EAT達文西｜EAT Da Vinci
沈浸式空間 / Immersive Space
500cm X 500cmX400cm 2021/2024/2025
The EAT Da Vinci series aims to provide an immersive experience without the burden of wearable devices. By integrating technologies such as CAVE spaces, floating imagery, drones, and remote participation into a cuisine narrative, it transforms dining into an artistic experience within a new media environment. Each installment in the series explores a distinct narrative theme: EAT Da Vinci extends the sensory experience of food and art, EAT Da Vinci 2.0 delves into the culture of tea tasting in a socially distanced setting, and EAT Da Vinci 3.0 reinterprets the spatial relationships between food and human connection, inspired by the film Eat Drink Man Woman. As the foundation of this series, EAT Da Vinci enhances the dining experience by extending ingredient stories onto the tabletop and walls through projected visual, auditory, and interactive elements. As diners progress through the three courses, PDLC (Polymer Dispersed Liquid Crystals) windows on the wall will switch to transparency, revealing a beautiful night view outside. The installation utilizes camera tracking technology to synchronize animated visuals with the movement of plates and glasses, seamlessly blending technology with the dining ritual. With 720 diners having experienced the installation, post-event surveys reported exceptionally high satisfaction. This project demonstrates how media art can meaningfully intervene in and elevate the dining experience. Paper of this project published in AHFE : An Installation on Immersive Dining of Image and Food https://openaccess.cms-conferences.org/publications/book/978-1-958651-17-9/article/978-1-958651-17-9_37 The video of EAT Da Vinci was exhibited in ARS ELECTRONICA 2023 9/6-10, Linz, Austria https://ars.electronica.art/who-owns-the-truth/de/epicentrum/, EAT Da Vinci Trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38a6AkrOJRw
Following the success of EAT Da Vinci and in response to the pandemic, the immersive dining experience was reimagined as a tea house, fostering socially distanced interaction. EAT Da Vinci 2.0 takes place in a small, PLDC glass house centered an MR tea table, where virtual entities on the table interact with physical tea wares. The surrounding walls display pastoral landscapes related to tea culture, with white bird animations flying forward. As the walls gradually turn transparent, viewers can see drones continuing their flight. Remote participants can engage by drawing on the walls via an app, interacting with those enjoying the scenery at the tea table. This work integrates three key technologies. First, the MR interactive tea table employs DCRA (Dihedral Corner Reflector Arrays) reflective virtual imaging to create floating animations above the tea wares, while Leap Motion sensors enable users to interact with the animations. Second, an indoor drone performance utilizes four high-speed cameras for real-time tracking, transmitting positioning data to Unity for precise flight control. Third, remote social interaction is facilitated through a drawing app, allowing off-site participants to engage with those on-site. Finally, the PDLC tea house periodically becomes transparent, connecting viewers inside the tea house with those outside. This tea house merges the natural and cultural elements of Guandu into the tea drinking experience. The installation was exhibited at the Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, Taiwan, from December 23, 2023, to March 3, 2024, attracting over 6,000 visitors. This DCRA floating application was published in AHFE 2023, Innovative dining experience realized by developing naked-vision floating projection https://openaccess.cms-conferences.org/publications/book/978-1-958651-47-6/article/978-1-958651-47-6_18,The whole project was published in VINCI 2024, EAT Da Vinci 2.0: Post-Pandemic Immersive Experience of Guandu Landscape and Art https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/3678698.3687181 EAT Da Vinci 2.0 Trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60-SONr03z4&t=9s
EAT Da Vinci 3.0_An immersive space from director Ang Lee’s Eat Drink Man Woman
EAT Da Vinci 3.0 is the latest installment in the series, developed in collaboration with the Film Archive in Taiwan. Drawing inspiration from Ang Lee’s film Eat Drink Man Woman (1994) which explores dinner table conversations and the intricacies of Chinese cuisine, this project reimagines communal dining through an immersive media experience. Building upon the small, enclosed space of EAT Da Vinci 2.0, a round dining table replaces the central tea table. Six dishes are placed on the round table, allowing users to explore different dishes, each accompanied by a unique floating animation. As the protagonist of Eat Drink Man Woman is a chef, cooking serves as a key narrative element, with the film delving into familial, romantic, and generational relationships. Adopting the complexity of Chinese cooking techniques such as chopping and stir-frying, the installation features two interactive tablet interfaces designed to resemble a knife and a spatula. The knife interaction allows users to cut and rearrange image compositions, while the spatula interaction enables them to flip images and alter their colors, reflecting different cooking methods. The surrounding walls incorporate PDLC film, allowing them to transition between transparent and opaque states, creating a dynamic interplay between visibility and concealment. This effect transforms the previously immersive space into a real-world setting, evoking a sense of returning from illusion to reality—mirroring the film’s climactic revelation. This project is currently exhibited at Neiwei Arts Center, Kaohsiung, Taiwan, from May 14, 2024 to March 27, 2025, attracting over 110,000 visitors as of the end of February. EAT Da Vinci Trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBojN93ULBs The technical part is explained as follows:
1. Dinner’s table (serve as interactive dining table with floating animation): Chinese-style round-shaped tabletop device that encircles a floating screen. Six dishes can be placed around the round dining table, and users can rotate the table left or right to access different dishes. This rotation triggers a photoresistor under the table, which sends signals back to the control center via Arduino. The control center plays the corresponding floating animation. Once the floating animation concludes, the corresponding dish is projected onto an initially empty white dinner plate. The floating projection is achieved using DCRA technology, creating a seamless visual dining experience.
Fig1: From view of dinner’s table, Fig2: photoresistor under the table, Fig3: tunable table, Fig4: structure of DCRA
2. Chef’s Knife and Spatula serve as interactive tools on a tablet interface, each offering a unique method of interaction. The knife allows users to cut images apart. When the knife touches virtual ingredients, they split into pieces. Using Wi-Fi OSC, the system tracks the positions of knife and spatula. In Unity, the ingredient model is sliced dynamically along the plane of collision, based on normal vectors at the impact point. The spatula is used to flip images and alter their colors. The whole wall shifts an object’s gravity to the left, creating a drifting effect due to the low gravity value. Two users stand in front of the tablet, taking on the roles of the knife and spatula, engaging in a collaborative, interactive experience.
3. Control center (serves as interaction and transparency switching control) The control center regulates both interaction and transparency within the environment. The surrounding walls are made of PDLC film, which can transition between opaque and transparent states. While one participant rotates the table to retrieve a virtual dish, others take on the roles of the knife and spatula, contributing to a dynamic narrative-driven experience. Unity serves as the computational hub, managing five displays: three wall projections, one floating projection, and the projected dinner plate. By precisely coordinating timing and visuals, the system ensures a cohesive and immersive experience.
The EAT Da Vinci series has achieved the following goals: A floating projection system uses staggered mirror arrays and directional light to create “tactile but not tangible” virtual images. The project includes image data collection, allusion search, scriptwriting, and visual balance for Cuisine culture and art. Optical adjustments, polarization control, and color corrections were made for mixed reality dining tables and interactive projections. Interactive dining images enhance experiences in Da Vinci space while maintaining social distance. Media art enables real-time object detection and cultural storytelling. A social interface integrates video, sound, and social media for immersive dining and community engagement. Through immersive visual art, storytelling, and culinary exploration, a movie transforms into a multisensory, interactive performance.
