. m i n . . . i t p i n g .

Posted by min at 09:54 PM | Comments (0)

Reason and Digital Performer

Currently learning. But sound programs are just filled with info and detail...

I'm going to have to experiment with these a lot.

Posted by min at 03:51 PM | Comments (0)

Breath Final, going...

Today, Alice and I spent a good hour in the woodshop, using the jigsaw to cut up some hard cardboard material for our mockup model for the final. Realizing 2 hours later, that we didn't need them. Glorious failure... At least I got to learn how to use the scary jigsaw machine.

Currently, building the model, full scale and I'm trying to model it out on maya to give an idea of its structure. We've actually only got 6 pinwheels in total, 3 on each side.

Quick modeling.

Posted by min at 01:28 AM | Comments (0)

November 14, 2005

To be hacked...

Soon to come. I want to build a moving light box...
Ebay is so cool. I got these 2 remote controlled cars for just seven bucks.

Fino had a lot of fun with these.

Posted by min at 10:42 PM | Comments (0)

Coming together

All the wiring is finally done. I just need to build a support for it so that the wires and the breadboard could sit on it ok.

Hopefully, I'll get this done by this week.

Note: I hate the cheap 3 dollar soldering guns. Looking brand new below, after 5 mins, it turned balck. They burn out so quick and all the smoke! Hence, the bad soldering job above... :(

Posted by min at 10:31 PM | Comments (0)

Georges Perec, Puzzles

Reading Perec's thoughts on the art of the jigsaw was quite entertaining. As a kid, I never showed much interest in video games. I did like playing Tetrix however; the basic forms in puzzles. Trying to come to quick decision makings as to which edges would fit best. It is true, as he puts, that every move I made counts.

"Puzzling is not a solitary game... each hope and each encouragement have all been designed, calculated, and decided by the other."

Also, when I was young, my parents would buy me these ridiculous puzzles that were up to 5000 pieces. Very intimidating at first but as soon as I'd begin on it, it was soon finished. The end result was very rewarding.

I think that hands on learning is good for both children and adults. The learner is actively involved instead of just being a passive learner. Young children should be actively involved in hands-on activities every day and working puzzles could be the best solution.

Posted by min at 01:21 PM | Comments (0)

November 13, 2005

The Cappellini Store

I've always been fond of this Italian furniture store. This is the one near soho. RED!

Posted by min at 11:10 PM | Comments (0)

ITS, Multimedia Lab

Must make more use of this place.

Examples from materials DriveBy. Laser cuts and 3d printer.

Posted by min at 01:07 AM | Comments (0)

November 12, 2005

Architecture and Sound

Angela, Joo Youn, Thomas and I went to this lecture. It was definitely time well-spent. I was really inspired and was amazed to see how architects are bringing in pcomp into their works. The one that impressed me the most was the third group that presented. A reiteration of the project, White Noise/White Light, in Athens Olympics. The project for a Washington, D.C. sidewalk by Erik Carlson and Meejin Yoon. They were totally pcomping! Here are some info below.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________

Erik Carlson, Alvin Lucier, Joel Sanders, Ben Rubin, Karen Van Lengen, and Meejin Yoon

A presentation and discussion of several new projects that explore the use of sound in architectural space. Among the projects that will be discussed are “Hearways,” a collaboration between Joel Sanders/JSA, Ben Rubin/Ear Studio, and Karen Van Lengen; a project for a Washington, D.C. sidewalk by Erik Carlson and Meejin Yoon; and several sound pieces by sound artist Alvin Lucier.

Thursday, November 10
The Urban Center
457 Madison Avenue
6:30 p.m.

Following the submission of a large number of proposals from around the world, the Look of the City Section of ATHENS 2004 has selected a series of interactive installations to be realised alongside the routes.
The following interactive installations will operate primarily from 21:00 to 02:00, between 12 and 29 August.

J. Meejin Yoon: White Noise/White Light ("Listen to Athens" Route)
An interactive platform is placed near the entry to the Ancient Theatre of Dionysus, on Dionysiou Areopagitou St. The installation is a field of fibre-optic light strands which responds to pedestrian movement. The strands brighten and activate concealed speakers which emit a sound sampling of the city in the wake of the passerby.

Layout of the poles. Essentially, through human's touch, acting as a capacitance, certain sounds are triggered. The sounds are also networked creating a fade, 3d effect in the space.

Their circuit

Some other projects, the "Open House," that is to be built in Germany. They are building a house with the soundscape built-in, so that different parts of the house would give off different sounds according to its surroundings.

