November 14, 2005
Table Final Project

I'm going ahead with the table project! Here's the web site where I'm documenting the process.

A side note: Min's great pcomp blog mentions this fun site with lots of good parts, including my favorite: the Night Cricket.

November 6, 2005
Final Project Ideas

I have 3 ideas for my final PComp project for the semester. Each involves something from one of my other classes or outside interests. I'm sure I'll get to a variation on each one at some point in the coming years...the decision is which one, if any, are do-able given the time and knowledge I have now.


Idea 1: Learning Table

This would be a table with a projection from above straight down on to the table top. There would be objects on the table, for example: a plate, glass, fork, alarm clock, toy truck, vase with flower. All of these objects would be white for opitimal projection visability.

When a visitor touches an object on the table, the projection is triggered and animated figures appear, reacting to what has been touched. These animated figures could be black so they appear the same color as the shadows of the hands that bring them to life.

The purpose of the table would be to educate viewers about food issues, especially hunger and the social and political impacts of food choices. So, when the visitor touches the plate, for example, animated figures would appear to crawl from under the plate and begin to pull up silhouettes of food items while text streams across the table explaining the costs and problems associated with those food items.

An alternative educational context for this project would be energy: the table would be populated by sculptural representations of various energy sources - a mountain with coal mine shafts, a windmill, buildings with solar panels, oil rigs. Again, a touch by the viewer would cause animated figures to move across the table surface and interact with the objects, along with text and graphical information.

Another element to this project would be mechanisms that would cause the objects on the table to move, in reaction to the animated figures. For example, the glass or oil rig would shake as a character climbs on top of it. This could be done with magnets and motors under the table.

This would also serve as the final project for my animation class, Methods of Motion. And possibly for ICM, since it would involve so much Action Script?

Purpose: To educate people about important social and environmental issues through a entertaining interactive physical environment.

Sculptural/Interface Elements:

• The table itself, contructed so that magnets and motors could be used to manipulate objects.
• Objects on the table, constructed from scratch or modified. Painted white.

PComp physical elements:

• Sensors to react when users touch objects on the table.
• Motor and magnet system to move
• Sensors to chip, chip to laptop to action script, laptop to projector, laptop to motor/magnets

Computing Elements:

• Action Script - Data from touch sensors to trigger projection of flash animation

Animation:

• Flash-based animation with Action Script

Challenges:

• Multiple overlapping animations - if a figure is in the midst of a series of movements and another object is touched, how does another animation start without interupting the flow of the first. As simple as data input to Action Script?
• Motors and magnets - getting these to work well with animation.
• Touch sensors sensitive enough to work through large objects, without being way too expensive. How many sensors will be needed?
• Time: is there enough time to accomplish all this in 5 weeks? I would be starting from scratch. This is especially a factor because this also involved content research and editing.

Process:

• Research other similar projects
• Decide on content and specific intent
• Buy sensors and test them
• Start with demo animation
• Build prototype and do user testing
• Research for content
• Finalize plan
• Get touch sensor to action script part working
• Get laptop out to motor working
• Create final animation
• Build final table and object pieces
• Testing
• Final presentation, documentation

Resources:

• Michael mentioned David Small, an interaction designer who has a piece at the Asia Society with a map projected from above that can be interacted with by moving stones across the table
• Also, Michael mentioned something he saw at a show in LA with a table and animation...
• I also saw a short video clip at SXSW of a piece shown at Ars Electronica with people touching objects on a table, causing the shadows of objects they touch to move and morph - becaus they weren't shadows, they were animatio

Research:

• Capacitive sensors: how they work, about Quantum touch sensors, and on Digi-Key . But are these more sensitive than I need for this purpose? Capacitive vs. resistive sensing. $69 Capacitive sensors from Automation Direct - but i would prefer the flat ones.

Idea 2: Time Space Continuum

This project is based on my interest in Einstein's conceptualization and visualizations of time. The project would involve the projection of real time video, in addition to representations of past and future moments.

