Future City: Visions of a green future is an initiative by social advocacy group Jhatkaa.org to rally support for mobilizing residents of Indian cities to demand a cleaner, better future. It is a series of Augmented Reality Installations where viewers are transported into a future city that offers better amenities such as specific cycle lanes, EV charging points, blue skies, and green zones; thereby showcasing the possibility of an eco-friendly future.

I am responsible for directing the technology framework of the installation including power, electrical infrastructure and software.

Jhatkaa.org: Client and on-ground operations.

THE Workshop: Design & Fabrication

Tensorflow.js (BodyPix), Unity, Kinect.

The installation runs off a solar power grid and the enclosure is designed to withstand the dust and pollution on the roads and run under extreme weather conditions.

The AR overlays were first designed as 3D objects and then composited over a video shot on location. The viewer’s body is placed into the video using Bodypix, a machine learning model for real-time body segmentation.

For the a trial run, a prototype was created to test the key technologies (solar power, ML model) at a secure location in New Delhi and the installation was run for 10 days.

After the first prototype was run over 10 days in New Delhi, the installation is being currently converted into a larger structure which will house a cycle stand and resting spots for the next version with a planned launch in Q3 2022.

The prototype and trial run was covered in major Indian newspapers:

Indian Express Times of India