Some clips.

Posted by min at 07:58 PM | Comments (0)

November 10, 2005

MIDI

The midi plug that goes into the circuit.

Thanks to Todd H, I was able to get hold of the 20Mhz Clock. This clock needs to be powered. The square corner pin, has nothing connected to it. The pin on the top right has power going to it, pin on the bottom right is the pin for clock IN. The pin on the bottom left is ground.

Overall the connections were easy to make, the midi cable needs to be connected to the TX pin of the PIC, which is the PortC.6

I attempted to use 3 different pots to control the volume, the tones and the speed of the tones being generated by the midi. Code here

HSEROUT [Item {,Item...}]

Send one or more Items to the hardware serial port on devices that support asynchronous serial communications in hardware.
HSEROUT is one of several built-in asynchronous serial functions. It can only be used with devices that have a hardware USART. See the device data sheet for information on the serial output pin and other parameters. The serial parameters and baud rate are specified using DEFINEs:

' Set receive register to receiver enabled
DEFINE HSER_RCSTA 90h

' Set transmit register to transmitter enabled
DEFINE HSER_TXSTA 20h

' Set baud rate
DEFINE HSER_BAUD 2400

' Set SPBRG directly (normally set by HSER_BAUD)
DEFINE HSER_SPBRG 25

I had a few glitches with some MIDI Synths but overall, I was able to get what I wanted out of this lab.

What a big mess.

Posted by min at 01:24 AM | Comments (0)

November 09, 2005

3D Final Project Ideas

Project Check List: Conceptual Design

I have begun to model out my lizard-like creature. I see him going through a space, like a labyrinth of different textures, lightings, moving walls and have it change according to its environment. The user would have control of the lizard, allowing it to move in and out of certain 3d worlds.

I think that the work would be more of a labyrinth-like structure where the character would move freely and interact with its environment. Not a game-like environment, but more of an artistic walk- through.

The character is pretty much lost in its world when the user first encounters the world. The lizard finds its way abouts by moving around in its space.

I would first have to model out the character and the challenging part would be designing out its world, the labyrinth that this lizard is to travel around in. I have to make sure that I choose the right textures for this space, since the lizard would react to its environment wherever it goes.

Questions related to the way visitors interact with the virtual world. How many types of input devices do you provide to the viewer?
I'd like to have the viewer be able to control the character and the environment. I'd like to use some sensor inputs to control the character in Virtools.

Please describe each interaction using a keyboard equivalent function. How many types of interactions are connected to the viewer’s input devices? Describe in details of the interactions.
Keyboard will be used to control the movement of the character. However, I’d like to try using a sensor with Virtools and try to control the lizard using that.

List the input devices, the length of the interaction, how each interaction starts,
and where does it end?
The input devices would be the keyboard and the sensor that I will use with Virtools. The interaction would begin as soon as these sensors are activated.

Advanced automated functions and artificial intelligence systems inside
the virtual world. Is there an automated mode for virtual cameras and for
characters? Are they autonomous? Are they target/goal driven? Can you
describe basic interactions between characters together and between virtual
camera and characters? Do you provide specific interaction between the duo
camera-viewer and characters. Do you have ways for characters to acknowledge
the camera ?
I’d have to think about this.

Display- Do you provide multiple views or additional views?
Yes, I’d like to provide both the perspective and the top view for the audience.

What is the order of the sequence between multiple views?
The viewer would first see the character in the perspective view. As the creature travels through the given labyrinth, the viewer may wish to change to the top view for better reference. I will give them this option.

What is the relationships between additional views? Do you provide a hybrid mode that can switch the commands of the virtual world between viewer controls and automated mode?
The additional views will be there to help the view navigate through the labyrinth.

Step 2 – Cameras and navigation In step one we addressed the conceptual
design. In step two we look at cameras and the ways cameras can navigate
inside the virtual world. Please answer the following questions about cameras and navigation that may summarize previous discussions about your project you may have had during step one.

Questions about CAMERAS
How many types of cameras? List and name the cameras needed for each scene of your project.

I’d like to have one camera that is close up against the creature. One would be from the point of view of the lizard’s.

Some ideas for the labyrinth environment

Posted by min at 11:23 PM | Comments (0)

Spatial Final Ideas

This being a SPATIAL design class, I am more inclined to make something that really involves space, the ITP 4th floor.

Today, we had a brainstorming session with a few Friday spatial kids. Michael D, Mike B, Christin, Christian and Alex and I sat down and talked about what our interests were, starting with which project we liked the best out of the assignments so far.

