Ellie will have her own character, this makes the ability to listen to the surrounding a key element to gather data. We used sound and volume to generate the bubbles as explained in “Talking to Ellie”. The enormous world of OpenFrameworks allows us to connect al types of libraries and connect the right hardware to enhance the experience with Ellie.

Instead of just using the audio and volume like in the first prototype this prototype uses the actual sound captured by a microphone. As long as Ellie thinks it’s still the same message she’s hearing she will connect the captured sound to the bubble. Big sounds create big bubbles and can contain longer “messages” hidden inside the bubble. Just like people Ellie can’t remember the sounds forever and will release the sounds as soon as she forgets the corresponding memory.

Bubbles_Sounds_Cap from Interactive Ellie on Vimeo.