School

This category contains 44 posts

ITP is going Pass/Fail

Starting in the upcoming Fall ‘09 semester, ITP is going to be graded on a Pass/Fail system. As you can probably guess, this has caused quite a stir in the community,

Wired visits ITP

Even though it’s summer break and most of the projects are taken down; Wired magazine made a visit to ITP this week: DIY Inspiration Abounds at a Tech/Arts School in New York
Visiting ITP was, in a word, awesome.

ITP Spring Show 2008 pictures

Project pictures, people pictures, and other zanity.

Show time

Currently showing Bitchy Bags at the ITP Spring Show 2008.
More to come…

Reason #43

How you know it’s the weekend before the Spring Show at ITP:
You wake up in the morning and find you’ve been sleeping on a handful of wires and LEDs all night from working on micro-controllers in bed.
I just hope I found them all. :-/

Department website facelift

ITP’s website got a facelift. From a site that used to be entirely Flash (not searchable) with awkward navigation to a text and image only site (should be searchable…) with more up-front news and a clearer set of our areas of focus, it is a much needed overhaul. Everyone has their own opinions on [...]

Tape in Space

Final video for my Tape in Space project in Urban Computing

More ITP randomness

Living Art final by Andy and Alberto
I wish I could have seen all of the final presentations for Todd’s Living Art class, looks like a fun time.

How I know it’s finals time at ITP

Apparently when my alarm went off this morning at 8:15AM; I woke up, turned off my alarm, and fell back asleep.
I woke up again at 8:45AM with just enough time to get ready and catch the train for my 9:30AM class. I wasn’t exactly sure why I felt happy when this happened, but after [...]

Just another evening “working” on the floor

Why do I love ITP? Oh yeah, I remember now.

ITP Spring Show 2008


Networked Objects Final Project

After coming up with dozens of ideas, many hours of mind-numbing consideration, and creator’s block; I’ve come up with my Networked Objects final project. Titled Bitchy Bags, I’m creating a small collection (not exactly sure how many but anywhere between 3 and 8 most likely) of bags (backpacks, purses, handbags, etc) that have individual [...]

Clay’s intention; despite Colbert’s efforts

While meeting with Tom about my final project for Networked Objects, Clay (they share an office on the floor) was heading out for his interview on The Colbert Report to discuss his new book. Agreeing not to use words like “truthiness” or attempting to be funnier than Stephen Colbert; during the show Clay instead [...]

Milestone 1 Complete

The Reference Guide over at mock-up.org is now in working order. I’m still deciding on including or excluding a few of the entries, but currently there are nearly 100 dictionary references and 40 common terms available. This completes my first milestone; from here I’m starting to work on tutorial screencasts together for learning the [...]

Visual-free media architecture

In-class list of options other than projectors, screens, and monitors for installation environments:
air - wind, pressure as way finding
sound - volume, pitch, timbre, memory key, echo
touch - wet/dry, hot/cold, hard/soft, rough/smooth, people’s intuition: up = good, down = bad
motion - defining space
psyche - fear, comfort
smell - evoke memory for response, area mimicking
balance
moisture
taste - printed sushi, [...]

Crossroads Notes

systems of flow: not objects
two or more flows intersect that leads to thickening
- as instinct: crowds attract crowds
- generator of novelty: coming from separate contexts bring newness to others
- node of a network, network of travel, network of transport
- becomes a place in itself, for events, as a destination: shelling point (where others would assume [...]

Interaction design and behavior modification

Write a short blog entry about how the interaction design of an everyday device/system affects the behaviour and social patterns of its users. Do you approve of the behavioral patterns that the device imposes? If not, how would you redesign the device towards a healthier user behavior and habit?
Decision making within and for designed systems, [...]

Reason #4,897 why I love ITP

Tom Gerhardt just walked behind me while talking on his cell phone:
“Yeah, hi, I was wondering if you sell Muriatic or Hydrochloric acid… you do? And you’re on 1st Street?… great, thanks!”
I have no idea what he’s working on.

