Windows PC running custom software, stereo-depth camera, 6-axis robot arm, and vinyl

9' 10 1/8" x 59 1/8" x 59 1/8" (300 x 150 x 150 cm)

With a body similar to a large worm or elephant trunk, Double-Taker (Snout) is surprisingly emotional for a creature consisting of a robotic arm and a single, giant googly eye. Snout was placed above the entrance to the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts in 2008, where it silently tracked the actions of museum visitors as they came in and out. A computer program used information from a stereo camera and vision algorithms to detect the visitors’ behavior and then directed these signals to influence the movements of the arm. The result was a mechanical cyclops that seemed bashful yet curious and interested as it caught glimpses of passersby and followed them with its eye. By endowing the robotic creature with realistic observational behaviors, the designers achieved a suggestion of intelligent awareness.