Here are some of the things that came up. Thank you Michael D for the notes! :)

Tangible media, bits, pixels and their physical representation
Sound spaces, noise and spatial noise
Lights - Light wall's, light curtains
Deformable walls, deformable structures
Interactive architecture
The connection between museums and schools, history and work
Potentially using the ceiling

Mike D and I are both interested in lights, using them in space and Alex and Christin were interested in the idea of creating space using sound as their source.

We also liked the idea of using the ceiling throughout ITP to install our project. This way, we will not be limited to space.

Personally, I would like to make a light structure that would interact with people on the floor. Whether this be in the form of a wall, or a light fixture on the ceiling, it would be nice to define a space with manipulating lights.

Idealy, if we were to use light, the surroundings would have to be dark to get the right, elegant effect. However, since the floor will be somewhat lit during the show, I can see us working with textures and building a light structure behind it to enhance the lights coming through these textures. Some ideas below.

...source

... source

I got these images just to give me some visuals as to what I'm talking about.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Answers to the questions.

What are the keywords to describe your project?

What is the general scope of ideas?

I'd like to work with differnent lights and materials to create a grand entrance for those that come to see the ITP winter show.

How to introduce your project?

It would be a screen that would lead the people into the ITP show.

Your intents for the project?

I'd like to realize a space with use of different lights and materials.

The starting point for someone experiencing the project? The audience or users for your project? What does your project provide that other similar projects do not provide or provide differently?

The start of this project would start at the entrance of ITP.

Please do some research on this point-
What are the resources available to you today for this project?
What are the missing elements for your project?
How do you plan to provide these element?

I'd like to work with different screen materials and lights. EL wires as JM suggested. The screen material would be of a opaque-like material. I would like to work with projections as well onto the screens.

Posted by min at 10:58 PM | Comments (0)

Shift Registers, A6818xA

Shift registers are a type of sequential logic circuit, mainly for storage of digital data. They are a group of flip-flops connected in a chain so that the output from one flip-flop becomes the input of the next flip-flop. Most of the registers possess no characteristic internal sequence of states. All the flip-flops are driven by a common clock, and all are set or reset simultaneously.
There are different shift registers such as Serial In - Serial Out, Serial In - Parallel Out, Parallel In - Serial Out, Parallel In - Parallel Out, and bidirectional shift registers. There is also a special form of counter - the shift register counter.

Thanks to Todd H (WE LOVE YOU TODD!), I was able to get hold of the A6818 shift registers to experiment with.
Essentially, there are 5 important pins on the shift register. The 2 power, logic supply, Serial Data In, the Strobe pin, the Clock pin and the Ground pin. . Here is the code from Todd H and code from Mluck.

The connections to the PIC.

Posted by min at 12:31 PM | Comments (0)

Midi and shift registers

Just finished reading the data sheets for the A6818 shift registers from Allegro(they don't make them any more...) It WAS actually fun, finding out all the details! It turns out our whisker switch project may not even need the PIC, since we aren't using any senors as our inputs. We only have digital inputs as the switches. But our great Todd H, lent me one of them to play around with.

I'm going into the lab tomorrow to figure this all out.
Must get some good sleep now.

Posted by min at 01:37 AM | Comments (0)

Advice from Career Fair

There was a Career Fair here at NYU a few weeks ago. I went to the "Careers in Technology and Multimedia," on October the 24th. There were panel members from companies such as Morgan Stanley (IT Risk and Security), Goldman Sachs (VP, Technology Division), Google, etc. Overall a great talk by them all. I felt inspired and motivated when I walked out of the conference room. These are some of the tips from the alums in the field.

Posted by min at 12:53 AM | Comments (0)

Keeping it simple

Using its original form, what a brilliant light bulb! I want to get this when I go back to Korea this winter.

Posted by min at 12:48 AM | Comments (0)

Particles in Virtools

Today, JM went over the particles behavior in virtools. We can use this to create smog environments for our character animation. I had my virtools player working and now, it won't work again.

Here are the settings for the particles BB.

