Ever wish you were a goat? Of course you have! Good news: Borrowing some basic concepts from Disney’s Haunted Mansion ride, artist Karolina Sobecka modified this mirror to make your dreams come true.
It turns your reflection into a wild animal’s maw using an overlaid 3D model, perfectly mimicing your motions and facial expressions. It’s art!
The title of her exhibit, All the Universe is Full of the Lives of Perfect Creatures, will probably leave you scratching your head, but the technology behind it is thankfully easier to understand. A hidden camera allows face-tracking software to recreate the movements of the user’s face in real time, while 3D software, including Unity3D and Blender3D, bring the animal masks to life.
In the video the animal faces appear float off to the side, but from the viewer’s perspective they’re projected over their own faces. Disappointingly, the animal seen isn’t chosen to match the person’s facial features or emotions, it’s just random, so if you see a wolf, don’t read too much into it. [Karolina Sobecka via Dvice]