Inspiration
Southern Illinois University in Carbondale has a long history involving Buckminster Fuller. He taught at SIUC for much of his career and developed many of his seminal ideas and designs while teaching at SIUC. The School of Mass Communications and Media Arts has spearheaded a plan for an exhibit on the life and work of Buckminster Fuller. This project is a start on an Interactive Portal to such an Exhibit.
What it does
Acts as a portal to the proposed exhibit, serving on kiosks or mobile devices guiding those viewing the exhibit. It will provide insights and information which goes beyond the installed portions.
How I built it
This uses Sumerian, Lex, and Lambda (using Python) for the interactivity. 3D models were created in Maya and Lightwave 3D. Sound was mastered in ProTools.
Challenges I ran into
Some issues with Lex having difficulty recognizing spoken phrases in a noisy environment like a museum gallery while using the microphones available on iOS devices. This is still a small problem.
Accomplishments that I'm proud of
It includes an exact scale model of the Buckminster Fuller and Anne Hewlett Dome Home, located at 407 S. Forest Ave. in Carbondale, Illinois. This geodesic dome was the residence of Buckminster Fuller from 1960 to 1971 while he taught at Southern Illinois University. It was the only geodesic dome in which Fuller resided. Another acomplishment is that it works nearly perfectly in a variety of hardware settings, including HTC Vive Pro.
What I learned
Many things, but perhaps the most exciting was Lex + Lambda synergy for voice recognition.
What's next for Buckminster Fuller Exhibit
Continuing to move forward to bring the Exhibit to reality by seeking additional funding for the physical installations.
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