As you might know by now the Nintendo Wii is now able to run Flash 7 files. Unfortunately the Flash player that comes with the current beta is a somewhat stripped down version - and especially one very important feature is missing from the native functions: the ability to use the keys of the Wiimote controller. But as it turns out the controller keys are made available to Javascript. So Aral Balkan has already tried a lot of methods in order to pass the key information from Javascript into Flash - but it looks like that all the classic approaches either do not work at all or they come with too much delay in order to be usable in games.

Well - I think that I have found yet another a method that works pretty okay. Especially the reaction time feels good to me - the only downside is an optical glitch which I still hope to get rid of. Check the demo here - ideally on a Wii: http://www.quasimondo.com/flashhwiimote.php
BTW - you will not see anything on Firefox since I just use the OBJECT tag to embed the swf - I also tried to use SWFObject first for embedding, but somehow when using it the Wii scroll arrow started appearing above the Flash file - so it looks like the layer got a bit higher than the desired 500 pixels.

Now how does this work? Since all direct Javascript to Flash communication is either impossible or too slow I’m using an indirect method: I use the Stage.onResize event of one Flash file as a trigger and communication device. When a keypress is received by the Opera browser I scale the layer which contains a sender swf to a width that is equal to the detected key code. This triggers a resize event inside the sender swf which reads out its new width and sends that number via LocalConnection to the main swf. There it is processed by a Wiimote class which can then be similary used like a Key object.

Some things to be noted:
- in order to get the full 800 x 500 size for the main Flash file I put the sender swf and the receiver swf into two absolute positioned layers. Unfortunately the Opera browser uses the Wiimote’s navigation keys also for navigating inside the html page and thus interferes with the flash file by highlighting the object with the keyboard focus with a black outline. And it looks like the browser does not respect the z-index of the layers here so the outline of the supposedly hidden sender swf gets visible. I have not yet found a way how to at least tint the outline in a less visible color or hide it completely via CSS - maybe someone else finds a solution for that.

- The Wii browser includes a very nasty feature: Flash files that are not inside the visible screen area or are on a hidden layer do not work at all - they get deactivated. Which means it’s not possible to simply put the sender swf on an invisible layer.

- When you point the Wiimote to the screen and the mouse pointer gets visible the behaviour of the page changes: keypresses are not registered anymore and only the “A” button gets directed to the flash file, but in a very slow and unpredictable way. So if you want reliable control do not point the mouse to the screen. In games it would probably be a good idea to trigger a pause when the mouse appears.

- I don’t know if that is a problem with the LocalConnection or with the browser’s internal key detection, but it looks like sometimes some key events get lost which means that a keyDown event is detected, but the keyUp for the same key doesn’t fire. Of course that’s not ideal.

You can download the example files and the Wiimote class here: FlashWiiMote_v10.zip

• Software: abstractmachine:crypt
• Concept: Douglas Edric Stanley & Ragnar Helgi Olafsson
• Development: Douglas Edric Stanley

What better way to defer the New Year than to send a message using the abstractmachine:crypt?

To use the service, simply enter the target email and your message. The abstractmachine server will encrypt your message for some random period between 1 and 365 days, after which it will decrypt the message and send it to the email address you indicated.

This encryption device can also be considered a temporally deferred postal delivery device. It can be used for new year’s resolutions, unreliable loved ones, or perhaps some horribly bad news that you just cannot bring upon yourself to deliver. Deferral can offer the necessary distance to make all of the above easier to manage.

The idea came from some far more elegant ideas Ragnar had, but lacking budget and time, we are currently in a little temporal deferral of our own. It can also be considered a response to Fabrice Gallis’ concept of the crypt as time-generating machine, i.e. another plot for slow real-time systems.

So, people have been friendly and sociable with the wrapping paper software. Lots of email, some links, a few pictures, and even a present! Here are a few of the public displays of friendliness :

I am always excited to find out about artists using technology effectively. That is somewhat of an understatement for Chicago artist Sabrina Raaf. From her artist's statement:

 I am interested in making creative machines - machines that independently make art when cross-pollinated with human interaction.

One such creative machine is grower - a small robot that travels the borders of a room, rendering CO2 levels as green lines on the bottom of the wall. The result is a generated 'lawn', a graph of traffic flow through the space over time.

Another project that I found fascinating was searchstoretrash, which makes use of remote controlled vehicles and tiny cameras. The vehicles are user-controlled, and travel along a track installed in the gallery. Users can choose to either view the vehicles directly on the track, or experience their movement on a television via the on-board cameras. Raaf writes:

While sitting in an office chair, the web navigator's body remains static. Yet, there is the impression of mobility - even travel - while the solo navigator explores the organic architecture of the web.

Raaf's portfolio of work is impressive. In addition to her mechanical installations, she has also worked with other media, including photography and with bacterial cultures. Visit her website for a more complete picture of her work.

What is Smoove?
Smoove is a pixel, tile and sprite-editor for the Sony PSP equipped with Lua.
You can read, write and edit .PNG-Files.

algorithmic cinema project

Paramnesis propose une approche originale de l’art cinématographique : à partir de plans de type documentaire filmés dans la ville, il permet la génération d’une infinité de films différents.
A chaque projection, ce qui s’offre à nous, c’est un film unique et éphémère, se créant lui-même en temps réel.

Paramnesis proposes an original approach of the cinematographic art : starting from documentary type rushes filmed in the city, it allows the generation of an infinity of different films.
With each projection, we can see a single and transitory film, creating itself in realtime.

DESCRIPTION :

Chaque film s’apparente à un moyen-métrage traditionnel. Il propose au spectateur une succession de plans volés, au gré de pérégrinations dans la ville. Il n’est pas question de diriger des acteurs, on se contente de la matière brute récoltée dans tous les types de lieux possibles. Une base de données de plans. Ces images peuvent être accompagnées de musiques, et de témoignages d’autochtones. Finalement une grande diversité de données, en eux-mêmes peu signifiantes.

Mais l’ambition du projet Paramnesis est justement de parvenir à donner un sens, un rythme et un univers propre à ces images, et ce par la qualité du montage. Pertinemment agencés entre eux, les plans créent un véritable sentiment de narration, en laissant néanmoins une certaine liberté d’interprétation aux spectateurs.

Paramnesis est le programme qui va monter le film en temps-réel. Il consiste en un système de vie artificielle, avec ses connaissances et ses règles. Il est capable de créer ses propres protocoles, ses propres logiques de montage, dans un champ de possibles quasiment infini.
Chaque rush filmé dans la ville, chaque témoignage récolté est préallablement assigné par moi-même dans une grille sémantique complexe (types de lieux, informations temporelles, significations sémantiques et émotionnelles, etc.) Ceci permet à Paramnesis de composer en connaissance de cause avec tous les plans et musiques de l’importante base de données, et de les agencer avec pertinence selon ses choix structurels et esthétiques, à la manière d’un véritable réalisateur virtuel - mais d’un genre nouveau.

QUELQUES PRECISIONS :

Paramnesis s’inscrit dans une tradition de l’art génératif. Dans le domaine littéraire par exemple, Jean-Pierre Balpe (ancien membre de l’Oulipo) est un pionner avec notemment ses générateurs de poèmes (robots-poètes).
Les motivations sont les mêmes : rechercher à donner, par les structures mathématiques contemporaines, un nouveau « langage » des choses.

Du premier film interactif (kinoautomat, 1967) jusqu’à aujourd’hui, les différentes œuvres de cinéma algorithmique ont toujours été mues par la question de l’indéterminisme. En effet, un film traditionnel est un ensemble fermé, et à chaque 24ème de seconde lui est définitivement assigné une image. Le cinéma algorithmique est lui, foncièrement indéterministe - on ne peut prédire d’aucune sorte à l’avance chaque plan à suivre.
Le temps prend ainsi une toute autre importance, mais aussi les objets temporels (au sens stieglerien) : nous vivons aujourd’hui dans un monde où l’on nous assène en masse, encore et encore, toujours les mêmes images…
C’est donc aussi l’absolue unicité de chaque film de Paramnesis qui lui donne un caractère si précieux.

Pour permettre au programme de construire une narration cohérente, on a recours notemment aux théories de Noam Chomsky sur la linguistique et la sémantique.
La notation des plans et des sources audios fait appel au différenciateur sémantique d’Osgood, qui permet de définir précisément les plans sur un système de valences (comique – pathétique, lent – rythmé, etc.)

Signalons encore que Paramnesis gagnera à être diffusé dans des conditions traditionnelles (salle de projection dans un musée, cinéma…) car c’est dans sa confrontation à l’art cinématographique que ses questionnements sauront être les plus perspicaces.

