‘Let’s build a Hologram’...what?
Datacomp 2019 was a great experience. Every Hackathon has its own twists and challenges, this one was no exception. We started on a Friday after work with a seed idea but no clue where the weekend would take us or any direction. We were challenged to think of an idea which incorporated the ‘Circular’ theme (‘Using technology to reinvent, reframe and reuse for the good of people, business and the planet’). I was passionate about incorporating a Hologram into our solution but the impact it had on the theme was insignificant based on the effort and time it required to make it ‘wow’ anyone.
The idea was to build a life-like Hologram to give the presentation a more futuristic effect. Imagine a scenario when you could speak to your hologram with some sort of conversational AI system, similar to the movie Blade Runner 2049. You could argue that having your own hologram might be beneficial for your mental health. We are talking about intelligent assistants and having them in your phone as someone who can do the mundane tasks for you. The next step would be to have your own hologram? right?. This kind of thing has been around for a some time, consider the Tupac Hologram at Coachella this was also based on the Peppers Ghost phenomena which projects light on to a reflective surface at 45 degrees allowing humans to see the image on a transparent screen giving a holographic effect.
In a situation where the room is dark or it’s night time this would be perfect but the issue is it’s very difficult to have this show up during the day light and having it follow you around. Well we all know our phones follow us around so why not incorporate your personal Hologram in an app? especially with technologies like ARKit becoming more prevalent and widely available this is even more probable — why not take your holographic assistant with you when you leave your house? You now have a customisable avatar that is your online identity — making sure your next appointment is booked or ensuring that you remember to get a gift for loved ones; the possibilities are truly endless!
Problems that require large behavioural changes are difficult to implement because most people need to be given some incentive or a good reason to do something that is not part of their regular routine.
Getting back to the weekend itself, we build an effortless system using object detection to determine when someone walking past had bad posture. The facial detection had better privacy as well since we would remember peoples faces based on a virtual signature as this is unique to each user. Users are able to interact with the interface and do the different stretches in the system to fix their posture or just get away from their screen. Our team had created a Dab pose to be detected as well? why, you ask? well, why not?
The technology stack we used included Azure Cloud to host our site, Google assistant, Socket IO, blob storage to hold graphical information for our web app, cognitive services, and PoseNet (Pose Detection in the Browser)
Problems that require large behavioural changes are difficult to implement because most people need to be given some incentive or a good reason to do something that is not part of their regular routine. The Hackathon experience was fantastic as usual allowing us to think outside of the box and attempt riskier solutions with minimal consequences. Kudos to the organising committee for pulling off another memorable Datacomp.
Problems that require large behavioural changes are difficult to implement since most people need to be given some incentive or a good reason to do something that is not part of their regular routine.
The possibilities are endless. This is only just the beginning. Accessibility considerations will have a lasting impact on society, the time for inclusivity is now and having all members of society able to contribute and interact with each other is not only beneficial to them but the connectedness will ensure humankind will never miss any ideas that we may have otherwise.
We live in very exciting times.