A screen would show a ribbon that streams across the screen from left to right, with time markers. The present moment would always be at the center, with 10 second increments marked in both past and future, to the left and right. The ribbon would appear to disappear into the distance in either direction, and would also appear to be constantly floating by. Real time video would play in the center of the screen, at the present moment marker. A still shot of what was on that screen exactly 10 seconds before will appear at the time marker directly to the left of the live video image, and 10 seconds before that to the left of that, and so on. A continual stream of moments drifting outwards. The right side of the screen - the future - would be a blank ribbon, with time markers constantly approaching the present.

The installation would be interactive - visitors would be able to use a controller to steer backwards or forwards in time and look back towards the present from an entirely new perspective. The controller would be a large knob - a sort of oversized, science-fictionalized piece. This would fit the dramatic idea of being able to control time, in a sense.

Purpose: The idea is that this installation will cause people to reconsider their understanding of time and the present moment.

Video:

• Projector, video camera hooked to laptop

Physical Computing:

• Large knob - potentiometer
• Potentiometer to chip to laptop to Processing

Processing:

• Live Video input
• Still image capture
• Ribbon of time animation - 3-D drawing
• Data input from web for current time increments
• Data input from potentiometer to manipulate 3-D drawing

Challenges:

• Processing: I'm not currently very skilled with processing and haven't used 3-D
• Steering capability - how much control can you give the user in this environment?
• Would this be interesting or inspiring to the casual viewer?
• This involves little physical computing - is it enough to really challenge me in that area?

Process:

• Research other similar projects
• Work on 3-D drawing of ribbon, with steering done by mouse input
• Integrate still images into processing
• Integrate potentiometer input
• Integrate live video input
• Try with projections
• Final presentation and documentation

Resources:

• Dan Shiffman mentioned a student who did a time-based video installation a couple years ago - can get more information from him about that....
• Shiffman also mentioned a book he has on using algorythms to reshape images which he said I could borrow.
• Tom Igoe, who has done lots of work with time

Idea 3: Viewer's Choice

This idea grew out of a previous project I wrote a proposal for. I do some VJing and have started integrating inflatable plastic sculpture into the live video event. Visitors are able to enter into a sculpture that is also a multi-dimensional screen, thus becoming immersed in the projected environment. My project proposal involved enhancing this experience by giving viewers an opportunity to interact with the video - choosing how their space - their world for the moment - will look. This brings in all sorts of issues of how our every day choices effect the world at large, and brings into focus how individuals and groups communicate to make choices. For the original idea - called Life Cycle - I propose that 3 projections will surround the viewers who are within the inflated environment. Through live text input by the VJ outside the bubble, the viewers are asked to choose between 3 video images. This proceeds into an interaction between and among the viewers, the video, the inflatable, and the unseen VJ.

I would like to create a physical object that viewers can manipulate in order to choose or change the video that surrounds them. Instead of just pointing or approaching an image, an individual or group could move a large ball - airborne or grounded - towards an image. The physical action would highlight the cooperation - or lack thereof - between participants. The movement of the choosing object could then be tracked by a sensor. This could either automatically trigger video changes, or send information to the VJ, who changes the images manually. Ideally, there would be a combination of the two, which would best serve the question of whether our choices produce outcomes which are predetermined by the technology or preset conditions, or whether there is more human concious choice at play, since our actions effect others and their choices.

Another interaction that can take place is that the bubble can begin to deflate or inflate depending on user input - simply by turning the fan on or off.

Elements:

• 'Choosing Object' - inflated colored ball / balloon /
• Sensors to detect location of choosing object within inflatable
• Output from sensor to video (jitter?)
• Inflatable (already have prototypes built)
• 3 projectors, laptops, cables, misc. VJ equipment

Challenges:

• What's the best 'choosing object' for this piece? What kind of sensor system could best detect the location of that object?
• There are lots of unknowns because of the group interactions, limited space, and the need for content development to make the whole choice theme meaningful.
• Automatically manipulating video might involve some Jitter programming, which I don't have experience with yet

Process:

• Complete project proposal with more detail
• Decide on the form for the 'choosing object', research other projects
• User testing with currently available materials
• etc...

Resources:

• Glass Bead Collective - the VJ collective I'm in.
• AKAirways - inflatable sculpture org I've worked with