An interactive wall of digital grass

The BBC Big Screen network has been growing digital grass for Architecture Week 2007. Move your feet to make the grass grow!

I was asked by The BBC to create something amazing based on the Architecture Week theme: How Green Is Your Space? The interactive installation was custom built to run on the permanent network of giant video screens situated in major cities across the UK.

The finished Digital Grass installation grows a lush meadow of virtual grass over a live cityscape. As people pass the screen, fresh green grass sprouts at their feet. The more movement captured by the screen, the more the grass grows and sways, covering the city in greenery. If no movement is detected, the grass begins to shrivel and turn to brown until only concrete remains.

The screen works by using a camera aimed at the street below to pick up movement and translate it into activity in the software. I created custom motion tracking software using Adobe Flash and Director, which can be employed on any large video screen or billboard.

Digital Grass was shown on big screens across the UK from the 15th—24th of June. The interactive spectacle was a big success.

The development of an idea

The digital grass concept started off in 2004 working with client Submerge to develop something for their graduate show along the themes of Organic and Synthetic.  The idea was so popular that the BBC wanted to take it even further to big screens across the UK. Originally I coded the software in Director for the Submerge show, then later I worked with Mike Cobb who wrote a new version in Flash several years later.

Its great to show how an idea can progress and develop, and even though we used two different technologies over the years, the core idea of large scale interactive fun remains the central success to this project.

If you have enjoyed this, why not check out these other interesting things?