A simple way to operate

This assignment is based around the premise of one button interaction. In class we’ve discussed one button games and their seemingly infinite possibilities (see Gamasutra’s article) and our experimentation in this. For my own project I decided to work on a navigation system to act a a framework for ease-of-use applications. I’m calling [...]

Wireless: Radio basics and Bluetooth Part 1

Physical layer:

radio: electromagnetic wave sent over air
putting electro-induction in one wire and listening on the other
frequency dependent
convert the changes into something meaningful (i.e. serial data)
FM:
frequency modulation
shifting (analog) wavelengths (if tuning into 88mhz - will shift between 87-89…)
changing timing
clearer signal
signal strength stays same
takes up more bandwidth
AM:
amplitude modulation
further distance
signal strength changes (especially at the distance - [...]

Media Architecture in Times Square

Last Tuesday our Media Architecture class went to the Clear Channel Spectacolor HQ in Times Square and heard from one of the lead art directors about Clear Channel and Spectacolor’s role in Times Square.

Here are some pictures from the trip/meeting.

The Abandoned Wallet

During the critique for my Crime Scene: Wall and Window project, someone mentioned a project by illusionist Derren Brown with The Abandoned Wallet. It’s a perfect example of human perception and conditioning.

Urban Computing Midterm Project

Today I presented my response piece (an installation) for our group discussions on wall, window, and door in our Urban Computing class.
The concept behind the piece is based on the devolution and reconstruction of our definition of these primary forms in urban settings (wall, windows, and doors).
Take a look at: Crime Scene: Wall [...]

Helping you mock

While sifting through the Internets to find information regarding prototyping, UI design, etc. (see here) I realized there are a lot of people, and companies, that comment on their ability to do Flash prototyping or skills to do mock-up designs that can be used for usability testing, but after a long search I couldn’t find [...]

Mouses and Keyboards in Flash

Going over Flash_101_mouse and then Flash_101_Template_example_timer
Create links to force, tensions, and familiarities with the real world: switches, dragging, growing, shrinking: not just one click commands
the designer that remembers to take these connections will always make more engaging
always have on-screen confirmation of click/activity from user (the red box blinks while the circles are growing - [...]

Quick wireframe mock-up

A quick wire frame with a little usability for a monitor idea I had:

Swinxs

I’m not (or at least, I haven’t been) into creating games or toy production here at ITP, but this looks like a pretty slick little game station:
Swinxs lures your children outside,
tricks them into “moving around”

Networked Objects: Pong

Pong Controller:
As my serial Pong controller for our Networked Objects project I re-utilized/hacked apart a broken iron I found on the parts shelf with my own switches, lights, and potentiometers and then placed an FSR on the board to detect the weight of the iron to know when to move the paddle. Our projects were [...]

Part 2 on Windows

A little more on windows:
Matta-Clark
cuttings: buildings as medium
similar to graffiti in it’s response to building, means of response
powerful
inside/outside
San Emilion Cathedral
3 specific parts of how the church was created:
first when cut into raw earth and rock
second the mining of same to build upper layer
third to create the most refined tower
Refinement literally seen over time
England Window tax [...]

Random Luft Balloons

More to come, but here’s a little preview of preparing for Alberto and Andy’s “random project” for Living Art.

…Pong

As a follow up to Ping…
In class today we had our serial XPort Pong tournament. The general premise was to make a controller of some sort that is able to connect with the computer running a game of Pong that TIgoe made and have fun playing with others in the classroom. As you [...]

PHP and web scraping

use language that makes sense to “outsiders”
- what the hell is an Arduino, Xbee, XPort, even potentiometer
what’d we learn? all we’re doing is sending serial data.
HTTP Requests and web scrape…
PHP
let’s do some PHP:
http://www.php.net
see a function, try it out, save it
lots of browse and borrow
good amount of
files on server, when you [...]

