TUOMO @ Huddersfield AiR

That's it. I'm done.

2004-12-23T15:35:00.000Z

It was my fastest three months and it took ages! I started plenty of things and finished none, just as planned. Progress? yes in all of the areas I was working on. Still, most significant thing was nothing planned. The project we started with Dan which seems to have a healthy kick-start and which will bring me back to UK and hopefully Dan to FIN.

I spent all my money, damaged most of brain cells and learned the art of gambling in a gentleman manner. Thank you England. God save the Queen and the Kleptones.

Epilogue:

Nice home coming, the airport was closed for a while for a heavy snow storm, my luggage was left in Brussels, our front door was frozen so tight that we broke the hinges when breaking in. When we got safely inside the storm cut the electricity several times. God I love Finland. Now I'll hibernate with some vintage red wine and quality delicatessen.

Pixels in the air

2004-12-16T23:19:00.000Z

Some soothing success in serial radio communication. Our nice ready-made radio telemetry dongles work smoothly with the led matrix prototype. Now the display data is coming from the computer wirelessly in 9-byte bursts, the id and 8 bytes of the 8*8 matrix data. We can send quick cycles of unique data to be recognized and displayed by individual modules accordingly. Wireless link is reliable at least through a couple of walls.

Here the patterns are sent from Max/MSP in about one second cycles. The scrolling of the pattern is made in the Stamp. We are currently looking in to a Java "game engine" driving directly the set of modules or tiles as they will be.

Sending patterns manually:
changing matrix

Drawing the image and moving around with the module:
walking with matrix

Seaside

2004-12-13T20:23:00.000Z

Fantastic weekend in the East Coast. We had a comfy cottage in Staithes, sleepy old fishing village between huge cliffs. When I'm totally useless old man (in a year or two), I'll move there and listen to the sea and keep a record of bypassing boats and time the variations in the tide.

Staithes

Runswick Bay, few miles down from Staithes
Thanks again, Dan, Lisa, Gav & Lucy!

Entering eighties

2004-12-07T21:56:00.000Z

I'm approaching the technological knowledge where the rest of the world was 30 years ago. Keeping this pace I'll be able to create answering machine by year 2034. But self-made is always more precious. So I have been lied to.

nuke some popcorn and enjoy following feature films:
clip: chatman
clip: night chevron
clip: T.O.Y. the trilogy

SHIFTOUT Dpin, Clock, MSBFIRST, [d7219]

2004-12-07T15:19:00.000Z

Finally received my 8*8 matrix chip integrated with the max7219 driver. After desperate bit-register shifting, which still is more black magic than science to me and after poking some pull-down resistors here and there, few boots, some very descriptive swearwords in finnish and I managed to get the space-invader to flicker on the screen before being killed by my most annoying self-shifting bit-register.

Cascadable 8 by 8 Dot Matrix LED

Pixxelpoint

2004-12-05T22:16:00.000Z

Back from Pixxelpoint, Slovenia. Very nice trip for exhibiting Float, fantastic people, old friends and new ones. I finally met Tamas the second time and we could spend time with the work together. Gallery was big round white space, very big for the small town like Nova Gorica.

Slovenia is definitely on my list of places to spend more time, massive mountains, forests like in Finland, mediterranean climate, cheap refreshments, party people, what more can you ask? If something you can walk drive Italy to get it, walk actually from Nova Gorica.

www.pixxelpoint.org
High-five to Natasa, Dunja & Sonja once more!

New search-cam proto

2004-11-23T15:42:00.000Z

Nice, small and most importantly wireless cam for the rotating camera proto. With wireless cam in this prototype solves most importantly the free rotation without any delicate connectors. Naturally with RF communication for the motor, this could be an independent module, which I don't need at this point.

Breadboard, my skateboard

2004-11-23T11:13:00.000Z

Dear me. Two weeks from last entry. Time flies when you're busy apparently.

I have been working intensively with Dan on our tile-project. Since this is quite time consuming and not very visible work I have some trouble of documenting the process in this blog. I will publish more detailed demonstration when we have the first prototypes working.

Basically what we've been working with is simple wireless multinode serial communication with basic stamps and a pc. After some frustrated debugging due to a half-working rf-chip we finally have a working communication prototype where id-coded message comes from pc, gets transmitted to stamp, is recognized and the id-coded reply message is transmitted back and recognized in pc.

Once again I found myself questioning how deep in certain protocols should I be digging in. Now I stare the RS-232 specifications with my mouth full open, pondering what a hell I'm reading. I'm turning to a nerd. Yikes. Save me.

Perhaps breadboards will be totally cool in few years. I see trendsetters carrying hydrogen fuel-cell soldering irons and lighter sized pulse probes for instant hacking to public hardware. "Dude, where's my opto isolator?".

The Revenge of the Circuit Class.

Great outdoors

2004-11-20T20:40:00.000Z

Chilly winter day in Yorkshire Sculpture Park. It was snowing the previous night and all high hills were just white. So beautiful that it hurts my head. I need ugliness.

Searching for head

2004-11-09T01:45:00.000Z

I was hoping to detect the head based on the shoulder line and the shape of the head. So far best success was calculating the size and postion of the head based on natural proportions of body when I know the center of the body and mass of it. I think I'm approaching the limit where I shoul seek for professional help. On computer vision that is.

Head track

Tracking & layering

2004-11-08T15:37:00.000Z

Detecting boundaries of a shape from one camera feed. In 640*480 resolution the bounding box with data visualisation and one extra quicktime layer gives still nice 20fps framerate. The binary edge in same res drops it significantly below 10. Several layer live motion graphics on top of tracked image still quite possible.

layer-scan-jesus-aerobics clip

Following cam & screen

2004-11-02T15:12:00.000Z

Technical prototype for turning/panning video screen panel(s), following moving people around them. Either based on video tracking, which would require computer / screen, but would enable video layering and manipulation of the image or compact closed circuit cam with recognition with, pressure / light / ultrasound sensors.

2-cam video to sound

2004-10-31T20:21:00.000Z

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

2004-10-27T13:19:00.000+01:00

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!

2004-10-26T10:14:00.000+01:00

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

2004-10-25T13:04:00.000+01:00

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

Art & Science

2004-10-22T13:51:00.000+01:00

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

2004-10-19T01:39:00.000+01:00

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

2004-10-18T01:50:00.000+01:00

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

2004-10-17T15:46:00.000+01:00

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

2004-10-15T17:18:00.000+01:00

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

2004-10-13T21:45:00.000+01:00

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

2004-10-06T20:43:00.000+01:00

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

2004-10-04T13:42:00.000+01:00

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"

2004-10-03T11:52:00.000+01:00

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

2004-10-02T10:01:00.000+01:00

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

What can I say. Nice.

The Great Britain. Rain and minimum distance.

2004-10-01T20:51:00.000+01:00

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

2004-10-01T13:16:00.000+01:00

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

2004-10-01T10:59:00.000+01:00

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.