The Idea

The possibility of exploring and interacting with a remote space and the people in it without physically being there through an internet wide accessible interface was the base for the Race Car Project.

The idea was implemented so that one could remotely control a RC Race Car located in Playshop at the Yerba Buena Center of Arts in San Francisco, California.

Visitors in Playshop will experience physical representations of normally intangible Internet users and there interactions with them and the space.

Therefore three forms of interaction were created by the project:

The Internet user with the remote space:

An Internet user could simple control the RC Car through a flash interface where he was provided with a live video stream which acted as his eyes in the remote space. He then could use the arrow keys on his keyboard to control the car in four directions to explore the space, which was in this case the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.

The Internet user with a person in the space:

Internet users frequently used the RC Car to interact with the visitors in Yerba Buena, which was one of the nicest things to see happening while watching users driving the car, since it visualized an indirect human to human interaction in a new form. Visitors also interacted with the Car by asking it to follow them or drive in certain ways.

Two Internet users in the space both controlling RC Cars:

Initially it was also planed that two or more cars would interact with each other in the space
by either racing each other or in any other form, they also would be connected via a chat window
so that they could communicate directly. Though, due to technical issues only one car could be run.


Technical Realization

The RC Car's controller is connected to a Making Things Teleo module. This module is controlled by Max/MSP, which receives data from Flash via OSC translated by a PHP script from TCP/IP to UDP.
The Teleo module then triggers 4 different relays with its digital out ports. Those trigger the 4 different directions in the RC Car's Controller forward, backward, left and right.

On top of the RC Car is a Wireless Spy Cam attached, which's video signal is captured and streamed via Flash Communication Server to the internet user that is driving the car.

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