The Chinese Tea Ceremony is built on short, successive infusions, beginning with the brief Rinse, which is poured away after quickly awakening the leaves. True tasting begins with the First Infusion, which demands meticulous precision in both water level and steeping time, as deviation risks a bland or overpowering taste. During this crucial infusion, participants often observe the tea leaves unfurling within the vessel, a visually meditative process that enhances the appreciation of the developing color and essence before the final pour.
To create a Touch-Visual-Audio interface that educates people about the adequate water level and steeping duration for The First Infusion.
As users pour into the Brewing Cup, they will receive auditory feedback as the adequate water level is reached. On screen, the leaves essence radiate and cascade, symbolising The Infusion. This observation of leaves also aligns with the practice of observing tea leaves unfurling during the brew.
To start off, I generated a image of oolong tea leaves in water, which is then converted to a PNG image. I used this PNG image as the source for my TouchDesigner visual, which basically displaces and distorts the particles/pixels in the image using smooth noise TOPs, creating a flowy, essence like visual.
To obtain data about the current water level in the brewing cup, I used a Soil Moisture Sensor, which does a good job at detecting the current water level compared to Water Level Sensors found in starter kits. The received water level data is then transferred to TouchDesigner, to trigger the visual and audio changes in the TouchDesigner sketch.
