poster first. This hit me hard and I attempted to learn from my mistakes, but in the end i had no other choice but to update what the audience will see on the device instead of focusing on what is projected on the AR app. 

I attempted to change the color of the boys A.I multiple times to random colors, but according to my sister ‘the effect was even worse than having the two screen looking similar’. I then made a call based on time left for this project and my skills to stop extra work on the actual AR models as they are and focus on the landing pad to attempt to get my idea across without cluttering the page. 

SACRIFICES:

In the end i must admit i took the wrong approach with attempting to express my idea with the changing of generations with their A.I. If i had play-tested a little bit sooner i would have seen that the project would of made better sense if it was just an A.I that changed clothing as you swiped the screen. The only options available to visually improve communication of my project is by playing around with a landing pad that works hand in hand with the poster and makes sense when the models pop up.

AR Development Part 3

Difficulties Madness:

In between play test 2-3, the entire thing turned to shit where nothing was showing up at all. I made the call to restart the same idea but piece by piece to figure out why it wasn't showing up. When I had the elderly man and the middle aged man pop up everything was working fine, so i believe the issue began with what i was trying to assign the boy’s A.I to it’s position . 

I had a peacock style costume on the boy’s A.I but i believe the image might have been too big for the landing pad. Although the problem is not reveling itself i managed to get everything to show up as well as the scrolling up and down to work perfectly with the costume change of the boy.

The image on the left also shows glitches that happened only when i was on the boy’s page. The other screens where registering the men and their bots perfectly from this same angel but when it got to the boys page, this would happen. This was what put my mind at ease when it came to finding the issue because at least now i know it was 1 of the 3 screens glitching out only.

ISSUES PART 2:

Okay so now that i have everything working i need to do something about the screen with the boy because his bot is no longer showing what I need it to show. The aim was to get the child's bot to be dressed outrageously, but due to the issues addressed above, all i know the solution is to change the clothing on the boys bot. 

AR Development Part 2

I learnt a fair bit in this part of the process mostly because I couldn't get the AR to do what I wanted it to do when there where multiple pages to scroll around. By play test 2 I had done the human images with the robot next to them but i couldn't get the pages to change after it had been changed once. 

I also managed to get the app to show the child + bot screen except it would not stay up long enough to screen shot. I believe the robot on the boy page is apart of the issue as the image of the robot wouldn't load up properly

For Next Play Test:

In one of my past posts, I referenced a YouTube video of AR technology working with 3D printings to elaborate the printings. After part one of getting use to AR I went and talked with Harry, who had a lot of experience with this AR technology.

My main concerns addressed with him was the amount of experience required to do an overlay of a 3D printing. Since he had tried 3D overlaying before, he very bluntly told me that we didn't have enough time for me to be learning how to overlay using AR. He also informed me the amount of bugs present in Vuforia because it is a new program, means there isn't even a 100% chance that it'll work on presentation day if the audience holds the device wrong.

These where two very valid reasons to consider for not doing it, but to prove it to myself i revisited my heart video and I understood what Harry was meaning when he said it might not even work. On the YouTube video there where too many instances where the Augmented Reality was failing at reading the 3D printed model and the people on the video where even saying how it has issues reading the image due to lighting and angling of the device camera.

What I took into consideration:

Visual research

I found a mostly visual book called “Foureyes” (Author : Alex Blanco, Chin Tay, Danny Simmons & Mino Kim) and it focuses on fashion in NZ showing how different outfits bring out the unique personalities of people. I looked into this book to research into how crazy some people are willing to dress and walk out on an average day and wanted to link it back to the project.

What i got from looking at a visual book, was that the outfits worn gave a subtle hint to the personalities of the models but they all still look socially acceptable. There where no people casually peacocking in the streets of NZ in outrageous outfits or anything, and I was a little disappointed to find these photos to be the most unique to relate back to personality. This just tells me NewZealand has a social standard to how we should be in public, But what if your robot companion was waiting for you to dress it up?

According to a Forbes article interviewing Clinical psychologist Dr. Jennifer Baumgartner, She states that ‘You can use your wardrobe to change how others perceive you—and even how you think about yourself’ (2). This tells me that when mankind begins dressing their A.I companions, there is going to be a bit of a change to what will be socially acceptable as there will be multiple A.I dressed (currently) inappropriately according to some. 

Once this happens i believe the fashion world will have a singularity revolution as designers can make the most outrageous clothing, knowing A.I will be only capable of wearing and presenting it to the public. Ultimately changing how people want to be seen in public with bots following them. Image a man walking around with 2 bots dressed in suits in the middle of summer, compared to having 2 bots dressed in a bikini in the middle of winter. Both give off different views on how the person would want to be seen dependent on how their entourage of bots present themselves.

Project update:

- Get a comparison happening between different eras. (use what i learnt from emotional branding about how the generations now vary)- how some form of professionalism use with clothing an A.I- Show a odd/outrageous/stupid AI to show how the younger generation would express themselves.

Refferences:

(1)   Blanco, A., Tay, C., Simmons, D., & Kim, M. (2013). Foureyes: New Zealand street style.

At the start of the second half of semester i wanted to aim for something like this to present on exhibition day, where i would 3D print a generic shoe shape and have an augmented overlay that changed the shoe when swiped down and up . How i planned to show branding singularity through this was to give the idea that people will want to see their options up close and personal even if they're behind a screen.

The Singularity issue:

So this was a great idea except it inst really a singularity related because obviously this is where technology is going when it comes to shopping (especially online). So i had to attempt to think one step further to relate this project to first milestone of singularity known to man, which is where the idea to brand for exposure on Artificial intelligence came to mind.

I wanted to get a 3D printed model of a man and the have a AR robot pop up behind the model looking as its companion. When you swiped up or down the image of the A.I behind the man would change clothes to express the idea that people will dress the same thing very differently.  Then i ran into my first two problems with what i wanted the final out come to be. Originally i wanted the printed figure to be about 6 inches tall so it could be the center piece of my exhibition, with my phone being used to look at the AR. Because i am learning about 2 new programs to get the AR happening it became a bit stressful trying to figure out how to print a model. So i skipped a step and attempted to get an AR image to register to a drink bottle that would be the size of my printed product. i had many failed attempts at trying to get the AR to lock on to the image of the bottle and when i finally did get something to show it was a 5th of the size and half stuck on the bottle.

So What...