Programming for prototype testing

internal vs. external constraints
which is/are more restrictive/harder
is it worse not to go somewhere because you can’t program or to only go through specific projects because it’s programming (and you feel like you should learn it)
realize there’s a learning curve with any project (of course especially if you’re adding a new tool, like programming)
programming is contained [...]

M-Audio Flash Usability Prototype

Flash version of my M-Audio usability testing.

Prototyping & Usability Testing in Flash

Tutorial:
Flash prototyping: http://www.johnniemanzari.com/flashlabs/
–> be sure to check out Lab 8: logging variables using PHP to TXT file
Book:
Flash MX for Interactive Simulation: http://www.amazon.com/Flash-MX-Interactive-Simulation-Macromedia/dp/1401812910
PDF Documents:
Building a Usability Prototype in Visual Basic, Flash, and Dreamweaver: http://www.dgp.toronto.edu/~dwigdor/teaching/318/prototypes/document.pdf
Information Ergonomics Lectures for Creative Prototyping: http://www.idc.ul.ie/hcieducators06/Procs/woolley.pdf
High-Fidelity Prototyping and Flash Overview Prototyping Revisited: http://www.sm.luth.se/csee/courses/smd/157/slides/HighFidelity.pdf
Examples:
http://nigelwhitbread.blogspot.com/2006/11/user-centre-design-notes2.html
http://karenau.net/portfolio.html
http://www.productinterfaces.com/projects.html
http://myurc.org/tools/FlashUrc.php
http://webzone.k3.mah.se/projects/Flash_Prototypin/Folder/index.aspx?page=3&tab=9&id=1
UI Components:
FlashComponents.net: http://www.flashcomponents.net/components/user_interface_flash_components.html
FlashStore: http://www.flashstore.com/Flash-Components/User-Interface/
FlashLoaded Bit Component [...]

Windows

kurt vonnegat: knows that he’s a writer by watching broken machines (people) and noticing differences from functional machines (people)
http://www.haque.co.uk/wificamera.php
things that were visible becoming invisible and vice versa
de-materialization of architecture [buildings]
masonry to curtain-wall masonry to glass curtain-ry
- masonry: cement piled on top
- curtain masonry: steel with masonry/cement hung on steel
- glass curtain: ability to hang [...]

Ping…

After class I took off straight for the junk shelf and came up with my controller for our Pong assignment due next week (definitely noticed my re-utilization tendencies for projects…). I came up with a household iron that I took apart and am putting different buttons and LEDs in. My first idea is [...]

Pong it.

use arduino for usb-serial connector if has empty file loaded to Arduino and switch RX/TX
can connect laptop directly to XPort and crossover is automatically detected (set up local network) - see Corey if probs
Use Tom’s Processing udp device query for finding devices on net: Xport listens on Port 30718 for UDP and sends back [...]

Week 3 Assignment

Finding the best prototyping system for ourselves:
start with:
software? hardware? paper?
what makes my life easier…? the solution can always emerge from the software or the hardware side.
rapid prototyping:
simulate sound, software, lights blinking, connecting to a hardware interface
Project:
use your skills (software) to have it simulate as much as possible
Make clock work
or
Make paper prototype in software (Flash, Processing, [...]

Art and Rapid Prototyping

http://www.lilreminder.com
there’s a wealth of knowledge in the small crappy things that people spend years of their lives on. why years?
want to understand the basics (lil reminder) and where selling consumerism and selling comes from
“holy moly this is soooo crappy… I’ll probably get lead poisoning from it as well” - Amit
http://www.jitterbug.com
just a phone, [...]

Usability testing: M-Audio

M-Audio
MicroTrack 24/96 Recorder
The M-Audio is a sound recorder available for students at ITP in the Equipment Room. Many students use it for recording throughout their time in the department.
Task List:
Power on product
Turn the backlight on
Change right level to lowest setting
Change left level to highest setting
Record an MP3 format file for 10 seconds
Format the disk
Power [...]

