Multimodal Media Madness - Winter Semester 2004/2005

For the last few weeks of this course, you will be working on a bigger project in groups of 4. Unlike the assignments until now, you will be given more freedom to explore areas of Media Computing that you find interesting. This project is important not only because it counts for 40% of your grade, but an outstanding project will leave a lasting impression on us (useful if you should ever wish to apply for a HiWi/Diplom position in our group).

The theme for this final projects this semester is "Interactive Art". To be more specific, your project should satisfy the following basic requirements:

1. It produces some form of aesthetically pleasing effect when not in use.
2. It does something interesting when the user interacts with it.
3. It must incorporate either audio or video, or both.

For this first week, you will form your final project groups and do a short in-class brainstorming session on your project. You will then submit a short project proposal by the end of the week. Here is the basic schedule for the rest if the semester:

Week 1: Brainstorming, initial project proposal
Week 2: Revised project proposal
Week 3: First prototype
Week 4: Second prototype
Week 5: Presentations/Competition

You will be required to do a demonstration of your project on the last day of class, which will be attended by the members of the i10 staff, including Prof. Borchers. There will be to-be-determined prizes awarded for the best project, determined based on your presentation.

Your grade, however, will be based on your work leading up to the final presentation, in particular:

• Revised Project Proposal: 5%
• First Prototype: 5%
• Second Prototype: 5%
• Interface: 15%
• Technical Implementation: 20%
• Creativity: 15%
• Website: 15%
• Presentation: 20%

The following is a brief explantion for each item:

Revised Project Proposal: Based on your revised project proposal on Week 2.

First Prototype: Based on your first prototype on Week 3.

Second Prototype: Based on your second prototype on Week 4.

Interface: Does it satisfy the requirements as specified in the project description? How much interaction is available to the user? What kind of modalities does it support (auditory, visual, haptic)? Do you support any non-traditional interaction methods?

Technical implementation: What features of Max/MSP/Jitter/Cyclops did you use? How much depth/detail did you go into in your implementation? If you have a particularly elegant/innovative/well-designed/robust implementation, you will get points here.

Creativity: How unique is your idea? Does something similar already exist?

Website: Clarity and completeness of your website.

Presentation: Project presentation on Week 5.



Form groups of 4 and brainstorm amongst yourselves potential project ideas. Create a website with your basic project idea. It should contain (at minimum) the following information:

• Names and email addresses of all group members
• Project name
• Brief project description, which should also explain how your project will satisfy the three requirements describe above
• Links to any websites/projects that inspired your project (if any)

Include pictures or diagrams if it helps explain your idea. The project proposal does not need to be long -- one page of text is sufficient.

You may use the webspace provided in your home directory, ~/Sites/ to publish your website.


Email the URL of the website with your project proposal to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. before the due date. The subject of your email should be "M3 Project Proposal"; be sure to use this exact subject line as it will be used to filter assignment submissions for grading.


Your initial project proposal will not be graded. We will discuss with each group individually your project idea next class so that you may get some feedback.