Category Archives: ITP – Tisch – NYU

Pong Flash Game

For “Inclusive Game Design” we had to improve on this Pong game in Flash… what I did was the following:

– score decreases instead of increasing
– added color to the ball so that it can be seen better
– added a pause between scoring points (click mouse to continue)
– added a game over state
– allow player to move stick around – actually makes game playing harder

Here it is: http://www.lucaslongo.com/itp/inclusive/pong1.swf

Computational Forms

This is the 4th class I am taking – “Computational Forms” taught by Jared Schiffman – a class that will look at building and creating 3D forms programmatically using C and openGL… yikes! Should be very interesting. One of my goals in this class is to create more efficient code for the eye tracking/photo rating tool that I have been working on for the past year (SPiRT)- Java was great for the first prototypes but to really create an efficient display application that tracks the eyes, rates the pictures and creates a database/web site with the findings I will have to do it in C since I intend to create a dynamic 3D world with inputs from a camera, a pointing device (VR glove or a Wiimote like device), photos and game play.
On another note, while going through Amit Pitaru’s site I was amazed by his Sonic Wire Sculptor… check out the movie! Basically he created a rotating 3D space that allows the user to draw on. The lines drawn generate sounds. These lines remain in the 3D space so that you can draw multiple lines and create a sound space with your drawing. The sounds are also placed in 3D so that if you have a surround sound setup, you will actually hear the sounds in the 3D space according to where the lines are within the virtual 3D space. Wow….

Machinimia Google Earth

For our first homework for “From Physical to Virtual Spaces and Back” taught by Jean-Marc Gauthier, we had to capture our first experience within a virtual world… I played around with Google Earth.
I went to São Paulo, NY, and Tokyo to compare the amount of information each city has within Google Earth.
I was actually surprised at the amount of information São Paulo has – I was expecting that of NY for obvious reasons – and then was surprised (ok – not so much) at how detailed the 3D buildings in Tokyo are.
At the end I played around with the flight simulator in Google Earth (ctrl+option+a) 🙂
Check it out:

Life Logging

For the class “Computers for the Rest of You” we have to come up with an idea and a device to log information of your day – could be something like looking at some kind of illusion you have about reality and try to break it or simply record it.
Looking through some examples from previous projects I found the following:

  • Conscioiuness Field Resonator – a device that monitors random numbers generators and lights up if they behave strangely or less randomly – watch the video.
  • WayMarkr – a camera phone you wear on your shirt continuously takes pictures and uploads them to a web page with location and time information – watch the video.
  • BrainBall – a game where the most relaxed person wins
  • Bio Mapping – measuring user’s Galvanic Skin Responses, the data is plotted on a map to attempt to correlate geographic location and emotional arousal.

Whenever I go out to photograph I always want to remember what music I was listening to at the moment of the click.
It would capture an additional element to that singular moment of the picture and provide an additional layer to the context of the picture when showing them.
I would additionally record the ambient sound and the location of the photo (GPS).
So, the product would be a picture slide show app that plays back the photos, the music the photographer was listening to at that moment, the sound of what was around him, and where exactly he was.
The Picture Echoes Viewer 🙂

One more class – 3D Virtual Reality

Today I went to “From physical to virtual spaces and back” with Jean-Marc Gauthier.
The class will explore how to create virtual worlds in 3D and affect them using controls/sensors from the physical world and vice versa.
Our first assignment is to create a machinima video capture (record on video what your 3D character does inside the 3D world) using Second Life, Google Earth or any other virtual space thinking about the spectator in an attempt to show something interesting/funny/instructional within the 3D world.
One idea I had was to join some people within Second Life and do a competition or race to see who builds the coolest object for example – or who can build something faster.. . 🙂

Back to School!

Yesterday was the first day of classes at NYU – the streets around Washington Square Park were bustling with students again – what a great (and often pretty) sight 🙂
It was great to see all the familiar faces – the now “old” and “respectable” second years! Even better was to see all the new faces of the first years – the fresh look of excitement, confusion and curiosity!
I went to three classes today – two of which I am already registered for and am going to take for sure – Computers for the Rest of You and Inclusive Game Design and one that will be hard to get into (too many people in the class already) – Sustainable Practices.
“What the hell!?? Are you guys on crack or something!?” – well – that’s the reaction I got yesterday when I went through the name of the classes I was going to take with a friend.
I love the names of these classes here… in any case, here’s the “translation” to the classes mentioned above:
Computers for the Rest of You – Dan O’Sulivan – we interact with computers with out hands nowadays – what happens and what can we use of our body to interact with them – heart rate, body language or movement, subconscious thoughts, and so on… this class is about doing that – tapping into other inputs and creating applications/data/art that reacts/displays/interprets them. Our first assignment is to read “Cognition, Brain, and Consciousness”, “Baars and Gage”, and “Power of Now” – well – at least take a look at the chapters that interest us – as well as looking at previous examples of works done in this class.
Inclusive Game Design – Amit Pitaru – in this class we will be working with people with disabilities and their occupational therapists to create games specially tailored for them. We will look at design techniques, game theory, usability, scoring methods and all other aspects of game design to be able to create effective and entertaining games and input devices catered for the disabled population. A very interesting first class – Amit, our professor is Israeli and a very interesting guy – one of those natural born speakers/teachers.
Sustainable Practices – Tom Igoe – a class that looks at the technical aspects of the “green” movement – environmentally friendly materials, enabling technologies, practices, and methods that can, will be and are being utilized to shift towards a sustainable ecosystem, project planning and execution. I am unfortunately wait-listed for this class and still have to sit into some other classes that I am deciding whether to take or not.
More class reviews coming soon 🙂

Idea for Google Maps Street View

Wouldn’t be too hard to do a Google Maps driving directions with Street View sequences for mobile.
Lower end cell phones would page through images of major landmarks or intersections.
Higher end phones (3G & GPS) would have an animated gif (sequence of images).
Google Maps on the iPhone does a step by step that looks very good and similar to what I am suggesting…