Wall

Making space
Poldering system: reclaim space from sea/water
Romans used walls to make very definitive
- x, y access
- cardo: main street: market/commercial
- decumanus (residence)
- forum: main area at 0,0
military and policing of space:
interlocking field of fire: artillery placement for multiple lines of fire
jittery is better for surveillance
thickening of walls: kowloon walled city (demolished in ‘96 [...]

Lentils + Amelie final project

Finished piece uses Quicktime Pro (full screen) with Processing Java applet running in background using Ess sound library to fade music’s volume up/down depending on user’s pressure in the bag of lentils. The bag is sitting on a patch of grass that is on top of a piece of wood that presses on [...]

Lantronix XPort

Using XPort now - http://www.lantronix.com/device-networking/embedded-device-servers/xport.html
(WiPort works wirelessly, but there are other ways of doing it as well with XPort such as XBee)
solder header pins to board and board to xport
some hot glue to keep unit from touching board itself
Get IP address of XPort (registered through Marlan):
Terminal:
list all serial ports:
ls /dev/tty.*
screen /dev/tty.[seria port name] (tab [...]

Tom’s Serial Graphing Code

http://www.tigoe.net/pcomp/code/category/code/processing/122
Data graphing program that saves to a file
This Processing sketch takes data from the serial port, graphs it, and writes it to a text file with a time stamp if there’s a significant change in any of the incoming values. It expects five values between 0-255 in ASCII, separated by tabs, and ended by a [...]

usability testing and rapid prototyping

target audience decisions
create for 80% of your audience (for commercial work)
know your audience.
low-fi as possible, but need to prototype all aspects (motion, sound)
constant usability testing: the sooner you let someone test the better off you are
importance of a manual and if someone will ever read them
what does it resemble in the first place? [...]

2 Mode Clock

A switch on the bottom of the clock switches between two modes:
Base 10 Mode (n00b) and Binary Mode (l337 geek).
Base 10 Mode (n00b):

With 12 buttons available, use a 12 hour time cycle. The button on top changes the buttons to rise or lower depending on hours or minutes. When feeling buttons for hour, the [...]

Panel discussion

Josh Weisberg from Scharff Weisberg:
Q&A
opportunities that new [interactive] technologies have to offer: everything from cell phones at a concert to proximity sensors in a lobby
- it’s a great opportunity, hard time for people to get assets that with ubi com aren’t needed
- clients and audience don’t understand connection possible
- it’s what’s up and coming, [...]

Clock for the blind

This clock was originally made to release the inner geek of the blind, but during some usability testing I found most people don’t exactly remember binary… so in theory this clock now has two “modes” - l337 geek and n00b.
l337 m0d3:
Top level demonstrates the binary equivalent of the military time.
Bottom row does the [...]

Lentils bag video 1

Using Minim Library for MP3 playback
Processing:
import processing.serial.*;
import ddf.minim.*;
AudioPlayer groove;
Serial port; // Create object from Serial class
int val; // Data received from the serial port
void setup()
{
//println(Serial.list());
size(200, 200);
frameRate(10);
// Open the port that the board is connected to and use the same speed [...]

blind clock brainstorm 2

single button in center of speaker - speaker then clicks twice (hour then minute)
- this fixes the “where is the center” problem
- there’s still no reason for a clock to be in a circle: visually impaired people don’t have the need to recognize image-based order
2 rows with nubs?
use binary:
32 16 8 4 2 1

would be [...]

Media Architecture Examples

During introduction time Eli gave us a rundown of a bunch of sites and projects from popular media architecture fame to help familiarize ourselves with the industry. Here’s what I could find (he was talking a bit fast):
Chanel Building
Jason Bruges Studio
Media Architecture Group
MediaArchitecture.com
Media Facade
art+com
Casson Mann
Visual Complexity
Cyber Geography
Crown Fountain at Chicago’s Millennium Park
Jewish Museum Berlin
3D [...]

