Discussion with Dr Stephen Wittkopf... of Possible Technology Implementations

As part of a visit to various institutions in California (UCLA, USC, UC Berkeley) in late January, Dr Stephen Wittkopf, architecture professor and one of the IDM principal investigators, visited the REMAP studios and was introduced to the Remapping LA project, as well as other projects in REMAP's portfolio.

We managed to have a stimulating discussion on my project during the ride downtown (in a public bus, no less) and over coffee and lunch at the cafeteria in the Disney Concert Hall.

All in all, Dr Wittkopf was rather satisfied with my thoughts and concepts for the project. With regards to the architectural aspect, he was particularly happy with the idea of how the underground system becomes respectful of the existing landscape and allows for the park to be used as a mere "park", without any bombardment of sound, images etc if the user prefers it as such. Also, the philosophical and theoretical enquiries which preceded the sketch design were, in his opinion, relevant issues to address, and adequately compelling for a thesis project.

On the more technical level, the idea of using different media projections on various surfaces, in effect, makes these surfaces programmable architectural surfaces, and sensing technology can be embedded into these systems such that they become ambient intelligent interfaces. This is parallel to the idea of attaching miniscule RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) tags onto the surfaces, and having these surfaces detect the mobile device of the park user, and play content that is relevant to that user, accordingly.

The entire interactive park thereby could become a whole ambient intelligence network.

Being a lighting architect as well, he was also excited at the idea that multiple technologies can be employed onto the interior surfaces of the park, one of which could potentially be OLEDs (Organic Light Emitting Diodes).


Put simply, OLEDs are more energy-friendly than LCDs, primarily because they do not require a backlighting system. Also, the substrates for OLEDs are malleable, and hence can be adapted onto any surface. Short of going further into the details of OLEDs, you can read more about them here.

Indeed, these will be taken into consideration and would probably be helpful when I look at the technology implementation aspect of the thesis in time to come. For one, the employment of OLEDs removes the inherent problem of shadow-casting in conventional projections, when an obstacle comes in between the projector lens and the screen.