Interactive floor - Dev blog for group 9 / IDP

Interactive floor - Dev blog for group 9 / IDP http://idp.mexinetica.com/blog/ Interactive floor - Group 9 dev blog (c) 2009 Mr. Personality [group 9] Thu, 09 Apr 2009 08:46:54 -0700 http://www.textmotion.org Projectors and projected area http://idp.mexinetica.com/blog/blog/blog/view/57/projectors-and-projected-area http://idp.mexinetica.com/blog/blog/blog/view/57/projectors-and-projected-area We tried a new projector at the Science Park today, the <a href="http://www.planar.com/products/projectors/pr/pr5020/index.cfm">Planar PR5020</a>. <ul><li>The projected area is not bigger than the Sharp's</li><li>It is brighter: 3000 lumens compared to Sharp's 1700</li><li>It costs us money to hire from lob: 400 SEK a day</li></ul> Conclusion: We should stick with the Sharp if we can block out the natural light affecting the brightness of the projected display. If we can't, we will consider this projector again. We also discussed the small size of the projected area. This isn't a problem for some applications (for example it might be fine with the prisoner's dilemma) but for others (for example the monster chasing game) we will need a bigger area. I looked into wide-angle lenses but couldn't find any for the projectors we have access to. I did find some more information on related work. What's most interesting is the number of PCs and projectors that are used to accomplish what we're trying to do: <ul><li><a href="http://www.artcom.de/index.php?option=com_acprojects&page=6&id=7&Itemid=113&details=0&lang=en">The Famous Grouse Experiment (2002)</a> uses 6 PCs and 6 projectors, 6 infrared spotlights and 2 cameras for tracking, and 8 shock sensors for footfall recognition! (They use a separate PC to control everything.)</li><li><a href="http://www.artcom.de/index.php?option=com_acprojects&page=6&id=28&Itemid=113&details=0&lang=en">Bodymover (2000)</a> - no tech information on this one </li></ul> More information <ul><li><a href="http://www.aec.at/center_exhibitions_project_en.php?id=26">Sensitive Floors on Ars Electronica</a></li><li><a href="http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/7259747.html">US Patent</a> on these type of systems - interesting reading <a href="http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/7259747/claims.html">(claims page)</a> </li></ul></a></a></li></a></li></ul></a></li></a></li></ul></li></li></li></ul></a> keyvan@k1m.com (Keyvan Minoukadeh) Thu, 09 Apr 2009 08:46:54 -0700 Code now runs on OSX http://idp.mexinetica.com/blog/blog/blog/view/55/code-now-runs-on-osx http://idp.mexinetica.com/blog/blog/blog/view/55/code-now-runs-on-osx Two days ago I got the OpenFrameworks-based app running on OSX and keyvan was able to solve the mysterious “OF-based app does not report positions in processing” error. I spent a number of hours researching how to select a video device in order to be able to capture from an external webcam instead of the iSight, modifying the code and testing it. When it didn't work, I spent more time porting the OF blob tracking extension to OF.06, and it still didn't work. But today I found a rather silly workaround. 1. Connect the webcam you want to use 2. Open skype, go to preferences and turn on the video so it shows the iSight image. 3. Forget about the skype preferences window but don't close it. 4. Start the OF app, stand-alone or from the Processing app. 5. The OF app should get image feed from the external webcam. Ok, so now I'll be able to focus more on the interaction (“Playing with new mac”) rocaa@student.chalmers.se (unknown) Thu, 09 Apr 2009 00:45:00 -0700 Wide angle lens for projector? http://idp.mexinetica.com/blog/blog/blog/view/44/wide-angle-lens-for-projector http://idp.mexinetica.com/blog/blog/blog/view/44/wide-angle-lens-for-projector Found a reference to <a href="http://www.projectorcentral.com/Panasonic-PT-D5700E-projection-calculator-pro.htm">Panasonic PT-D5700E</a> on a Russian <a href="http://www.beyond-media.ru/ls.en.html">Interactive Projection (Living Surface)</a> page. They have some information on there about how the system works. Looking at the Projector Central page (link above) we found a feature allowing us to change lens. So it appears some of these projectors have wide angle lenses available. Maybe that's why the distance from projector to floor is so low for some of these setups. </a></a> keyvan@k1m.com (Keyvan Minoukadeh) Mon, 09 Mar 2009 09:02:31 -0700 Meeting with Olof summary http://idp.mexinetica.com/blog/blog/blog/view/41/meeting-with-olof-summary http://idp.mexinetica.com/blog/blog/blog/view/41/meeting-with-olof-summary <ul><li>The 2 beamer solution looks feasable from an economic point of view (buying the image splitter thing)</li><li>Find Ola and ask him about the beamer</li><li>Must develop further than the monster (of course)</li></ul> (to be continued) </li></li></li></ul> rocaa@student.chalmers.se (unknown) Thu, 05 Mar 2009 03:14:04 -0800 Meeting Markus http://idp.mexinetica.com/blog/blog/blog/view/40/meeting-markus http://idp.mexinetica.com/blog/blog/blog/view/40/meeting-markus Hardware: webcam (wide angle), beamer (wide angle or two). if two beamers, what is a good solution? - Markus suggested using the <a href="http://www.matrox.com/graphics/en/products/gxm/dh2go/">Matrox Graphics Extension DualHead2Go</a> - We should also talk to Ole for the wide angle beamer - and test how much more projection area you get with projection under an angle (and correcting with keystone). Software: pipeline thingie we're doing with two components - one for input/user tracking and one for output/interaction-scenario projection. We might have issues with calibration and other things that need to be communicated between both components. The up-side for us is that we can use C and Processing, which suits our needs and capabilities better. It also forces us to think out and extend the protocol which might actually benefit our design. But then again, it could also NOT benefit us, hehe <img src="http://idp.mexinetica.com/blog/media/emoticons/default/smile.png" width="16" height="16" /> Interaction / scenario: prisoner's dilemma, pong, ? Markus suggested that Pong is actually easier to make than the Prisoners Dilemma. I think he has a good point, because the PD involves a lot more game state and interaction handling. </a> askewdriver@gmail.com (Eelke Boezeman) Wed, 04 Mar 2009 00:49:00 -0800 beamer / webcam angle http://idp.mexinetica.com/blog/blog/blog/view/38/beamer-webcam-angle http://idp.mexinetica.com/blog/blog/blog/view/38/beamer-webcam-angle after doing some tangens calculations… ceiling 3m projection on floor: 3m x 4m necessary angle: 53,2 degrees x 67,4 degrees HP has a webcam that does that, or at least they in 2006: <a href="http://www.engadget.com/2006/10/03/hps-two-megapixel-wide-angle-webcam/">Engadget review of wide angle hp webcam</a> the big question is, what is the maximum projection angle of an average beamer? according to the <a href="http://www.theprojectorpros.com/learn-s-learn-p-theater_throw_ratios.htm">projection pros</a> there is such a thing as the throw ratio, which is defined as Distance to screen / width of projected image. distance to screen = ceiling to ground = 3m width of projected image = 4m wanted throw ratio = 3/4 but from a hardware site I found out that a normal throw ratio is somewhere around 2. </a></a> askewdriver@gmail.com (Eelke Boezeman) Mon, 02 Mar 2009 00:58:00 -0800