Ok - it’s all been changing again. I keep on reading articles and keep on getting more inspiration but this is the FINAL idea as I can’t afford to keep changing it about. So here it is:

First of all the webcam and blobs will still be used but instead of the blobs being to do with colour I have changed them to sound. So imagine it the user stands infront of the webcam - presented to them is a number of blobs. The user can activate them by selecting one and moving it - this will trigger a sound clip (i.e drums) the user can then start activating other blobs via moving them. Each blob will pulse to it’s rythme and the user will have no way of telling with blob produced what sound until they have tried them. To stop each blob playing the user will just hold out their hand over the blob. This is the basic level.

The more Advance stuff:

The blobs will use gesture recognition as a control mechinism. This project is a music application that is stripped of all normal interface mechinisms. Each blob can be copied from a parent blob to double the selected sound and the user can create different rythmes by combining blobs together. The hardest part is to come.. the user will be able to control the volume of the application by how far they are away from the webcam. The further away from the webcam the queiter the sound will be. The closer they move the louder the sounds will become.

The really hard stuff (Will only be done if it is possible and I have time)

It would be REALLY cool if the user was able to stretch out the blobs and as the blobs got pulled apart the music slows down and if the user pushes the blob back together it becomes faster. Also is the user twists their hands it could fast forward and rewind what ever beat the user it making with the blobs.

I know that the advance and really hard stuff will only be possible if I have the time as it will require a lot of programming with gesture recognition but also the flash application may get too large for the processor of my computer so some of these ideas may not even be possible. I will only know as I start to play with it all

Using Flash 8 (possibly 9 if it is released in time) I am going to create a interactive world with virtual playdough. Using motion and edge detection I will make it so a user will stand infront of a webcam and on a screen (which will be projected onto a wall) lumps of playdough which will be different colours. The user will be able to mould different shapes but also join different colours of playdough together to make a new colour (example mixing a red and yellow lump will make orange).

IF

I have time I will make it so the temperature can be raised and the playdough will melt and filter through the users hands. Then they can adjust the heat to cool it down and make it more solid.

THAT is the final idea

I have encountered the first problem with my grand idea for my final year project. Lots of people have already done either something close to my concept or one has done excatly the same. On the good side it means that there is already lots of code to reference but on the bad it means that my idea in not the most original idea and hardly breaking any boundaries.

A couple of new idea’s would to be to still keep to the theme but perhaps make the material to manipulate more complex. For example have ‘gunk’ that the user can pick up that will sift back through their fingers - simulating gravity and the user can lower the tempertaure to freeze the material and make it harder to manipulate or melt it to make it harder to hold without stiffing through their fingers. The user then has control over the virtual enviroment and the object. All interaction would be done through webcam so selecting buttons and etc the user would have to user their hands - similar to the minority report style board.

OR if the first idea proves too complicated:

An easier version would be the same as before but using sand. This means the user can hold it and let is sive through their hands whilst compacting it together - each partical of sand would have to be a pixel that would be created through flash (not drawing 1,0000 sand grains out) You then wouldn’t have to use edge detection but motion tracking with hands (would make things easier). BUT would also have to brush up on kinematics to join the sand together which is just as complicated.

All this idea’s need thinking out properly as it all depends on time. Initally being able to manipulate and provide different enviorments for a material would be more advance but it would take up a large amount of time and leave little room for errors or other projects all together. The sand idea is still complex but not AS complex and shouldn’t take up so much time and I know it would be possible. So do I take a chance on what maybe the impossible or stick to slightly safer ground?

Works that respond to the human body and body gestures allow participants to interact with a system in ways that seem natural, intuitive and much closer to how we interact with the world.

I have started to post up all my links to websites that will aid and influence my final year project. Mainly because they are all stored on my work computer right now and when I leave I will never remember to copy them all down. Have offically started researching all the aspects to this project (Hoping that it will be okayed by a lecturer sometime) Right now I am researching: edge, motion, colour and collision detection within a matrix. Have managed to get a couple of examples of code to work from and give me a starting point but have not ventured too deep into it as am having to teach myself about action sciptting and XML pretty quickly.

Am also starting to look into my dissertation title and about virtual reality and art as with new webcam technology and internet boardband speeds increasing us as society are experiencing new ways to interact and play games with each other and so would be a great subject to focus on and look back through time at arts developement within the virtual world.

Great I settled on a idea! Now I am having to actually plan it and just the research alone is already stressing me out. Have never been a great programmer and this project is all action scriptting and XML. I am on the search now to find someone who is technically minded and sit down and talk it out as right now I only know I have to research edge detection which I am not too worried about - the main thing is the clay manipulation and getting it to respond to the edge detection.

Then to make matters worse I stumble onto this article shown below and that say thats EASY!!!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edge_detection

Change of plan!

Using Macromedia flex or flash 9 (depending on Flash 9’s release date) I will be using it’s webcam capabilities by developing bubbles in a in a virtual world that will then be projected onto a white screen. The user will then stand infront of the webcam wearing red gloves which will trace and track their hand out lines and movement (motion). They will be able to catch the bubbles with their hands and move them around the screen whilst being able to join them together or pop them. Those bubbles which the user does not catch will just settle or pop on the persons body outline.
I wanted to create an engaging interactive and unique immersive experience that wis revealing the process of seeing and reacting to a virtual enviroment. To be able to manipulate and move objects around in a virtual world but still be bound to the rules of the phsyical world.

I intend to create a virtual enviroment that the user can navigate through using similar technology to a dance mat (pressure pads). The user will be able to step left, right forward and back through different rooms and react to different people and objects in the rooms through perhaps voice commands.This project intends to explore the immersion of virtual art and blur the boundaries between reality and fantasy. Looking at spatial narrative and spacial awareness with user interaction in the enviroment.