An interactive installation, tapping into our common fear of being under surveillance. We were asked to create an experience to promote the CBS show ‘Person of Interest’ which has a prominent motif of people tracking and surveillance. The experience draws curiosity by displaying a large scale and complex interface, that appears to process a lot of data from many locations. When pedestrians stop by the screen, using face detection to notice them, the application pops up a video feed from a camera on top of the screen. Users get to see themselves, with face tracking frame, and pseudo information about them, attached to their face. Occasionally the main character from the show, also steps into the screen as if he is present on the street with the users. Users are prompted before their photo is taken, they can then text into a phone number to get access to their photo, and continue the experience on a facebook app. The facebook app organized the user’s profile info to generate a ‘classified file’ that shows how every movement of the user has been tracked.
This experience was meant to invoke awareness for privacy and surveillance issues, as does the TV show. Observing the responses of pedestrians in NYC, many people were disturbed by the appearance of such application in a public space. Many others found it amusing, and went through the whole flow, to share their ‘classified files’ on their facebook feed.
This project had an interesting integration of pre-rendered animations, alongside real time animations and interface elements. Introducing the challenge of designing and animating the whole screen layout and then integrating all the real time elements to display one coherent interface.
Read more about user experience and interaction design for this project
Produced by Inwindow Outdoor.
Broadway Ave, Manhattan.
The Inwindow Outdoor completion video