credits Lorenz Potthast, University of the Arts Bremen, Prof. Tanja Diezmann

Watch on Vimeo:http://player.vimeo.com/video/53464059
Project Website:http://www.lorenzpotthast.de/deceleratorhelmet/

PROJECT DESCRIPTION
The Decelerator Helmet offers a experimental approach to an essential subject of our globalized world. The technical reproducible senses are consigned to an apparatus which allows the user a perception of the world in slow motion. The float of time as apparently invariant constant is broken and subjected under the users control.
In the inside of the helmet the Video-signal of a camera is processed by a small computer. The slowed down images are displayed right before the users eyes via a Head-Mounted Display and simultaneously shown at a monitor on the outside. In three different modes the lapse of time can be influenced through a remote control.

The Idea to decouple the personal perception from the natural timing enables the user to get aware about his own relationship to time. The helmet works as a „reflection-bubble“ in which the relations between sensory perception, environment and corporeality are disputed.
The technique of the Decelerator extends the awareness of time and transforms the concept of present in a constructed, artificial state. On a different Level the helmet dramatically visualizes how slowing down under all circumstances causes a loss of actuality and as idea is inconsistent with it´s Environment.

PROJECT BACKGROUND:
The idea for the project was born in a Interaction Design course at the University of Art in Bremen, Germany. The course, taught by Prof. Tanja Diezmann, was called "Back on focus – Less is more" and dealt with topics concerning the increasingly hectic, overstimulated and restless environment we are living in.
After the course i continued working on the project and built a fully operational prototype. After some first tests i choosed the aluminum sphere as a metaphor for a reflection bubble, a space where you are decoupled from your environment and start thinking about your own relation to time.
I used the VLC player for the videoplayback and wrote a program in vvvv to change speed of time via the remote control.
So far the Decelerator was shown at the annual Exhibition of the University of the Arts Bremen, the Inside Interaction Conference and the PAGE Magazine. At the moment it is exhibited at the BestOf HfK Exhibition in Bremen (www.bestofhfkdesign.de/).

TECHNICAL INFORMATION:
Netbook: Asus Eee PC 1001,
vvvv
VLC Player
Webcam: Microsoft LiceCam
Head-Mounted Display : Sony Glasstron PLM S700
Wireless MouseBack on focus – Less is more