NODEM 2014 Proceedings

The Whisperers: An Interactive Exhibition. Using Voice as Navigation for an Experiential Interface in a Museum Environment
Figure 5. Façade of “The Whisperers” showing openings of windows, pipes fabricated
from iron, floor vents, and miniature windows
In addition to audio, the outputs of the whispering also reveal some of the walls to be translucent: a whispers
enacts a light, and the light will reveal wall(s) with silhouettes of a family sitting at a dinner table, two people
whispering, some individual walking. This will be accomplished with several media: with a LCD display mounted
inside the scale model or an electroluminescent panel showing a silhouette of the action above. Also to be
triggered is additional audio aside of an echo: mp3’s of someone typing and as the user approaches the reveal,
the audio senses the motion and changes to someone listening to a forbidden broadcast, etc.
In addition, whispering further reveals walls that become video: shot from a birds-eye perspective, peering
at action through a hole, glimpsing fights in doorways, lovers secretly seen from an above vent in bed. When
a user whispers, the idea of a whisper revealing a secret, something meant to be unseen and unknown, is
immediately displayed. An important part of the UX is the complete and immediate cessation of the “secret”
once the speaking stops. This involved technology with the applications of Jitter and MAX MSP code, the
microcontroller of Arduino and its associated C++ language, a firewire interface to separate inputs/outputs
into channels, amplifiers, and hidden mics. This technology uses Jitter to flutter the enaction of the video only
started and stopped with voice. The hope is for the user to experience whispering as to reveal guilty actions,
hidden truths, acts against “the people.” A whisperer can cause trouble, display who is guilty of espionage, and
sell another family friend, neighbor, and loved one to the KGB. n important part of this interaction is a set of
the volume of the microphone at a cap: any user voice louder than a whisper will not cause any action or reaction.
This is a decibel threshold. A whisper or low voice at a certain level would be vital for this activity. The user
must also be in close proximity to the amplifying microphone. This filters out the background noise around
the model.
Some of the imagery of the reveals are not to scale: the exterior scale does not match the interior scale. The
user should be allowed to experience a sense of darkness and peculiarity. One pipe opening at the top of the
project allows a whisper to reveal someone on the bottom floor or basement: a LCD display shows a video of
a Soviet individual shot from above listening to perhaps an other neighbor in a next compartment.
A video of this user scenario may be seen at: http://christopherkoelsch.com/whisperers.html.
NODEM 2014 Conference & Expo
109