The creation you see above is the work of art student [Daniel Bertner] who is wrapping up his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He calls the incredibly intriguing, yet somewhat disturbing device “TIM”, which is short for Tracking Interactive Mechanism.
A culmination of different projects he has tinkered with over the last year or so, TIM is an interactive delta bot with an attitude. Mounted on the wall of the Art Institute’s Sullivan Galleries, TIM is as interested in you as you are in it. While passers by investigate the curious device, it watches them back, following their every movement.
The robot’s motors are controlled using an Arduino, and its ability to track people standing nearby is provided via a video stream processed with Open CV.
It really is a cool project, and we think it would make for an awesome prop in some sci-fi horror flick. Check out the video below to see TIM’s personality in action – he doesn’t like it when people stand too close!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=-nO5cowkg4M&w=470]
cool idea, but I can’t see it perform like deltas usually do.
put up the face of aphex twin on that screen
Give it two more monitors with eyes on them, say it’s from the Big MT. Instant New Vegas win.
Oh Gawd, it looks like something out of 12 Monkeys!
More like something out of a “Hellraiser” movie.
creepy. especially when you get close.
and if you turn TIM(Tracking Interactive Machine) around, you get MIT(Massachusetts Institute of Technology (for those who don’t know)) I wonder why he named it that.
You’d think a fine arts student would know better than to use grey text on a grey background…
didnt learn that in art school :p
Does it track using video.. or Cadmium Sulfide (light) cells.. I saw one of those in the build video.
Tweeks
is it me or did it try to lick someone?
Looks like a bad copy of an Alan Rath sculpture.
Appropriation ?