Un-Reality: The Props

For a game like this to exist we needed a vast amount of props. We started work early on building or collecting the required components.

List:

• A tunnel/ Portal
• Paper and Acetate Maps
• Binoculars
• Chest
• Boxes for Jim 
• Boxes to go around Jim
• Bow and Arrows
• Face Paint
• Wild Boy outfits
• Princess outfit
• Tea Party Table and chairs
• Tea Pot and Cup
• Trenchcoat 
• Fishing Rod
• Santas Throne
• Santa Outfit

Here's a some photos of production and props.

Un-Reality: The Tasks

Between us we came up with a character for each person to control within the game. These characters would have a task for the players to complete before they could head onto the next stage.

Jim would be the cardboard robot you dreamed up in your head as a child. You have to help free him from being trapped under the weight of the other boxes. Much like the tin man from Wizard of Oz who needs oil.

Corey was the wild boy you were when you went out into the bush behind your house. He would take the participant on a hunt with those home made bows and arrows.

Rachael was the host of the great tea parties that existed in in all little girls childhood. Players would take part as the guets in the party where fun and games would exist

Emile was the stranger your parents told you never to talk to. (Stranger Danger) The players make a choice how and if they want to interact with this character of the game. He has a fishing rod to reel them in.

And I was the a figure that brings happiness to most children on a certain day. Santa Claus. The participants ask for a gift. If they ask right the game will come to an end shortly after.

Un-Reality: See This is a Teaser

A friend shared this with me tonight while I was working. To me it seemed like the perfect way to start of a game. Its a simple idea that gets the user involved in the game instantly. It evoked many emotions and made me as a user feel very uncomfortable. To be able to do this before the game even commenced would be a great advantage.

http://www.takethislollipop.com/

Un-Reality: My First Impressions of the New Concept

Putting The Player into Our Own Childish, Skewed World

This idea developed out of the rubble of the complex ideas that made our original concept. We want to force the users into situations they would have found interesting and exciting as a child but now would be almost embarrassed to do. There will also be an underlying sinister aspect to what will be almost a performance in a demented circus.

I think the believability of this project will come down to our own belief in the possibilities of our game. From what I know understand I believe this was the key failure in our first concept. Nobody could themselves believe the possibility of that concept. Now that we all feel confident in our ability to act out and become part of this reality we can progress forward.

Un-Reality: The First Idea

Our idea from today:

Exploring the mindset of a child, START: The subjects are invited to a play date, either guided by one of us (Dressed up in a costume) or have to work it out for themselves. The subjects end up outside (outside the library) Party waiting for them there, Balloons and party hats (Maybe AQUA playing?). 

Rachael is waiting for them dressed up in a fairy costume, either face paints them or gives them hats etc. 

They are asked to participate and complete a task - hopscotch or skipping ropes etc.. once completed they are given their next clue, on the way to their next clue is a test, 

Emile is dressed up in a trenchcoat and waiting around one of the corners with a fishing rod with candy attached at the end. Trying to lure the subjects in and tell them to follow him to the party..

This is a test, if they follow emile pulls out a fake gun, and shoots them. 'pow pow you're dead'. if they dont follow emile they end up at their next clue, corey waiting with a sling shot, shooting balloons in a tree, one of them has their next clue inside. Subjects have to pop the balloons and uncover their next clue. 


END: Last clue Tom is dressed up in a santa, 'ho ho ho' come sit on my lap, takes a polaroid of them and writes something on the back, maybe internet clue to progress etc... 


Some other ideas we want to include: Pinata with candy/clue inside. bread crumb trail? hansel/gretal, colouring in book. maybe incorporate a penalty time out zone instead of shooting them, parent figure appears and tells off the subjects for following emile/dodgee character etc..

We had started a group page where we would post research and ideas.

http://www.facebook.com/groups/290074361019564/

Un-Reality: Stagnant Waters

After such a blast of brilliant ideas at the start we hit a major roadblock. We lost sight of where the project was going and how we could create a storyline out of the concept. We could find little or no incentive for the player to play the game. We had come up with far too much concept and realised we couldn't figure out how to build a story on this basis. With this in mind we had to make a choice. After 2 days of not being able to do much we started work on one of the smaller concepts we had been thinking about. The idea of exploring the reality of a child. Children view the world in a completely different way from an adult. They do not feel the social or societal pressures and they have no reason to hold back from doing anything. In essence they are the freest and happiest of us all. Why couldn't we recreate this for us at that age. This could be an experience for everybody involved including those who would act out the parts to play in it. With this in mind we started brainstorming ideas and dredging up our dearest and most vivid memories from our childhood. Things that had had some effect on the person we are now or that to us seemed to be the most fun part. The child's is one of the most creative. Hours can be spent by oneself making up your own world, your own reality.

