Xiao Xiao | Portfolio

TetriTunes

xx — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 18:17:51 +0000

TetriTunes is a quirky little site that allows friends to force their favorite music on each other by beating each other in Tetris. It is the result of one month of intensive hacking during the 6.470 Web Programming Competition in January 2009. The goal of the competition is to create a database-backed web site in a month that uses provided data on cars, colleges, or music from freebase.com. We won 4th place overall (out of over 30 teams) and 2nd place for Microsoft’s Silverlight Award.

In collaboration with: Scott Kovach and Justin Schmelzer

Wetpaint

xx — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 17:18:09 +0000

WetPaint is an interface for a touchscreen display that allows users to scrape through layers of an image. For the original installation, we obtained scans of a da Vinci painting made with different wavelengths of light. The visible layer is what you normally see, the infrared layer allows you to see the undersketch, the ultraviolet layer shows pigment information, and the x-ray layer shows the grain of the wood board and cracks in the paint.

In collaboration with: Leonardo Bonanni, Matthew Hockenberry, Praveen Subramani, Maurizio Seracini

Py-ROM

xx — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 17:12:02 +0000

Nocturne

xx — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 04:05:27 +0000

Little Black Dress 2.0

xx — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 04:04:04 +0000

Every woman is supposed to have at least one iconic “little black dress” — the piece that goes with everything and can be worn for many different occasions. However, while you can accessorize your little black dress in many ways, it is limited by its basic construction. What if you could change the shape of your little black dress on command? What if you could make your outfit more or less revealing on command…lower the neckline, create a scoop in the back, a slit up the thigh?

The Little Black Dress 2.0 plays with the concept of a shapeshifting dress…

MirrorFugue

xx — Sat, 20 Nov 2010 22:52:36 +0000

MirrorFugue is a set of interfaces for the piano to visualize the gesture of a performance. Based on the idea that the visibility of gesture contributes to learning and synchronization, MirrorFugue displays the hand and body movements of piano playing using metaphors from the physical world to connect musicians from disparate spaces and times.

Project Website

SOS: Stress Outsourced

xx — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 22:53:40 +0000

Millions of us already rely on strangers online to relieve stress. We post about our day, feelings and aspirations and receive nice words from friends and strangers who visit the blog or forum or watch the video. Can we cooperate with strangers online to exchange touch therapy, rather than to exchange textual or audiovisual information?

With SOS, a stressed individual can send an anonymous signal with a wearable module, which is received by other members around the world. As people respond with their wearable module to calm the stressed individual, each response combines to form a massage for the stressed.

By applying the emerging concept of crowdsourcing to haptic therapy, SOS brings physical and affective dimensions to our already networked lifestyle while preserving the privacy of its members. SOS is an exploration and illustration of a new field of haptic social networking.

In collaboration with: Keywon Chung, Peggy Chi, Caraven Chiu

PingPong++

xx — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 22:53:02 +0000

PingPong++ builds on the classic Tangible Media demo PingPongPlus (1998), a ping pong table that sensed ball hit locations and displayed projected visualizations based on the hits.

We redesigned the hardware and software, improved the accuracy of hit position sensing, and created a server to record the history of every hit on our table. Our new system, built on the open source Arduino and Processing platforms enables users to easily remix and reinvent the game of ping pong by customizing their own visualizations.

PingPong++ is on permanent display on the 3rd floor atrium of the MIT Media Lab.

In collaboration with: Michael Bernstein

Musical Diversions

xx — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 15:43:22 +0000

I started learning piano since I was 4 years old. In the past year, I’ve been learning how to improvise. For a record (and recordings) of my musical exploits, check out my music blog.