Gianluca Monaci

Flower power

Flower Power is an interactive installation that creates immersive light atmospheres by capturing the colors of flowers and re-projecting them in the environment. A camera is suspended over a flower bed and its position depends on the positions of the visitors around the installation, which are detected using presence sensors. The image captured by the camera is rendered into the surrounding environment as a suggestive, saturated light scene. The participants can thus give the power to their favorite flower to set the overall light experience. In this paper we describe the motivation and the realization of the installation, and we discuss insights and reactions collected during the 2010 STRP Festival.

Ultrasound video analysis for understanding infant breastfeeding

While it has been widely proved that breastfeeding is the healthiest feeding option for a baby and its mother, the mechanisms by which a baby removes milk from the breast are still not completely known. Partly this is due to the lack of tools to analyze images of the infant oral cavity during feeding automatically and quantitatively. In this paper we propose two methods for analyzing ultrasound videos to automatically detect relevant events such sucking and swallowing of milk and to discriminate different types of tongue action during milk removal. The proposed algorithms provide, for the first time, quantitative indications of the type of activities carried out during breastfeeding by the baby, promising unprecedented advancements in the field.

ImagiLight: a vision approach to lighting scene setting

The advent of integrated lighting installations, consisting of individually controllable lamps with advanced rendering capabilities, is fundamentally transforming lighting. This brings a need for an intuitive control capable of fully exploiting the rendering capabilities of the complete lighting infrastructure. In this paper we present a new method to automatically create lighting atmospheres in any type of environment, that allows for an natural interaction with the lighting system and generates unique, suggestive effects. To prove the effectiveness and versatility of the proposed solution, we deploy the system in several application scenarios, and discuss the results.

LumaFluid : A Responsive Environment to Stimulate Social Interaction in Public Spaces

LumaFluid is an interactive environment that explores new ways to stimulate emotional and social engagement through light. A vision system localizes people present in the LumaFluid square. Colored spotlights highlight each person and connections are drawn between neighboring visitors to underline and stimulate interpersonal communication. Two versions of the concept where deployed during the 2011 STRP Festival. In this paper we describe the conception and realization of the installation, and we discuss the insights collected during the event.

Automatic Light Scene Setting Through Image-Based Sparse Light Effect Approximation

Recently a series of key factors are deeply transforming lighting systems. Single lights can be controlled individually and with advanced rendering capabilities. Furthermore, a shift is underway from independent light sources to integrated lighting installations. These factors fuel the need for intuitive, flexible control techniques that can fully exploit the rendering capabilities of a lighting infrastructure. In this paper, we present a novel framework to automatically create lighting atmospheres in any type of environment. The desired light settings are derived by approximation of user-defined input images or videos. This input modality gives an immediate and intuitive representation of a lighting atmosphere and allows the user to translate into a light setting any visual content. The effectiveness and versatility of the proposed solution is demonstrated and discussed by deploying the system in several challenging, real-life application scenarios.