Un-Reality: The Beginning

When we first started off doing work for this project we came up with a whole load of extremely conceptual ideas that were both interesting and crazy at the same time. We started a cerebral tempest of our ideas on a white board chucking down every idea that came within our grasp. What we created was a jumble of things that could be loosely attached to each other in various ways . 

After all that we needed to refine all these ideas into a concept we could work with to create a storyline. Earlier in the year myself and Emile had explored the idea of Solipsism: 

it is the philosophical idea that one's mind is the only one that is sure to exist. Solipsism as an anepistemological positions hold that knowledge of anything outside one's own mind is unsure. We brought our ideas in around this one as it left a lot of room for play. 

After a couple of days we came up with a basic outline for our concept: From the onset we wanted to create a very conceptual and deeper meaning game. We want to provide an experience that will make the participant very self aware and help them begin to understand some key ideas of the degradation and indoctrination thats occurs in life. To do this our game exists around a combination of 2 ideas. The use of an NPC and the philosophical idea of Solipsism. The idea that ones mind is the only thing that is sure to exist. Everything is just a figment of your own mind. The players will be a construct of the NPC's mind and to continue to exist they need to make an impression on its mind. To be forgotten is to cease to exist. In a novel you will  never remember the names of the minor characters. It is only the heroes who make impressions. We will run the players through a series of challenges that test both moral and psychological worthiness. 

This game will effectively be a initiation for a string of future games. Each delving deeper into the mindset.

Un-Reality: The Brief

The Project

In the streets surrounding the WT Building, hidden from the day to day wanderings of commuters and shoppers, is a parallel reality. Discovered through direct or secret invitation, or just by chance, this alternate world weaves across physical and digital space in and around the WT Building.  

The creation of this alternate reality is your project this semester. 

Transmedia games are at the leading edge of game design and are being utilised for a variety of purposes including marketing, education, organisational and community development. They form a bridge between multiple worlds, and by presenting multiple views of reality, expand our epistemological and ontological flexibility. We are giving you an opportunity to create a game of your own.

Brief

This assignment will involve the creation of an alternate reality ‘journey’ which will utilise multiple media and traverse multiple realms. The journey must involve at least some physical movement around spaces (including the streets closest to the BCT studios (a map is attached showing outer boundaries)), and involve both physical  and digital media content. 

The type of ‘reality’ you choose is up to you and your group. The reality may involve a mystery, an unfolding narrative or simply be an alternate reality tourist trail. It could involve interdimensional communication with unusual beings or day to day people in an unusual context. It is up to you. But it will need to be compelling and engaging and demonstrate your ability to take creative risks.

Try to pay attention to as many senses as possible (e.g. sound, visual, smell, taste, kinaesthetic, emotion/feeling) when creating the reality. Also think about magic, surprise, fun and excitement as you create an alternate reality experience.

You may choose to utilise some form of mobile technology as part of your process but this can be at any level of technological sophistication (i.e. conventional phones or GPS units, through to smart phones using QR codes or AR apps).You should not have to do any programming for this assignment – keep it simple and use existing apps where possible and if at all.

You will need to attend to how individuals discover the reality – direct invitation and selection or chance? Also how do they end the journey? The process of journeying through your reality should not be too complicated or confusing

Step 8: Visualise

During the whole project I had been trying to decide what the literal visual translation of what the concept was. I had started with the visualisation of data with QR, shot, bar and morse code as well as braille but as my design matured so did my taste in what the visual should be. I began to think about the idea of finding knowledge and one phrase stuck in my head. Seek and you will find. It made me think that this knowledge that has been covered up should only be achieved by those who deserved it. Curiosity would be rewarded. My idea headed towards the simplistic with an idea of just using a stamp on the outside that said 'Behind Closed Doors'. Its simplicity was powerful and matched the theme well. No hidden information would be kept in the most extravagant case. I felt a great sense of rightness as to how this project turned out. The pieces of this puzzle just seemed to fit

Step 7: A few minor speed bumps on the way

Well I managed to get the 5 copies printed off and quickly had the first one put together but as with all great designs you quickly fint the one thing you managed to overlook. When I measured out the shapes in illustrator I had complete faith in my mental maths abilities but it seems that it was not to be so flawless. Once completed, with the disk inside, the container would only close to within 5 mm of sealing. This was because of a miscalculation of the centerpoint of the arc on one of the sides.

