I went to the Tin Sheds show opening. A few interesting conversations with arch lecturers and a guy who turns-up for the free wine. The artwork was rather boring and the technology not quite up to scratch. E.g. PhotoShop where 3D model with reflections would have been more effective.

But here comes the the reason I’m posting. I see the ‘Processing’ book on the drinks table. So I turn to a girl standing near and go: “This, must be your book” She says: “How did you know?” Me: “Just a guess.” She: “Do you use Processing?”….. (We talk a bit and I’m thinking, this is just why I’m carrying the laptop.)

I strapped the Wii Remote and Nunchuck to her arm (a few people give us strange looks – we are standing at the bar table), but everything goes better than I expected, even a cool dude hanging around the bar girl becomes intrigued. At first by my tactics more than the Motor Reflections visualisation, but when she asked me to remove the Wii because she had to meet someone, he began to glance at the screen. Between the scratchy Velcro sounds, which made him look at us struggling with the straps, he tried to make some sense of the visualisation. We talked about the Wii once she walked off, but I kept thinking of the questioner.

On the way out, I saw her sitting with a young guy behind the Wilkinson, so there I try my charm again: “Would you do my questioner Kathryn?” (not sure if I remember the name now) She: “How about next week, will you be here?” Me: “Not really, how about now?” (If the report wasn’t due, I may have gone along with her suggestion.) And I thought I was wasting time.

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For examples of other people strapping Wii Remotes to unsuspecting subjects see: ‘Wii Dog’
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSdn4zRPydU and ‘Wii dog vs cat’ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LP5XGe59wDU
On a more serious note, Boston Dynamics’ ‘Big Dog’ is worth a look at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1czBcnX1Ww and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkoCIu9mBMM&NR=1 also AKIBA ROBOT FESTIVAL 2006: Actroid Female Robot http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbFFs4DHWys&feature=related if you have the time.

infophile aka Piotr