The video is from the actual exhibition and also shows Rita’s piece.

More pictures and information after the break.

Rita Godlevskis’ site-specific piece “Connections: Music and Mind” is a work based on brain research by Auckland University’s Doctoral candidate Carolyn Wu.

Carolyn Wu’s research investigates music perception and its inherent relationship to action. Her findings look towards contributing to revealing systems for auditory-motor integration that are established during music training. Wu’s testing method involves the use of electroencephalography (EEG) to measure sensorimotor brain responses.

In representing this scientific research Godlevskis has arranged thirty photo-based images in a formation mimicking the key points of the Geodesic Sensor Net map used to measure EEG. The primary visual theme of the work utilizes still frames of muti-media artist, Benjamin Bojko’s sound visualizations. Bojko’s visual calculations of music reflect the concept of what sound looks like as well as the spark and instantaneous reactive connection between music and action.

More information on the prototype and the thesis after the break.

The goal of the prototype is to provide Flash visualizations with access to line-in audio data in realtime and to create a platform that allows the composition and configuration of multiple visualizations at the same time, much like a typical VJ application.

The application launches a small Java applet using the new AIR 2 NativeProcess API. The applet uses the ESS sound libraryto retrieve line-in audio data and run a FFT on it. Using a TCP connection, it provides the AIR app with realtime line-in audio statistics like a full spectrum and averages, which is not possible in Flash or AIR natively.

The thesis was handed in on Tuesday and I can focus on extending the application itself now. The prototype, its source-files, examples, instructions and the thesis itself can all be found at http://www.favkit.net/.

Open Visualization as Layer - Open Visualization in a New Window

(Click the fullscreen icon in the options menu for optimal performance.)

There are three emitters, one for each frequency range: lows, mids and highs. Every emitter either has an attractive or repulsive force which depends on the volume of the emitter’s frequency range. If for example the base is strong, that emitter will act as a repulsive field and force all particles away. If at the same time another frequency range is weak it will attract all particles surrounding it, basically sucking them up.

In addition to a force, each emitter has its own color which influences all particles surrounding it. The closer a particle gets to an emitter the more it will take its color. To keep the particles from being randomly scattered around the stage there is an invisible fourth emitter which acts as a counter-weight to all the other emitters. If the sum of all emitters’ repulsive forces is high, the fourth emitter will attract particles so that they aren’t just blown off the stage.

Click the image below to see the visualization:

If the fps seem low you can try to turn off the backfaces, go fullscreen or reduce the overall size with the size slider in the options panel.

The guys at Neue Digitale did a pretty sweet job with their Audi Quattro Urban Curving Online Special which offers a game that lets you steer your way down steep roads by tilting your head left and right with the help of my tracking code.

Mariusz Kreft and Matthias Gomille from argonautenG2 used my code for an awesome banner prototype as an entry for the Young Lions Award in Cannes. Let’s hope they rock the contest.

Here’s their Home Sweet Home Cinema website:

I’ve got a small update for my tracking code in the pipe which both of these projects are using. It’s basically a little cleaner than the current public version and I will probably release it in a few weeks. I’m also looking into Haar tracking algortihms which allow face recognition, but I couldn’t decide wether I want to implement a C++ Eninge (maybe OpenCV?) via alchemy or try it in AS3. I’ll look into that when I have some spare time after work at Big Spaceship, so stay tuned.

Lay back and watch the demo video or set up your webcam and play a session of Webcam-Pong yourself.

After over a year of development, a constantly changing team and uncountable concept and design phases, “Volkswagen 2028″ has finally launched today.

About 10 months ago I was given the task to develop the 360° showcase view of each car. Making the media-hotspots and comment-tag-clouds to synchronously float in space around the cars was one part of my contribution. The comment forms and lots of other gui elements (especially all the bouncy stuff) also have my signature written on them.

Just visit www.volkswagen2028.com to check it out yourself.

(for argonauten G2)

The final animation can be seen at www.fanta.de

(for argonauten G2)

Vector particles with rotation

Vector particles using Bitmap

Eased particles using Bitmap

Spring particles using Bitmap

download source as zip

The Zip does not contain the Pong implementation which only adds the game itself and an interface that passes on the y position of the tracker - quite unspectacular.

The de.bojko.tracking.ui package contains all elements of the test setup. The MeanshiftSetup class is where all the action takes place. Unfortunately this is also the untidiest part of the whole package. Nevertheless it features a sample implementation of the tracker.

The usage is pretty simple though:

1. Create a MeanshiftTracker instance with a BitmapData instance which will be used as referenced image
2. Define the color you want to have tracked
3. Call the update method in an interval and the tracker will find its way

All other settings are optional and mostly serve tweaking purposes. Remember to update your BitmapData too though. This can be done with the BmdProviders inside the de.bojko.tracking.data package by calling their update method for example.

This code can be used for any non commercial project with a little credit. Feel free to post any kind of comments or questions if anything is unclear. Have fun…

Just track an object with your custom settings and press any key to release the pong ball.

http://www.thismortalmagic.com

• custamizable tracker size, tolerance and minimum number of pixels found to recognize an object
• automatical adjustment of tolerance and min. px found relative to the brightness of the webcam image
• histogramm showing the actual brightness distribution
• panel showing the tracked object’s path

Here is the Meanshift version (click on your hand or face if neither is found at startup):

www.sony.de/hd-test

(for vektorfarm)

Click here to view the result.

• Tag cloud on start page
• Product selections
• Various scripted mask animations and other graphical elements
• Sound control

www.apollinaris.com

(for argonauten G2)

(for argonauten G2)

• Multiple XML Models
• Adjustable light position, contrast, focus, etc

I never really finished the GUI, so creating custom Models doesn’t fully work yet.

Hold the SPACE key to rotate the camera view, and hold down CTRL to change the lighting angle.
W,A,S,D can be used to move the camera around.

(for argonauten G2)

Tasks:

• Animation of all homepage moods, synchronised to background music
• Automated, hourly updated display of the current mood

(for argonauten G2)

• Gallery compilations via XML
• Toggling between 2D/3D display of Thumbnails
• Repositoining, Rotating and Seamless Resizing of each Image
• Descriptive text for each Image

(for argonauten G2)

Tasks:

• GUI for all form elements (textfields, buttons, drop-down menus, etc.)
• Metanavigation and Metapages
• Miscellaneous timeline animations

www.cokefridge.de

(for argonauten G2)

• Technical coordination
• Implementation of flash animations and HTML content.

http://www.kbb.de/

(for argonauten G2)