This essentially meant I had 5 unusable cases but by applying a little bit of problem solving skills I realised i could just shorten the offending piece by 5mm on its outside edge allowing the package to close properly.

Crisis adverted the thoughts turned to what design would make up the outside of the case

Laser Cutter

Step 6: The second prototype

Seeing as the first prototype went so well I decided it was time to attempt to lasercut the packaging to get a much cleaner finish. A couple of hours later and a few difficulties on illustrator and I came up with the component layers that I thought i would need for it to be an effective product. I decided to cut it out and see for myself. After doing this I put my attempted to effectively glue my piece together. From this prototype I learnt several things: First of all was that glue was not going to be the best adhesive to use as it took far too long to dry and there was the possibility of parts moving out of place. Second and probably the most important was that the center which was the key area for the locking mechanism was bending inwards on itself because of a lack of support towards the center.

From these issues I modified the central pieces to extend outwards to the center to give it more support and replaced the glue with a double sided tape substitute which will have just about the same amount of strength in this situation. The final models should come out perfect now.

Step 5: 3D printing

So I ha the idea in my head of still 3D printing my case to make things easier for myself. I designed myself some new CAD models of a new design that would be more space efficient and far more like what a real product would be. I set out early in the morning to talk to the guys at the rapid prototyping lab about whipping out a quick copy for me, but as all things go this wasn't to be. Talking to them they had a little chuckle about my design saying ideas wise it was good but practically it would be much easier to just make it from card or acrylic. Turns out the only time you would want to use the printer is on none cuboid or circular shapes. There was really just no point in spending that much money.

Now this got me thinking. The design I had come up with could essentially be broken down into layers which could be cut separately and stuck together to create the shape i wanted. I set about with this new directive to make a quick prototype to check the plausibility of my idea. It turned out this would be the stepping stone to the production of my final project.

Step 4: Today I had an epiphany

A few days ago I had someone comment on my project. They asked what was going to be done with all the space on the inside of the box. After this I thought to myself for a long time about how it would really work out and I realised that I had forgotten 3 years of graphics schooling. I had been designing something that may have looked good visually but feel down in all other areas of design. It did not fit well with anything ergonomically or anthropometrically  and would definitely never be cost effective. With these thoughts in mind I have decided to change the way I will visualise the concept and make a much more stream lined and useful product.

Step 3: CAD Modelling

Early models in Solids works went well and it wasn't long before I had a decent outcome drawn up. Here are some of the first outcome drawings.

Step 2: Brainstorm

Now that have the idea and concept behind my work I have started work on some designs that I feel emulate the concept. I started with the idea of what knowledge and information really meant to me. It led me to the idea that information in this age is suspended in space and all it takes for us to get it is reach out our hands and grab it. This being achieved via the internet or by going to a library. Going on this train of thought I came up with some initial sketches that had the disk suspended in place by chains or spikes. 


The idea of the cover up brought about the other half of my design which was essentially a puzzle box which made access to the information difficult to achieve. To get in you would have to beat the challenge. The shape itself a cube would represent data in the old style sort of like the tv show reboot.


Designs on the sides of the crate would be based around forms of data that have appeared throughout Shotcode, QR, morse, braille and Barcode are possibilites I have thought of so far

Step 1: Choosing The Audio

As we ending a week of the theory of design we received a new brief that caused both some issues and openings of opportunities for me.

Brief

• Conceive and design a packaging system for audio content distribution. 

• Manufacture at least 5 identical versions of the system. 

The design should articulate core values / concepts related to the audio, and 

use materials and technologies that are appropiate to packaging design.

This is project is to be completed individually however you should seek input from your peers to help 

develop and refine you work.

