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October 31, 2005
Intro to Computational Media - live video tool
For my midterm for the Intro to Computational Media class, I decided to use Processing to create a live performance tool. As my collaborator and partner, Sara Kraft, is a singer, and as we use a lot of video in our performances, I decided to try and create a tool that would visualize live sound input through the medium of live video.
Steps:
*Figure out how to break a live video capture into independent sections, that can either sit together to display the whole image, or move around to break up the image
*Use live sound input in Processing for the first time.
*Make the video respond to the sound.
Following Dan Shiffman's advice, the way I chose to do this was to use the copy() function to copy areas of the live video capture into Pimage variables. So, the first stage was to simply try to use the copy function. I tried it first with a still image, using the random function to prove that the image fragments could move independently of each other.
Here's a link to the applet.
The next stage was to add the sound input. I decided to stay simple and just have the image respond to fluctuations in sound input volume. So, the louder the singer sings, the more the image fragments.
Then the next stage was to start using live video capture as opposed to using a still image. To begin with I continued to just divide the image into 4 equal quarters.
Here is a link to the code.
Here's a screen shot of the video responding to some vocal sound:
The final stage was to add a little bit of complexity to the presentation of the video. I broke it up into smaller images, that sit on top of a background layer. The background layer is the same video, but displayed whole, and with an Invert filter. Instead of all moving offscreen towards the corners of the display, the image fragments now move in different directions, but should still clear the screen if the singer sings loud enough, leaving an uninterrupted view of the background layer of video.
Here is a link to the code.
Here's a screen shot of the video in silence (yes, I'm just sitting there with my mouth open):
Here's a screen shot of the video responding to vocal input (this time I'm singing (badly)). You can see how the video fragments are moving across and off the screen in response to the sound input level.
Posted by edpurver at October 31, 2005 05:53 PM