Emission Delay: Time (in ms) to wait before the next particles' emission. 0 means each frame.
Emission Delay Variance: Modification of the preceding parameter, +/- its value.
Yaw Variance: Max opening angle in the XZ plane. Particles will be given a direction having an angle in this plane between 0 and this value from the Z direction of the emitter.
Pitch Variance: Max opening angle in the ZY plane. Particles will be given a direction having an angle in this plane between 0 and this value from the Z direction of the emitter.
Speed: Speed of the particle representing the actual distance they cover in 1 ms.
Speed Variance: Modification of the preceding parameter, +/- its value.
Angular Speed: Angular Speed of the particle representing the actual angle in radians they cover in 1 ms. (used for Sprite and Object Rendering Mode.)
Angular Speed Variance: Modification of the preceding parameter, +/- its value.
Spreading: Multiplicative Factor applied to the length of the sprites. (used for Oriented Sprite only.)
Spreading Variation: Modification of the preceding parameter, +/- its value.
Lifespan: The lifespan of a particle (in ms).
Lifespan Variance: The random variance of the lifespan (in ms) of individual particles, +/- lifespan value. ie: With a lifespan of 100, a lifespan variance of 15 means a particle may have a lifespan anywhere from 85 to 115 ms.
Maximum Number: Maximum number of particles displayed in the same frame. This number is limited by the Total Number Allocated in the Settings (100 by default), and must be changed there if you wish to override it.
Emission: The number of particles launched at each emission.
Emission Variance: Modification of the preceding parameter, +/- its value.
Initial Size: The initial size of the Particle (used in (Orientable)Sprite and Object Rendering Mode).
Initial Size Variance: Modification of the preceding parameter, +/- its value.
Ending Size: The ending size of the Particle (used in (Orientable)Sprite and Object Rendering Mode).
Ending Size Variance: Modification of the preceding parameter, +/- its value.
Bounce: The bouncing factor of the Particle (used when Deflectors are present.).
Bounce Variance: Modification of the preceding parameter, +/- its value.
Weight: The weight of the Particle (used when Gravity Interactor is present.).
Weight Variance: Modification of the preceding parameter, +/- its value.
Surface: The surface of the Particle (used when Wind or Atmosphere Interactors are present.).
Surface Variance: Modification of the preceding parameter, +/- its value.
Initial Color: The initial Color of the Particle.
Initial Color Variance: Modification of the preceding parameter, +/- its value.
Ending Color: The ending Color of the Particle.
Ending Color Variance: Modification of the preceding parameter, +/- its value.
Texture: The texture (or texture suite) of the Particle.
Initial Texture Frame: The initial Texture animation frame of the Particle.
Initial Texture Frame Variance: Modification of the preceding parameter, +/- its value.
Texture Speed: The speed, in ms, at which the frames are proceeded in the animation.
Texture Speed Variance: Modification of the preceding parameter, +/- its value.
Texture Frame Count: The number of animation frames included in your texture (it must be disposed in 2x2, 3x3, etc... but you don't have to use all the space in the texture (a 7 frame animation will be included in a texture of 3x3 frames).
Texture Loop: Specifies how the animation progress. Looping or not, or Ping-Pong (back and forth)?.

Posted by min at 12:26 AM | Comments (0)

November 08, 2005

Book light

Seriously, is this good design? I doubt it. Where on earth would you be using this? I mean, you can just turn a lamp on... But cool effect though.

Posted by min at 04:24 PM | Comments (0)

Video print paper

It seems all companies are really trying to win out on the paper thin display concept but Siemens has announced a new color display that can be printed onto paper, yes you read that right. A color display which means moving pictures that can be printed onto paper!! Thin and flexible this new display is cheap enough to be put into nice books, tickets, cereal boxes or any other medium someone might want t put in a short video onto print. This is nuts you can have the most high tech wedding invitation cards that show a video, or a ticket that has a video map to the venue. I do suppose we are getting too stupid to read text these days but this is just ridiculous! And all this time, I thought the 3d printer was a novel thing.

Posted by min at 08:39 AM | Comments (0)

November 07, 2005

Toilet design

Bathrooms have always fascinated me.They are a very intimate space, yet you want it to be an experience when you go. We're all done seeing the old-traditioned ones. There are a ton of accessories out there for the bathroom experience. It's been my thing to check out bathrooms when I go to restaurants, cafes, museums... I rate them by their bathrooms.

This has got to be the simpliest way to put people in shock. I wonder what the little girls' bathroom is like...

Posted by min at 09:49 AM | Comments (0)

November 06, 2005

Toy land

Jane and I headed to Toys R Us this Saturday to see what was out there. Being on that ITP floor almost everyday, limits us from our inspirations and others' creative works.

It was a great day in NYC. The weather was warm, clear sky and the sun felt so good.

As soon as you walk into Toys R Us, you are surprised by a line of flashes. Workers there take a picture of you, as soon as you enter. Then you can't but notice the huge ferris wheel going around in the middle of the building. Absolutely gobsmacking. I almost wanted to go on it for the experience...