As our Aural terrains installation had no recordings because of privacy issues it opened up a whole load of possibilities to do some design for other groups projects. This is an opportunity to put myself directly in the position of a contract designer. I am effectively working on another persons idea for them. 

I discussed with many of the other groups but eventually settled on the "Behind Closed Doors" soundscape as it was inspired by the idea of conspiracies and cover of of knowledge that should be known by everybody. I have to mention the minds behind this part of the project were Chris, Ryan, Jared, Lee and Ben and the soundscape comes from their hard work.

Behind Closed Doors by Lee J Simpson

Group Concept

Originally our concept was created when thinking about the room we had chosen; the toilet.
We thought about what role it plays in a building and how it has a natural unique environment to it, which is unlike any other room in the Audio Foundation, and for that matter – any other public building.

There is a whole psychological process which one undergoes when sharing this room with a stranger. The ambience is dramatically altered and one’s self-conscious is increased, weary of signs that they may give off or signs that the stranger gives off.

Privacy is an important factor in a toilet, and in a toilet there are certain measures in place such as a cubicle armed with a lock. This cubicle provides visuals to be blocked out and some assurance that no one will walk in while you are exposed, but there are no measures in place to prevent noises being heard by strangers.

No soundproof walls which would block out potentially embarrassing noises being shared. In some western toilets they play calming ‘elevator music’ for the users to relax and also to block out uncomfortable silence. In some other cultures the cubicles are equipped with a bell which is rung when the user pees/poops.

In this project we have decided to investigate these feelings by means of sound with the help of microphones and recordings.

Using microphones we are going to pick up noises that the user/s make, and amplify and distort these noises. This will make the user question the natural feelings the user is inclined to have when in this environment.

Further, we will be playing sound recordings of different environments in the toilet to alter the familiar environment that the user is accustomed to and to force them to step out of their comfort zone.

Contribution

During the length of this project my role always tended towards the more physical making of the technology required to make our installation. Over the 3 weeks before the final project I had absorbed a lot of information on electrical and sound circuits. I had gone out of my way to find out as much as possible as the mechanical side of the sound fascinated me. This led me to build an amp which we would use to boost the output of our microphones as well as power the speakers for the installation. This meant when it came to creating the installation we could progress smoothly and quickly towards the end result instead of being tied down researching production methods.

Another small part of our project were some effects on ableton live. These were added to delay and distort the sound to create a sense of discomfort in the user. I spent some time setting up and testing for the best possible effects to put on our sound.

As with all the projects so far I have noticed that each person has their own idea of what the concept is. We may all have a general one but each member has something more they want to get out of the project. So when we came to write the group statement e all wrote out what we wanted and combined the better and similar points. This meant it was a whole group contribution rather than just one persons interpretation of the idea.

Audio Evening

On the day of the installation we moved into our space to set up the equipment. Everything ran smoothly and we were able to hide away all the speakers and mics so they were difficult to find. This was important to the project as the user was not supposed o know they were being affected. We ran into one difficulty with this and that was the large amount of feedback we were getting of the mics. On odd occasions it would grow to the point where it would be damaging for the ears. We had to make last minute adjustments to the volume and settings of the equipment. Other than this everything ran fine.

My Concept

When space was divvied up in the foundation we noticed that the bathroom was being left untouched and realised this was an area often overlooked when it comes to a gallery or installation experience. We decided we might be able to create something that would become part of an environment that has become a secure and private part of human life. We hope to be able to subtly change the atmosphere in the place and push the participant into an area of their psyche that is both new and uncomfortable compared to the normal situation.This being the opposite of the general toilet space. Sound, as one of the major senses used during everyday life and the only one really that you can still use shut away in a cubicle can be easily manipulated and distorted to destroy and recreate the environment and effect the mental state of the participant

TO do this we will be using microphones and recording which stimulate different emotions.

Trial Run

We wanted to be able to test the effects that our mics would have in a small space. We set ourselves up in a small room and played around with the their position and sensitivity

Microphones

Cardioid

US664A University Sound Dynamic Supercardioid Microphone

The most common unidirectional microphone is a cardioid microphone, so named because the sensitivity pattern is heart-shaped. A hyper-cardioid microphone is similar but with a tighter area of front sensitivity and a smaller lobe of rear sensitivity. A super-cardioid microphone is similar to a hyper-cardioid, except there is more front pickup and less rear pickup. These three patterns are commonly used as vocal or speech microphones, since they are good at rejecting sounds from other directions.

