spatial media - final

May 15th, 2009 admin

The goal of this project is to create a passive information display that dynamically adapts to the users level of attention.  The information shown on the display is represented in 3 distinct states representative of the users position from the display surface.  It is assumed that when the user is in close proximity to the display surface, they will be interested in a detailed representation, where a more subtle view is desired when the user is away from the display screen.

The content selected for this display was chosen due to the frequency in which one generally surveys this data and is comprised of the following information sources: email, sms messages, in-bound phone calls, relevant news feeds.  These varied sources of information are aquired through an application written for the android platform that automatically connects the users internet enabled phone to the target data network when possible.  This allows for the user to deposit their phone anywhere within wireless range, and still be able to remain aware of the various forms of communication and information flowing towards them.

The ideal location for this of display is a semi-private space such as a home or personal office.  It is thought that one should have direct access to this type of information when desired, yet it should remain hidden when not appropriate to be shown.

Programatically, the detail level of the display is mediated by a camera tracking system that searches for the face of a given user.  The camera searching for the face is positioned such that a face is only recognized when the users is actually looking towards the display.  This detection system allows for 2 levels of user analysis: 1. is the user looking for information (based on their gaze towards the display), 2. at what distance is the user looking from (based on the size of the users face).  The distance of the users face is smoothed through an averaging routine, allowing for gradual and more realistic state changes in an attempt to prevent sudden or abrupt shifts in visual states.

It should be noted that the information displayed is not intended to replace the computer as a means of interacting with these forms of digital content, but have been designed to allow for a more harmonious co-existance with the ever increasing emphasis and importance on this type of information awareness.

The most subtle level of detail (’detail level 1′) is the default state of the data representation, and can be seen in figure 1.  This state is triggered when the users is either not looking at the display, or is simply beyond a threshold distance relevant to the space in which the display is installed.  In this state, the data is visualized by the a thin solid colored bar which vibrates in relation to the amount of data accumulating in the users various data streams.  The goal of this visualization is to provide a subtle representation of the data waiting for the user, allowing one to have an awareness of valuable data without providing a significant distraction.

‘Detail level 2′ allows the user to obtain a slightly deeper level of understanding their data pool through a catagorical representation of the various types of waiting data.  Each stream of data is color coded (as defined by the user), while the size of the catagorical representation is determined by the amount of data associated with that particular category.  An example representation of this state can be seen in figure 2.

‘Detail level 3′ assumes the user is now in a state where they can benefit from seeing a higher level of detail.  The categories that were described in the previous state in their abstracted geometric representations are now seen in a grid like system allowing for a through understanding their personalized information streams.

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urban parking assist

April 2nd, 2009 admin

One of the most significant challenges associated with driving into urban environments is the ability to find a parking space.  One can circle busy city blocks for lengthy periods of time while disrupting the traffic flow in pursuit of a space that meets the needs of their individual vehicle.

This proposed system hopes to aid in the parking process by both marking open spaces and providing the driver with an accurate measurement of the actual size of the space.  Furthermore, the embedded sidewalk sensors will be able to gauge the size of the vehicle as it makes its initial approach towards the parking space, leaving no chance to the equation.  If the car will not fit, the driver will be notified preventing any unnecessary traffic blockages.

Sensors embedded within the sidewalk simply detect the presence of a vehicle.  Gaps where no cars are detected are measured by the system.  Each sensor is mated with embedded laser projection system that allows for a highly focused, day visible, and unobtrusive projection that is visible in all conditions (System has not been tested in Canada due to excessive snow accumulation).

An interested driver will now simply have to scan the street for a green demarcation.  At a glance the driver will know if any spaces on the street are even open, preventing the need to delay traffic on that particular street as they would slowly search for a potential space.  If a space was found by the driver, they would see a measurement of the space as they approached the parking spot.  Stopping directly in front of the space will trigger a verification system that measures the car that wishes to park in the given spot.  If the car is of a suitable size, the projection will remain green.  Otherwise the projection system will mark the space in red, providing a clear indication that the space is not suitable for the vehicle in question.

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wearable mobile interface - first conceptual sketches

February 11th, 2009 admin

here are the first few sketches illustrating the wearable component of my thesis project.  the light blue band in the sketches represent the internal magnetic lock that will allow the device to hold itself on the inside edge of a long sleeve.

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passive control surface

February 5th, 2009 admin

Challenged to produce a ’spatial media’ design concept for the living room, I undertook the challenge of extended the limitations of passive control surfaces.  Specifically I am referring to the static nature of most projectable surfaces.  Although flat surfaces such as floors, table tops, and walls allow for the creation of compelling reactive interfaces, they are generally static.  It is difficult to shift the location of a projected table top interface once it has been positioned and calibrated in respect to the projector.

