Tilted Deck. Design Build in China
Ming Tang, Yingdong Hu advised a group of BJTU students to participate in the “Xinzhaiping” Rural Design-Build Competition in China in 2021.
Project name: Titled Deck.
BJTU Students: Bingxu Gao, Zhu Chen, Xiangyu Zhou, Haolong Guo.
Advisors: Yingdong Hu (BJTU), Ming Tang (UC)
Location: Hunan Province, China.
More info on the competition “2021乡见新寨坪·乡村建造大赛”
Award:
The build project won second place in the Rural Design Build competition 2021.
The build project also won the excellent award of the 19th 2021 Asian Design Awad.
Exhibition @ Reed Gallery
Reed Gallery featuring work by DAAP faculty and staff. 02.28.2022
Human and Machine Symbiosis. Portrait drawing with A.I and Robot. by Ming Tang.
Check out the 3D tour of the virtual gallery.
This work explores how Artificial Intelligence and Robots interact with humans and form a unique symbiotic relationship in painting. The co-creation follows steps: 1. Used Machine Learning and Deep Neural Network algorithm to translate a picture of a human face into a styled image. 2. Translate the face’s representation into a parametrically controlled toolpath for the KUKA robot 3. A KUKA robot executed the art-making by holding a paintbrush.
Please check out the full paper on the art-making process here, published at the 2022 HCI conference.
paper @ CAADRIA Conference
Tian. J., Tang, M., Wang. J., The effect of path environment on pedestrian’s route selection: A case study of University of Cincinnati.. 27th International Conference of the Association for Computer-Aided Architectural Design Research in Asia (CAADRIA). Sydney, Australia. April. 2022.
The present study on the influence of the path environment on pedestrians’ route selection is mostly concentrated on the urban level while rarely discussed from the architectural level. Taking the University of Cincinnati (Ohio, US) as an example, this study aims to investigate whether the difference in the environmental settings of the route will affect pedestrians’ walking experiences and future route selection, with the ultimate goal of ascertaining the underlying relationship between the route environments and the user behavior in the process of route selection and implementation. This study selected three routes from the Langsam library to the CEAS library. The research methods included data analytics, questionnaires, and comparative analysis. Firstly, through surveys and an E4 wristband, psychological and physiological data were collected. Secondly, Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was used to examine whether there was a significant difference in pedestrians’ walking experience among the three routes. Thirdly, through the analysis of questionnaires, the factors that play an important role in pedestrians’ route selection were determined. It can be concluded that the three routes with different environmental settings bring a different experience to participants. More specifically, the level of comfort and openness of the route significantly affects the route selection of pedestrians, while the degree of fatigue during walking does not. To sum up, for the transition space from outdoor to indoor, the factors affecting pedestrian route selection include the route’s degree of comfort and openness.
The paper is based on Jing Tain’s MS Thesis. Please check out the full thesis here.
paper @ 2022 HCI
Ming Tang’s paper Human and Machine Symbiosis. An experiment of human and robot co-creation of calligraphy-style drawing is published at the HCI INTERNATIONAL 2022, 24th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction. HCI International 2022 Proceeding. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 1580. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-06417-3_62
Tang, M. (2022). Human and Machine Symbiosis – An Experiment of Human and Robot Co-creation of Calligraphy-Style Drawing. In: Stephanidis, C., Antona, M., Ntoa, S. (eds) HCI International 2022 Posters. HCII 2022. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 1580. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-06417-3_62
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and robots impact creative jobs such as art-making. There have been many AI tools assisting average users in imitating the styles of renowned painters from the past. The Convolutional neural network (CNN) and generative adversarial network (GAN) emergence as a method to “hallucinate” and create expressions of styled drawings. This paper discussed an experiment to study how AI, Automation, and Robots (AAR) will interact with humans and form a unique symbiotic relationship in art-making. Our project, called “robot painter,” established a co-creation in calligraphy-style painting with the following steps: (1) Use CNN tools to translate a raster image into a calligraphy-style image. (2) Develop an algorithm in Grasshopper and Rhino program for the Kuka robot. This generative tool allowed the artist to translate the image into a parametrically controlled 3D toolpath for a robotic arm. (3) A KUKA robot executed the art-making by holding a paintbrush and completing the painting with customized stoke, force, and angle on a canvas.
In conclusion, the paper discussed that AAR makes human intervention and co-creation possible. The ability of A. I and robots to mimic artists’ expressions have undoubtedly achieved a convincing level and will affect art-making in the years to come.
