Experience Technology / Group 17 (Video)

The time is running out. I just got a few minutes to finish this post which will be the last to be taken into account for the assessment. Yesterday we got a brilliant idea about building a large cube for the installation. It would have been awesome, but the lack of both time and material made it unrealistic. Wish we had thought of it before.

Agnes and I got a more realistic idea today. We decided to cut the logo out of a foam board. It looked a whole lot nicer in my head, but it is definitely better than nothing. Feel like we could have done a whole lot more with our stand for the exhibition. I hate the feeling of imperfection. We could have spent our time a lot more wisely, but I guess we learn from our mistakes. 

Poor Johan had been up all night coding (which might explain the caps lock craziness). But the guy is a genius, it is all working great now! We all got really excited when we connected the computer with the amplifier. It is sounding crazy, and I’m sure people will find it amusing at the exhibtition on Friday. There seems to be no limits on how we could have developed this further. With more time we could have been the developers behind “Air Guitar Hero”!

/ina

TODAY WE ARE CELEBRATING CAPS LOCK DAY!!!!!!!

THAT FITS ALL TOO WELL, SINCE NOW I’VE MADE A BIG BREAKTHROUGH WITH THE SOUND CODE. FINALLY THE SOUND OBJECTS WORK LIKE I WANTED THEM TO DO ALREADY FROM THE BEGINNING! IT SEEMS LIKE I WILL NOT HAVE THE TIME TO GENERATE SOUNDS THROUGH PURE CODE FOR THIS PROJECT THROUGH THE AMAZING POPFORGE LIBRARY. HOWEVER, ADOBE CS4 IS OUT NOW, AND SO IS FLASH PLAYER 10.

FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO DO NOT KNOW: FLASH PLAYER 10 HAS SUPPORT FOR HARDWARE ACCELERATED GRAPHICS AND HARDWARE ACCELERATED 3D (IF YOU HAVE ONE OF THE SUPPORTED GRAPHICS PROCESSING UNITS).

I’M HAPPY NOW, SINCE IT SEEMS LIKE WE’LL BE READY JUST ON TIME FOR OUR FINAL DEADLINE. SOME MINOR CODE FOR THE COLOR DETECTION AND THRESHOLD BALANCING ALGORITHMS ARE WHAT REMAINS TO BE MADE RIGHT NOW. ALSO SOME BALANCING OF THE SOUND SAMPLES…. AFTER THAT, ALL SHOULD BE ROCK’N'ROLL.

PEACE & LOVE!

AND KIDS, DON’T YOU FORGET TO WRITE EVERYTHING IN CAPS LOCK TODAY!!!!111

/JOHAN

The exhibtion is coming closer and closer, but we don’t have all the details ready yet. Johan is coding like a machine. All I can do is provide what little help I can right now. I am really looking forward to the exhibition and to see everybody’s cool inventions!

puss Andreas Damberg

The website is up and running at http://sprawl.dahlfors.net/flashplayground/g17/Main.html ! It still doesn’t really play any sweet tunes, it mostley produces noise, which we unfortunately won’t be able to get rid of. Still, it looks as if the end result will be pretty darn good!  Johan wants to spend the remaining time of the project on investigating the possibility of making flash generate sounds (as opposed to just playing short pre-recorded mp3’s) while the rest of us prepare the exhibition. The Karlskrona students are arriving tomorrow and the coming days will probably be very intense, so we are enjoying our last peaceful afternoon.

Our work is progressing nicely. Today we have recorded the sounds we need on a keyboard, started making the “Sounds of the See”-web page and worked on a flash-based sound visualization.

So far so good, but the exhibition is drawing nearer and we haven’t thought a lot about how we want to present our product. We need a projector, but so do a lot of other groups, so we’ve been talking about using a TV instead. However, no-one has a nice TV either… The exhibition group is working hard on finding sponsors (I find their lack of shyness very impressive and admirable) but it seems unlikely that they would come up with enough money to rent fifteen projectors. Fortunately, our website doesn’t absolutely need a projector to function, but our booth at the exhibition will be sort of dull unless we spice it up somehow.

/Agnes

We haven’t had a major break through today but we have finally decided on which route to go for the design of logo and web. It actually turned out to be a mix of all our ideas, which feels great.  Johan is still researching and trying to figure out how to make sound with code. Sound programming seems to be quite advanced, but he is doing a great job and nothing seems to stop him. Let’s just keep our fingers crossed! We’ve also started looking into the visualization of sound in flash. 

/Ina

I think everybody in the group are satisfied and excited about our concept. There is a lot of focus on our tech guy, Johan, right now. We are all waiting for that little breakthrough where we all can feel that the concept will be possible to accomplish within the time limit. Today we peer edited group 20’s project plan and realized that they almost have the same idea as us. A bit disappointing, but even cool to see how 2 similar ideas can develop. It even motivates us to do an even better job!

At this point, we are looking at the future with great optimism

/andreas

Our concept (should I reveal it so soon, for everyone to read?) is an interactive sound installation, where you – the user – will be the instrument. The webcam will take your picture, and – depending on the colour of your clothes, hair and skin – different notes or chords will be played. Moving in front of the camera will alter the sound somewhat. We are all pretty excited about the idea, but a little unsure about our abilities. Johan (who originally came up with the idea) is quite the coder, so we put our faith in him (and hope that we will learn a lot along the way).

Today we worked on the project description, did research and I (Agnes) attended the meeting concerning the exhibition. The exhibition group divided itself into different areas of responsebility; on-spot, sponsorship, design and press. We will work closely withthe students of Karlskrona to make the exhibition spectacular!

/Agnes