- Here's an experience
I'm sure you've had.
(synthesizer)
You're watching a movie and
you see that a character
is going to do something
that you have identified
as being totally stupid.
Maybe your body tenses,
maybe you feel frustrated
or even anxious for that character.
And you really wish that
your reactions could change
the outcome of what is about to happen.
Now, we all know we can't effect something
on the screen that's already
been shot and edited, right?
Wrong, sort of.
An artist has created a film
that lets you guide the plot.
He name is Richard Ramchurn,
and his experiment involves
using a viewers mental state
to determine how a film
unfolds in real time.
He calls his experiment Scanners.
Which, of course, makes me think of this.
(heavy breathing)
(loud bang)
Fortunately Ramchurn's approach
is a little less explody.
It all began as a
Kickstarter project in 2014.
Ramchurn raised more than
3,500 pounds sterling,
that's about 5,500 in US dollars
to produce his Scanners experiment.
It's a 15 minute short film with
multiple branching plot elements.
Ramchurn has said that while the full film
is just 15 minutes long, he
had to shoot footage equivalent
to a feature length movie to
cover all the potential paths.
The result is a movie with
a choose your own adventure
approach to the plot.
The viewer determines
where the film goes next,
but they don't do it consciously.
Instead the viewer wears a headset that
monitors neural activity.
The system determines
which path is best suited
for the mental state of the
viewer at any given time.
Ramchurn calls it a two way effect loop.
With both the art and
viewer changing one another.
It's pretty darn cool.
He is using a EEG headset
to scan the neural activty
of a viewers brain.
The headset has one sensor
at the viewers forehead
and a second that clips onto the earlobe.
The purpose of the earlobe
sensor is to pick up
muscle movement, to the
help the system account
for any physical movement that could
otherwise be misinterpreted
as brain activity.
Ramchurn has said that the
headset is specifically
monitoring alpha waves,
which are neural oscillations
related to being relaxed, yet
alert and paying attention.
These are different from beta waves,
which are associated with
conscious decision making.
So, Scanners transforms
the viewers experience
from passively watching a film to
actively controlling it,
all without the viewer thinking about it.
Whether this becomes more
than a fun experiment
remains to be seen,
but it is definitely an
interesting piece of art.
Guys, if you enjoyed this video please
press that like button, or
your head might explode,
it might not. I don't know,
I just read what is on the teleprompter.
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(chime)
