Andy Woods Some of my projects

Some of my projects

Emotion recognition inside a VR headset, on a £10 chip

I mounted a Raspberry Pi Zero and a camera on the outside of a VR headset. Via a computer vision model run on the pi, we could tell when someone smiled. This was fed into the VR environment (characters in that environment behaved differently when they knew you were smiling). The first version was made of cardboard and masking tape.

StoryFutures · 2020– Pi Zero, OpenCV, Python · finished rig filmed for AI Spy

The early prototype worn in an office: a Raspberry Pi Zero W and a camera ribbon cable taped to a cardboard frame fixed across a pair of glasses. The finished build in use: a VR headset with a small camera board mounted under the front of it, angled down at the wearer’s face.

Wind and haptics you can post to someone

Multisensory experiences mostly live in expensive venues. Here’s a robotic wind generator I built. An awesome PhD student is exploring whether augmenting movies / experiences with additional senses provided by this and other devices, boosts metrics such as enjoyment.

Ongoing · Arduino, servos, 3D printing · gamepad-controlled

A scent release device, also for Unilever

Unilever needed a way to contain scent and release it on cue. An early project of mine.

Unilever · 2012 · badged Xperiment Hardware, Mk 1.0

The front panel of the odour control device: a brushed aluminium case badged ‘Xperiment Hardware’, with red and green indicator lamps labelled Passive and Active, and ‘Odour Control Device | Misty Odour Computer Kit Mk 1.0’ along the bottom. The same device from the side, showing the fan in one end panel and the wide grey duct it blows the scent out through.

A six-channel taste delivery machine

Multisensory flavour research needs precisely timed, repeatable delivery of six liquids to a person’s mouth without them seeing what’s coming. I designed and built this solution.

Unilever R&D · psychophysics apparatus · clip from 2011, early version