Pond of illusion: interacting through mixed reality

Abstract

Pond of Illusion is a mixed reality installation where a virtual space (the pond) is injected between two real spaces. The users are in either of the real spaces, and they can see each other through windows in the virtual space as illustrated in Figure 1(left). The installation attracts people to a large display in either of the real spaces by allowing them to feed virtual fish swimming in the pond. Figure 1(middle) shows how a Microsoft Kinect mounted on top of the display is used for detecting throw motions, which triggers virtual breadcrumbs to be thrown into the pond for feeding the nearby fish. Of course, the fish may not be available because they are busy eating what people have thrown into the pond from the other side.