A whole bunch of these just look scary...

Materials are essential in toy design. After making our plushy, I really ended up appreciating toy designers. Tis hard to satisfy little brats...

Every single toy these days are interactive. Even books are. It's hard to find just normal picture books without any sound or moving parts. Even Mr. Potatoes are interactive...

Girls' favorites... Stuffed animals. Elmos even dance these days. Man!

Teaching you addition, subtraction and multiplications. You match up the numbers and the toy speaks out the answers! These would have really helped me back in those days. Hm, to think of it, they may still help.

Discovered these on the 1st floor. Magnetic parts to help you make globes! Could have come in handy for our bucky ball assignment.

Parts for a possible Spatial Design class final project. Wireless toy cars... More to come!

Posted by min at 02:30 PM | Comments (0)

November 04, 2005

The New York 2005 Marathon

I have a few friends running for the NY marathon this year. I really admire them. It takes some endurance to be a marathon runner. Takes time to train to be one and you have to continue your practice. I really applaude all those running for a good cause.

This year, NYC is going all out with their tech! Chips in your shoe that will track your running throughout the course. Info could be emailed out to your friends!

• The chip will record your official time from the starting cannon until you cross the finish line, and your net time from when you cross the start line until you cross the finish line. In accordance with USA Track & Field rules, the official time will be used for scoring, but we will provide you with your net time for informational purposes. Both official times and net times will be listed on your finisher certificate and in the official race results.

Man... I just had a conversation recently about embedding personal info under one's skin. This day may soon come. CNN's Sparks reported last year that there was this club in Europe that had adopted this to RFID their clubbers. It acts as an entrance ticket and you can even get your drinks using this chip that was injected into the upper part of your shoulder. Scary idea but the chip could be removed.

The idea of embedding anything remotely chip-like is just distasteful.

Posted by min at 10:20 PM | Comments (0)

November 03, 2005

Labyrinth 02

The building.
I was initially going to take each individul as a node, wire, but that just simply too complicated and too complex to build. Tracy had suggested that my previous mirror project, studying perspectives was a sort of a labyrinth. Hence, going back to using more thrown-away mylar, this is the new reflected labyrinth you create in any given space. Simply, look through.

The set up.

The next step may be modeling out an interactive or a self-rotating labyrinth on virtools. Idea.

SORRY, PCs ONLY. Download Virtools Player if can't play on your PC browser. Download file

Posted by min at 11:35 PM | Comments (0)

Lizard study

Picture of the model from the top.

Lizards study.

Posted by min at 12:36 AM | Comments (0)

"SOUND" function in PIC

I just found out that there is a SOUND function in PIC. A lot more pleasant than the FREQOUT. But still, I'm sure the MIDI would do much better.

SOUND Pin,[Note,Duration{,Note,Duration...}]

Generates tone and/or white noise on the specified Pin. Pin is automatically made an output. Pin may be a constant, 0 - 15, or a variable that contains a number 0 - 15 (e.g. B0) or a pin name (e.g. PORTA.0). Note 0 is silence. Notes 1-127 are tones. Notes 128-255 are white noise. Tones and white noises are in ascending order (i.e. 1 and 128 are the lowest frequencies, 127 and 255 are the highest). Note 1 is about 78.74Hz and Note 127 is about 10,000Hz. Duration is 0-255 and determines how long the Note is played in about 12 millisecond increments. Note and Duration needn't be constants.

SOUND outputs TTL-level square waves. Thanks to the excellent I/O characteristics of the PICmicro, a speaker can be driven through a capacitor. The value of the capacitor should be determined based on the frequencies of interest and the speaker load. Piezo speakers can be driven directly.

Example

SOUND PORTB.7,[100,10,50,10] ' Send 2 sounds consecutively to Pin7

Copyright ?1999 microEngineering Labs, Inc.
All rights reserved.

Posted by min at 12:13 AM | Comments (0)

November 02, 2005

NYC Photobloggers

nyc photobloggers

Posted by min at 11:00 PM | Comments (0)

Motor Lab

Controlling high-current devices from a microcontroller
All about motors
DC Motors
Stepper Motors

The Lab.
DC Motor Control Using an H-Bridge

More of my notes on motors, relay, transistors.

To reverse a DC motor, you need to be able to reverse the direction of the current in the motor. The easiest way to do this is using an H-bridge circuit. With any H-bridge, you will have certain elements: