Well, it’s official. We just canceled Comcast ‘the commie’ Cable and purchased an Apple Tv. My plan is to install Boxee or XMBC as an alt media platform to the default Front Row. This will enable us to stream our cable favorites such as the Daily Show and Colbert free from Hulu rather than paying for it via iTunes. If anyone has information on their preference I’d love to hear some reviews. So far, and it’s only been one day, the choice has proven to be a good one. Streaming our entire music, movie and photo collection through our hdtv is shweet. Also integration with Flickr, youTube and iTunes is seamless.
The money savings should be fairly significant. The 160gb Apple Tv ran us $320. Our Comcast Cable bill is about $80/month. Ipso, it should pay for itself and then some.
So, I call on you all to do the same. À la carte media is what you want, so call Commie and tell them that’s what you’re going to do.
City of Portland Downtown Marketing Initiative in conjunction with North.
Project Goal
Create an outdoor reactive environment in which passersby could interact, based on their location and movements, with artists interpretations of snowfall in Portland.
Project Strategy and Equipment
Display - Custom made acrylic panels lined with photosensitive film built and erected to exact dimensions of installation window Projection - Rear projection with flipped signal using a 5200 lumen Sanyo PDG-DXT10L Projector Video Capture - Logitech QuickCam® Vision Pro CPU - Mac Pro Quad Application - Flash AS3 Industrial Design - Two large tarps sewn together to create light blocking canopy. Lining to seal off windows and acrylic. A shitload of Velcro.
Project Synopsis
As part of a larger campaign to brand Downtown Portland North was charged with creating an outdoor reactive environment in which passersby could interact, based on their location and movements, with artists interpretations of snowfall in Portland. Three traditional artists were commissioned by The Portland Institute for Contemporary Art to create their interpretation of snowfall in downtown Portland. These pieces were then transformed for use with my motion detection and tracking application built entirely in actionscript. The application was built to display 3 different scenes with randomly generated snowfall. The three scenes were set to rotate on a time interval. The application used motion detection to make the falling snowfall react and animate based on the location of an individuals movement. The application also incorporated and automated snapshot function that took a photo every 10 minutes and posted it to a private flickr account. This function was implemented solely for remote monitoring, ensuring the application was up and running. After going to the installation location and taking careful measurement of everything from window frame to projector distance, the installation was built and staged at North. We built a ‘to scale’ model of the window in the back of the office. This was necessary for accurate calibration of projector, and optimization of motion detection and tracking code. The staging was an extremely helpful and necessary step in eliminating early stage bugs such as projector calibration and camera positioning. We quickly learned the maximum distance for a USB signal, the proper use of DVI vs. DHMI to projector and the challenges of doing motion detection in every possible light range from complete darkness to bright sunshine. After testing stage was complete we moved the entire rig over to the installation spot located at 6th and Alder in Downtown Portland. We went about setting up a canopy to block out all extraneous light leak. The interior of the installation space was two stories of extremely large windows. The canopy we chose was a homemade compilation of two tarps strung up to the surrounding walls with rope. Since there was very expensive equipment residing under the canopy, the fear lingered of canopy failure collapsing down, resulting in devastating loss. We next set out to install the panels into the window frame. Since they were pre-cut to exact dimensions these flowed right in smoothly with only small light leaks needed to be sealed. We then hooked up the projector, cpu, camera, monitor, and application and set to testing. Testing in a staging environment is one thing. However, most tests are rendered moot when on-site. I quickly learned that reactive environments are just that, entirely dependent on their environment and all the challenges that come along with it. The motion detection is to run 24/7 for six weeks during all weather, lighting situations, and process location accurately with varying levels of distractions. Since the installation is located on an extremely busy downtown street corner, distractions ranged from traffic movement, pedestrians, bikers, storefront lights and weather. For testing purposes I built many functions that allows the system to be calibrated without actually going into the code, but rather using an external UI to update blurring, light detection levels, contrast, and other variables. After several days of calibration, code tweaks and testing the application has been running uninterrupted and has gained quality exposure for Downtown Portland. Many fine citizens of Portland have had a unique interactive experience, and have consequently spread kind words about the project. Furthermore, the project is a successful case study on the implementation of new technology and reactive medium into a larger branding campaign.
Project Challenges
Development - Create a motion detection application that worked in every possible light and weather condition. Design - Making traditional raster art work work in a complex location detection application and animation. Industrial Design - Create an environment that optimized presentation and functionality in varying environmental variables.
A year or two ago when I started experimenting with creating applications that provide interactivity outside of a browser, in the environment, I thought it would take years before environmental experiences went to market. I thought there would be no demand by agencies for several years, no clients forward thinking enough to request interactive installations and certainly no companies focusing in on delivering these experiences. I was mistaken.
