Nicole He’s
Internet Realm 😎
Hello! My name is 
I’m currently directing The Crush House , an upcoming game with Nerial, published by Devolver Digital.
I’m also working on an experimental game produced by the National Film Board of Canada.
In the past, I’ve worked as a creative technologist at Google Creative Lab, and an outreach lead at Kickstarter. I am also an adjunct faculty member at ITP at NYU, which is where I received my Master’s degree.
Beyond doing computer stuff,
I enjoy cooking, powerlifting, and recently, streaming on Twitch.
Contact
I am generally available for speaking events, so feel free to reach out for that, or if you just wanna say what’s up.︎︎︎ email
︎︎︎ twitter
︎︎︎ instagram
︎︎︎ twitch
If you want to follow my work and get (very infrequent) updates on new projects and announcements, feel free to subscribe to my newsletter here or below:
Select Interviews
︎︎︎ Kill Screen (2020)︎︎︎ Believer Magazine (2019)
︎︎︎ ARTE Tracks (2019)
︎︎︎ WIRED (2018)
︎︎︎ Kotaku (2018)
︎︎︎ CBC Radio (2017)
Events
Past
Talk
November, 2020
The Internet
︎︎︎ SPACE10 Sessions
Talk
May, 2020
The Internet
︎︎︎HarvardxDesign
Talk
February, 2020
Cambridge, MA
︎︎︎ORD Camp
January, 2020
Chicago, IL
︎︎︎Playtopia
Talk
December, 2019
Cape Town, South Africa ︎︎︎Machine Agencies at the Milieux Institute at Concordia
Talk, Workshop
October, 2019
Montreal, Canada
︎︎︎Glitch Appy Hour @ XOXO 2019
Demo
September, 2019
Portland, OR
︎︎︎The Conference
Talk
August, 2019
Malmö, Sweden
︎︎︎Google I/O
Demo
May, 2019
Mountain View, CA
︎︎︎A MAZE.
Talk
April, 2019
Berlin, Germany
︎︎︎Game Developers Conference
Talk
March 2019
San Francisco, CA
︎︎︎Awwwards Conference
Talk
November 2018
New York, NY
︎︎︎Creative Coding Festival
Keynote
November 2018
New York, NY
︎︎︎Grace Hopper Celebration
Demo
September 2018
Houston, TX
︎︎︎XOXO
Talk
September 2018
Portland, OR
︎︎︎Artworld Videogames
Exhibition
August 2018
Melbourne, Australia
︎︎︎ACMI Masterclass: Artworld Videogames
Talk
August 2018
Melbourne, Australia
︎︎︎Google I/O
Demo
May 2018
Mountain View, CA
︎︎︎True/False Film Festival
Talk
March 2018
Columbia, MO
︎︎︎Interrupt Conference at Brown University
Talk
April 2017
Providence, RI︎︎︎WordHack
Talk
January 2017
New York, New York
︎︎︎The Conference
Exhibition
August 2016
Malmö, Sweden
︎︎︎FACETS
Panel
May 2016
New York, New York
Etc
︎︎︎ Collaborators, friends, people I admire who make cool stuff ︎︎︎ Hello, Computer: Unconventional Uses of Voice Technology 2020 syllabus ︎︎︎ My student blog from grad school
😎
True Love Tinder Robot
About
The True Love Tinder Robot will find you love, guaranteed. With Tinder open, you put your phone down in front of the robot hand. Then you place your own human hands on the sensors. As you are looking at each Tinder profile, the robot will read your true heart's desire through the sensors and decide whether or not you are a good match with that person based on how your body reacts. If it determines that you're attracted to that person, it will swipe right. If not, it will swipe left. Throughout the process, it will make commentary on your involuntary decisions.
Why
In a time when it's very normal for couples to meet online, we trust that algorithms on dating sites can find us suitable partners. Simultaneously, we use consumer biometric devices to tell us what's going on with our bodies and what we should do to be healthy and happy. Maybe it's not a stretch to consider what happens when we combine these things.
This project explores the idea that the computer knows us better than we know ourselves, and therefore it has better authority on who we should date than we do. In a direct way, the True Love Tinder Robot makes the user confront what it feels like to let computers make intimate decisions for us.
How
The robot is built with an Arduino, servos, a text-to-speech module, LEDS, a couple sheets of metal acting as galvanic skin response sensor, a bunch of wires, a box, and a speaker. The code is available on Github. You can also find my in-progress documentation on my ITP blog.
This is my final project for my Intro to Physical Computing and Intro to Computational Media classes during fall of 2015 at NYU ITP. Special thanks to my teachers, Tom Igoe and Lauren McCarthy.
I had many references and inspiration for this project, from art to code to circuitry. You can see those here.
Q&A
Q: Who are you?
A: I'm Nicole. You can learn more about me here. You can email me at hi@nicole.pizza or tweet at me at @nicolehe.
Q: How did you come up with this idea?
A: It came to me as I was sleeping, and I jolted up and wrote it down on my phone.
Q: Do you use Tinder?
A: No.
Q: How did you get the robot hand to swipe on a touchscreen?
A: It was surprisingly annoying. I cut a hole in the thumb with an exacto-knife, shoved a piece of metal through, covered the metal thing with a piece of rubber, and connected the metal to ground. The hand moves with two servos in a pan-tilt bracket.
Q: How does it read your body's reaction?
A: It reads the change in your galvanic skin response over a period of time. Basically, how sweaty your palms get.
Q: Is this scientific?
A: Definitely, absolutely, 100% no doubt.
Q: How can I try the robot myself?
A: Come to the ITP Winter Show on December 20 or 21! Or email me.
