Three Drops is an interactive video installation which allows the participant to interact with simulated water at three different physical scales. The virtual scene is projected onto a screen and the participant interacts using their shadow. In the first scene drops of water from a showerhead run over the participant's shadow and pool using realistic simulated physics. In the second scene the scale is increased and only a single drop of water is present – at this scale the surface tension of the drop causes it to bounce and deform over the user's shadow. The final scene presents a simulation of water at the molecular scale inspired by research at Stanford University. Individual molecules of water combine to form rings and chains, and the user's shadow becomes an ionically charged surface which attracts the individual molecules.

Three Drops was created with Scott Snibbe while working at Sona Research (now Snibbe Interactive). Three Drops was created as part of the National Science Foundation funded Nanoscale Informal Science Education Network.

Technologies used:

• Custom C++ code
• OpenGL, OpenCV
• In-house developed physics simulation library
• Ageia PhysX physics library and hardware accelerator

• Yerba Buena Center for the Arts - 2007
• Exploratorium - 2006
• National Informal Science Education Newsletter - 2006