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DESCRIPTION :

Each film looks like a traditional movie. It proposes to the spectator a succession of stolen rushes, during peregrinations in the city. There is no question about directing actors, we just keep the raw material collected in all the possible types of places. A database of plans. These images can be accompanied by musics, and testimonys of people. Finally a great diversity of data, with little meaning in themselves.
But the ambition of the Paramnesis project is precisely to manage to give a direction, a rate/rhythm and a specific universe to these images, and this by the quality of the montage. Pertinently arranged between them, the plans create a true feeling of narration, by leaving nevertheless a certain freedom of interpretation to the spectators.

Paramnesis is the program which will assemble film in realtime. It’s like an artificial life system, with its knowledge and its rules. It is able to create its own protocols, its own logics of assembly, in almost infinite ways. Each rush filmed in the city, each testimony collected is first assigned by myself in a complex semantic grid (standard places, temporal information, semantic and emotional significances, etc.) This makes it possible Paramnesis to compose with full knowledge of the facts with all the plans and musics of the important database, and to arrange them with relevance according to its structural and aesthetic choices, with the manner of a true virtual director - but of a new kind.

MORE PRECISIONS :

Paramnesis falls under a tradition of generative art. In the literary field for example, Jean-Pierre Balpe (Alamo after Oulipo) is a pionner with notemment his poem generators (poet-robots). The motivations are the same ones: to seek to give, by the contemporary mathematical structures, a new “language” of the things.
For the first interactive film (kinoautomat, 1967) until today, various works of algorithmic cinema were always driven by the question of indeterminism. Indeed, a traditional film is a closed unit, and with each 24th of second an image is definitively assigned to it. But the algorithmic cinema is fundamentally indeterminist - anybody can predict in advance each plan to be followed.
Time takes really an other importance, but also the temporal objects (Bernard Stiegler) : we live today in a world where are diffused in mass, still and still, always the same images… It is thus also the absolute unicity of each film of Paramnesis which gives it a so invaluable character.
To allow the program to build a coherent narration, there is recourse in particular to the theories of Noam Chomsky about linguistics and semantics. The notation of the plans and the audios sources are put in a semantic differentiator of Osgood, which makes it possible to define precisely the plans on a system of valences (comic - pathetic, slow - fast, etc.)
Paramnesis will gain with being diffused under traditional conditions (room of projection in a museum, cinema…) because it’s in its confrontation with the cinematographic art that its questionings could be most perspicacious.

While looking up some recent patents for my thesis, I stumbled upon what appears to be a new Google service, Google Patents. Now, the cliché about Google is that the first thing people do when they discover Google is they Google themselves. Well, I can’t really patent-Google myself, per se, but I can patent-Google my great grandfather William Stanley Jr. who generated over 100 patents, including the transformer and the Stanley Thermos, both of which are still in use today. In fact, all those white trashcans that litter telephone poles all over the world (and cause so many problems during heat waves) are more or less his fault. As with any invention, there are always more hands involved than those cited in the patent, but officially he does hold claim to the modern variant such as those found on telephone poles.

Now, for those of you thinking to yourselves that you can hit me up for money, neither I nor my family gain anything from this legacy other than the legacy — I’m a struggling artist after all, and haven’t even been paid yet for the last two gigs (you know who you are) — and in fact while we’re at it, I was actually going to ask you if you could spare a dime. Remember, these patents have long-since fallen into the public domain (my preferred distribution channel ;-). This is also the first time I’ve mentioned this in any public forum, mostly because I have been struggling with electricity for the past several years and have inherited none of those gifts that either William (or my father for that matter) possessed so naturally. So I’m a little embarassed to have such illustrious ancestors in a field for which I am so inept. In fact (oh, the shame of it all), I find digital circuits to be sooooo much easier to control than the type of electricity my great-grandfather used to manipulate, since in fact in a digital circuit you really aren’t concerned all that much with the actual properties of the electricity itself. It is mostly just a question of getting the right resistor in the right spot and then trying to program the controller to flip something on and off at the right moment, or of reading the state of some sensor that does most of the work for you. I.e. no physics required. But this paresse is also starting to show it’s limits, and I’ve been thinking about how best to provide myself with the means to move into more serious sensor work after the current job runs out.

