Rescaler

So, a little background before I explain the Rescaler. The way our brains build the sensation of depth by comparing the differences between the left and right eye.  3d movies work by giving you different images for your right and left eye. So I've been thinking, what happens if you give someone really wide-set eyes?  What I mean to say is, what happens to the world when the visual information we get isn't separated by 2.75 inches (the average distance between our eyes), but instead is separated by say a foot apart.

So Dave Tennent and I got together and recorded a scene with two cameras, set 6 feet apart.  Get yerself some 3d glasses and check out these shots:

Although the first image looks like a crumpled tissue, it's actually a bed sheet I tossed into the air.  With your eyes set 6 feet apart, the full-sized sheet looks like it is only about 4" by 5".

The second image is me.  The size makes it seem like you'd be able to pick me up.  That's because, to scale, I should look like I'm about 3 inches tall.

Theoretically, you could rescale anything. If you and your friend live at the top of a hill but a mile a part, you could rescale your city to look like a scale model. You could team up with a friend who lives a mile away to rescale some clouds and make them pretty awesome 3d images.

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Well, a part of me wanted to achieve this rescaling without having to go way too digital, so I built a geeky-looking device with mirrors that rescales the space around me. Take a look:

This is a photo of me looking at the camera through the rescaling device. In the photo, you can see both of my eyes - set about an inch outside my face on either side. By using mirrors, I can virtually project my eyes, which sit about 2.75 inches apart, to an arrangement that is 6.5 inches apart, and two inches back.

Here's a close-up of one of the eyes:

This photo gives you a better sense of how I built the thing.  That's just foam core, hot glue, and a few mirrors.  Both mirrors are at precisely 45 degrees.

The effect is stunning.  Your depth perception gets a whole lot better, especially when looking at objects that are far away.  Because things are scaled down, my house sort of looks like a doll house.

Also, because this is so foreign to my brain, it all looks rather virtual.  The space I'm looking at is a virtual extension of a 3d universe that isn't biologically natural to me.  It feels like I'm playing a video game or interacting with a digital 3d environment.

And, to the same end, I get a little queazy looking through this thing.  : P

Canned Heat in my Heelys

Ever see those eight year old kids with wheels in their shoes?  Those shoes are called Heelys, and I've owned a pair for a couple years now. Sometime last week I saw a Jamiroquai music video where Jay Kay grabs onto the back of a moving car and grinds his feet into the ground, sending off sparks behind him.

I thought it'd be awesome to try this with my Heelys.  Here's what I came up with:

That's one of my Heelys with a customized lighter taped to the side of it.  I tampered with the flintlock to make the sparks shoot in the opposite direction (not hidden inside the metal guard), and I removed the butane lever.

Here's another photo from underneath:

There are two lighters taped to this shoe, one on the left side and one on the right.  Now, this is the left shoe, the one that I break with, so the idea is that when I ride everything is totally normal, but when I break, I spark up.

And this is the end result.  I've tried it in the street, and it totally works!  I was going to film it today, but it was raining really hard, so that video will have to come later.

After doing all this work, I discovered that some people have already done this, but with these things called Tail Devils, which are attachments designed for skateboards.  Pretty cool stuff, definitely more professional and sleeker than my homemade custom design.  Although, I have to say, I think I feel better custom-designing my geekdom than buying it.  Look for a video soon.

Wiremap program... from Spain

I've been doing some additional Wiremap programming.  Check it out: [youtube]-QnETZnLRJw[/youtube]

This video also features three programs from Joaquim Virgili from Spain.  He got in contact with me via YouTube after seeing a couple of my other YouTube videos.

Sharing the Wiremap with another coder was a very cool experience.  If anybody else is interested in playing with the code, I'll gladly render it in the Wiremap 256, record it and post a video.

Dorkbottiness

Yesterday I gave a talk at Dorkbot. I showed off the smaller Wiremap, answered a bunch of questions, and did a VJ set with a few new components I built for performance purporses. The program (including new components) and the source code can be seen here. There were a few questions about the Wiremap 256.  It's a lot bigger and it has a better resolution.  If you want to get a sense of it's size and resolution, take a gander at the video.

If anybody has any questions or wants to play around with the code, feel free.  If you want I'll be able to run it and post a video on youtube.

Dorkbot Talk

is a monthly event giving people the opportunity to share their latest project that involves doing something interesting with electricity. In New York, meetings happen on the first Wednesday of every month and are open to the general public. If you're interested in the Wiremap stuff, you should definitely go check it out. At this upcoming meeting, November 1st, I'll be giving a talk about the Wiremap as well as a demonstration of Wiremap 1.01. Meetings are at 7pm, usually in a space in Soho called Location1. Come check it out and say hi.

Mostly, I'll be rambling on about my experiences with the distinctions between digital 3d and analogue 3d, and where one ends and the next begins. Should be a good time.

Wiremap Music Visualizer

While getting myself uber-involved with the coding and configuration of the Wiremap, sometimes I forget to just relax and have a good time w/ it: [youtube]-T4wnHfHiqw[/youtube]

Although I've never played around with it, the wiremap visualizer reminds me of The Abstractor, by Ji Lee, the guy behind the Bubble Project. It takes 2d information and transforms it into 1d info, which is somehow visually more yummy. It's an abstraction of an easily recognizable 2d image. So, if you throw that abstraction, that 1 dimension, across a 2d array, just like the wiremap, you get a 3d abstraction of music.

Werd.

The really cool thing about all of this is that it's way easier to build than a 3d volumetric renderer. This concept doesn't need any accurate hole-drilling, straight edges, or calculators. All it needs is a projector and a bunch of white thread.