2-cam video to sound

Two video inputs tracked where any horizontal movement
change pitch and soundset accordingly. Kids went bananas
with this, as they should of course.



dance clip

Accelorattle

Sound test with accelometer data transmitted by RF via stamp to Max/Msp. I do the A/D conversion from the accelometer with RC pair which is bit crap resolution, so I get only few peak and change values in to Max. I'll try this with decent ADC later. Lag is ok, feels like playing. The lag in the video seems longer.



video: close
video: couple of meters

I have stamp reading the accelometer and transmitting via the 433Mhz RF chip, which is complete overkill, but it'll do for prototyping. You can make it very small with small pic and smaller RF but even this would fit inside tennis ball. The range is tens of meter indoors.



The breadboard on the left has the receiver with stamp.

My Family!

Finally my family arrived! From the left:
Miska(5y) with painted red nose, Sari, Ronja(10y) & me squeezing Ronja.

From the web: Ars Electronica Videos

Ars Electronica 2004 conference videos online:
http://www.aec.at/en/festival/programm/webcasts_timeshift.asp

Art & Science

Back from short London trip. The Science Museum was a happy surprise. Very well made exhibition architecture. The depth of information is targeted perhaps bit more to school children, but the interaction in many demonstrations was quite enjoyable for an older kid as well ;-)



Bruce Nauman in Tate Modern was a powerful experience. The website's simulation is nice sound play from the same material, but the soundscape in the huge hall cannot be simulated. The effect what happens in the middle of the speaker pair was astonishing: The sound moved from one side actually inside your head when approaching the exact center. And the complexity of sounds mixing in space was ear-opening example of the power of sound taking over a large space. Regarding the retrospective content, read the curator's introduction.

Flashlight as an input

First test with flashlight triggering video loops. In such a small scale it doesn't really make sense. In room-scale it will be ok and probably best with sounds only. Even with several users with flash lights, triggering sounds when hitting to the sensor. Horror applicarions are obvious ;-) But perhaps also more subtle things, searching with light, memory, attic, archeology... peeling layers of media with light... digging deeper when holding light in one spot...



flashlight movie

The light controls also the framerate, brighter the faster. Wwhen light moves away from the sensor, the image blurs and fades out. Second sensor triggers different loops, which does not really show in this video.

This would also be interesting in nature, woods, in big area. Playing sensors in trees at night, triggering soundscapes ... Blair Glitch project... well... bit sleep at this point perhaps.

Tomorrow to London.

Screenspace

Very simple test with triggering video overlay to closed circuit signal



The droplet video is overlaid on the live video(cctv) signal.
Showing hand to the video frame triggers the drop clip seen on
the monitor.

screen view movie

From the web: tracking with moving light

I've been searching for awhile if someone had done tracking searchlights project somewhere and finally found one:
http://www.accessproject.net

Very well done, pity that the videos were not online at the moment. Idea is obvious and simple, but it makes the invisible surveillance visible, thus creating real experience of being tracked. I prefer this approach over the bigbrother reminders.

Interesting is also the notion how someone finds it intimidating and someone enjoys it, either as been exposed/observed or just because of the playfulness of it. This relates to a discussion few years ago with Heidi Tikka about the nature of light & darkness as protecting vs. exposing, which triggered my interest for light.

From the web: Computer vision

Some links relating to computer vision / video tracking

David rokeby / SoftVNS
http://homepage.mac.com/davidrokeby/home.html

Jean-Marc Pelletier / cv.jit
http://www.iamas.ac.jp/~jovan02/cv/

Eric Singer / Cyclops
http://www.ericsinger.com/cyclopsmax.html

Open source camera software (thanks dan)
http://webcamxtra.sourceforge.net/

http://www.infomus.dist.unige.it/eywindex.html
http://www.intel.com/research/mrl/research/opencv/
http://www.mlab.uiah.fi/animaatiokone/kungfu/en/
http://www.fantomatico.org/artworks/index.html

Moving cam prototype

Smallish success. I got the stepper motor controlled video camera to turn according to the movement seen on that camera. At this point it just turns the camera to the direction where dark area is detected. I'll post the patches soon here.