It’s a real pleasure to finally have access to all these patents. I don’t have the time to scour them just this moment, but I had actually started the process of recovering his patents somewhat recently, only hadn’t found the time to uncover any more than the two or three well-known ones. I was planning on investigating the matter further in a few months. Now that Google, du jour au lendemain, has suddenly placed online over 70 accessible documents, it should make things a little easier.

And just look at these drawings. They’re exquisite:

Text and Interview: Martin Wisniowski, January 2006

Marius Watz is one of the leading players in the Generative Art movement. He set up a conference on Generative Art and a touring exhibition called ”Generator.x“ that can be seen all over Europe. His designs and own works are very strong and they seem to ask the question ”how can something so colorful be such a beauty“? Marius Watz just sits between the the ancestors of the Generative Art who developed of the programming language
Processing, Ben Fry and Casey Reas, and pushes the boundaries for this emerging form of art in the 21th century. Generator.x takes the art out of the web and prepares the ground for it in the real world. I met Marius in Berlin with some questions in the backpack.

How did you get into that computer stuff?

I started coding when I was 11, my dad brought home a Radio Shack TRS-80 Color Computer and I fell in love. I was an awkward but bright kid, so programming was a perfect creative outlet. I figured I would become a software engineer, but then I started using programming to create graphics. I ended up giving up computer science and started doing graphics for posters and flyers for the Oslo techno scene. That was in 1993. The result was that I worked as a graphic designer for many years, combining commercial work with self-initiated projects. These days I call myself an ex-designer, working as an artist only. I’ve lost the interest in client-based work, instead I focus purely on developing my own work.

description complète de chessynthesis, projet de réinterprétation en son d’une partie d’échecs en temps-réel /

complete description of chessynthesis, chess gameplay to sound transcoding project.
[ chessynthesis // maxime marion (2006-2007) // échiquier préparé - caméra DV - notebook - enceintes / reacTIvision - Processing - PureData ]

description :

Chessynthesis est à l’origine un projet de performance/concert. Il consiste en un jeu d’échecs traditionnel, mais où les positions des pièces sont dynamiquement analysées par un système de captation vidéo. Les informations de positions obtenues sont alors interprétées par un logiciel qui va retranscrire, en temps-réel, l’état de la partie en son.
Le but est de reinterpréter au plus près toutes les incidences tactiques et stratégiques du jeu, d’une manière sonore et harmonique. Le son se présente comme une nappe, feutrée et à peine audible avant le début de la partie. Le long du jeu, le son évolue en crescendo, aboutissant à des variations parfois même tonitruantes.

L’échiquier est un ancien échiquier traditionnel, en bois de noyer et agrémenté de marquetterie. Le damier central a été retiré et remplacé par une plaque en verre, rétro-éclairée, où ont été peintes les cases à l’aide d’une peinture transparente. Sous la table se tient une caméra DV reliée à un ordinateur portable, qui analyse la position des pièces.
Les pièces sont classiques elles-aussi, mais sous leur socle est inscrit un symbole simple, qui va permettre au logiciel de les identifier.
Le son, généré par synthèse granulaire, provient de 5 ou 8 enceintes, installées circulairement autour de la table afin de permettre une spatialisation assez fine.

Le code échiquéen de notation des coups (e4-e5 par exemple) devient le système de partition de chessynthesis ; le rythme et les variations dynamiques du joueur sont laissées à “la liberté du musicien”.
Les joueurs/musiciens sont donc confrontés à un double enjeu : gagner la partie, et… composer de la bonne musique.

spécifications techniques :

Le système de captation vidéo est géré grâce au logiciel reacTIvision. Il permet d’interpréter la position d’une pièce même lorsque celle-ci est mouvante, dans la main du joueur. Ainsi le joueur/musicien peut disposer d’un aperçu (mais d’un aperçu seulement) des conséquences de son choix final (Aux échecs, lorsqu’une pièce est posée, on ne peut plus y toucher.)

Ces informations sont envoyées au logiciel Processing, où un programme va analyser l’état de la partie. Sont notamment pris en compte :
- la position de chaque pièce
- la position moyenne (centre de gravité) de chaque type de pièce

- le centre de gravité de chaque camp, prenant compte des positions ainsi que la valeur matérielle théorique des pièces (1 pour le pion, 9 pour la dame, etc.)
- l’éloignement de chaque pièce, type de pièce, et centre de gravité du camp par rapport au camp opposé

- le nombre de cases contrôlées, de protections et de menaces pour chaque pièce
- s’il y a échec et le type d’échec.

