Creative Design of Gaussian Sensor System with Encoding and Decoding

Abstract

Stuart Hall proposed the “encoding/decoding model of communication” for the theoretical method of media information production and dissemination in 1973. In 1980, he further proposed the research of classic contemporary culture titled “Encoding/Decoding”, which explained how media producers can “encode” an object, feeling, and ideas. Message in the media to achieve the purpose of disseminating information. In addition, “decoding” is the process and method of how the media message can be perceived by the “receiver” after being transformed and translated. It has been explained that the concept of encoding and decoding has a great influence on the research of different cultural media communication from the analogy to the digital age through many kinds of research. However, with the rapid development of digital media technology, we are faced with the production methods of information in tangible and intangible media, and most of them are translated in virtual form in programming languages or digital symbols. Encoding and decoding of digital symbols and codes has gradually changed the way we understand perception.

In this paper, we propose the “Gaussian Sensor System”, which consists of three parts: Gausstoys magnetic sensor module, video/audio encoding and decoding, and interactive installation art. We used damped oscillator magnetic balance and Gausstoys sensor as a tangible user interface (TUI), and integrated the Gaussian sensor into the interactive installation art. When the user intervenes with the floating magnet device and disturbs the magnetic field, the gaussian sensor will “encode” the human analogy behavior. Then the data of human behavior is transformed into visual video and sound feedback. The RGB color of visual video and frequency feedback of audio on the screen is the “decoding” of perception. Therefore, in our Gaussian Sensor System, “balance” is generated through the floating magnetic force in our artwork. After the user “intervenes”, the entire behavior is transformed into a digital reproduction of video/audio and then transmitted to the user the perception feedback of color and sound. Our creative design has been shown to “Tsing Hua Effects 2020: STEM with A” Technology and Art Festival of Tsing Hua University in Taiwan and “Art Gallery, 2016 SIGGRAPH Asia” in Macau. In the past, many applications of Gaussian Sensor were used in interactive games or interactive learning, but our application was in “interactive installation art”. We applied the damped oscillator magnetic balance as a tangible interface device, which is quite rare in HCI applications or interactive art. In the future, the media in the digital age that we are facing will gradually transform real-world cognitions through digital programming languages to produce new perceptions. At present, many kinds of research in HCI field have explained how to experience hearing, taste, and touch in digital media. The encoding and decoding of digital media will be one of the important topics in HCI in the future. Our creative design can be applied to more HCI or TUI research fields in the future and drive users to experience more diverse perceptions through digital media.