3D SPACE FOR INTERACTIVE SOUL VISUALISATION

ENTITIES

Characteristics and physical properties

1. Color = substance
   

• audio = BLUE
  
• video = RED
  
• text = WHITE
  
• image = LILAC
  

1. Luminosity = number of aliases
   
2. Size = number of genetic relations
   
3. Transparency = birth and death
   

• Shape (sphere, cube, triangle) (range 0-10)
  

—> how to display the aura ??

1. Relations
   

• genetic = vector (from the ancestor to the descendant)
  
• semantic = filamentous lines, reticular

1. Behaviour

• when a soul is created in the database, a spherical entity appears in the system
• the entity is situated in the 3D space assigning chunks of the MD5 to coordinates xyz
• when a relation is created, a line starts traveling from one entity to the other
• if the relation is semantic, the line travels from the soul of the entity which is edited to the soul of the target entity
• if the relation is genetic the line has a vector and travels from the ancestor to its descendant
• entities which have relations move closer to each other, so the system is not static
• two types of movement: semantic and genetic, they intersect
• graphs tend to group
• if a relation is erased, the line slowly disappears
• if a soul is erased, it becomes transparent for a certain amount of time before disappearing (possible only from the database, deus ex machina)
• annotations: each note creates a luminescent transparent circle around the soul (same color as the soul). the more annotations, the larger the circle (like the atmosphere around a planet)
• if a human goes closer to a soul (moving the mouse), before the aura disappears on the screen, the annotations text appears, before the souls disappear on the screen, the metadata is suddenly visible.

1. Technique
   

• talk to the database: a small Python server handles all the DB stuff and provides an API like:
  

1. get whole database
   
2. get changelog since timestamp
   

• the client (in Fluxus) polls the changelog URL to stay up to date, after getting the whole db once on startup…
• creation: for each entity fluxus creates a spheric shape;
• analysis of MD5: xyz defined from that;
• drawing of relations
• spatialisation: incremental graph layout algorithm = takes a layout, a graph, and a small set of changes to the graph and gives you a layout for the new graph.
  
• system keeps moving
• get change log and update soul’s universe

Questions:

• is metadata text anytime visible?
• how to display and make visible a soul whose original files have disappeared?
• would be interesting the possibility to visualize the graphs from a semantic or a genetic point of view separately (double navigation)