

How can physical cities allow us to experience the diversity and colorful lives of its inhabitants the way social media does?
Unlike VR, AR has a close relationship with the surrounding space. Because of this, there are unique opportunities for exploring connections between the social “spaces” of online media, and the environmental public spaces of cities
Spring 2020 (14weeks) at ArtCenter College of Design.
Execution:
Unity / Vuforia AR Software / Adobe Illustrator / Adobe Photoshop / Cinema 4D / xcode / RunwayML
# Mixed Reality
# Thesis project
# Psychogeography
#2 Collective images of the park
In this, a new type of small park with AR social media structures, among the same park group share some visual languages. As you walk through this small park you can see various social media feeds posted by local residences. Each park has unique patterns generated from mixed features of whole park accounts’ photos.
In the physical public park individuals' activity contributing to the image of the park. How this public park itself characteristic and individuality of social media character can be merged? This system tries to merge this public park itself characteristic and individuality of social media.
Allow people to have a variety of things at the same time individual images consume by the image of the city as a whole and be part of the park context.

The individuality of each account
Unique to each park context
Individuality of social media platform
This investigation started with personal expression in social media located in public space. These are social media accounts that individuals would like to create in a particular park in Seoul. Current social media has individuality, inside a separated world they can do self-expression.
What AR would people want to put in what space? What elements are AR that reflects space? I use these SNS features to investigate what AR spaces individuals would like to create in a particular park. The research was conducted through a total of 6 Koreans using the existing SNS format. By designating a specific park in Seoul, I surveyed what themes they wanted to express and what kind of self they wanted to show in the public park.
#distance signs #recommending nearby restaurants
#for the small park #personal interests + pet house
#inspired by Instagram
#my house #self broadcasting (Vlog)
#garden + Sunny day #dream place
#Gallery #drawing

Collective City
In this, a new type of small park with AR social media structures, among the same park group share some visual languages. As you walk through this small park you can see various social media feeds posted by local residences. Each park has unique patterns generated from mixed features of whole park accounts’ photos.
In the physical public park individuals' activity contributing to the image of the park. How this public park itself characteristic and individuality of social media character can be merged? This system tries to merge this public park itself characteristic and individuality of social media.
Shared small AR parks


Total radius
Public parks
Parks, physically low dense spaces in the city, are currently the preferred space for some companies to leave AR. The meaning of the park shows that the meaning of the space can change from a space that feels the nature and picnic area to a virtual digital cluster in the city. Empty to the naked eye doesn't mean nothing exists.
There are also large and small parks in the city center of Seoul. Many small parks are ignored by the majority of people who are used to indoor activities. If these 100m² to 2000m² local public parks turn into personal expressions or communication channels for people, such as the social media that we often use, will our awareness and interest in small public parks change?

Small parks around 100m² ~ 2000m²


The individuality of each account
Unique to each park context
Allow people to have a variety of things at the same time individual images consume by the image of the city as a whole and be part of the park context.

On going location based AR social media app research
Collective City System diagram



4 accounts in a park
Images uploaded by individual accounts have different categories.
( Foods / Plants / Landscapes / Travels / Pets / Everyday life / Drawings )
All images data of the park.
(The number of images uploaded by users influences the proportion of contribution into the image of the park.)
The machine learning algorithm analyzes the image dataset.
The algorithm trained by the park data generates new images.
Generate images with a close distance. Those iterated images as a whole became a pattern.
The algorithm combines patterns with images uploaded by users
Shared esthetic among the park accounts' images.
Dataset
ML
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close distance
Process

6 accounts in the park
6 users













I received more images from 6 people whom I've been reaching with and categorized the images into each category. Food photos and plant photos make up 43% of the total dataset.
The characteristics of these image data are trained in a machine learning program, and new mixed images are generated based on the image data. The generated images are simplified and made into several patterns. The patterns created reflect the images of the park shared by six people.
Patterns are mixed into individual accounts' images again using an algorithm.
A total of 3 patterns are used and 2 sample accounts were created( demo video) from the resulting images.
#3 Navigating AR space_composed by camera field of view

In this park, now a total of six people are sharing AR collective city. You are exploring two of their AR social media towers. A camera is an essential tool we navigate and communicate with an AR. We are seeing an AR world through our cameras so what if AR world composed by a camera point of view?
Inside account spaces, I set up 2 or 3 cameras. Based on their extension lines of a field of view, AR towers are created. This arrangement system is for an experience for viewers to walk through in a certain sequence.

#3 Navigating AR spaces
These social media towers communicate through cameras. The arrangement for each account feeds also composed by a camera field of view to let viewers navigate the space in a certain order.