The photographic origins of the WearComp/WearCam project

The original motivation behind the WearComp project [2] was an attempt to define a new genre of imaging characterized by unprecedented control over lighting, and, to create a tool that could allow reality to be experienced with greater intensity and enjoyment than might otherwise be the case. This tool (Fig 1)

  

Figure 1: Early embodiments of the author's original ``photographer's assistant'' application of Personal Imaging. (a) 1970s ``lightpainting pushbroom'' system with 1980 CRT display. The linear array of lamps, controlled by a body-worn processor (WearComp), operated much like a dot-matrix printer to sweep out spatial patterns of structured light. (b) As this project evolved from the 1970s into the early 1980s, the components were typically spread out on clothing rather than located in a backpack. Separate 0.6 inch cathode ray tubes attachable/detachable to/from ordinary safetyglasses, as well as waist-worn television sets were typically used instead of the earlier and more cumbersome helmet-based screens of the 1970s. Note also the change from the two antennas in (a) to the single antenna in (b), which provided wireless communication of video, voice, and data to a remote base station. The use of black clothing (made of black velvet or black suede), a black hood, etc., sometimes together with black makeup, was typical of the optimum photographic function (turning the whole body into an optimal camera/imaging system). Early on, the author's body evolved this way in the same way that camera bodies are typically black so as to minimize light scatter or reflection.

functioned much more like the sketch pad or the painter's canvas to which Norman refers, than like the underlying cameras that it embodied.

Fig 2

  

Figure: Norman's criticism of the camera arises from the fact that, in many ways, it diminishes our perception and enjoyment of reality. However, a goal of Personal Imaging [2], through the apparatus depicted in Fig 1, is to create something much more like the sketch pad or artist's canvas than like the camera in its usual context. The images produced as artifacts of Personal Imaging are somewhere at the intersection of painting, computer graphics, and photography. (a) Notice how the broom, dilapidated chair, and flower pot (especially the dead plant inside) appear to be their own light sources (e.g. self-illuminated), and the open doorway appears to contain a light source emanating from within. The rich tonal range and details of the door itself, although only visible at a grazing viewing angle, are indicative of the affordances of the lightspace/lightpainting [3] method. (b) hallways offer a unique perspective, which can also be illuminated expressively.

depicts two early 1980s attempts at creating expressive images using the personal imaging system developed by the author in the 1970s and early 1980s.