Interactive marbling simulator by breath blowing

This paper presents a new approach to digital marbling, an artistic technique of floating ink on water to create unique patterns. Traditional marbling involves expressive techniques, such as blowing on the ink to influence its movement. However, digital systems have not fully replicated this effect. This study enables the interaction by blowing, allowing more intuitive interactions. The system uses an LCD tablet that serves as a simulated water surface with ink, and a camera that is used to detect facial landmarks. The obtained coordinates are then used to solve the PnP (Perspective-n-Point) problem to estimate the position and direction of the user’s breath on the tablet’s surface. We tested the system with an LCD tablet measuring 26.8cm in height and 47.6cm in width. The system estimated the position of the blow with an average error of approximately 3cm, and the blowing direction with an average error of approximately 13 degrees, although the accuracy decreases when blowing near the corners of the tablet. Additionally, the system cannot detect the onset and cessation of blowing. Future work will focus on addressing these two issues.