Ecoid Project 2.0 « thelockwood | Dan Lockwood | Web & Graphic Designer

15Apr/120

Ecoid Project 2.0

The project is an extension of the original Ecoid visualisation that used the data provided from the DAT Ecoid Project to create a biologically inspired, visual representation by getting each individual Ecoid’s data and displaying it as an object similar in appearance to a cell made earlier in the DAT302 module. Like the earlier project the base idea is to create an interesting visualisation for the Ecoid system using the live data that is available. Its cell’s “biology” will be altered by the different data modules such as light, temperature, humidity, stretch, time the data was taken, its GPS coordinates and which number Ecoid it is. We wish to use the final project to further develop the original visualisation to create a second version which furthers the biologically inspired aspect of the original and create a more dynamic and ecosystem-like visualisation.

Development:

To develop the ideas behind our project, we intend to build upon a previous project, “The Ecoid Project”, we created within this module. Our original project used a few of the Ecoids and created a static environment for them to be displayed.

Our expansion on the initial project will first of all improve and fix bugs we had first time round. Then we hope to change some of the Ecoid outcomes. One instance is that instead of the temperature affecting the ‘shaking’ of the Ecoid, it will become a hotspot and “attract” the colder Ecoids, like them “huddling for warmth”.

Another expansion will be to give the Ecoid’s some kind of AI system allowing them to interact with one another and allowing them to continue “growing” the longer they are producing similar results.

We wish to explore the use of live feeds, Processing and data visualisations to ultimately produce something that can be used to display the health of all of the Ecoids in a way that is visually interesting to both people that are working on the project analysing the data and to strangers to the project.

After discussing which directions we would like the second version of this project we brainstormed ideas and came up with the following notes:

Variables: (High/Low).

Light
- Outer ecoid radius size.
Temperature
- Become hotspot.
- Go to warmer ecoids.
Humidity
- Size of ecoid.
Stretch
- Bubble background.
  - ADD VALUE?
Date
- Remain alive, ‘looks healthier’.
- If not used, die.
GPS
- Starting location on screen on map view.
Number ecoid
- Starting location on screen on grid view.

Improvements:

Have ‘colder’ ecoids to huddle around ‘warmer’ ecoids.
Starting position mapped onto screen according to GPS coordinates.
Cell animation.

Additions:

Equal humidity value to size of ecoid.
Add AI system so that they can travel around.
- Can bump into each other.
- Wonder around the page aimlessly.
If ecoid is down, slowly fade into grey and finally disappear.
Evolutionary traits (See evolution).
Map view.

Shows ecoid on map with x and y coordinates equal to GPS values.

Grid/Statistics view.
- Show ecoids in order of selected value.

“Evolution”:

Upon ecoids being consistently equal to a similar value (e.g. always hot/never light), ecoid will change further and ‘evolve’. Suggestions for added traits:

Extra change in colours.
Movement is different.
Heavier and will knock others away from it. (If AI implemented)
Speed of ecoid changes.
Transparency changes.
Changes state (solid/jelly).

Plan of Work:

Production Timetable; plan of work and time scale for developing and completing the project.

Output:

The foreseen end result of the project is that we will have a visualisation that displays the Ecoid data sets in a biologically influenced manner. It should act as a semi-simulative visualisation that acts upon the ecoid ‘cells’ to create a visualisation ‘ecosystem’. The visualisation should be able to make people think about the data gathered differently from simple statistics.

- The anticipated outcome of our project is that we have a visualisation that can be used as a tool to analyse the data gathered via RSS feeds from the Ecoids for the use of developers and interested onlookers.

- It will also act as an educational tool for the schools that some of the Ecoids will be placed to show the development or patterns of the eco system around.

- It can also be useful to people interested in eco science and would like to see the information in a way better suited to more visual learners, using colours and shapes rather than numbers and symbols.

Criteria:

We will produce a sophisticated visualisation of the data gathered from the Ecoid project that DAT is currently undertaking. It will display data in a new way that will simulate the data in its own self-contained eco-system which will allow the Ecoids to take on “life” and interact with each other. While on face value this project will appear to be just a visualisation, it will be in fact a simulation of the data as if they had organic characteristics. It is a large improvement on a previous session in which we created a very basic version of this.

We will be using our technical skills to display the information using the RSS feeds from the Ecoids that will be/have been deployed around the South West and inputting them into Processing, using several additional libraries to enhance both its look, performance and ability. Our conceptual skills will be present as we are using the data as I mentioned previously as a biologically inspired and influenced simulation designed to give the data more life and hopefully make the information easier to analyse.

References:

The Blind Watchmaker:

http://www.phy.syr.edu/courses/mirror/biomorph/

Spore Prototypes (Net City, Cell Culture):

http://www.spore.com/comm/prototypes

Lindenmayer System:

http://www.biologie.uni-hamburg.de/b-online/e28_3/lsys.html

http://www.erase.net/projects/l-systems/

Processing Libraries:

http://mrfeinberg.com/peasycam/

http://ekeneijeoma.com/processing/ijeomamotion/

http://www.leebyron.com/else/shapetween/#