The design I am proposing allows for the intended projection surface to move in three dimensions within the defined projection volume.  The projection surface itself will be marked with an asymmetrical pattern of directional reflective markers that will respond to the infra red light emit form the multi-camera tracking system.  The location and orientation of the projection surface is then understood by the projection system which automatically selects a subset of the projection array and modifies the output from each projector to account for the orientation of the surface.  The end result is a surface that can be projected upon regardless of its orientation or location within a defined volume.

The image set below demonstrates how this system could be used to create a form of universal remote control for a digital system within the house.  As the surface could be any flat and rigid surface, there are no limitations in regards to what could serve as the projection surface.  Furthermore, there is no limit to the density of information one could have projected onto the surface.  In the example images, one could imagine a music lover enjoying the benefit of a detailed spectral analysis of the music they are listening to.

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visual inventory for the spontaneous chef

January 29th, 2009 admin

The process of preparing food extends beyond the physical space of the kitchen and reaches into the various markets and retail outlets where ingredients and supplies are purchased.  The ingredients themselves dictate the scope of the final preparation. This conceptual design is based upon the needs of a chef that enjoys a spontaneous process in regards to the preparation of food.  This design will also cater to those interested in monitoring their dietary habits.

Please note, this interface assumes that a grocery inventory system is in place.  As a user returns to their residence with the purchased groceries, the items would be either scanned by a bar-code reader or manually entered into a inventory database.

Any large flat surface (vertical or horizontal) can be used to host the primary interface of this design.  As the user enters the kitchen, they simply have to press the button labeled ‘begin’ to reveal a categorical view of the available ingredients within the kitchen.  The touch interface allows the user to expand and ‘drill down’ into the various categories allowing for an initial high level perspective of all the ingredients available and their respective quantities.  When satisfied with the available ingredients, the user simply has to click on a given item (one click will select one unit, multiple clicks will select multiple units) and the interface will automatically shift the ingredient into the ’selected ingredients’ field while simultaneously deducting the ingredient from the household inventory.  When the user has finished planning the meal, they select ‘complete’ which calculates the overall calories of the selected ingredients as well as the overall cost for that given meal.  The set of ingredients is then associated with a unique ID allowing for a form of meal tracking, or simply the formation of spontaneous recipes to be archived for future convenience.  The visual queue presented by the list of selected items ensures that no ingredients are over-looked by the spontaneous cook.

The associated image set illustrates the process of planning an evening meal.

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touch

December 18th, 2008 admin

Result of a quick exercise where we were challenged to create a visual representation of ‘touch’ [time restricted in-class project (25 minutes) ].

applet

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sound [space] sound - visualization / control application

December 17th, 2008 admin

This java application was developed to enhance the acoustic research myself and my collaborator Alberto Tafoya have been pursuing this semester.  In short, we are trying to understand and control  acoustic interference patterns.

This post will focus on the current state of the research application that was developed in Java and SuperCollider (real time audio synthesis environment).

The majority of our research has been conducted in less then ideal acoustic conditions, in spaces lacking symmetry among countless other contributors of error (windows, unstable temperature, reflective walls).  These conditions make the task of accurately predicting the locations of acoustic phase cancellation significantly difficult.  To account for these sources of error, the decision was made to programatically map the formation of the interference patterns through use of an 8 channel microphone array.  This would allow us to modify the phase of each output channel and monitor the changing interference pattern through the amplitude values recorded by our microphone array.  This form of feedback system allows us to work with the inherent imperfections that are present within our working medium.

The application serves two primary purposes.  First it allows for the execution of lengthy automated tests where the resulting data is collected in stored digitally.  An example of this type of automated test would be the mapping of the 360^4 combinations of potential phase shift combinations given a maximum resolution of 1 degree.

Once this data has been collected, this same application allows for the immediate visualization of the acquired data.  The interface allows one to overlay the microphone amplitude values overtop of a mathematically correct prediction of the interference patterns that would occur within an anechoic space.

The image set below describes the various states of the application in its present form.  The main display area allows one to see both the mathematical prediction of areas of phase cancellation as well as the microphone amplitudes gathered during a given experiment.  The fifth slider is attached to the experimental data and forces the phase of the 4 channels to match the experimental conditions at which the visible instance of data was gathered.

[ please contact for source code and experimental data ]

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retrospective

November 18th, 2008 admin

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vocabulary of value

November 17th, 2008 admin

Wine has an associated descriptive vocabulary that is unparalleled against most other comestible subject matter.  Structured, oak, plummy, nougat, toast, mulberries, acid and yeast are but a few examples of the diverse range of words that are actively used to describe the complex flavors of wine.  When presented with a large set of wine tasting notes that throughly described over 5000 wines, I was immediately drawn to the associated prices when reading through the tasting notes of a particular selection.  Due to the financial realities that I have come to terms with, consuming a bottle of wine beyond the $20 dollar threshold is a rare occasion.  Given this circumstance, I was personally drawn the descriptions of the wines that ranged in the hundreds-of-dollars out of sheer novelty and curiosity.  This curiosity lead me to then question weather there was a hierarchy of vocabularies within the wine descriptions themselves.  While reviewing the wine selections within my budget, was I not being exposed to the full gamut of descriptive words?  Is there a premium on certain adjectives when describing such a well understood and valued commodity?