Cardioid Mic Area

With this information in our minds we set out to get some normal vocal mics that we could use to pic up a larger area of sound.

Test Fail

After buying and testing some small electec mics we found that they would not pick up enough sound even if we used a pre amp before the amp. We know have to do some research into mics to see which ones would be best suited for our project.

Sounds of Life

This week has been a new experience for me having no musical or audio background when entering this course. The idea that the absence of noise can mean as much as a musical note is a concept I am trying to wrap my head around. Music to me has always had a meaning and a rhythm. This abstract 'music' conflicts with the preconceptions and opinions I have on what music really is.

The Anechoic chamber was actually a very interesting experience it was akin the the feeling you get when you are scuba diving. It would be interesting to get some recordings from there and see what kind of sounds were produced.

I struggled a lot with the idea of the final piece of sound art. I could find no attraction to the project originally and found it very difficult to believe that and good sounding outcomes could be produced. However, as we moved forward in our own project I realised our piece had it's feel to it and that it created a new set of feelings I myself and the viewer. I came to realise this even more when we had the presentation and I found that I thoroughly enjoyed the majority of them. I'm looking forward to seeing how my perception of sound is going to change more as we progress through this project.  

Here is the complete Sound Bites - Gourmet Listening for the Ears

http://soundcloud.com/thomashall92/sound-bites-gourmet-listening#

Presentation Mode

 With the final critiques coming up I wanted our wall space to really get up to standard with what I believed an exhibition would be. I knew this would take hours of hard work to achieve and I was willing to do this as I knew it would be for the betterment of the group. I was somewhat let down by other members of the group who chose to focus more on the individual work rather than the work that benefitted everybody. This has made me think about how crucial it is that when choosing your group you find those people who you know will consistent work to benefit both themselves and the group. Without the support of half the group a huge weight was placed upon myself and Corey to produce something that would prove both interesting and relative to the project. This set up has also taught some key lessons about how to set up a display as well as the amount of time it takes to produce such work and how crucial team work is. However, in the end I was very pleased with our final result and I believe it is an outcome that both accentuates and supports the material we have decided to display.

Here is our final display

The Visualisations

Now that the rig is ready we were able to take it ou to create the visualisation dependent on where we felt the most connection to. Corey took to the park, Jenny down High street, Nick down Queen street and I tried to emulate the curb runner idea. From the visualisations we got a range of images that varied in clarity. This was exactly what we were hoping for as it clearly showed the relation between the texture and the video. By getting right down into the space with which we were gathering the data we were also able to experience first hand the texture which we were trying to capture. I saw this as one of the key points of our project. To truly understand the city. From these visualisation we pieced together a video of our experienced which will hopefully inspire and guide viewers to explore the world around them

Production

The production of our product was a long journey that had a few ups and downs. Working from the CAD drawings we were able to accurately create the shape of our model, however minor concessions for different sized screws and such had to be made. The fact that our rig was so small made the whole process pretty efficient as we could get a production line going. It did take longer then I liked though and this pushed our testing back by a few days. No issues arose with any of the manufacturing processes.

The First Test

This was the first test of our webcam running through the processing program. I was really pleased with the results but it gave me some things to think about such as how light will affect our project. I think we made need to be selective with the time as which we shoot our outcomes.

Theo Jansen Kinetic Sculptor

This video displaying some of Theo Jansen work as a kinetic artist is really at the top end of what we are aiming for. His work that runs on the power of the wind is a great inspiration for any kind of kinetic art we try to do.

An insight into the possibilities of reading colours, texture and brightness

fragments of RGB - 02 from onformative on Vimeo.

The idea Is Born

So for the majority of last week we were working on confirming the plans for our texture reading rig. The point of it being reading a part of the city that is not usually explored and one that played a big part in the development of humankind as a species. Our sense of touch is a much under appreciated component in our daily lives. The whole point of the bot is to use the flex sensors to effectively feel the city and turn the data it collects into some sort of physical output. In this way we can create a kinetic display that represents a part of the world that was lost.

