Open Dump

by CHAN Siu Lung

It is known that human may have different emotions in particular moment and situations. Emotion is actually the most controversial topic in psychology. It encompasses a broad range of feelings, behavior and changes in body and mind. According to some psychologist, the primary or main emotions can be classified into 6 categories: happy, excited, tender, scared, angry and sad. Anyway, I believe that the things we want are different when we have different emotions.


With reference to the emotions of human beings, I come up with a number of ideas to design an interactive installation called “Emotional Box” which is like a dice with 6 surfaces, refer to the 6 main emotions of human beings.

For the scene, there are 6 white surfaces to be the walls which are exactly forming the shape of a box. Also, these 6 white surfaces would be used as the screens later on. Besides, there are also many 3D projectors, cameras and Kinect devices in the box.

When a person goes into the “Emotional Box”, his or her face could be projected on the 6 white surfaces. As the emotions of human are discrete, measurable and physiologically distinct, a programmed system will detect the person’s emotion right now by measuring his or her facial expressions, behavior and changes in body. After that, some 3D objects will be projected all around the box depending on the particular emotion of that person. The person can have some interaction with all the 3D objects through the detection of the movement of that person by the Kinect devices. For example, for a happy person, the system will project some desserts or toys throughout the box for the person to play with. For an angry person, the system will project some sandbags for the person to hit with. No doubt, the 3D objects projected could be also assigned by that person’s order through talking to the system.

Moreover, the system will take some photographs with the player during the playing period. The person can obtain a photograph with the time, date and changes of emotion at the back so that all of players can have a record for themselves.

“Emotional Box” is a platform for people to know more about themselves and raise their emotional intelligence quotient (EQ). In fact, our facial expressions or body movement can only be seen by others. However, in this interactive installation, it is like a mirror for people to look at themselves. All of their emotional changes will be recorded so that people can have a reflection on their emotion. There are so many strategies are caused by people’s bad emotional management such as family violence and suicide. The “Emotional Box” actually could help regulate your emotion so that you could be mentally well-being. For example, you could allay your pressure or anger in the box when you are sad and angry. During the playing period, you could also understand yourself better. For instance, you may know the things you scare and the things you love.