Spencer
I enjoy building things and that is why I am an engineer. Here at CMU I am a junior in Electrical & Computer Engineering. My focus is control systems, with a bent towards robotics. On campus I channel much of my energy through the Robotics Club and fencing.
As much as I enjoy my major, engineering can be dull. I want to be exposed to new ideas, new people and a new way of thinking. I am looking forward to being challenged in this course to create interesting stuff.
Past Project: Footprints
This project explored how people move through space. We set up a camera to record the effects of subtle manipulations on the space that caused large changes in people’s paths. Our final product was an eye created in the UC. We performed a number of small manipulations like holding conversations in key areas and moving chairs slightly.
The camera watches from above recording motion with a tracking algorithm while those below walk unaware. We record motion by looking at frame differences which then translates to activity. As a space becomes more active it goes from blue to red.
This project was created last semester in Ali Momeni’s Hybrid Instruments with Rob Kotcher. We used Processing for the capture and analysis (repo).