The prototype stand was yet-another-el-cheapo solution. Vhs-cassette box as the base fitted with a cheap unipolar stepper motor. Simple iron angle fit perfectly in the clip holder in the cam and I found that the metal tube inside basic electrical wire terminal block (size 30amp) fits perfectly to the motor shaft and has the fastening screws with it! I use basic stamp for controlling the motor but cheap pic would be just as good.



The Fire-i cam is quite small and nice for this except the firewire cable is quite heavy to turn with the motor. Usb webcam with lighter usb cable would be lighter but the raw firewire signal for jitter is very nice and without the lag from dv-decoding. Bit cheaper than iSight as well, which actually has lighter firewire cable, have to check that.

Patches here: (Max/Jitter+cv.jit & basic stamp 2sx)
Movingcam_0_1.zip


cam view movie
prototype movie

Bits and pieces, avoiding the real issue

Yesterday my ultrasound rangers arrived. In one day, nice delivery. SRF04 from Robot Electronics , £14.30 a piece. Made a few experiments, worked well. I got even some life to my servos & stepper motor with it.
At some point I try to see if I can keep video camera, fitted on moving head with stepper motor, tracked on a moving object in front of it. Not sure if it's useful. Tracking a person in a room definitely is.


ultrasound ranger controlling servo

I'm still avoiding the hard work with bringing all my new physical computing skills in service of the thematic structure I work with, controlled, commercial, paranoid space, that is. Playing with electronics is a useful excuse not to jump there yet.

All work and no fun makes Tuomo a dull boy.... I have started to talk with myself. In big and empty flat. Soon it's snowing...

Circuit check

Setting up the circuits for RF serial feed and transmitting accelometer data from one stamp to another. Signal was weak, bigger antenna improved it a lot. The shock sensor circuit does not work yet. I have to order some more components.

From the web: phone cam readable "barcodes"

my first encounter to QR code
http://www.engadget.com/entry/7043840061661362/

googled QR... a link to windows software for creating codes...
http://pukupi.com/blog/archived.php?page=7#blog20031216

and OSX software, Japanese as well.
had some trouble with this one,
perhaps a different system...
http://shigematsu.org/index.php?QRMillX

then a reader for 6600
http://semacode.org/download/

which read the code created with their java applet perfectly
http://semacode.org/create/



So taking a snap from the graphic with a phone cam, opens the url in browser, no typing, practical, bit cryptic, and probably will be replaced by rfid:s but the graphic is nice.

The morning

Saturday the 2nd of October, my first morning in the Flat.



What can I say. Nice.

The Great Britain. Rain and minimum distance.

On the UK soil after seven years or so. I just managed to find the direct Huddesrsfield train instantly and it left the station the minute I stepped onboard. After sunny Finland and Belgium, rain. Quite ok for me though. Rain reminds you that there is something above. Nice train, standard class. Standard is good, there is something above.

First impression: All the houses are really close together but always with a narrow gap. Apparently not because of the earthquakes like in Japan but just to have the minimum distance to call it a house. Discretion or ownership, I'll find out. It would be definitely cheaper to build them together. Funny thing; even the construction site cargo-container-cabins were one meter apart from each other in a heavy rack, like wine bottles.

HEL-BRU

Helsinki - Brussels plain is always similar, bureaucrats, advisors, politicians, suits. No children. Bad Finnish English dialogue, some French. Everybody is working. Laptops and dossiers occupy non booked seats. I've always felt a bit like a mascot in Brussels plain with my passé streetwear from mid 90's and colorful design projects open on my laptop, while the rest are playing with the numbers in Excel. I think I'm the only one to ask an extra drink, which is always served with a peculiar smile.

Waiting for the flight SN 2334 to Brussels

This is my first blog, I feel bit annoyed. I'm sitting in the Helsinki airport, having a pint. Quite smooth pre-travel rush this time. I think I have most of the stuff I need with me. Except clothes. 90% off the articles inside my luggage is hardware, couple of T-shirts, socks and underwear. No protetcion form cold apart from the overheating laptop and one pipo, the dork headdress which became cool way after my time in school.