Lin Zhang and Ran Xie from the Interactive Architecture Lab at the University College London have developed art that stares back at the person admiring it instead of just being stared at.

Eye Catcher, the name of the interactive artwork, slides along the wall next to a passerby. When a person looks at it, two spots that look like eyes will emerge from the pool of ferrofluid at the bottom of the frame.

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The ferrofluid creates the illusion a minimalistic face is starting back at the individual, according to CNET's Michelle Starr.

To create the illusion, most of the artwork is controlled by a robotic "puppeteer" equipped with strong magnets that control the frame. Hidden in the frame, a pinhole camera detects the movement of people walking by. The camera allows the robot to move simultaneously with a person, moving when they move and halting when they halt.

The pinhole camera also lets the software in the machine monitor the face of a viewer when he stops and looks at the Eye Catcher, The software calculates both the facial expression of the person and the position of his eyes, which the artwork then mimics.

If a viewer smiles, the ferrofluid eyes seems cheerful, and when the person pouts or frowns, the eyes droop towards the bottom of the frame.

"Through a series of experimental films, photography and physical prototypes, the primitive effects of eye (and eye-like) stimuli have been investigated," wrote project supervisor Ruairi Glynn.

"The Eye Catcher project in its conclusion has developed a novel expressive interface where emotion recognition algorithms read audience faces and in-turn trigger the animation of a face formed of ferrofluid."

TagsEye Catcher, Interactive Architecture Lab, University College London, Ferrofluid, Robotics, camera