Aurora Route

Aurora Route is an interactive installation that blends science, technology, and narrative, aiming to create an immersive aurora exploration experience. It not only explains the formation and changes of the Northern Lights but also allows participants to actively interact with the phenomenon, thereby establishing a deeper cognitive and emotional connection.

Year of Completion:

2025

Awards and Exhibitions

  • Tentatively scheduled for exhibition at the Shanghai Astronomy Museum in 2026

  • 2024 Muse Design Award Gold Winner

Responsible for:

Research, TouchDesigner development and design, hardware development, installation setup

Video

Background

Project Origin

This project is the result of a collaboration between ShanghaiTech University and the Shanghai Astronomy Museum, aiming to inspire public interest in astronomical phenomena and deepen their understanding of these concepts.

Aurora Popularity

In December 2023, a rare aurora appeared in Beijing, capturing the entire city's attention and sparking widespread excitement. The event quickly went viral on social media, with people marveling at this stunning natural phenomenon. This ignited a strong curiosity among the public about auroras and their scientific origins. As a designer, I was inspired by the public's fascination with the aurora and wanted to create an experience that combines this sense of awe with education.

Concept Research

Case Study

Experience process

Interactive Installation

Narrative-driven interaction

Character Design

A small fennec fox named "Hassan" from North Africa—brave, curious, and harboring a dream of chasing the auroras.
Want: To see more colors than just desert yellow, seeking the aurora to satisfy his desire for beauty
Need: To understand the world and establish a connection with the universe

Story structure

Enhance the story's original emotional arc through gamified design, popular science installations, and scene layout.

Technical Development

This project uses TouchDesigner to simulate auroras, combining a camera as video input with the YOLOv8 model to achieve the effect of the aurora following the audience. The project integrates a locally deployed YOLOv8 model to recognize and track the participants. By processing the participants' position data through noise reduction and mathematical operations, the coordinates are mapped to the corresponding positions on the projection to enable the aurora to follow the audience as they walk.

YOLOv8 is the latest iteration of the YOLO series of real-time object detectors. Compared to similar products like MediaPipe, its recognition is more stable and coherent, it has stronger environmental adaptability, and it can recognize partially obscured human bodies.

At the same time, the logical operations of the interactive installation are implemented using ESP32 and other modules, communicating and transmitting data in real-time with the host computer via a Wi-Fi module.

Production Process

Exhibition

The work was visited and experienced by the leadership of the Shanghai Astronomy Museum, and is planned to be exhibited at the Shanghai Astronomy Museum in 2026.

Other Projects


Aurora Route

Aurora Route is an interactive installation that blends science, technology, and narrative, aiming to create an immersive aurora exploration experience. It not only explains the formation and changes of the Northern Lights but also allows participants to actively interact with the phenomenon, thereby establishing a deeper cognitive and emotional connection.

Year of Completion:

2025

Awards and Exhibitions

  • Tentatively scheduled for exhibition at the Shanghai Astronomy Museum in 2026

  • 2024 Muse Design Award Gold Winner

Responsible for:

Research, TouchDesigner development and design, hardware development, installation setup

Video

Background

Project Origin

This project is the result of a collaboration between ShanghaiTech University and the Shanghai Astronomy Museum, aiming to inspire public interest in astronomical phenomena and deepen their understanding of these concepts.

Aurora Popularity

In December 2023, a rare aurora appeared in Beijing, capturing the entire city's attention and sparking widespread excitement. The event quickly went viral on social media, with people marveling at this stunning natural phenomenon. This ignited a strong curiosity among the public about auroras and their scientific origins. As a designer, I was inspired by the public's fascination with the aurora and wanted to create an experience that combines this sense of awe with education.

Concept Research

Case Study

Experience process

Interactive Installation

Narrative-driven interaction

Character Design

A small fennec fox named "Hassan" from North Africa—brave, curious, and harboring a dream of chasing the auroras.
Want: To see more colors than just desert yellow, seeking the aurora to satisfy his desire for beauty
Need: To understand the world and establish a connection with the universe

Story structure

Enhance the story's original emotional arc through gamified design, popular science installations, and scene layout.

Technical Development

This project uses TouchDesigner to simulate auroras, combining a camera as video input with the YOLOv8 model to achieve the effect of the aurora following the audience. The project integrates a locally deployed YOLOv8 model to recognize and track the participants. By processing the participants' position data through noise reduction and mathematical operations, the coordinates are mapped to the corresponding positions on the projection to enable the aurora to follow the audience as they walk.

YOLOv8 is the latest iteration of the YOLO series of real-time object detectors. Compared to similar products like MediaPipe, its recognition is more stable and coherent, it has stronger environmental adaptability, and it can recognize partially obscured human bodies.

At the same time, the logical operations of the interactive installation are implemented using ESP32 and other modules, communicating and transmitting data in real-time with the host computer via a Wi-Fi module.

Production Process

Exhibition

The work was visited and experienced by the leadership of the Shanghai Astronomy Museum, and is planned to be exhibited at the Shanghai Astronomy Museum in 2026.

Other Projects


Aurora Route

Aurora Route is an interactive installation that blends science, technology, and narrative, aiming to create an immersive aurora exploration experience. It not only explains the formation and changes of the Northern Lights but also allows participants to actively interact with the phenomenon, thereby establishing a deeper cognitive and emotional connection.

Year of Completion:

2025

Awards and Exhibitions

  • Tentatively scheduled for exhibition at the Shanghai Astronomy Museum in 2026

  • 2024 Muse Design Award Gold Winner

Responsible for:

Research, TouchDesigner development and design, hardware development, installation setup

Video

Background

Project Origin

This project is the result of a collaboration between ShanghaiTech University and the Shanghai Astronomy Museum, aiming to inspire public interest in astronomical phenomena and deepen their understanding of these concepts.

Aurora Popularity

In December 2023, a rare aurora appeared in Beijing, capturing the entire city's attention and sparking widespread excitement. The event quickly went viral on social media, with people marveling at this stunning natural phenomenon. This ignited a strong curiosity among the public about auroras and their scientific origins. As a designer, I was inspired by the public's fascination with the aurora and wanted to create an experience that combines this sense of awe with education.

Concept Research

Case Study

Experience process

Interactive Installation

Narrative-driven interaction

Character Design

A small fennec fox named "Hassan" from North Africa—brave, curious, and harboring a dream of chasing the auroras.
Want: To see more colors than just desert yellow, seeking the aurora to satisfy his desire for beauty
Need: To understand the world and establish a connection with the universe

Story structure

Enhance the story's original emotional arc through gamified design, popular science installations, and scene layout.

Technical Development

This project uses TouchDesigner to simulate auroras, combining a camera as video input with the YOLOv8 model to achieve the effect of the aurora following the audience. The project integrates a locally deployed YOLOv8 model to recognize and track the participants. By processing the participants' position data through noise reduction and mathematical operations, the coordinates are mapped to the corresponding positions on the projection to enable the aurora to follow the audience as they walk.

YOLOv8 is the latest iteration of the YOLO series of real-time object detectors. Compared to similar products like MediaPipe, its recognition is more stable and coherent, it has stronger environmental adaptability, and it can recognize partially obscured human bodies.

At the same time, the logical operations of the interactive installation are implemented using ESP32 and other modules, communicating and transmitting data in real-time with the host computer via a Wi-Fi module.

Production Process

Exhibition

The work was visited and experienced by the leadership of the Shanghai Astronomy Museum, and is planned to be exhibited at the Shanghai Astronomy Museum in 2026.

Other Projects

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