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November 16, 2005
Final Pitch - Histographical
Keywords - Video, image, touch, sensation, discovery, histogram, remapping color, physical, texture
Zoom out - Discovering hidden layers within a moving image. Dissecting a precise portion of something can yield a novel idea. This was inspired by the concept of slit-scanning and a recent performance by Golan Levin called ‘Scrabble’.
Zoom in - My Idea specifically deals with projecting video onto a moving surface that is driven by the video. Scanning a frame at a time of video reveals histograms that are physically recreated form left to right across an actual surface. This takes video color values and maps them across a grid of small pistons, potentially revealing a new sensory depth within the video medium. This will cause visual imagery to be thought of in a position of our brain more closely related to touch, by crossing senses.
2- How to introduce your project to someone who does not know about it?
This explores a layer of an image normally hidden to the eye. It reveals another possibility of connecting with video imagery through physical space and touch. With the volume of information and video content rising on the Internet a method of taking a deeper look into the medium needs to be explored. A layer of more complex data beneath the obvious surface exists. This forces the viewer to look at images in front of them as a surface that has spatial as well as visual data. I hope to possibly reveal a new visual alphabet based on spatial data from color and luminance data from moving images.
What is the intent for your project?
The intent is to get users to re-evalute their senses and attempt to look at visual information with a heightened awareness. Spatial elements can exist in a medium entrenched in a 2D world.
What is the audience for your project?
The audience for this project is difficult to sum up. Any person curious about the mysterious connections between things in life might be interested in this project. It provides a light sensory experience of touch and visual motion that most people would enjoy.
Describe the starting point for someone experiencing your project?
The viewer would start by walking through a short corridor. On their left would be a projector projecting images across to the right hand wall. The projector would have some type of gel or lens over it to diffuse the light going to the right so the viewer doesn’t get blinded. On the right wall would be a grid of 5x6 pistons, gently oscillating up and down. The representation will look as if it’s flowing from left to right, every column represents one frame of the video. The user will be encouraged to touch the pistons since they will be made of a soft material.
What does your project provide that other similar projects do not provide
or provide differently? I am sure an iteration of this exists but I have been unable to find it online so far. Histograms are a common way of measuring color, saturation, and brightness in an image. This project attempts to reinterpret common values of color into a physical form. It may open up a new meaning to a visual language that lacks any additional layers of metadata.
Technical Summary:
The RGB or HSB values of the video are taken and feed to a 5x6 grid of pistons that are driven up and down by a series of motors. The movement of the pistons up and down will represent a movement of color values within the image. Each column of the grid is a frame of video, with the heights of those five postons in that column representing a simplified version of that video frame’s histogram. The pistons burst up in succession from left to right, the formations of the column of 5 pistons will then be repeated in the row next to it, always moving places from left to right. The histogram reveals a graph of the video that is represented for each frame of the video in physical form. The video that is getting histogram slit scanned to the pistons is getting projected onto the pistons at the same time to give the projection texture that it creates it self. It has a kind of recursive and reciprocal quality to it.
What are the resources available to you today for this project? A projector, existing video content, histogram source code
List some of the elements still missing in order to start creating yourproject?
30 small motors, a wooden box, pistons, surface materials.
How do you plan to provide these element?
I will petition various business for a donation of parts for higher learning purposes using an existing proposal letter. Otherwise, I will purchase all the elements my self.
Posted by Karl Channell at November 16, 2005 04:19 AM