So now that I have a purpose I spent the day working on getting our newly acquired Arduino board wired up and working with Max. A collaboration between myself and Nick led to us getting the sensors working and inputing their data.

At the end of the day we went up to the 3D labs to check out the processes that we will need when we start producing tomorrow and everything seems strait forward. The 6mm bar did seem kind of flimsy but we will find out soon enough if we will need to swap it out for a more solid material.

Racking The Brains

Today when we came together we realized that theidea we had settled on last week was not going to work. The day was spent trying to come up with a new idea that was still interesting and to the brief. Our first idea was a curb runner sort of robot that would move along the curb capturing all it saw as in went. Talking to James he asked how we could push the idea of using pre existing structures as the platform for our rig. The idea of returning to our original ideas of an up  high shot had us turning towards the idea of having it run round the edge of the building. 

We decided to head out into the street to look at the structures there were. Checking out the curbs we quickly saw the difficulties in its motion once it reached the end and also also how uniform the shot would be We would like some variance. This made me think that if we could get a more mobile shot from that angle it might provide a more interesting display. Nick came up with the idea of exploring the more seedy/ filthy side of the city using a low angle point if view of a rat. This would be achieved with a remote control car and a camera. The simplicity of this idea did not go down well with the set of the group though so it was pushed to the back of the mind. 

The rest of the day was spent developing the idea I hope to be able to use which is one that works around the idea of emulating the gramophone needle as it reads the vinyl record by reading the textures of the city. We would like to be able to amplify these and create a physical representation. I'd like to make some large scale vinyl replica's that could be used as hanging art. We could use a medium such as clay to record it. At the end of the day James suggested a flex sensor and i saw the logic behind that. Its something new to think about tomorrow. 

The Camera Rig

Brief:

Two Elements

1.       To conceive, design and fabricate a piece of auxiliary equipment for video and audio that:

·         Captures content in a way that you otherwise couldn’t

·         Provides audio/ video content for data analysis\

2.       To create a time based “visualization” of the city from the audio/ video content that is both:

·         Displayed or presented live during the operation of the equipment

·         Developed subsequently as a stand-alone representation

When we first got this project my first thought was that I wanted to get up in the air. I want to make a camera rig that could fly and get above the city. I joined a group of likeminded people and we set about brainstorming and researching ideas on how we could make a flying camera rig. We came up with an idea of emulating the Chinese paper lanterns but when taking safety considerations into mind a flying flammable paper rig would not be practical and could cause injury or harm to both people and equipment. This made us think about other options such as a helium balloon, but after talking to some 2^nd years that produced the same idea I realised that costs and practicality would cause some serious issues further down the production line. 1 meter cubed of helium can only carry l kilogram so we would be having weight issues cropping up all the time. Putting the flying balloon idea to the back of my mind I made my way home one night stopping in the park to have a thinking session there I brainstormed some more ideas such as a bridging the gap robot which would crawl the underside of the harbour bridge and an idea of up scaling natures machines, an example of this being the helicopter seed.  

In the end everyone decided they liked the idea of a one way mirror orb that would record people’s interaction with it without them knowing. This was aimed at exploring the curiosity and vanity of the human nature. Talking to other groups they suggested just using a cube rather than an orb as the housing so that the manufacturing would be easier. I had to agree with this. As a group we have started to build around the idea of Pandora’s Box and how her curiosity got the better of her and she had to look inside.

Talking to my boss I found out some issues that may occur with our design. First, wireless camera’s usually only have 4 frequencies so we would not be able to attach one on each face of the cube. Second, on such a close and small space there is a large possibility of their signals interfering with each other and affecting the quality of the image.  This may cause issues

Bullet Time

For the first activity of our new project we had to recreate the motion of created when Neo dodges a bullet in the Matrix. The first thought that popped into my mind was how stop motion animation could be used to recreate the effect completely.  We also thought of using the green room to hide an actor that would carry a bullet. After talking to Kim about our ideas he explained to us how literally we had been answering all of the questions posed to us in our projects. This got me thinking about how we had approached the other projects and I did see the sense in what he said. From seeing this flaw our group decided to try and branch out and find a new way to create the motion that hopefully had no relation to the actual scene of the movie. We decided the best way to create the effects with what we had was to use a lazy susan turn table combined with the chromakey room and get some cool rotational effects going. Thinking on how to make it different from everybody else’s we decided to create a little story line to go with any actions we had. We came up with a passing the Chinese whispers/ passing the note kind of story line that would link all our short videos and even though the quality of our videos won’t be very good this should hopefully add another aspect to our outcome.