Ces informations, conjointement analysées permettent une interprétation assez fine de l’état de la partie. Toutes les informations obtenues sont alors envoyées au logiciel Puredata, qui va créer le son par synthèse granulaire. Cette technique, développée par Ianis Xenakis, permet de traiter le son comme de “petits grains”.
Il faut donc imaginer le résultat comme une masse unique, une “boule sonore” qui va se déformer, s’étendre et se transformer au fil du déroulement du jeu.

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[english]

[ chessynthesis // maxim marion (2006-2007) // prepared chess-board - DV camera - notebook - loudspeakers / reacTIvision - Processing - PureData ]

description :

Chessynthesis is a performance project. It consists of a traditional chessgame set, but where the positions of the pieces are dynamically analyzed by a system of video capture. Information of positions obtained is then interpreted by a software which will retranscribe, in realtime, the game status in sound.
The goal is to reinterpret each tactical and strategical position in a sonic and harmonic way. The sound plays continuously, but before the start of the game, it’s felted and harded audible. Along the game, the sound moves in crescendo, outcome with variations sometimes even thundering.

The chess-board is an old traditional chess-board of wood, decorated with marquettery. The central checkerwork was withdrawn and replaced by a plate out of glass, backlighted, where the boxes using a transparent painting were painted. Under the table is held a DV camera, connected to a notebook, which analyzes the position of the pieces.
The pieces are traditional they-also, but under their base is drawn a simple symbol, which will make it possible the software to identify them.
The sound, generated by granular synthesis, comes from 5 or 8 loudspeakers, circularly installed around the table in order to allow a rather fine spatialization.

The chess code of notation (e4-e5 for example) becomes the system of partition of chessynthesis ; the rhythm and the dynamic variations of the player are “the freedom of the musician”.
The players/musicians have thus a double goal : to win, and… to compose good music.

technical specifications :

The system of video capture is managed with the reacTIvision software. It makes it possible to interpret the position of a piece even when this one is moving, in the hand of the player. Thus the player/musician can have a sample (but a sample only) of the consequences of his final choice (In the chess game, when a piece is posed, one cannot touch there any more.)

This information is sent to the Processing software, where a program will analyze the game status. Are in particular taken into account:
- the position of each piece
- the average position (gravity center) of each type of piece
- the gravity center of each camp, determined by the positions as well as the theoretical material value of pieces (1 for the pawn, 9 for the queen, etc)
- distance of each piece, type of piece, and gravity center of the camp compared to the opposite camp
- the number of controlled boxes, protections and threats for each piece
- if there is a checkmate and the type of checkmate.

These informations, jointly analyzed allows a rather fine interpretation of the game status. All information obtained is then sent to the Puredata software, which will create the sound by granular synthesis. This technique, developed by Ianis Xenakis, makes it possible to treat the sound like “small grains”.
It is thus necessary to imagine the result like a single mass, a “sound ball” which will become deformed, extended and changed during the game.

The research study VisualID incorporated automatic generated icons as a visual assistance for browsing files. The basic idea is, that people can recognise shapes more easily than filenames. At the first sight this approach might seem arbitrary and confusing, but if you work in a workspace, you might get a relationship to the symbols.

The FAQ says:

“A major principle underlying this work is that, while ‘meaningful’ icons would be ideal, people actually have little trouble learning to recognize arbitrary icons and their relationship to content. Learning and recognizing somewhat arbitrary appearance and associated information is something that is often done instantly and effortlessly in the real world, and learning icon appearance does not appear to be an exception to this phenomenon.”

tags:c++ creative code framework openframeworks c++, creative code, framework, openframeworks

Another semester draws to an end with a terrific selection of projects at the ITP show!

There’s also a scrumptious video blog as well as a lovely Rocketboom episode.

It’s finally here:

My New Flash Portfolio!

It’s built in a Processing stylee from nothing but nothing but code. Not once (to my anguish) did I capitulate and use the Flash GUI. It also has the basics of a CMS (press “L” for the Layout Manager). Download the source here. Yes it’s only AS2.0, but I’m poor. If you have issues with it, press “C” to bring up the debug console and mail me the info.

Link to my shoddy Flash Porfolio second attempt.

Link to the original Flash Portfolio.