Cut 1

Cut 1 of Amelie’s “Things people like”

Les Lentilles d’Amélie Poulain

For the first week we’ve been given the task of combining actions, objects, and reactions for a project that integrates serially to a computer. From Tom’s list including outrageous items like tapping, monkey, feathers, color, pushing, etc. I’ve chosen caressing/lentils/animation for my own project. My plan is to place a force sensor at [...]

blind clock brainstorm

effort:
no effort to use
little effort to use
effort but requires learning curve
lots of effort but no learning curve (is this possible? i think not)
lots of effort and lots of learning curve (lots of options here for commentary on “disabled“)
is there an option available so that only blind people could use “it“?
- very little touch
- very little [...]

Class 1

Reading/genesis of Adam Greenfield (http://www.speedbird.com):
Jane Jacobs - The Life and Death of Great American Cities
Christopher Alexander - A Pattern Language
Bernard Rudofsky - Streets for People
Life of the street.
City life and functionality.
Exchange, community, inspiration, vigor, energy, diversity
What is a city?
How does it work? Psychological, emotional, physical levels
And for whom?
Read cities for yourself. No credentials needed.
“Ballet of [...]

Semi Pro

Adam’s first class presentation today when talking about power plays that can be very easily be enforced by technology that creates social class divisions came to mind when I saw this just now.
The website for the new Will Ferrell movie, Semi Pro, has an age check (as many other sites have) to view the [...]

January 23, 2008

NETWORKED OBJECTS
Teacher: Tom Igoe
Wednesday 9:30am
http://itp.nyu.edu/netobjects/Syllabus/Schedule
Reading:
Everyware - Adam Greenfield
Sketching Interactive something something
Making Things Talk - tom Igoe
Shaping Things - Bruce Sterling
Other readings:
The Equator Project
Using Digital but Physical Surrogates to Mediate Awareness, Communication and Privacy in Media Spaces
Virtually Living Together
Tangible Bits
Blinkenlights
Alzado.net
Ambient Devices
Smarthome
Home Heartbeat
TMIO
Salton Beyondhome
Schedule
* Home Page
* Schedule
[...]

Spring Semester 2008

First week of classes has begun. I think I’ll end up with a really production heavy and demanding semester by the sounds of it (no seminar classes). Once more into the fray!
Networked Objects: Tom Igoe
Designing for Constraints: Amit Pitaru
Media Architecture: Eli Kuslansky
Urban Computing: Adam Greenfield and Kevin Slavin

Robby in action

Robby the Racist Robot

My pictures from ITP Winter Show 2007

Winter Show 2007
Pinformation
Robby the Racist Robot
Digital Photogravaure Triptych

A few mentions

A couple online articles have come out in the last 48 hours with nods to my Robby the Racist Robot project. NYmag’s Daily Intelligencer has this post about MoMo and Core77 has this post that includes a couple pictures.

Pictures: ITP Show Winter 2007

Winter Show:
Tom Igoe
Tim Stutts
Corey Menscher
Vikram Tank
Michael Dory - Preshow
NIME + Alorithmic Composition:
Klara Palotai
Michael Dory
Gian Pablo Villamil
Michael Chladil
Corey Menscher - Videos
A-bog - Videos
Big Screens:
Thomas C
Neilson Abeel Jr
Heather Rasley

Another selfless promotion

This morning I presented another 3 of my other projects for consideration in the Winter Show (foundation classes must apply separately) and found out that 2 of them were approved for the show this weekend as well as the first that was done for Media Change. Pinformation (the lo-fi interactive board that Anaid and [...]

Madagascar!

I’ve spent the last few days taking the bits and pieces of code I’ve made over the last 2 months and pushing them all together to create Robby (the Racist Robot). Dot matrix code to work with my Mac, Monte Carlo randomization algorithms, Excel database parsing in Processing by Java command, etc. I [...]

