THANKS TO ALL FOR BRINGING THE 'CROWDSOURCED' PROJECT TOGETHER

...DONE GOOD. FOR THE 'FLOW' OF THINGS WE KEPT THE ACTING GOING BUT STOP BY FOR THE NYC VERSION WHERE WE WISH TO USE MORE OF THE PHYSICAL COMPUTING ELEMENTS SUCH AS THE EMOTIV BRAIN CAP AND THE KINECT....ONWARD!

PB

Kinect Calibration at the Tank

Preparation for American Decameron at the Tank.

American Decameron

Figured I'd post about our little gig considering I haven't done so.

I thought it all turned out rather nicely. The theater was more or less what I imagined and the performance went smoothly. However, it was a little disappointing when we sort of "gave up" on using the Kinects. Throughout the year we talked about how they'd be implemented in the performance, with how they would project spaces and film and such, and I was reasonably excited to see them in action. I suppose that wasn't so bad that they weren't working, I suppose, I don't know the calibrations and coding and complexity behind them.

The stories were interesting, although that was what solely remained of our performance. I kind of imagined the actors would have had to pass through some form of rigorous rehearsal (although I never seen it) but they seemed to hold their own on the dark stage. All in all, it was an interesting experience, and I hope future gigs would be accompanied by more and more of the tech we discussed.

The Tank

well it went better than i thought!! i honestly thought it was gonna be a complete bust but it went really well. the kinect thing failed but the stories and poems were very well presented. some things that could have been better were:

-Actors speaking louder and having their stories linked: I.e. the lady with the book with the name and the guy whose name was in the book. their stories should have been run back to back so the audience got the joke or the relevance of the name in the book. but they didn't run like that so the story was pointless to the unknowing audience.

-about the kinect and projectors

- the kinects and projectors could have been more in the middle of the stage. that would have made it easier for actors to walk out, calibrate dead center stage and have the visuals projected onto them. it seemed a bit foolish to have the projection stuff off to the side. ALSO though the kinect failed part way through the computer that was connected to it could have put on a slide show of photos or SOMETHING!! the visual of the dead program was not attractive.

-loud people should have been asked to leave...

-though it was not an upscale Broadway performance people should have still been respectful. for those who did not should have been booted (just my personal opinion)

-the mini rehearsal that took place b4 the show only benefited the actors

- being in the film group i submitted my and other people's media which never got prepped to be played even wayyyy b4 the actual performance took place. granted they were not that important i feel as if they would have added to the stories. the music got DJ'd from a laptop as the show was going on WHY WAS THERE NO LAPTOP LIKED TO PROJECTOR PLAYING FILM AS THE SHOW WAS GOIN ON? that whole department was poorly planned...

-WE NEEDED MORE TIME TO PREP!

- we only ran through the entire show once in the little black theater and it was the last day for us to work stuff out. we should ahev started getting stuff ready weeks B4 the show or the first run through. i know the kinect hacking was goin n but i fee as though we were not allowed to work with eachother enough during class.

Kinect

This class surprised me because we did so many new things. We used the Kinect, which is recent technology, and turned it into a motion sensor that changed settings like music and images without actually touching anything. It was pretty cool. In the image is Paul in the calibrating position, which is putting your arms up in 90 degree angles. We tried it out in class, and it was awesome the way the actors would put their arms up and the music would get louder, faster, etc.

Coolest Kinect Hack - DJ

Check this out: http://youtu.be/YSYrtmogIZA

Within the last month, we've been trying to see how we can use the Kinect to manipulate different objects and services. We've gone through a lot of them, trying everything from just moving a mouse around to using a brain cap in attempting to move space with brain waves. Personally, I think the above video is the coolest thing we can use the Kinect for. The video basically shows a hack that allows a person to "DJ" via 3D space. They can move their hands side to side, up and down, and back and fourth. All of these motions control something different so by moving around, he is able to change music. To the normal person, however, it simply looks as if he is waiving his hands around in the air.

The coolest part about all these experiments with the Kinect is that we're actually using them in a real-life gig in New York City. As you can see , many of these ideas have come about already and people started hacking up code in order to create procedures for them to work. What hasn't been done is exactly what were doing. Nobody has taken these hacks and performed with them in a public showing. This could be, and probably is, the most important part of the whole process because when developing a new idea, It is important to get your ideas out and show them around. You never know who you'll bump into and next thing you know, the hack can be used for something very important and could be worth millions. I'm very excited to see who shows up at our event.

Kinect as a Nintendo controller on the PC

It's a really good way to loose weight.. LOL

Kinect In The Gym

We seem to talk alot about the use of the kinect/moving to make the music change with DJ's in class. I was in my spin class early this morning and was thinking about how cool it would be to incorporate the same idea into a workout class. For instance, what if we could set up the spin bikes to the stereo and the faster you pedal, the faster the music gets?
Or how about using it in a dance class? You could have a completely pitch black room and have the movements reflect on the walls as glow in the dark neon colors and the sound get faster based on how much movement was reflecting on the wall.
Another idea would be setting up a group of tredmills to a large screen and each person on the tredmill is a character on the screen and they race.
I think that using the kinect has a lot of potential in gyms since there is an increasing demand for new technology and workouts. A lot of people are becoming more fit because people are getting smarter about taking care of their health. Bringing new ideas into workouts will keep it interesting.

Kinect Dance Idea

How can we use the kinect to make effects like in this video? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BilYgEVpYgY

Kinect Dancing Idea

How can we make effects using the kinect to do something like in this video?

Kinect + Garry's Mod = ...

Recently I've stumbled upon this video where someone had somehow rigged his Xbox Kinect with Garry's Mod.
Being familiar with "Gmod", I was in awe at such an idea and upon viewing the clip in its entirety I was rendered speechless.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBjOIjc5qn0


Interesting, no?

A New Look for the Future

What does the future hold for us? Are we going to have flying cars and human propelled around by rocket packs? Probably not, but it does hold many mysteries. One of the biggest unknowns that we come closer to every day is the progression of technology. With how far we have already come, how much farther can we continue to go? Just because a computer was able to beat a person in Jeperdary doesn’t mean that computers are smarter than us. It simply means that the people programing the computers are smarter than us.

One of the best examples of humans interacting with space and technology to create the future is the recent release of the Xbox kinect and the way people have been able to manipulate its functions. The best thing about the kinect is that it uses a current technology system. Many ideas for the future are based on an intangible object or idea that is impossible to know if it will be successful in the future. We don’t currently know to make people fly or even if it would be useful however we do know that we can use a camera to make another system or body perform a certain task.

Personally, I love this system but maybe that’s just because I’m a computer science major. Without the experience in programing, I would be scared to even open the program. Its complications show the unorganized yet progressive nature of the system. No one knows exactly how these “hacks” can be implemented into the real world yet they hold ideas into how we can progress into the future. My realization is that the future will be based on movement in time and space. No, we will not all be carrying kinect’s around our necks however I feel they will be used more for retail stores and advertisements of all kinds. As long as we live, we will be part of the future so it is important that we continue to innovate and use our minds to progress into the future.

Kinect hack with call of duty

This video is really cool. This guy managed to hack the kinect in combination with the wii remote to work for call of duty on xbox. When the guy jumps, the in game player will also jump and crouch etc. It's a amazing how he managed to combine technology from 2 different game systems and create something completely new. In the description the guy talks about the script and also has a link to the script and instructions if anyone wants to look into it. Hopefully we'll be able to do something similar in class soon. Here's the YouTube link:

http://m.youtube.com/index?desktop_uri=%2F&gl=US#/watch?xl=xl_blazer&v=bo7QUdrZAkA