Research
Michael has been involved in cutting edge research on media and interactivity throughout his career. As a graduate student at the Media Lab he developed experimental interactive films and performance art at MIT’s FIlm/Video Section, Arch Mach, and the Center For Advanced Visual Studies. After earning his degree he became an interactive producer at MIT’s Athena Language Learning Project and the Laboratory for Advanced Technology in the Humanities. There he developed three breakthrough educational multimedia projects on the languages and cultures of France, Japan, and the United States. These projects incorporated the latest networking technologies, streaming video, interactive puzzles and immersive 3D simulations of places learners could explore to learn more about a neighborhood’s history, culture and language. He also experimented with integrating cinema verite vide segments within spatial, interactive applications, so that learners could literally explore a neighborhood and encounter people serendipitously.
Two of the projects Michael produced, Dans un quartier de Paris and Star Festival were published and updated to accommodate technology develops that provided new opportunities for creating compelling user experiences. Michael was given an inventor status on both of these projects, and the work he and his colleagues, principally Shigeru Miyagawa and Ellen Sebring, led to the formation of a new company, Botticelli Interactive, which had the support of MIT and key Japanese investors.
Michael continued his research efforts at Botticelli, where he developed one of the first interactive kiosks to employ full motion, full screen interactive video on a 27-inch touch screen. Called the Titian Interactive, he developed a new approach for exploring major works of art. Developed for the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, the interactive allowed visitors to “touch” any part of the media representation of Titian’s Europa to learn about how it was painted, discoveries made during conservation efforts, the biographies of Titian and Isabella Stewart Gardner, and other keys to understanding the painting. All of these “nuggets” were accessed simply but touching areas of the painting that were of interest to the visitor. A visual overlay of all of the touch points could also be selected if desired.
Roper has also collaborated with John Borden of Peace River Films, one of the pioneers of interactive media. John developed the technology for the “movie mapping” process that was an integral part of the Aspen Disc at MIT’s Architecture Machine Group. Based on Michael’s work on Dans un quartier de Paris, John invited Michael to take part in the research projects going on at Peace River. This included the completion of Interactive NOVA: Animal Pathfinders, the first interactive media product on a NOVA program developed by Peace River Films, WGBH, and Apple. Michael also participated in the design and filming of 60-seat interactive theater developed for the Liberty Science Center in New Jersey. This theater incorporated interactive storytelling and group decision making that takes the program on the ecology of the waterways of New York and New Jersey in many different possible directions. He developed interactive installations for the Osaka and New York Aquariums as well.
Michael took part in a special research project on the history and ecology of Monterey Bay for Apple’s Multimedia Lab. This project, which had many similarities with Michael’s earlier work at MIT for the Laboratory For Advanced Technology in the Humanities, provided an opportunity to work with many key interactive media experts.
Over the years, Michael has continued to incorporate new technologies and new design approaches into his work. At Botticelli Interactive and Krent/Paffett/Carney (later Experience Design), he has incorporated the latest developments in video compression and digital media, touch screen and gestural interfaces, and software platforms allowing for the display of high resolution video across multiple screens. Because his work has increasingly involved designing interactive experiences within a larger three dimensional designed space, his attention to and awareness of the interplay of media experiences and 3D design has evolved a great deal. This experience has then been applied back to web-based interactive experiences, since many museums are experimenting with virtual exhibitions that mirror or support actual exhibitions within their galleries. This has brought Michael full circle, since many of the ideas he explored at LATH were devoted to 3D media environments for exploring languages and cultures.