Expanded & Computational Photo/Video

Explore the potential of exotic image-capture technologies to reveal unseen and alternative realities.
An experimental capture workshop at Anderson Ranch Arts Center, Colorado • Jul 18-22, 2016
Taught by Golan Levin (@golan), Professor of Art, Carnegie Mellon University

Got questions? Hit me up at golan@flong.com or @golan on Twitter :)

Topics include:
  • 3D scanning and 3D/RGBD video (with LIDAR, iSense, Kinect and DepthKit)
  • Photogrammetry (3D scanning with ordinary photography)
  • Panoramic, spherical, 360°, and light-field (Lytro) imaging and video
  • Time-lapse, long exposure, slit-scan, and ultra-slow-motion (18,000 fps!) video
  • Hyperspectral imaging/video (with thermal/FLIR, infrared, and ultraviolet cameras)
  • Introductory computer vision with open-source programming tools (Processing and/or p5.js)
  • Motion capture and face/hand/body tracking (with the Kinect, LEAP, Eyetribe, and other sensors)

    • Challenge human perception and expand your skills with innovative and experimental techniques for capturing video, images, gestures and sound. In this exploratory workshop, you'll gain hands-on experience with a wide range of atypical technologies including panoramic and hyperspectral imagers, ultra high-speed cameras, depth sensors, 3D scanners, motion capture systems such as face-trackers and hand-trackers, binaural microphones, and more.

    Have you been itching to tinker with an ultra-high-speed camera, record people and environments in 3D, see heat with a thermal camera, or examine flowers with the ultraviolet vision of birds and bees? Would you like to learn about inexpensive tools for doing so? Then this workshop—originally taught as a semester course at CMU, and now a one-week summer workshop at beautiful Anderson Ranch in Snowmass Village, Colorado—is for you.

    Some experience in video editing software, 3D animation tools, and/or programming in arts-engineering toolkits such as Processing, JavaScript and/or openFrameworks is recommended. Students should bring a laptop with a recent operating system.

    LIDAR 3D environment photography by Experimental Capture student, Ben Snell

    In this workshop, we'll explore a range of techniques for capturing 3D images and video of people and environments. Recently, inexpensive LIDAR sensors have finally become available. We'll capture landscapes and/or portraits using the Hokuyo URG-04LX-UG01 LIDAR, as well as the Kinect I, Kinect II, iSense, and other depth sensors.


    Panoramic thermal cinematograph by Experimental Capture student, Akiva Krauthamer

    Special "hyperspectral" cameras can reveal portions of the electromagnetic spectrum beyond human perception. In this workshop, we'll explore the use of FLIR thermal cameras to see heat patterns in buildings and bodies, IR security cameras to see in the dark, and ultraviolet (UV) cameras to observe the secret lives of flowers.


    Hand-drawn photogrammetry experiment by Experimental Capture student, Michelle Ma

    Photogrammetry is a technique by which a 3D model of a subject can be computed directly from a small set of ordinary photographs, taken with standard camera equipment—even your smartphone. This workshop introduces the use of Agisoft Photoscan, an inexpensive software tool for "computational portraiture".

    High-speed photograph by Experimental Capture students, Irene Alvarado and Smokey Dyar

    Capture a balloon popping in slow motion!
    In this workshop, we'll also explore high-speed phenomena
    with the Edgertronic, a new, low-cost camera that can
    shoot video at up to 18,000 frames per second.

    In addition to the techniques decribed above,
    we'll also have discussions and presentations about:

    • What is a Camera? Conceptual Cameras
    • Multispectral and Hyperspectral Imaging
    • Gesture recording and playback; 2D and 3D motion capture
    • Photogrammetry and 3D scanning
    • Overcranking (Slow-Motion)
    • Undercranking and Time-Lapse
    • Long Exposure and Light Painting
    • Bullet Time (Array Videography)
    • Pixillation and Stop-Frame
    • Synthesis from Image Databases
    • Slit Scanning and Shutter Stroboscopy)
    • Panoramic, 360-degree, and environmental capture
    • Stereography and Binocular Imaging
    • Experimental Audio Capture
    • Perspective Capture and Representation

    Sounds awesome! Sign me up