Overview
Each networked user has a virtual location in a shared 3D environment. Bubbles that float across the screen when users blow into the attached "bubble blower" microphones. The volume levels, rhythm of breaths, and the users' locations in the virtual world are parsed into translucent, multicolored bubbles that change vary according to the strength and rhythm of their breaths. As each user breathes in and out, bubbles created by the other users float through the field of vision, creating a dynamic representation of an online community

Prototype
Blow, Pop! uses neither words nor video images. Instead, it imagines that users are on different "sides" of a large plane, so that the bubbles they blow out will automatically drift (like soap bubbles) towards the center. When the bubbles collide, they burst in midair with an audible pop.

System
This prototype was built with Director 8.5 using Geoff Smith's >> GetSoundInLevel Xtra << and the Multiuser Server, which manages the physics of the shared virtual space. As installed, it required two PCs, each equipped with a small contact microphone hidden in a plastic bubble wand.