An endangered blue-footed booby appears suspended in mid-air, accompanied by a soundtrack and narration. The wave of a hand over a contactless sensor sees the bird disappear and brings another species into view.<\/p>\n
It sounds like a scene from a science fiction movie, instead of a sight available in Brock\u2019s Digital Scholarship Lab.<\/p>\n
Dubbed \u201cProject Mammoth,\u201d the hologram installation created by 12 Interactive Arts and Sciences students uses technology to provoke thought about eight endangered animals.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe wanted to do something educational and bring awareness to the fact that we are not the only beings who share this planet,\u201d says Tany Dourev, a student in IASC 3F02 \u2014 Interactive Media Practices, Prototyping and Production. \u201cInstallations have a lot of power to educate people, as long as you\u2019re willing to listen and understand what is being taught.\u201d<\/p>\n
Students in the course explore design concepts and best practices while creating an interactive project. To tackle their assignment, the class divided into two groups, with half developing a game and the other half undertaking the hologram.<\/p>\n
\u201cA hologram projector sounds like science fiction, but our students are able to make all this a reality,\u201d says Associate Professor Aaron Mauro, the course\u2019s instructor. “Our students are building an interactive digital media object, which includes digital displays, embedded computing, open-source software and hardware, as well as additive manufacturing.\u201d<\/p>\n
The project, which involves building both physical and digital user interfaces, was proposed, designed and created by the students.<\/p>\n
Building the hologram drew on many different skills, including using math and physics to build the prism and set up the projector, coding, art and sound design, 3D printing, and woodworking to create the physical hologram.<\/p>\n