an interactive installation/experiment that critiques the monetization of human focus by tracking viewers' gaze and printing it on a thermal printer, transforming fleeting moments of attention into tangible, consumable data.
This project uses the FaceMesh model to capture and track people's eyes, then prints out these captured images through a serial connection with Arduino, making attention itself something tangible. To draw people’s interest, the project incorporates various media—both physical, like the presence of a cat, and digital, such as screens with changing displays. A camera, placed to the side, detects when people focus, capturing these moments of attention and printing them out as physical records. By transforming fleeting eye contact into something people can hold or view, this project invites viewers to consider how their attention is constantly tracked, valued, and even monetized in modern life, sparking reflection on the cost and significance of focus in an attention-driven world.
The attention economy has always been a topic of interest to me, especially as a heavy social media user. I am keenly aware of how addictive some content can be, constantly drawing my attention and leading me to spend more and more time on social media.
The audience for this installation is the general public—anyone who passes by. If the installation catches their attention, it will capture and print an image of their eyes, achieving its effect by drawing people in and turning their focus into a physical, “monetized” form. This interaction aims to make people aware of the value of their attention and how easily it can be captured and used.
Here is the visual reference for the installation I intended to make.
The main challenge I’m facing is definitely the serial connection part, especially with how to convert the image into bitmap data and send it to arduino to print.
I tried using p5.js to capture just my eye, and while it worked, the image quality was pretty poor—too pixelated for the thermal printer to handle well. So, I might switch to using a preset image for printing to avoid the issues with resolution and clarity. I also figured the use the eye to track
