SEE YOURSELF THROUGH THE EYES OF A BUTTERFLY

Our mission is to explore an interface between robotics, artificial intelligence, and human-robot interaction at Burning Man. As scientists and technologists, we work with technologies that exist only in our laboratories. We are a new group, but our plan is to develop experimental pieces that explore the frontier of our technological capabilities. We want to create an experience that is not only fun, but that becomes part of the fabric of how we view the future.

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Group Principles

Projects rooted in science and technology.

Our focus is projects that explore topics in robotics, artificial intelligence, and human-robot interaction.

Fun

We are doing this for fun. We only take on projects for the enjoyment of our group. We do not take on so much work that it stops being fun. We think that others will enjoy this stuff because we are having fun.

This is a hobby

We come together as a team because we like each other and want to fiddle around with this stuff in our free time. Burning Man is a vacation, and we will set up any Burning Man projects to make sure it feels like a vacation the whole time.

No heroes

We do this for fun, not to show off, not for "cred."

Transparency

If people entrust us with their money, through donations or other fundraising, we should honor that by prominently displaying our revenues and expenditures on our website.

Deep Learning meets a Butterfly in the Deep Playa

Deepflya
is a robotic butterfly which looks at you using a computer vision system. It uses a General Adversarial Network (GAN) and other Deep Learning Technologies to transform the way it sees how you interact with it. Projected onto a screen will be a live video feed of how the butterfly “sees” you.

The Deepflya

Deepflya will be an 5’ tall butterfly, with wings and antennae topping out at 7’. The look will be sleek, with the purpose of quickly reminding the viewer that this device is a robot and sustaining the idea of a “robotic butterfly” throughout the interaction. The body and wings will comprise an LED diffuser over a grid of full-color LEDs rendering art onto the wings and body. The wings will gently flap, and the head and eyes will move to look at individual participants as they interact with the robot.