Johnny Chung Lee > Projects




Cool Tricks to do with the Wii Remote

In December 2006, Nintendo released the Nintendo Wii which featured an innovative controller containing an accelerometer and pointing capability. This provided millions of people with a new ways to interact with computers. As an HCI researcher, this became an interesting platform for showing people what they can do with thier new toy that they never knew it could do.

Link to the Wii Project page

Selected Recognition: Engadget-1, Engadget-2, Engadget-3, Ars Technica, Slashdot, Slashdot-2, Joystiq, Joystiq-2, Gizmodo-1, Gizmodo-2, Gizmodo-3, Hack-a-Day 1, Hack-a-Day 2, Hack-a-Day 3, Digg, Digg, recieved over 3,000,000 unique views including "#1 rated YouTube Video (All Time)" as of 1/1/08.




Projector-Based Location Discovery and Tracking

This is my PhD thesis work done at Carnegie Mellon University in the Human-Computer Interaction Institute. The basic idea is to use projected light to discover the locations of optical sensors. This location data can be fed back to the computer for use in a projected application. This results in a significant simplification and enabling capability for interactive projection and augmented reality applications. It eliminates the needs for calibration and eliminates the needs for an external tracking technology.

Link to my thesis work

Selected Recognition: Engadget, Hack-a-Day,




Low-Cost EEG for Task Classification

Brain-Computer Interaction is an enticing idea that has existed for several decades and primarily rooted in the field of neuroscience and rehabilitation engineering. However, it is a relatively new idea to see how the benefits of this technology can be applied to able bodied individuals in the effort to give the computers a better understanding of its user. This is work I did with Microsoft Research shows how a very low-cost EEG device can be used to correctly identify mental and physical tasks of the user with 93% accuracy. Additionally, it presents the idea that motion artifacts can be leveraged to improve classification if you are not trying to claim a neurological basis for the data.

Link to the paper
Link to the patent application

Selected Recognition: New Scientist, NY Times Magazine, Digg, Engadget, Slashdot, and more news websites.




$14 Steadycam

Professional steadicam devices can easily cost several thousand dollars placing them out of the price range of hobbyists and amateur filmmakers. In 2001, I created a web tutorial on how to build an effective camera stabilizer for $14. The tutorial has since been viewed over 1 million times and has been translated into more than 10 languages.

Link to the $14 steadycam

Selected Recognition: Design Life Now: National Design Triennial 2006, Cooper Hewitt Museum, Make Magazine: Issue 01, Ars Technica, Slashdot, Digg, Engadget, Boing Boing, over 1 million unique views.




Kinetic Typography

Kinetic typography refers to the art and technique of expression with animated text. Similar to the study of traditional typography of designing static typographic forms, kinetic typography focuses on understanding the effect time has on the expression of text. Kinetic typography has demonstrated the ability to add significant emotive content and appeal to expressive text, allowing some of the qualities normally found in film and the spoken word to be added to static text.

Link to Kinetic Typography




Community Splash

In the sping of 2005, I lead a project to construct a 45-foot tall slingshot for launch paint-filled balloons at an 18-story tall appartment building scheduled for demolition. The project was part of an ubran renewal project in Pittsburgh. The concept was to bring together members of the community create a massive collaboratively formed work of art. Several hundred residents and city officials got the opportunity to participate in this event.

Link to the Community Splash page

Selected Recognition: Piitsburgh Post Gazett




High-Speed Photography: Smashing

Using a custom acoustic flash trigger, you can capture images of extremely dynamic events. This was a small project exploring that idea combining beer bottles with blunt objects and projectiles.

Link to the Smashing page
Link to my other photography




More to come...