Biometric Identity
An interactive exhibit that creates a visual identity using visitors biometric data, created for Wellcome Collection at Ico Design.
The Wellcome Collection is a major new public venue for London. Ico Design were commissioned to design and produce interactive installations that would intrigue visitors and cause users to question preconceived ideas of biomedical data and what it means to be human.
The brief for this permanent exhibit was to create a biometric identity, a visual representation of a visitor generated by their bodies data.
Outcome
The visitor uses the touchscreen to go through a step by step process of building up their visual identity. First their pulse is taken, then their fingerprint scanned, height measured, age entered and iris photographed. At each stage the visitor can see how their data is constructing the logo graphic. Various attributes are designed based on the data, such as shape type, line thickness, fingerprint rings and colours from the iris scan. Visitors can then compare their identity to others created previously.
Finally you can email your results to yourself or a friend. The visitor could print their identity on to t-shirts, use in mobile phone wallpapers, Myspace icons or as a tattoo in Second Life.
Behind the interactive is a large attractor screen that shows a visualization of various biometric identities, how they were constructed and how they group together.
My role
Technical lead on the project. This included writing all software, specifying hardware and sensors, microcontroller programming, advising on mounting, circuit design, specifying database development and overseeing attractor screen development, install and robust testing.
The interactive software was programmed in Adobe Director. Arduino was used for height sensor inputs and to fade the LEDs behind the white corian surface. The exhibit used two connected computers, one to run the interactive and the other for the attractor screen animation. Images were automatically formatted for online publishing and for display on attractor screen.
Jul 2007
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