Gizmodo
Plugging right in to that eerie "they're watching me" feeling you're supposed to get from normal portrait paintings, Opto-Isolator is an artwork that takes the sensation into the scary, robotic 21st Century. Its realistic-looking eyeball actually responds to an onlooker's gaze with a bunch of human-like movements, including coy side-glances and blinks. If the gallery doesn't creep you out enough, the video certainly will. UPDATED.
An inversion of the normal, the robot was designed by artist Golan Levin to tackle the questions of "What if artworks could know how we were looking at them? And, given this knowledge, how might they respond to us?" So, with some clever electronics, Opto-Isolator looks at its viewer eye-to-eye, dodges long stares and blinks exactly a second after the watcher does.
We've all known moments when eye contact with someone either goes right or horribly wrong, shivers go down your spine, and results are either a make-out session or a thump. Who knows what ogling a robot feels like? People who visited Opto-Isolator when it was shown recently in the Bitforms gallery, New York, I suppose. And any actor who's starred alongside Jim Henson's creatures.
Let's hope someone makes an Opto-Isolator app for cellphones. It would be totally cool to have on my BlackJack, and have it pop up unexpectedly, scaring the crap out of my wife, or freaking out the cat. Maybe other gadgets should be able to give us the eye—tell us which in the comments. [Flong via Oh Gizmo]
Update: We got hold of Opto-Isolator's creator, Golan Levin, and asked him some questions.
KE: What's that creepy shiny black body made of?
Golan: The exterior shell is a 3D print from an FDM machine, with an automotive paint job.
KE: What's inside?
Golan: ...just your usual servomotors and microcontrollers. It might be worth pointing out that the entire unit is self-contained, i.e., it houses a mini-ITX format dual-core Intel PC running custom computer vision software. The only cable coming in is for power. An Arduino microcontroller board (popular with artists and hobbyists) runs the servo-motors (there are 3 motors: x, y, eyelid).
KE: What kind of programing did you do to get it to identify people watching it?
Golan: The software is written in C++ using the OpenFrameworks.cc wrapper and OpenCV libraries for face detection.
KE: Are any of your other artworks inspired by the same idea as Opto-Isolator?
Golan: I'm currently working on a constellation of projects that are all concerned with the theme of gaze as a new mode of human-computer interaction. All of these projects respond in some way to how people look at them.
So there you go, folks: keep your eyes peeled for new eerie, eyeballing artworks sometime soon.
Comments
What is with the loud as hell blink noise?
Dude, they should build these into paintings and sell them, for that true Scooby-Doo castle effect. Seriously, I'd buy one!
This is so creepy.
I want a whole wall of those... so I can never sleep again!
"it has motion detectors built in"
"so does my ass! but i don't frame it and put it on a wall" - Bender, Futurama.
Needs a fork.
I would like to have this on my front door please.
This is what every eccentric recluse needs at his door, along with limited-AI conversation capabilities to chase away visitors.
Can't wait for Halloween!
freaky
@ps61318: So when someone knocks on your door, the eyeball would respond with "Tee chuta hhat yudd!"
The game WTF (work time fun) for PSP has something in it where the screen turns to eyes (with face). you can change between a bunch of different faces (cat and robot included). Moving the thumbstick makes the eyes move, and pressing L or R makes the respective eyes blink. They suggest holding it up to your face, facing outward, replacing your eyes. It's a lot of fun.
@lafond66: You know, I'm surprised that this doesn't already exist on the Wii. The WiiMote and Sensor Bar technology kind of makes this natural. If it does, someone let me know.
Wii want to make the children neurotic.
@ripfire4: Agreed.
First thing I thought of too for some reason.
I'm totally getting one for my guest room. That way, the family won't be so apt to stay with me when visiting town. Heh heh...
Now you just need to wire one of those teeny tiny fiber optic spy cameras in the eyeball and put it.. well, I'll let you figure out all the fun places you can put it.
creepily fun
Peeping cat has watchin' u!
I keep getting chills.. man this is freaky.
From the pictures, I thought the thing was going to be gigantic! Please make a huge one! It'd be even more freaky. Maybe lessen the noise of the blinking.
What a cool invention.
I need this at my front door.
Maybe then the Jehova's Witnesses will leave me alone.
put this in a solid black door and install an inferno and some speakers so when people knock the door a few time the eye opens looks at you an like its upset and then the inferno sound barrier kicks in while speakers pump out a booming voice that scream at the person and combine that with the pain field and you got yourself a full on gate to the nether realms
@Y2KGTP:
Totally agree! The loud and fast blinking eye is annoying. The eye should blink in a more natural way; slower and silent for full creepy effect.
@ripfire4:
"Artoo Detoowha bo Seetheepiowha ey toota odd mishka Jabba du Hutt." :-) So true!
-Scott
even better kamenwati you do it wizard of oz style, have the entrance slightly enclosed so its darker than outside with a monolithic door; inset in the door is a completely darkened glass box that has this eye recessed in the darkness. And then you knock, gas starts shooting out of the ground in a circle around you, and The Inferno and the Pain Ray alternating with the voice of the James McCaffrey screaming with an incoherent rage at you. But thats only for the people who walk up to my house with a bible/koran/buddhist statue, because then I can laugh that they thought they were at judgement or their doom.
i like HAL better.
Quiet up that blink and I'd want one (hundred) of those to freak the fuck out of... well, everybody.
I'd put a couple in the bathrooms.
It would be better if the eye was 8" in diameter.
Definitly, but then it would be even louder. It would sound like a gunshot everytime the thing blinked.
Reminds me of that Judas Priest song: "electric eye"
Hmm, what's in her handbag, lipstick, hairbrush a giant eye...A giant Eye!
I N E E D this for my classroom! Someone please buy this for me. My high school students would freak out!
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