Processing + Max/MSP
Men become more naked the more you move (Motion detection in Max/MSP controls opacity in of images in processing).

Hopefully, in the future I will smooth out the changes in opacity, as well as get pictures of my own instead of the ones used in the demonstration.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=geby7tjpEM0

Made for Electronic Media Studio II at Carnegie Mellon University under professor Golan Levin and graduate student Craig Fahner.

This video depicts the operation of a patch made using MaxMSP using Vizzie controls. The screen is divided up into 6 sections (3 columns and 2 rows) that detect the amount of motion made in each. If the motion exceeds a threshold, then commands are sent to control audio and visual noise effects. The screen is chromakeyed and the FOGGR is used based on which sections of the screen detect motion. The controls are as follows:

• The top left portion controls nothing.

• The top middle portion (where the head is typically located) controls the amount that the chromakeyed color fades to FOGGR noise, and the probability of the FOGGR

• The top right portion controls the amount of blue (0 to 255) in the chromakeyed color

• The bottom left portion controls the amount of red (0 to 255) in the chromakeyed color

• The bottom middle portion (where the torso is typically located) controls the tolerance range of the chromakeyed color

• The bottom right portion controls the amount of green (0 to 255) in the chromakeyed color

Each section also controls a range of audio that is played, ascending from top left to bottom right (in the order listed above), motion in each section will play a range of sound from:

• 0 to 60 hz (top left section range)
• 0 to 100 hz
• 0 to 200 hz
• 0 to 400 hz
• 0 to 800 hz
• 0 to 1000 hz (bottom right section range)

respectively, based on how much motion is in each.

The purpose of this project was to experiment with both audio and visual noise, how they interact, and how they can be combined to create and interesting and involved interaction between user and computer.

Patcher Code:

<pre><code>

———-begin_max5_patcher———-

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———–end_max5_patcher———–

</code></pre>

For this project I decided to try to make something that I would like to have some form of in every-day life. As explained in the video, people play and stream Starcraft online for other people to watch. This probably doesn’t sound very entertaining, but if you like Starcraft, certain streams can be very fun to watch. I created a program that would check on a popular Starcraft website called TeamLiquid to see who was streaming and then, when the button on the Arduino was pressed, post to twitter saying who was streaming. In addition, it is set up to check if one person in particular is streaming and turn on the light if they are.

Although it isn’t quite something that would be actually useful in its current form, if I updated it to work wirelessly and be very small, I could see it being something mildly useful to have, at least for a Starcraft fan.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoNAid1LKSw

My Sleeping Monitor: Arduino Tweeter receives information from a pressure sensor that is placed between the metal grate of a bed frame and a mattress, sending tweets if a certain pressure is exceeded (if I am on my bed, sleeping), and also when the pressure returns to normal (when I am up and about). It also receives tweets to me @eric_mackie which, if the word “wake” is included in them, will play a repeating, obnoxious tone (via piezo buzzer) until I am out of my bed. The idea for the project stems from recent abnormalities in my sleep pattern. Mid-day to all-day rests paired with post-midnight binges of homework and anime-watching got me thinking that it would be interesting if my unpredictable sleep periods were being kept track of and posted publicly. As a way of communicating with me, or controlling these odd patterns, fellow tweeters can literally tell me to “wake up!” via tweets, at which point I would have to get up out of bed in order to eventually fall back asleep. In a way, I guess this mimics how my recent sleeping habits have been determined by outside forces, such as classes, friends, obligations, and other activity.

The Arudino is set up to respond to the tweets that the entire community of twitter is posting. The program is designed so that whenever anyone in the world tweets the term “emergency”, the red LED’s flash. The Arduino is scanning twitter every twelve seconds, the maximum number of requests that twitter allows in an hour, for the term emergency. Important to recognize is that the lights flash every time the Arduino searches for the word emergency, and more importantly, if the delay of 12 seconds was removed, the light would be constantly flashing or remain constantly on. The idea was to represent the prevalence of the emergency concept in modern society. People seem to be under the impression that either the state of the world or the state of one’s own life is in disarray or emergency always. Society has become fixated on the idea that every problem earns the right to be an emergency- be it a real or imagined one.

Also demonstrated by this real world example:
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2011/11/fema-to-test-nationwide-emergency-alert-system-at-2-pm-et/1?csp=34news

Similar to the BeatBearing project I chose last time, this is an Arduino-based project that produces music based on user input. It is called Arduinome because it is based off a previous project called “64 Monome,” that has been recreated to involve the use of the Arduino. Simply put, buttons are turned on or off when they are pressed, and the row in which a pressed button exists determines what sound is output as the timer moves across that column. I think the design is very simple and, in the same way as BeatBearing, will continue to produce the beat after it is determined.

