/// MINT

/// MINT — How Much Is Me? — is a speculative interaction design project. It is a conceptual ATM for emotions designed to critique how private intimacy is transformed into tradable commercial transactions. The project is rooted in the theory of Cold Intimacy, exploring a world where human feelings have become quantifiable entities in the consumer market.

The physical form of the installation is intended to evoke a sense of industrial brutalism intertwined with digital coldness. Utilizing honeycomb polycarbonate sheets and translucent frosted acrylic, it creates a sterile and semi-transparent aesthetic style. The metal framework further emphasizes the machine's mechanical indifference toward the human subjects it processes.

The interaction begins with physical authorization, requiring participants to place their finger on a biometric sensor. To protect user privacy, fingerprint data images are processed before being transformed into the unique biometric signature on the final banknote. Once authorized, the system activates the camera module to begin real-time facial detection. Its facial recognition algorithm processes real-time video through a neural network to identify specific facial landmarks and muscle deformations. By calculating the spatial displacement between these landmarks, the algorithm maps the user’s expressions into seven distinct categories, such as Happy, Surprise, or Fear, to determine the emotional intensity of the interaction and uses AI-generated emotional eyes to replace real eyes for user privacy protection.

The underlying valuation logic utilizes a weighted algorithm to calculate the final score. The score is composed of expression intensity, clothing color vibrancy, and motion variety in specific proportions. Color analysis is completed through LAB color space mapping to ensure accurate intensity measurement based on clothing saturation.

The entire process concludes with an integrated printer dispensing a physical emotional banknote. Every piece of emotional currency possesses a unique serial number and contains personalized elements such as the processed biometric fingerprint signature and AI-generated line art eyes. By converting human faces into currency through this cold industrial medium, /// MINT forces participants to reflect: Should AI decide the exchange rate of the human soul?