This visualization allows a user to first select a target price of wine.  When a price has been selected, the entire descriptive dictionary used in the tasting notes of all 5000 wines is queried to return only those words that have described a wine at the user specified target price (+/- 5%).  One can then view the distribution of these now relevant words across the entire price range of wines.  For example, if a user defines a target price of $133, only the words used to describe wines at that price will be pulled from the complete dictionary.  With a quick glance of the distributions one can infer an understanding of how this subset of words is used across the complete price range of wines.  Notable results from this specific query are the words ‘Feminine’ which only appears at the $127 price point.  Conversely the word ‘with’ is present across the entire price range.

Additional features have been built into the visualization tool to enhance the exploration of this data-set.  Beyond the prominent mouse controlled red scroll bar along the top right of the window that allows for a target price selection, one can scroll vertically through the data-points to reveal the dollar value of the point that one is mousing over.  Further more, a single click of the mouse anywhere within the visualization window will pull an additional 55 entries from the relevant subset of words (when applicable).  Due to the broad spectrum of wine prices, gaps do exist where a target price will return no words.  In this case, one simply has to continue navigating across the scroll bar until a target price is found that returns a subset of descriptive words.

The images below illustrate a few sample cases of the visualization.

An executable java application in *.jar format can be downloaded here.

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sound [space] sound

November 16th, 2008 admin

This project will be manifested in the form of an interactive four channel sound installation.  As signals travel through any given medium interference patterns emerge yielding both additive and subtractive summations of the original signals.   This project leverages one extreme case of these interference patterns, specifically the occasion where two waves of identical amplitude and opposite phase collide, resulting in a the negation of both signals.  In the medium of sound, this negation results in silence.

Audible sine tones below a frequency of 400 Hz will be projected into the defined space of this installation.  The foot print of the installation will span 100 square feet marked by a loud-speaker located at each corner of the space.  The loud-speakers will be oriented at a 45 degree angle, focusing their output towards the exact center of the space.

This project is designed to accommodate a single user, although spectators will be able to observe the installation from outside of the defined boundary.  As the user enters the space, they will be exposed to the sine tones being projected by the speakers.  Invisible to the user, a tracking system will be monitoring the exact location of the participant within the defined volume.  At an arbitrary moment, the synthesizer controlling the speaker output will modify the frequency-set and the individual polarities of the signals in-order to deliberately create an instance of phase cancellation at the exact location where the user is standing.  This location will be further marked by a projection on the floor surface of the volume.  The overall effect from the users perspective will be experienced in the form of a sudden drop in volume (in an ideal case silence) along with a visible boundary marking the exact location of a particular instance of phase cancellation.  The user can either remain within the marked space or further explore the space with a new understanding of the sonic structure that is subtly filling the space in which they are.

The following story-board describes how one would interact with this installation.

The descriptions below describe a series of on-going experiments designed to aid in the execution of this installation.

experiment 2 [14.11.2008]

working within a large studio space in greenpoint (brooklyn new york) this experiment focused on the brute force mapping of the interference patterns.  A sine tone at a frequency of 300 Hz was projected uniformly from all 4 channels.  This lower frequency value was selected due to the manageable wavelength of this signal (1.172 meters).  The 100 square foot space was divided into a grid that produced 21 valid measurement points.  This test was unfortunately prematurely terminated as two of the channels were discovered to be malfunctioning and were projecting their signals at a level almost 20 decibels below their originally calibrated value.  Data was gathered for a 300 Hz signal without a shift of phase, and a 300 Hz signal expressing a phase shift of 30 degrees.  The images set below contains the results of the tests performed as well as some photographs describing the space we are currently using to develop this project.

experiment 1 [08.11.2008]

this experiment was conducted to better understand the interference patterns created when introducing four unique channels of sound within a closed space.  These tests were heavily influenced by the work of La Monte Young.

No quantitative findings were logged, however significant qualitative exploration of the sonic structures created by the various interference patterns were conducted (the video evidence can be seen below).  It is this experiment that lead to the shift in conceptual direction from the cancellation of noise within urban spaces to the pure exploration of the interference patterns generated when sound is projected within a given space.  The video documentation illustrates the complexity of the sonic structure formed by the sine tones projected into the space.  As the camera and microphone rotate in the middle of the space, one can identify a seemingly dynamic audio signal that is actually associated with the interference pattern formed within that particular space.  It is recommended that one view these videos while wearing head-phones to better experience the the audio component of the documentation. The title screen of each video describes the sine tones used in each trial (all sets are comprised of prime numbers).

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