Live Like a Bee

An interactive, immersive experience explaining the life of bees, at the Maison de la Nature in Parc Galamé. A large-format touch table drives projections in an immersive room. Facing the table, the room has a triple screen. First contact with the application is made through tangible objects standing for the different stages in the life of a worker bee.

When one of these objects is set into the receptacle to the right of the screen, it takes control of the table’s main interface, which presents the chapters of a documentary — one to four minutes each — describing the chosen period of the bee’s life and its role in the hive. Touching one of those chapters starts the film on the triple screen.

The touch table measures 55 inches and sits at the centre of an immersive space in the permanent exhibition of the MNE at Parc Galamé in Loon-Plage. It is connected to three video projectors driving a 12 m × 3 m image. Spatialised sound adds further to the sense of immersion. An RFID object-recognition system is built into the furniture, giving visitors a playful, participatory way to handle the piece.

Technologies: the libcinder framework, C++, OpenGL 3, multitouch. VLC with the Cinder-VLC block — thanks to Andrea Melle. Arduino to control the RFID and the LEDs lighting the active display; LEDs through the Arduino RGB shield; RFID using an ID12LA; USB to talk to the Arduino through the Cinder-Serial block — thanks to its authors. Video mapping and edge blending with the Cinder-Warping block — thanks to Paul Houx.

5.0 and stereo sound using the FMOD block, updated to the latest version, and the creation of Cinder-SoundPlayer-FMOD after the Cinder-SoundPlayer block, on a MOTU UltraLite mk3 card (8 outputs). Scene-graph design on Paul Houx’s Node base, and the creation of the Cinder-Layer block. Ambient light control over Art-Net, using an Enttec Open DMX Ethernet box and an updated Cinder-LibArtnet block — thanks to naychrist.

Multi-screen output across four screens on an NVIDIA GTX 980. Animation with poSpriteSheet, using TexturePacker to ease the exports — thanks to Potion Design LLC — plus a JavaScript script for Photoshop that exports every layer automatically and produces a JSON file with all the information, and a JSON loader compatible with the Cinder-Layer block.

Credits: Emmanuel Rouillier — concept, UI and UX design, photographs, videos. Marc Benaïch — concept, production. Colin Bouvry — C++ development and electronics. Antony Zec — writing, project follow-up. Christelle Jubin and Marc Benaïch — video editing. Christopher M. Stallybrass — imagery. Abdelhadi el Rharbi — sound design. Claire Mouret — interactive furniture design.

Nicolas Verhaeghe — spatialisation mix. Aurélien Allély Castellan — space fit-out. Sébastien Dhellemmes — space fit-out. Marushka Vidovic — English translation. Sophie Calmein — scientific advice, beekeeper. Guofan Xiong — sprite animation. Charly — video arrangement and export.