I’ve been surprised by the amount of buzz generated around interactive installations in the advertising industry. I’ve had thousands of visits to my blog from agencies, developers and the like with keywords such as Flash and Installations, Flash and Motion Detection and Interactive Installation. I guess I shouldn’t be shocked that an industry that is always hot for the latest ‘thing’ would push the medium forward. I’ve been pleasantly surprised to see several companies honing in on the niche that has presented itself in Interactive Installation. The fact these companies are specializing in it is a testament to the rising demand. There have also been several agencies that are developing their own internal lab to function as R&D into these areas. I commend these agencies for their forward thinking. Unfortunately, most of these agencies still haven’t figured out how to do traditional interactive profitably and or properly. That’s right, I said it. “Traditional Interactive”. Perhaps in these agencies this new medium will be able to skip over the old agency model of traditional “creatives” holding on to the last bastion of control over an interactive project, but I doubt it. Just as in traditional interactive I see Barbarianesque shops excelling in the Installation arena. We all see clients sidestepping traditional agencies in favor of new media agencies in both project work and AOR. I see no reason that trend would not continue in Reactive Media. After all the best interactive work results when the people designing the piece are also building the piece, concepting the piece, doing analytics on the piece and owning the piece.
All that said, I’ve just finished and launched the Interactive Installation located at 6th and Alder in Portland, Or. This is the second public installation I’ve done. I was shocked to see the amount of attention it has received, and is again a testament to how powerful this medium can be. Yes it helped that the client was/is downtown Portland. It got me on the news several times. But still… the excitement is there over the technology and the potential uses of moving experiences into the environment we all live in. I look forward to doing more.
If you’ll notice I’ve called this ‘thing’ several ‘things’ already. I’ve heard many terms bandied about. Some of these terms include Interactive Installation, Environmental Interactive, Reactive Installation, Interactive Projection, Enviro Interactive and Experiential Installation. To me none of these fully encompass what the medium and industry will be creating in the coming years. While most of my experiments have involved motion detection, there are many other avenues in this ‘thing’ to pursue. Auditory data aggregation, touch screen, sensors, robotics, industrial design melding with technology and interactive design just to name a few. I like the term Enviro Interactive. I think it gets close to encompassing the vast array of potential applications without confusing people with the word spelled out in full, ‘environmental’. On more than one occasion I’ve explained what I’m doing as Environmental Interactive only to get some vague response how nice it is that I’m being green.
So, what would you call it? Are you currently working in the medium? If so, in what capacity?
ps. In the news clip above notice that they captioned me as the ‘cyber snow artist’. From this point forward please address me as such. Anything less would be an insult of epic proportions.
Chances are you publish content using multiple platforms dissipated across the interweb. For example, you may publish photo’s to Flickr, video’s to Vimeo and blogs to Wordpress. While each of these sites provide you with an RSS feed, a viewer would have to subscribe to each to be updated with all that you publish. Luckily Yahoo Pipes has provided an easy solution. Pipes is essentially a tool that enables non coders to visually architect an application. While it provides a toolset to perform many valuable and robust time saving application functions, for this example we’ll only concentrate on it’s XML and RSS data aggregation. The following screenshot demonstrates how easy it is to aggregate all of your separate RSS feeds into one feed that viewers can subscribe to.
The example above shows the aggregation of all my publishing points including Flickr, Vimeo, Wordpress, Google Reader and a custom feed I made that enables me to use Wordpress as a CMS. After creating the aggregated feed in Pipes I then use Feedburner to track usage stats. The result is http://feeds.feedburner.com/chrisTeso. Please update your feed and subscribe to http://feeds.feedburner.com/chrisTeso if you’re currently subscribed to an older one.
photo by .:9:.
With just a couple days until the launch of the interactive installation in Downtown Portland I’ve been going mad tweaking code and functionality to run motion detection in rain, darkness and direct sunlight, with multiple object motion distractions such as pedestrians, bikers, segways and automobile headlights stopped at the traffic light precariously located directly in front of the installation camera. Simultaneously we’ve been crazy busy setting up the environment. Designing and developing the application for motion detection has kept me busy enough and has been an awesome learning experience using Flash as an interactive installation platform.
What I’ve underestimated are the challenges and learning curve associated with the industrial design end of the project. The challenges the environment has placed on us have been many. I’ve mentioned the lighting situation and the application challenges of varying weather, lighting and motion objects. There have also been other challenges such as getting the lens and projector right to cover the entire store front window from an elevation, keystoning [ keystonery? keystoningness? ] focal and clarity perspective. Properly aligning the webcam for best motion detection and display results within the application. [ viewers will be video overlayed in the application ].
Sewing together multiple tarps and hanging them one story above the installation to block out extraneous light that would dull the projection. Major issues with using an AT&T 3G card for connectivity in the absence of any wifi. [ the application takes a snapshot and posts the image to a private flickr account every 10 minutes so I can ensure the app. is up and running ]. Dealing with not being able to use an internal monitor while running the app with the projector. Adhering the specialized light sensitive acrylic pieces properly into each of the six window frames. The list goes on and is still mounting.
All this said, testing is moving along nicely. As you can see from the images below there have been people using the app. in its beta stage already. The feedback has been amazing. Standing on the street corner and watching people interact with the snowflakes and move around the area waving their hands and legs has been great. It’s been especially cool pretending to be an innocent onlooker to overhear the conversations and guessing of how the entire thing may be working. I saw more than a few people physically touching the glass guessing that they could effect the display ala touch screen. Several people danced in front of it. A few people looked semi frightened by the whole scenario. The best quote of the night came from a man who was simply amazed by the display. After carrying on about how cool it was he wrapped up the rant by exclaiming “this is downright amazing… but pfft… they’ve probably had this in Tokyo for the last 10 years”.
