Some fiddling with the Kinect…
I wanted to use this project as a chance to make a proto-type for a larger installation I am working on centered around the theme of mapping Suburbia. I learned a lot from going through the process of making this project (programming-wise) as well as realizing that warping is not the motion I want to use for the final piece. I think it makes a lot of sense for the imagery I am using and to focus one more of a sprawl simulation/motion.
Once I discovered this, I knew I didn’t have enough time to try and redo it. However, I thought of another similar project that I thought would be fairly simple to do… I was thinking about the consumer culture that became especially prevalent with the rise of the suburbs. I wanted pictures of household items to appear and accumulate in excess amounts on the ground (projected) when a person would walk through or linger in a space. The program would run for about a minute or less and then crash due to the amount of images being drawn. If anyone knows how I can fix this, it would be much appreciated! I’d love to get it working.
Below is a video of the Imaging Warping Program and a brief demonstration of the other project attempt failing (and with recycled chair imagery from my last project instead of house hold items).
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmEOodiV6cw&w=420&h=315]
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxqpaAG_utw&w=420&h=315]
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MmeCvh5fds&w=420&h=315]
Thanks!
First video was very dark, hard to see the exact distortion effect being produced. might be nice to see a simple pattern/grid distroed to see exactly where it happens
I think it looks cool! I’m not sure that projecting it on the wall does the project justice. The motion of someone standing on the image (and thus distorting something more resembling a circle rather than a rectangular-ish blob) seems to be what you were going for. Is the image projected onto the same place people are standing? Re: Processing errors, I’ve noticed that Processing/Java fall apart once you start doing memory-intensive or computationally-intensive tasks.
Re: Processing errors – I can’t say anything about why it’s slow without seeing the code, but the actual error was just a NullPointerException. I’d guess there’s one or more images in your array that are never initialized.
Your presentation was not exactly clear.. I wasn’t sure exactly what were you trying to accomplish, what was the failre.. what were you dissapointed about? What would have made you happy with the results?
What was the goal of the second video? It looked like images appeared where a person walked in front of the screen. Was that just a test idea or is it more tightly related to your suburbia theme?
It looked interesting, but I wasn’t really sure what was going on. I thought the distortion video worked better.
The trailing stuff in the second video is intriguing to me, it’s too bad that you were running into Processing errors. Possibly you just need to increase the amount of RAM Java can use (I think that’s in the settings for the IDE). I felt that the use of suburban imagery in the first video should have been conveying some message about urban development or something, but I didn’t catch what that message really was. I didn’t get the feeling that if you replaced the image of the suburbs with an image of Spongebob it would have changed much. That’s probably just a question of communicating it differently, more than a criticism of the idea. Or maybe I’m just a bad listener.
It’s nice that you show the process from your initial concept to your final idea, which helps give some background for your videos. I think you could have communicated overarching your artistic vision a little clearer though.
The image warping feels like it could be pretty fun given the right application. After your presentation I’m not sure what it’s meant to depict re:suburbia.
I am little confused with the second video. I am not sure how it correlates with the fist one. +1
The image warping is compelling — it looks fun. But if it’s not what you were after, then you need to have sketches to better explain your objectives (to yourself and others). Draw first!
Warping looks like under water. Could make postapocalyptic suburbia under water
I really like your process, how you had tried out an idea and when that didn’t meet your expectations you tried again. I see this more of an exploratory project meant to expand your conception of your ideas meshing with the tools like the Kinect. I can’t wait to see your exhibition!
I agree that especially when one doesn’t have the flexibility of unlimited ComputerScience know-how it becomes more important to conceptualize a message and goal, and to work savily towards this goal. You interests in suburbia sounds very interesting and important, but I haven’t made the connection yet with your work towards where you are heading.
This is an interesting exploration. A good learning exercise.