After some debating our group decided to go for the idea of creating a ‘glove’ that would let you interact with objects within a game. After some research  we managed to find the most complicated way to do it and after a little advice from Dan we found a really easy way which let us hi-jack a keyboard.

After I donated my old PC keyboard we headed off to Maplins to get some tilt senors, soldering iron and metres of copper wire - for free we also managed to get Maplins extra rude staff who were as much help as a chocolate tea pot.

We got straight to work only to find out that the cheap soldering iron was as much good as the staff at Maplins and would not stick anything together so being resouceful we ended up with selotape holding the title senors to the circuit board. Steve managed to map out the key presses, which is attached to this blog.

Now we have a working prototype we are getting ready to move onto the next stage of programming a small game to react to the tilt sensors. Also our website is now up at www.all-thumbs.co.uk - just need to get started on producing a design.

Attached is our proposal for the 4D module. I really wanted to experiment with the issue of identity on and offline after reading a book by Sherry Turkle called ‘Life on the Screen’. This book interviewed other people and looked at their identities but also the author actually spent time in the chatrooms experiment with different aspects of her own identity.

Proposal Document

For some reason my blog has decided against me being able to post my project proposal. So I have attached it as a word document to be downloaded.

Proposal: Project

Group Name: All Thumbs

Group Members: Michelle Silvestre (Project Manager), Steven Owen, Katy Lilley

Aims and Objectives

To produce an original interactive experience using a haptic control method, specifically a glove used in combination with a webcam.

The glove will measure the angle of tilt on the hand, while the webcam will monitor the location of the hand. There is also the possibility of gestures being recognised by a combination of the two.

Scenario and Overall Concept

The game will play as a linear story, perhaps with a mystery theme, with lateral thinking puzzles and pure challenge mini-games that need to be solved by using the glove in order to progress through the levels.

The user will need to work out how best to use the glove to solve each puzzle. Potential puzzles include moving objects, turning / tilting objects, balancing objects, and bouncing objects.

The evolution of media illusion has a long history. A medium like virtual art challenges traditional conventions not because the participant can wear a helmet or glove, but because it suggests a new form of relationship between the viewer and the viewed. Artists no longer sit on the sidelines of new technology eventually to become a grateful user of borrowed tools but have become active in its development, creating a disturbance in the field with new contingencies.

Inspired by Oliver Grau: Virtual Art: From illusion to immersion

Hypothesis

It is a common concept that virtual art was born after the invention of the computer, when in fact it is possible to argue that virtual art was born in the 15th century with a Renaissance artist Filippo Brunelleschi as he developed a mathematical theory of perspective through a series of optical experiments helping to create some of the first illusive and immersive pieces of art. Since then artists have been bound to these rules of perspective to create a truly immersive piece on canvas. Now with the merging of art and technology, artists are free to explore with a virtual canvas but are still bound by rules of not only perspective but the technological constraints set out within the software/hardware they are using.

Virtual art is unformed and its possibilities seem to be endless, but as artists and programmers roles merge together to create digital artists, will art ever be able to evolve past technology and take the lead?

Methodology

To address this I will look back to the Renaissance and the key artists that began the revolution of perspective and immersive art. I will then look into ways of tracing the history of art and technology. The simplest way to trace through the history of new media in art would be through the development of the technology itself (from Marey and Muybridge in photography, to Edison and the Lumiere brothers in film) but then also address key art movements and artists that were involved in the development between art and technology. Looking back through the history should give an insight into what the future of virtual art may hold regarding key art movements and artists of the present day

Today was my first seminar with Geoff C - This gave me the chance to pitch my idea to him (and 20 other people in my group). Geoff gave me some good points into looking into such as the Renaissance as this is where perspective began to take off and so virtual art was born with illusion and immersion bounded with rules of maths and now virtual art is still bound by technology and the rules of programming and hardware. Looking through the timeline of major break throughs in virtual art and how these could effect the future of this art form. I will answer the question: Will it ever be possible for virtual art to ever move on from the bounds of technological development?

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

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

Ok I have changed the idea again. Instead of play dough I am using parent blobs that will randomly float around the screen. These blobs will be made up of secondary colours. The user can then stand infront of a webcam and be able to pull each blob apart as they pull each blob apart they will be creating a new blob that will be a primary colour of the secondary colour. As the user pulls the parent blob apart it will get small. The user can the take the two different blobs and merge them together to create a new c olour/shade and keep on mixing - as more colours are added to one blob that blob will expand. The user can then hold a blob and with their other hand pull and stretch a blob - one the blob is manipulated it retains it’s shape and carrys on moving around the screen randomly.

I still am developing a proper theory side to this - looking into new forms of interaction, freedom from the restrictions of a mouse and keyboard, new forms of online gaming, hands become a tool within a virtual world. I like playing with the idea of being able to manipulate objects in a virtual world that is still bound by the physical rules.

Quite a few people in the digital world are now experimenting with the break through of flash 8 and it’s bitmapcache capabilities so I feel like I am perhaps jumping on the band wagon with it all but it’s such a break through within the multimedia world that it has opened up a black hole of possibilities and the project that I am developing has room for ‘add-ons’ with such things as heat effecting there movement.

This project is based on motion tracking and flash being able to react to the movement of a users hand. I will also begin to research into gesture recoginition - althrough it is very unlikely that I will be able to take my project this far it would be an advancement if it was possible to make the blobs react to hand reactions such as stop, thumbs up/down and waving. Thus starting to treat the blobs like organisms as they start reacting to different enviroments and gestures.

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