Student projects
 St. George and the Dragon |
The project was a collaboration between National Museum of Finland (Kansallismuseo) and the Department of Media, Systems of Representation research group. It created the design of a cultural heritage media installation, exhibited at Häme Castle between April–December 2017 and also produced a Master of Arts thesis, St. George and the Dragon: Design and production of a cultural heritage museum installation using media archaeology by Mercedes Said. The installation displayed a multi-view stereoscopic (3D) digital reconstruction of a medieval sculptural scene of St. George and the Dragon, based on preserved, fragmented medieval sculptures from the museum’s archives. Four stereoscopic video viewers were synchronized to a rotating central physical display, affording visitors an effect of augmented reality, without the need for a mainstream augmented reality implementation. People involved in the project were: Mercedes Said (Concept Design and 3D fabrication); Topias Arias (3D modelling and animation); Janne Ojala (Engineering); James Geraets, (Engineering); Prof. Lily Díaz-Kommonen, (Supervisor). More information can be seen here. |
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Cronoscope is a concept design for a mobile app that gives new life to paintings by encouraging users to take pictures with their smartphones.
As an example: a user will select “take a picture”, the user will click a photo and in real time an image recognition algorithm will show a matching painting. The user will also be able to check matching photos from other users related to that artwork. The work was done in 2016 as part of the Media Design Research seminar and in collaboration with Kuvasto and Ateneum. Participating students were: Lauri Lukka, Soujanyaa Boruah, Idamaija Pitkonen, Mercedes Said, Elisa Spigai. A video scenario of the application can be seen here. |
 Mapping Modernism |
Mapping Modernism is an interactive installation realised during the year 2010. The installation provided museum visitors with an interesting way to explore information behind some of the exhibition items.
The goal was to let the visitors experience and learn about relationships and connections between designers, artists and artifacts that shaped modernism. By visualizing these convergence points, the user would get a sense of the larger picture of Modernism that designed much of the world we currently live in. The work was shown in the Mapping Modernism exhibition held at Design Museum Helsinki. Credits: Sampo Jalasto (Concept, User Interface Graphics), Agnieszka Paszkowska (Concept, Content, Material selection), Laura Sebastián Magaña (Concept, Content, Graphic design, Spatial design), Akira Sano(Concept, Hardware Assembly, Recognition Calibration), Reha Discioglu (Concept), Matti Schneider-Ghibaudo (UI Programming, Hardware and Recognition Testing), Professor Lily Díaz (Supervisor). You can see a video of the project here. |
 Havis Amanda |
Every May Day, university students of Helsinki crown Havis Amanda statue with a student cap to celebrate the end of a study year. The Havis Amanda installation was a working installation created in collaboration with Helsinki City Art Museum as part of the Media Design Research seminar in 2008. It was shown in the “100 Years of Havis Amanda” exhibition during that same year. The project intended to transfer the ritual to an interactive virtual setting. Participating students included: Aleksi Hyvönen, Anna Keune, Suvi Kitunen, Sonja Krogius, Juha Kronqvist, Mikko Pykäri, Abhigyan Singh and Kristine Visanen. More information about the work and the exhibition is available here. |
 Harmoincs |
Harmoincs is a piano tuning visualization tool which illustrates the overall tuning of a piano in a way that all relationships between intervals are visible in one view.
Harmoincs is intended to provide information for research purposes and to have a tool for professional piano tuners and to gain better understanding on different ways a single piano can be tuned. The prototype was developed during the Dynamic Visualization Design courses in 2007-2008 by Sonja Krogius, Mikko Pykäri and Jari Suominen. |
 Busalyzer |
The Busalyser is a bus traffic data visualisation and analysis tool intended for bus traffic planners and others interested in the data.
The concept was developed during the Dynamic Visualization Design 1 course in 2006 by Jan Wolski, Anne Naukkarinen, Miska Knapek and Jukka Vallisto. The aim of the project was to provide a means for visualising and exploring the massive amount of data that is present in the bus transport system of Helsinki metropolitan area.
The number of people entering buses was mapped to the area of the red circles. Selection lists and a time interval that goes over midnight. Radio buttons for selecting the visualization mode. |
 Chronicles and Legends of Mexico City |
Digital video narratives of the legends and chronicles of the historic center of Mexico City. The narratives are published as part of an information technology product, namely the Map of Mexico 1550 Digital Facsimile. The work was realised as a collaboration between Media Lab Helsinki and Universidad Iberoamericana (Ciudad de México) held in the summer of 2004.
As main activity students gathered historical legends and subsequently re-interpreted the text in multimedia format using digital media. The process opens up new spaces and experiences where cultural heritage is brought to life in the present. Digital Storytelling Workshop at Iberoamericana for the The Map of Mexico 1550 project. |
 Äänijälki / Sound Traces |
Äänijälki is a service for visually impaired people and their related community for exchanging advises about exhibitions in the context of Finnish museums. Äänijälki is also an instrument for enhancing accessibility and the experience in the context of Finnish museums. At the same time, it is a platform for collaborative sound gathering created mainly by visually impaired people. Despite that, our aim is that every visitor can listen Äänijälkiä (sound-traces). Äänijälki was developed by a group of MA and DA students — Mariana Salgado, Anna Salmi, Arto Kellokoski and Timo Londen — as part of the work done for the Dynamic Visual Design Seminar in the spring of 2005. |
 3D6B – Community Based Design Environment |
A three-dimensional collaborative sketching/design environment.
The project was realised by Mlab students Kiia Kallio, Duncan Lamb, Jaakko Latikka, Wille Mäkelä, Simona Schimanovich, Tuomas Siitonen, Akio Wada and Shang Zhidi during the years 2001 – 2002 Storyboard explaining the basic concepts of the project Kiia Kallio’s paper on the sketching interface |