Using Control and OSC, this project is able to control the display on a the glass block window using an android tablet. I think the ability to use pre-recorded displays and also allow the user to draw the desired output is a cool concept, and the interface is so simple that it makes it easy for anyone to draw with it. Comparing this project with the Arduinome, the grid interface is very similar, yet one produces a visual display and the other an audio display. Perhaps these works could be combined together in some way. What is interesting about this project (in addition to it’s use of the tablet interaction) is that the person who made the OCS interaction seemed to be building off code that was already out there, and simply updating it for this interactive use. It comes from “Hive13,” which is a Cincinnati-based “Hackerspace” community.

This project also seemed relevant to what we have been talking about in terms of the various uses for the Arduino. Using the Wi-Fi shield for the Arduino, the “Beeri” device checks Twitter for any new posts containing the word “pour.” If any are found, the car is activated to run, driving into the spike on the wall and pouring the bear into a conveniently placed cup. When multiple pour commands are found, the Beeri “pours drinks for all” according to the description, while in reality it freaks out and drives back and forth. While this part isn’t quite worked out (and the whole project doesn’t quite seem to make getting a beer more convenient) it is definitely a cool idea.

References:

Arduinome: http://unitedstatesofdesign.com/arduinome/

Glass Block LED Matrix: http://wiki.hive13.org/Glass_Block_LED_Matrix

Beeri: http://redpepperland.tumblr.com/post/11730859389/have-siri-pour-you-a-beer

Pastures– Lee Byron

 http://www.leebyron.com/what/creatures/

I was inspired to look up Lee Byron after we saw his clock in class. On his website he also has a series of  three processing exercises he did. They all initially appeared to be quite simple. They require viewer interaction for their true complexity to be revealed.  My favorite is his project called “Pastures” in which he has the viewer create creatures by clicking their mouse. The viewer chooses not only where the creature is created, but what the creature will be.  A different creature is created depending on how long you hold your mouse down. I enjoy how the program hides it’s complexity and thereby forces interaction.

Touch and Reaction  -Lee Byron

I found this project really interesting and inspiring. This piece explores the gestural reaction to texture. Byron uses an IR camera to capture the viewer’s hand movements as they interact with a mystery texture box. The box is designed with light surrounding the hole in which the viewer is to place their hand, so as to disallow them to see inside. The movement of the “viewer’s” hand is picked up with the IR camera. Byron presents the footage of each of the hands in a grid style, so you can see different hands interacting with different textures. Underneath each texture there are also continuously changing one word descriptors. These words were taken from the audio taken of the participants during the interaction. I think seeing the juxtaposition between different gestures and words i a good combination. I wish there was an audio component.

Future Fragments– Kyle McDonald

I went to Art and Code this weekend, so there is really way way too much to write about. I am just going to write about one specific project from one artist who attended. I really liked Kyle McDonald’s work, so I looked up his website. Although, he has done many more impressive projects I thoroughly  enjoyed Future Fragments. He describes the project as an “anti-time-capsule” . He encoded sound bites from his classmates and inscribed them as color on little pieces of paper.  He then had those same individuals carry around those little slips of paper for a summer. Some of the slips were lost and some were damaged. I assume, although it is not mentioned, that he re-translated these bits into sound. I’d be interested to see a sound and video piece made based on this project.

The Sonic Body

The Sonic Body, by artists  Harry Neve, Thomas Michalak, and Anna Orliac, is an installation that on the outside looks like a neutral cylindrical shape. On the inside, however is an interactive, tactile installation  composed of fabric forms that mimic organs in the human body. As visitors enter the installation and interact with the fabric forms they trigger a symphony of sounds that have been recorded from the human body. The Sonic Body was made using arduinos to trigger the sounds.

NTQ (Near Tag Quality)

NTQ, created by the french branch of GRL (Graffiti Research Lab), is a DIY graffiti printer. Comprised of an arduino, spray cans, and solenoids, NTQ prints messages that can be programmed into the arduino board onto a variety of surfaces, including walls, cars, and paper. GRL’s goal with this project was to opensource these graffiti printers so that others may be able to build their own (all the parts total to about 200 euros).

Kulbuto

Kulbuto, by Émile Sacré, is both an installation and an instrument. The work explores what Sacré calls non-uniform compositions by providing visualizations determined by “changing rates determined by graphic collisions” that influence the rhythmic cycles. Overtime these rhythmic cycles, which are created by tensions in the visualizations, become synchronized and unsynchronized.