Role: Designer, Developer
Client: Self, Parsons MFA Design and Technology Thesis
Team: Nick Hardeman, Bruce Drummond
Technology: C++, openFrameworks, OpenGL, OpenCV, SuperCollider, OSC, Photoshop, Maya

social sqncr is an interactive audio-visual installation that aims to make people more aware of the act of creating their public identity.

To create their ‘identity’, participants use their bodies to physically interact with a pseudo-musical instrument projected in a physical space to create virtual musical creatures based on their movements. The instrument consists of eight zones that participants interact with which influence the shape, movement, and aural properties of the resulting entity.

Once complete, the system captures an image of the participant to attach to the creature which is then set free into an eco-system inhabited by similar entities. The entities react to one another, much like human beings in a social network. Participants can cause environmental disturbances by physically interacting with the projection.

The physical movements required of participants ensures a high level of investment in the process, causing a heightened awareness of their creation, and thus themselves. Watching their entity interact with other entities is a reflection of their own interaction in their social networks.

Final Thesis Paper

Beautiful People is a poster generated by analyzing and processing pixel data from Marilyn Manson’s “Beautiful People” music video. The software was written in C++/OpenFrameworks. The software analyzes histogram values for each frame in the video and generates organic elements based on these values. The size and position of each element is dictated by the average brightness of darkness of that frame in the video.

The column in the middle is the image with gaussian blur and the right column is the image with median filter – top amount = 2 and bottom amount = 4. The gaussian blur seems to be better at removing points of noise although I like the effect the median filter creates.

Source

for (int i = 0; i < width; i++){
		for (int j = 0; j < height; j++){

			int pixIndex = j * width + i;

			int i_m_1 = MAX(0, i-1);
			int i_p_1 = MIN(width-1, i+1);
			int j_m_1 = MAX(0, j-1);
			int j_p_1 = MIN(height-1, j+1);

			int ne = (j_m_1 * width + i_m_1);
			int n_ = (j_m_1 * width + i    );
			int nw = (j_m_1 * width + i_p_1);
			int _e = (j     * width + i_m_1);
			int me = (j     * width + i    );
			int _w = (j     * width + i_p_1);
			int se = (j_p_1 * width + i_m_1);
			int s_ = (j_p_1 * width + i    );
			int sw = (j_p_1 * width + i_p_1);

			//place the values in the array
			sortArray[0] = pixelsMedian1[ne];
			sortArray[1] = pixelsMedian1[n_];
			sortArray[2] = pixelsMedian1[nw];
			sortArray[3] = pixelsMedian1[_e];
			sortArray[4] = pixelsMedian1[me];
			sortArray[5] = pixelsMedian1[_w];
			sortArray[6] = pixelsMedian1[se];
			sortArray[7] = pixelsMedian1[s_];
			sortArray[8] = pixelsMedian1[sw];

			qsort(sortArray, 9, sizeof(int), compare);

			int newValue = sortArray[4];

			if (newValue < 0) newValue = 0;
			if (newValue > 255) newValue = 255;

			pixelsMedian1[pixIndex]  = newValue;
		}
	}

	texture3.loadData(pixelsMedian1, width, height, GL_LUMINANCE);

Uses frontal face tracking, the cats eyes follow the face detected. Made with OpenFrameworks.

A simple color tracking app that tracks 2 colors. Made with OpenFrameworks.

Contrast stretching: do min max contrast stretching of the image. Find the minimum and maximum values of the pixels in an image, and then convert pixels from the source to destination like ((pixel – min) / (max – min))*255.

Contrast stretching source

Histogram equalization, as described here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Histogram_equalization

Histrogram equalization source

Another prototype for thesis – a refined squid and a new tick creature created in oF. Both are hooked up to Reaktor via OSC. The squid produces the screechy sounds and the tick produces the beats.

[vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/6676645]

Here the speed at which the tick kicks it’s legs is controlled via a slider. The tempo of the beats produced by the tick are also manipulated at the same time. Created with oF, Reaktor and OSC.

The first prototype for thesis – hooked up Nick’s squid to Reaktor. The squid breathes and moves towards the mouse. OpenFrameworks sends OSC messages based on the squids properties to control 3 parameters in Skrewell within Reaktor – breath controls flow, x position controls filter and y position controls delay.