Outcome

Perspective

Perspective uses the frequency of google searches to help users understand the larger discourse people are having in different areas. It brings to attention the important conversations going on in the city of Pittsburgh by default, and lets users learn about topics they are interested in as well as see how the regional conversations translates to a larger level.

An acrylic-LED display would be installed on both sides of the tunnel inside the glass panels. These displays would display abstracted color-density maps of issues currently going on in the city of Pittsburgh.

User experience

The user would be able to notice movement in the tunnel periodically without having to enter the tunnel, this draws the user towards to tunnel. Once the user enters the tunnel, they would be able to see the color and height changing, mapping areas nearby in an abstract fashion. 

The 8s refresh time gives the illusion of the display constantly being in motion, creating a joyous experience for the users passing by, as well as giving some insight into the outside world, without requiring any input by the users. 

From the exterior, the users would see Pittsburgh related issues rotating by default, and more interesting rotations when users indoors are interacting with the system, providing entertainment value in guessing what the subject keyword might be for a certain cycle.

Passive interaction

The system looks for the most popular search topics in a 50 mile radius every 8s, stores the first 10 results, and randomly chooses one from these results. 

Using IP addresses, the system maps out the frequency density in the search area, and translates these data into height information and remaps them into colors on the spectrum. Every cycle of the process gives the user a new set of data that's visualized three-dimensionally on the acrylic-LED low-res display. 

Without any user input, the system cycles through the results provided by google in real time.

Active participation

Users can choose to engage with the system simply by speaking into the ambient microphones that are linked to a google assistant. The users would be able to manipulate the scale and topic represented on the interactive display.

The user input would be able to change the scale represented on the interactive display using keywords such as "Pittsburgh", "the US" or "the world", and the acrylic-LED display would refresh based on the user input. 

Other keywords such as "music", "environment" would change the keyword topic represented on the display in its next cycle. 

BOM

• 10 microphones throughout the tunnel
  
• A google assistant activated device
• Acrylic rods (0.25'' < r < 0.5'')
• Grid supporting network of acrylic rods
• Motors controlling extrude height of acrylic
• LED strips or grid embedded in support grid