Coding Color » Featured Articles

The ‘Kinect’ factor

admin — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 04:05:14 +0000

*UPDATE
Awesomeness revealed:
True API Support.

The Microsoft Kinect Controller seems to be the HOT hackable item in the interactive art world. Just like the Wii Remote, the Kinect has been hacked by interactive artists to control robots, scan environments, create sound instruments and much,much more. The Kinect is a robust sensor which features an “RGB camera, depth sensor and multi-array microphone running proprietary software”, which provide full-body 3D motion capture, facial recognition and voice recognition capabilities. The Kinect Hacker community and the Open Sourcing of device drivers have enabled the Kinect controller to be used directly from connected PC’s operating on Windows 7. I’ve been following the development of interactive installations and experimentation’s utilizing the Kinect sensor. I felt it was time to list a few of my favorites. Being an AS3 engineer, it’s only natural I start off with some of the cool AS3 examples.

My favorite to date is the Touchless Kinect AS3 application, which is developed with the OpenKinect AS3 API.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Silvio Paganini has also been quite busy, experimenting using AS3 TUIO and the UDP-Flash Bridge.

Click here to view the embedded video.

If you are Windows person, you can now control apps on Windows 7.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The Quadratura collective exhibited “Shadows of Light” a Kinect based art piece at the Ambika Gallery in London.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Cyber Sex anyone? This maybe a bit weird but yes, people are taking it to the next level.

Click here to view the embedded video.

You can find more information regarding open source Kinect at OpenKinect.org and if you want to stay up on hacked Kinect news, visit Kinect Hacks.

Now it’s only time till someone replicates the Minority Report-like interface.

Slow Media Experience

admin — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 06:08:35 +0000

Master’s candidate Jiyeon Song’s One Day Poem Pavilion is a low-fi, outdoor art installation reminiscent of a geodesic dome.

The specific arrangements of the perforations in the Pavilion reveal different poems according to the suns position. The cast shadow can be seen between 8 AM and 4PM and consist of 5 lines with each line lasting about an hour.

The time-based nature of the installation allows for an individual and unique experience.

I look forward to seeing more from Jiyeon Song, I’m hoping he brings one of the Pavilions out to San Francisco..hint ..hint. CHECK OUT the time lapse of the Pavilion and get more info of Jiyeon’s project.

F L U X

admin — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 03:43:50 +0000

F L U X is an amazing visual audio piece created by Istanbul artist Candas Sisman. It was created for Plato Art Space (Plato College of higher education) and to be exhibited at the Hulda Festival, Istanbul. I’m a fan Candas keep up the great work.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Envison the future.

admin — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 19:26:35 +0000

Where will the future take us? With the advent of mobile touch smart phones to break the ice and the anticipation of inexpensive touch enabled tablets, the future is starting to shape up to be a world of hand gestures. At the rate that we consume content, new screen devices will eventually be in every aspect of our lives. As we now share updates on Facebook via mobile phones, PC’s and tablets, imagine a world where we will be able to share multimedia with our peers in unconventional ways like your bathroom mirror. The following is a vision of the future of screen technology.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Will any of these ideas be of good use? Or will they be simply new toys for the connected consumer. I look forward to what the future brings.

Arduino Racer

admin — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 03:20:28 +0000

“RACER” is an interactive video game installation featuring a racing arcade cabinet, an R/C car, and a recreated cardboard (Sony) Wipeout course. The R/C car has a wireless video camera on board allowing the user to have a drivers perspective. The project took two months to prototype and the demo has been unveiled. The arcade is running off an Arduino micro-controller communicating to a R/C remote controller via a serial cable. All the engineers need to do is add a roll cage to the R/C and you would have endless uninterrupted hours of game play.
Job well done Malte Jehmlich.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Swarming Light

admin — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 18:26:05 +0000

rAndom International is a creative studio out of London with a mission to develop a new artistic vocabulary. Founded in 2002 by Stuart Wood, Flo Ortkrass and Hannes Koch the studios work fringes on art, design, science and architecture. The studio creates installations that re-interpret the nature of digital-based work and emphasizes on the interaction between human presence and the inanimate object, bringing the two into a powerful sense of aesthetic relation.

The ‘Swarm Light‘ is a light installation with a real ‚collective consciousness. It’s a contemporary example of how the arbitrary boundaries of fine and decorative art, design and utility are no longer of immediate aesthetic relevance. Sounds or movement captured as light and shadow create a type of participatory and performative synthesis that culminates in an instinctual perception of the space, rather than a cerebral judgment.

Check out more projects by rAndom International.