Spring schedule: karma 0

After receiving my MMR shot today and being cleared for registration, I found out the classes I’m enrolled in for the Spring ‘08 semester. It’s a process that leaves some with smiles and some in tears because of the random assignments that have to occur due to the size of classes vs. class desire, [...]

Baud rates are for losers

Once again I was an idiot. After hours (yes, literally) of searching through code and trying different approaches, I realized the Serial port I was opening in Arduino and the proxy I was making in TinkerProxy were using two completely different baud rates, and therefore weren’t even speaking the same language. After this [...]

ITP Winter Show 2007

Yesterday we found which projects will be in the ITP Winter Show 2007 later this month. I have a project or two in and can’t wait to see the madness that occurs. If you’re in town in a couple weeks come by and check out the blinking and blipping!

Dual Arduinos into Flash with TinkerProxy

I was just able to connect two Arduinos (via USB) through two separate instances of TinkerProxy (ports 5333 and 5334) and have the serial output from each read simultaneously by Flash. Whoo-hoo! I’m not exactly sure how I will parse the information, but it’s a big step. All the information for the [...]

Applications M5 bus ride paper

During the summer before beginning ITP I was privileged to work as the GHA in the Off Campus Housing Department at NYU. Having never lived in the city before, and only having visited once before, this proved to be the perfect segway into living and working here for the next 2 years (at least). [...]

Hipsters Inc.

Libraries. P5Sunflow: Easy Ray Tracing from Processing.org

Drawings by JaeYoon

Thanks Jaeyoon! Sketches

Maps… how about butterflies instead?

Our project has taken a small turn - when we realized resolution and organization in a grid structure was going to be far too limiting for the hardware we’re using now (although talks are going on to use smaller antenna RFiD layering) we decided a straight-forward approach was needed to get our point across. [...]

Hello World, from the 80’s

Hello World!
I finally was able to get the 24 pin Okidata dot matrix printer to work with my Macbook Pro (running Leopard). After attempting to create my own 25pin to 9 pin to USB serial connector and running ASCII through Processing, I ended up tracking down a parallel to USB cable (at Best Buy [...]

Changing Media Change

I thought this was a great happening yesterday. During Media Change (my seminar/theory class on how media, art and society changes due to technology) we were discussing different key points we wanted to touch on during the last part of the semester. We realized having a very tangible example, or case studies, for [...]

week9 notes

each pixel has 6 attributes: x,y,R,G,B, A
ourPImage.pixels[ ];
pixels[ ]; = pixels on screen
red();
green();
blue();
brightness();
red(ourpixel); — returns the red color of that pixel
Array of pixels in PImage:
1D array (even though placed on a 2D grid)
x first, then y (800×600)
block of 4×4 would be:
0,0,0,1,0,2,0,3,0,4,1,0,1,1,1,2,1,3,1,4,2,0,2,1,2,2,2,3,2,4,3,0,3,1,3,2,3,3,3,4,4,0,4,1,4,2,4,3,4,4
x + y * 5 (width of array) = place
x [...]

week9 notes - XBee

XBee
code available on class page
based on zigbee - like midi - based on 802.15.4 based on 802.3 (ethernet) by IEEE
series one don’t use all of zigbee
series 2 use all zigbee and use mesh networking better
pro = longer range.
http://www.maxstream.net
check sparkfun.com for droids.it and all kinds of other components for connecting
different from bluetooth.
xbee: more promiscuous, since its [...]

Midterm project video

Here’s a quick example video of the application I made for my midterm ICM. The “ghetto record” is the live recording and then the black and white is playback with music.

