13 June 2008

Shadows flickering by, via light bars

One idea: simulate the effect of seeing shadows flash past in a hallway, via a set of light-bars on a hallway wall. As people walk down the distant hallway, sensors in their light-bars detect their passing. Your local light bars flash off in sequence, to give the impression of a person passing by.

It's as if someone has joined the two hallways with a series of thin, vertical, translucent windows. Something like you might find at an airport.

The idea is that this is one way of creating a basic distant awareness: the feeling that there are people around you, yet very little more. It might be something like walking through an airport - would it be comforting to be aware of others, or disturbing to be aware of the proximity of strangers?

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