FaceTracker: Amazing Face Tracking Library with OpenFrameworks

http://www.creativeapplications.net/openframeworks/scramble-suit-face-tracking-openframeworks/

This is a Face Tracking Library that has been lent to some of the guys from Openframeworks to play around with
and possibly develop some projects.

 

 

 

 

 

Maker Faire NYC Sept 17th

http://makerfaire.com/

Maker Faire is listed as being the World’s Largest DIY Festival – a two-day, family-friendly event to MAKE, create, learn, invent, CRAFT, recycle, think, play and be inspired by celebrating arts, crafts, engineering, food, music, science and technology.

It was a great time. I was able to see old friends Jonah Brucker-Cohen, Zach Lieberman and more, and make new ones like Tom Igoe and Carrie Mae Rose. Zach’s talk was great about kinect hacking, openFrameworks and the open source community, and there were tons of great hardware systems. One in particular was a mini breadboard with a multicolored led that randomly changed color when a miniature spring mounted one millimeter away from a surface contact was inserted into dice, and when you rolled the dice, the spring would bounce off of the contact surface and change the color of the light. Also, due to very little space, the light from led was amplified by being reflected off of the back of the battery. Great design. (They were trying to release it as a product so no photos of it) There are photos of the faire though, below.

Created an Arduino/Processing Computer Vision Installation for Tarragona Bus Station

After the Conboi a la Fresca, I returned to Tarragona and invited by Unai to design and code an Arduino/Processing computer vision installation the Tarragona Bus Station. The project is a white jail cell with a white living room that has a television, computer, camera, and interactive couch that invites commuters to enter, sit, and activate a screen based computer vision response system. The seated commuters appear on the television screen when seated in the jail cell living room. After a few seconds of live video, the commuters image is captured and processed with my code. Processing code is complete and uses Arduino as an activator for the on screen effects. Installation is still in process. Below is a screen shot of the on screen effect, as well as the diagram of the Arduino interactive couch install.
 

Went to Valencia, Spain to participate in the Conboi a la Fresca Farm/Intervention

 

Conboi a la Fresca is a collaboration of a number of architecture collectives around Spain and Valencia to establish a collection of oases from abandoned spaces in the center of old town Valencia. The first space shown in the photo is on a foundation of Roman ruins, which has been excavated. Over the course of the week, a number of plants were planted into the crevaces of the stones of the ruin. Artists, farmers, and cooks from around Spain also participated in the preparing and planting of the farm. There were also “tankers” or large trash cans that were converted into large pots for growing vegetables….others that were converted into mobile cooking platforms, and others that were turned into music DJ booths. There was a dome constructed where a street circus inhabited and performed everyday. Toward the end of the week some of the vegetables from the farm were prepared into food and sold here. The first space, the one in the photo, is the first space to be developed and will be maintained by the architecture collective in Valencia. Others still need approval.
 

Cambrils Spelunking then Tarragona to Work on Re:Farm Urban Farm with Hernani & Unai

After Barcelona I went to Cambrils to go Spelunking and beach with Hernani Dias & family, and some other friends…then headed to Tarragona, nearby city to work on the urban farm with Hernani and Unai. Urban farm is something organized with the city of Tarragona in a location right next to the ancient Roman Circus Amphitheater ruins. Beautiful place. We worked one solid day preparing an area for a raised garden using wooden palettes.

 

Went to Barcelona to Skate and Swim for a few days.

MACBA The Museum of Contemporary Art Barcelona in Spain is one of the most famous European skate spots. I’ve skated there before but it is always a good time. Day time you can find the place packed with skaters, the majority of which are trying turn flip ledge tricks on the low side, or ledge big-drop tricks on the high side of the MACBA ledge. Others are skating the flat ground or drops off the down ramp. Either way, its a good group of quality skaters that are innovating all day and into the night. One night I witnessed a solid session at 3AM.

Served as a Collaborator at Medialab Prado’s Visualizar ’11

I’ve been participating in Medialab Prado’s Workshops and events from Interactivos to AV Lab for a few years now. This was my first experience with the Visualizar event. It was great experience. The projects had much to do with what many know as visual information systems, scraping data from a source and finding creative ways to visualize that data. The environment is very organic, where people in the beginning jump from project to project, and then again at the end when trouble shooting and cleaning code. The project I worked most on was a project by Tian Li from Beijing, which was an extension of the RE:FARM project of Hernani Dias. The project was an Android phone app that connected people who were hungry with eachother and with urban farmers in an urban environment through their cell phones. The project started as “I am hungry, what do I do next” and ended as “RE:FARM-OSE:Open Source Eating.” There were quite a few people in the group, but I did most of the technical implementation of the app using PhoneGap, Eclipse, the Android SDK, and the ADT plugin thanks to the advice of Massimo (Max in Italiano). After someone who, let’s say, had tomatoes and wanted lettuce, does a search for people who have lettuce in the close proximity in the city, they would get a map with points representing people and urban farms with a lettuce surplus in Open Street Maps. They would then touch screen one point get the phone number for that person, call them and organize a place to meet to exchange or share for lunch.

 

Taught a “Computer Vision and Intelligent Space Workshop with Processing/Arduino” at CAFA Beijing

After the MARK Skateboards Party in Austin, Texas I drove to Dallas where I flew to Beijing, China where I taught an “Computer Vision & Intelligent Space” Workshop with Processing and Arduino at the Central Academy of Fine Art to a group of 16+ Digital Media Art MFA students. I say 16+ because the number fluctuated due to the students many other courses and responsibilities. I taught coding in Processing over 3 weeks, giving tutorials everyday, assigning homework, and showing examples from artists using a particular coding technique, focused on preparing the students to develop computer vision installations that also had Arduino extensions. Towards the end of the second week students were more of less able to independently customize computer vision experiences using Processing. The last week I taught Firmata to extend the Processing project to physical input and output with the Arduino (using the collection of Arduino’s that the department had). The final day all students did custom spatial interactive installations that filled the Digital Media Art Department. The Digital Media Department Director, Professor Ma Gang, and artist Feng Mengbo, came through to witness all of the installations.

Mark Skateboards Launch Party in Austin, Texas Fri, May 20 7:30-11p

Come to the Launch Party for a cool time before it gets tooo hot this summer…
There will be skateboards, music, hangin out, swag, drinks, american sign language and good times May 20th 7:30p-11p.
Will be fun times so come to Industry Screenprint Studio in Austin, Texas at 618 C Tillery Street, Austin, TX 78702.
http://www.industryprintshop.com/ is the site if you get lost, you might be able to call them… 512.963.4161

Art and Science Meet by Webcam

http://larc.unt.edu/artalliance/gallaudet.html

Students in Ian Parberry‘s Spring 2011 section of Game Programming 2 and 3D Game Programming at the Department of Computer Science and Engineering,University of North Texas are going to work with art students enrolled in one of Max Kazemzadeh’s art classes at Gallaudet University in the nation’s capital. Gallaudet University describes itself as the world leader in liberal education and career development for deaf and hard of hearing students.

The students plan to communicate inside and outside of class using technologies such as Skype, text messaging, email, and a Subversion version control system running on a server in UNT’s Laboratory for Recreational Computing.