Can You See Me Now? is a pioneering Mixed Reality artwork and game of chase. Online players are tracked and chased by real people running around a city using a mobile app. Online players can see the position of the real players as their avatars move via GPS location updates. Runners live stream audio commentary as they play, while online players can message each other. A photo is taken of the spot in the city when players are "caught". I was approached by Blast Theory to remake the iconic game (originally made in 2001) and it was built in Unity for iOS and Android phones - complete with avatars, geolocated buildings, GPS tracking, and a multiplayer system with voice and text chat. As well as the public app, the
John Sear (Museum Games) worked as co-programmer and we had support from Blast Theory's Nick Tandavanitj. The original Can You See Me Now? is one the worlds first location based games and winner of the Prix Ars Electronica. Cited by VICE as a forerunner of Pokémon Go, Can You See Me Now? toured fro
The Glimmer is an interactive dance installation created with Artist Sian Fan. Inspired by manga transformation sequences, it allows players to strike dance moves which trigger sounds and animation. The project uses Kinect skeletal tracking systems to analyse peoples body movements and respond to them. I provided the underlying code to make Sian's visual imagery come to life.
Shown at the Cute exhibition at Somerset House, London.
Before We Disappear is an adaptive, interactive film about Climate Collapse which uses AI to analyse your face from your webcam as you watch and changes it's structure based on your emotions. Set in a bleak future, the film uses sophisticated algorithms, machine learning and computer vision technologies to reorganise the narrative for each viewing. I helped prepare the product in Unity for a home user release.
Film by Richard Ramchurn with analysis algorithms by Callum Berger in partnership with BlueSkeye AI. Soon to be released on Steam.
Ben Neal is an Arts-focused Creative Technologist and has worked freelance for over 20 years as Psicon Lab (pronounced "Sy-Kon Lab"). He collaborates with creative people who want to use technology, and brings their ideas to life.
He also co-runs Displace Studio an immersive Mixed Reality performance studio with co-lead Kerryn Wise. Their best known project is a VR experience called Facades which has toured internationally.