The end outcome turned out better than we thought. The flow we managed to create with our little story line seemed to be the key to turning crappy video into something that was at least a little bitt interesting and amusing

Visual Interface and the Key Board Hack

The Key Board hack and trace was surprisingly easy to do. By plugging it in and using a patch that printed the key number I was quickly able to determine which input was given from each of my connections. This took far less time then if I had actually traced the keys. Over the holidays I thought on the idea of the wearable interface. I did some research into Max and watched a movie called the Transcendent Man. My original idea for Max was to create a 3D space in which the user could control objects with the motions of the body.Gesture Control of Sounds in 3D Space

After some research it seemed that it would be incredibly difficult to put a 3D space into Max or to find one that had already been made. This sort of put a stop to any plans leading in that direction. At this point I started thinking about the switches i would like to use and what would be best for detecting motion. I came up with the idea of spring loaded switches. When pulled the connection would break and when the connection is remade it would create a bang and the input from these would control components. This worked well with the joints of the body and since I had to change from the 3D world idea it could apply to many different possibilities.

At the start of the week back I had an idea for my interface and my switches. I set to work on these. I began thinking about what i could make my switch out of. Pretty quickly I figured out that the best way to make these would be using the end of a pen and the spring that belongs in it. Once i had this component I needed a way to keep the wire attached to the spring so it wouldn't pull through. At first i tried just using a wad of cellotape on the end. This worked for a short period of time but then began to pull itself off the wire. This connection would never be sustainable for a longer period of time. My next attempt used a flat head nail. This was the perfect fit and i knew i could solder the wire onto it. When I tested the nail for conductivity I realized it was galvanized. This meant i had to file the top layer off to expose the metal underneath. Having sussed this I soldered the wire onto the nail. However when i did this I increased the size of the nail and it would no longer fit inside the spring. This would make it difficult if this was used. My final outcome for a switch was cast some solder balls with the wire inside. This was easy enough to do and created a strong connection between the two points. One problem that did occur was that when then balls were cast the outside layer oxidized. This meant that i had to file the top layer off to get a current to flow. This would become a long term problem for the product as the connecting areas could re-oxidise and not allow the current to flow. After the parts were put together I glued the open end so that it was an enclosed piece.

The idea behind the interface was basically a human remote. The userwould wear a exoskeleton like outfit with switches at the joints. I wanted to be able to emulate the control KARL had in his dreams. In one scene he used is arms to control various objects and i wanted to copy these motions and have them affect the video.

It came time eventually to start the Max Patch. I had not been looking forward to this because although I had been searching the internet for help I still could not quite get my head around Max. I managed to piece together a program that read the inputs from my hack first. This was the easy part as it only required assigning key numbers to objects and adding bangs.

After this I once again delved into the resources of the internet and found some effects I could use in conjunction with my video. (Effects sourced from http://001.vade.info/). From the resources I pulled the effects that created the most drastic changes to the video. I set it up so that as the bangs went off it would switch between the effects. At this point I hit several issues with my program. I intended to display for or more screens in a display together but when I tried to edit my downloaded effects I couldn't edit the windows as the source file was specific to the number code.

As all the effects displayed in the same window there were problems with overlapping. I had no way to fix this problem so I just had to deal with it. In future though I would find out how to make the effects myself rather then sourcing them. With a patch the way it was I was left with just enough time to mount these switches in a holders so that they could be attached at the joints of the body.

Coming in early in the morning I discovered that when I tried to add the last switches into the hack the new switches would stop the old ones from working. I tried for the hour before the presentation but to no avail. The logic behind my connections was correct but for some reason no current would pass. This meant that I lost half of the inputs I needed.

Overall the final product was nowhere near my initial ideas. This came about through a lack of understanding of the program and the time constraints that were put in place. There are many things I wold change if I was to do this project again. The first being to start off with a wireless keyboard but also about having a more definite plan of action about what i was attempting to create. With the lack of a good idea to start with I had to build it as I went. I believe this to be a very inefficient way to work and it will be something that affects any future projects I have.