Reuters Labs

Yesterday’s social hour was lead by the chief scientist of Reuter’s Labs here in NYC. He talked about the Labs projects and the new Reuters Spotlight that’s about to be launched.
The face recognition script, news maps, and Spotlight were the most interesting and perhaps I’m coming up with some ideas… hmm…

Peer work

I thought I would post pictures I have of some of the projects that have been in my classes for midterms. So… here.
Also, I think the projects that were shown today in Media Change represent some of the creativity at ITP pretty well: a sci-fi short story, a hacked board game (the game of [...]

ICM midterm project

I presented my ICM Midterm Project yesterday and it was really well received.
I had some problems with the video at first and I wasn’t able to incorporate some of the features I was hoping to get to (streaming video, multiple cameras), but everyone really liked it and had a lot of fun playing [...]

Media Change the second half keywords

Media Change midterm project wrap up/agenda for the 2nd half:

mine:
the use of mediums that are not necessarily considered “technology“ and have the opportunity to be changed and reconsidered holds a lot of potential and are usually not explored
listing of publicly accepted forms of “mediums“ and other lesser known, but useful medium possibilities
opportunity to discuss impact [...]

week7 notes

Induction
alternating current in wire, also creates magnetic field
so
wire in alternating field, also creates current
motors and generators pretty much same thing - run wire with electricity through magnets and it turns, causing more current
nuclear reaction:
heat from uranium heats water which makes steak which turns a fan blade which turns magnets that makes current
DC motors
http://itp.nyu.edu/physcomp/Labs/DCMotorControl
DC motor: 200 [...]

FullScreen API for Processing

A great script for going fullscreen in Processing

1 down

Woo-hoo, my mid-term project for Media Change was finished and presented yesterday.
Check out the final project page –>Homosapien Unification Grasps (hugs)

Video tutorial

After completing the device tonight I made a tutorial video on how to hug. thanks goes to Rob C Moon, and Kim for hitting record.

libraries: serial and video

Libraries
important: Serial and Video
Video: great source of information, but also tracking: bright lights, objects, forms, faces
- non contact
-
keyboard: 101 boolean switches
mouse: 120 fps for input
video: hundreds of thousdands for 640×480 each with RGB, etc.
sound: L*R
Libraries: helper files that add to the functionality
- they are objects (classes)
- bulit in libraries
- [...]

shiffman video notes

only able to go to the first 30 min, but here are my notes from that part:
Video
capturing, analyzing, and holding information from the video
PImage
- Display
- Reading image
video is the same as a PImage, only dynamic
prototype with static images until putting in video
PImage img;
void setup() {
img = loadImage(”file.jpg”); //forming same function as OOP constructor function of [...]

digital archiving and preservation notes

digital archiving and preservation
Mona somebody from NYU
Moving Image Archiving and Preservation
in Cinema Studies
archiving - long-term storage and organization of information
preservation - maintaining the essence of items
information archiving
art object vs. public domain
environment, context, etc. vs. content and documentation
what is the purpose, audience
different for every institution and every artist
document, document, document
what is the work? who’s [...]

week6 notes

ibm 360 - “congrats, you’ve made it 30 years into the past” t igoe
detection: photo diode + laser
QProx - proximity sensor with about 2 inches range
use metal under piece, some are analog, some are digital
SERIAL: http://itp.nyu.edu/physcomp/Labs/Serial
http://itp.nyu.edu/physcomp/Fall07/IgoeClass
for debugging: create an action/event (physical) that happens only once in setup so you know it’s reset and [...]

Sometimes I’m observant

I had a particularly observant (observational?) past few days and here’s a few of the best from what I noticed:
“To make life, like, better… you should have… like…. ice cream cones”
- bored ice cream parlor employee’s endorsement towards me
“Driving in New York sucks. You get all mad and flip people off. Just like [...]

Keep it comin’ ITP

BusinessWeek: Best Design Programs in the World

Servo

I got the servo to work with an analog force sensor. Here’s the code and proof.
mov06207.MPG

/*
Servo control from an analog input
The minimum (minPulse) and maxiumum (maxPuluse) values
will be different depending on your specific servo motor.
Ideally, it should be between 1 and 2 milliseconds, but in practice,
0.5 - 2.5 [...]

