AtmoSPHERE

Abstract

A Zen garden, also known as Japanese rock garden or Ryoanji garden [1], creates a peaceful way to visualize space and tranquility. In this paper, we introduce AtmoSPHERE, a new method for automatically imbuing a Zen garden with properties of its surrounding space and occupants. AtmoSPHERE uses a Microsoft Kinect to monitor and extract movement in a room and then visualizes representations of this movement physically via sand traces on a custom built XY sandbox table. We present our prototype system, the design process and interaction modes, feedback from a preliminary deployment, and a discussion of future work.