Computational Forms – Final Project

Written in C/C++ with openGL.
Click HERE for the Xcode project file.

The final presentation for Daniel Shiffman‘s Big Screens class was held yesterday at the Frank Gehry designed IAC building on 18th St. and the West Side Drive.
Amazing work. Here are some pictures taken with my iPhone so not the best quality… many pictures to come for sure – MANY cameras there last night.

I went to Seton today and tested the Identify version of Togi.
The kids seemed to react even better to this version which explicitly tells them what to do (TOUCH the pizza).
One great idea that came from this session was to look at evaluation tests/mechanisms that the occupational therapists use with the kids.
With these different levels, Togi could be used to evaluate the cognitive level of kids by changing the question you ask the kid – very similar to what I was intuitively doing when creating the different levels for Togi:
1. Identify – can the child identify objects on the screen
2. Decide – can the child decide if the object on the screen is the same as the word being spoken
3. Associate – can the child associate adjectives with actions (hungry->eat – tired->sleep)
From the evaluation methods and procedures I will sure be able to come up with several new levels that could aid in the process, or at least make it a little more fun.

Togi now has 3 levels:

1. Identify – Togi encourages kids to identify objects by pointing/touching them – PLAY
2. Decide – Togi asks kids if object show is what he is saying “Is this a pizza? Yes or No” – in development
3. Associate – Togi is tired therefore needs to sleep… hungry therefore eat. – PLAY

The idea is to add levels adding and subtracting complexity to the game.

This month, MobileFest is happening in Sao Paulo.
There is a great article in Estadao about one of the artists that are going to participate in the show. Click HERE for the news article.
This Friday we will hold a Video Conference between MobileFest in Brazil and ITP here in NY. I am going to be hosting this event which will count on the participation of artists/professors/researches in the art and technology field. Click HERE for the list of participants and their bios – scroll down to December 7th…

For our final project in Computers for the Rest of You – BUSTED – we worked more on the
casing and software of the project since the last post about it.
On the box we modified the camera placement from looking directly into the user’s eyes to an angled solution – the camera is perpendicular to the user’s eye, getting the image of the eye via the reflection of a carefully positioned mirror. This way the user has nothing obstructing his vision of the movie clip being presented.
On the software side we switched back to my own eye tracking software (as opposed to Dan O’s code) since it required less processing power and less calibration but is definitely less accurate. We still have some major problems with the new version of Processing and Quicktime for Java seems to be flaky – Processing is “seeing” 5 different cameras when only 2 are connected to the computer – because of this, the loading of the application is extremely slow (takes about 1 minute to load) but then seems to work properly.
Here is the CODE using Processing (Java)
Here is more DOCUMENTATION Caleb prepared.

Here’s the homework for week 10 – 3D Lighting 🙂

Today I presented the new version of Togi to the kids at Seton with great success!

We got definite reactions from the kids and we all felt that if we let them get used to Togi a little more they will actively engage in the game.

I am going to add levels to Togi so that it can be played by a wider range of kids:

Level 1
Identification.
– Point at the apple on the screen.

Level 2
Decision
– Yes or No. Is this an apple?

Level 3
Desire
– Togi wants to Eat or Sleep. (current game)

Level 4
Cause and Effect
– Togi tired, therefore needs sleep

And eventually add more complex scenarios as I test with older kids.

For the final for From Physical to Virtual and Back we are creating TogiLand! A simple game where Togi has to wake his brothers… the islands magically rise and create a slide down to Togi’s play pool…

TogiLand

Busted, our final project for Computers for the Rest of You has its first version of code and the box.
First I created a hot spot recorder – you play any movie and with your mouse you keep the hot spot box on top of the areas the game player should not look into.
I save the location of the box at each point in time of the movie to a file.
Click HERE for the code (Processing).
Then I created another application, the actual game.
The game tracks where the user is looking at. If they look at the hot spot regions, the get Busted!
At the end of the game you get your “Busted Index”.
Click HERE for the code (Processing). And here is the video – we used a scene from James Bond for the initial version.

On the hardware side of it, Caleb put together the “observation” box. You peer into the box where you will see the movie. A camera inside is fixed looking at the user’s eye to track where he’s looking at.