Here’s some pictures for ‘ya

I wanted to post some pictures for all y’all at home (be that San Diego, Oklahoma City, or ???). Sadly, because of my current situation I didn’t edit them - so the colors are very off and some of them probably shouldn’t be online in the first place, but here you go.
ITP floor
Random NYC
More [...]

Help from big Mike D

After meeting with Mike Dory who’s doing a similar project dealing with cicadas/crickets and proximity sensing, I’ve got some good ideas for how to work with some of the sensing problems we were having.
Firstly, he suggested using cameras instead of IR or ultrasonic sensors with blob detection (scripts available on Tom or Dan [...]

5th Floor Cafeteria

I don’t remember who it was… perhaps it was Rob? Tom Jenkins? I’m not sure who you were… but whoever you are - you got me good. I honestly believed there was a cafeteria on the floor above us with free coffee. And I went, and I checked, and I asked, [...]

Books alive

PhysComp Mid-Term Group Project:
Our first step was to get a single unit working, from which we would be able to create an interaction that could be built off of for the rest of the project. We chose a fake book that Chris had and went to work. We got an Arduino, breadboard, servo [...]

eMBRACE

This is my proposal for our first Media Change project.
eMBRACE
(terrible prototype project name)
As an approach to question the relationship between technology and its user(s), I plan to make a piece which involves a wearable item that has the ability to show the relationship of people to one another. Going off of the quotation “We [...]

Making Things Talk

Via Boing Boing I found this link to a CNN article discussing a new book by Tom called Making Things Talk.
Igoe, meanwhile, is a teacher at New York University’s terrific Interactive Telecommunications Program, and that in and of itself is reason enough to buy the book.
I’ve yet to talk to him about it, [...]

Radical Ballz


week5 - the day we all got confused

“You should never code and talk at the same time.” - T Igoe
Tom’s follow up page
Todd’s code on the same stuff
Serial communication
sending info over time - change (add or sub) in voltage over time
asynchronous - two devices having independent clocks - may start or stop listening/writing before the other
Max232 - serial chip
RS-232 - serial protocol
NRZ [...]

Physical Computing Midterm Assignment - Observation Meeting

Introduction to Physical Computing: Midterm Project
assignment link
Group: Chris, David, and EJ
After-thoughts on meeting Friday afternoon:
Although we have some good ideas that would easily fulfill the requirements of the mid-term project assignment (Chris’ box idea, jug orchestra, etc) we decided it was of greatest value for ourselves and the project to take a more ground-up approach [...]

PreNO and TNO

TNO = Thursday Night Out
PreNO = ….before Night Out
To fet get an idea of how an average Thursday night goes at ITP, check out Mike Dory’s PreNO and TNO photo sets on Flickr.
This time we started off at Tom’s roof top in the East Village and ended up about a block away at [...]

Some brief McLuhan definitions

Marisa’s Media Ecology definition: how different medias “sit with each other” in the world
Media Tetrad from Laws of Media

figure is on the right half (enhances, retrieves), ground on the right side (reverses, obsolesces)
figure - medium speaks through, form, channel, structure
ground - context of medium, popularity
enhancing = amplifying
overheating, burning out = a medium that [...]

week4

objects (again)
EXAMPLE:
brush ourBrush; //variable to hold the object — datatype object_name; (same as
void setup() {
size (500,500);
strokeWeight(5);
background(0);
ourBrush = new brush(100,100); //initialize the object with “new”
}
void mousePressed() {
ourBrush.changeColor(random(255)); //use a function inside of the class (assign random gray color every time mouse pressed)
}
void draw() {
fill(0,1);
rect (0,0,width,height);
ourBrush.move(mouseX, mouseY); //when the mouse is dragged, move the brush — send the [...]

one tired eye

function, class, and object assignment

Red, Mentor

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