Processing Blogs

I’ve always been wondering if there’s no easier way than trial & error to figure out the correct dimensions one has to specify in the size() command to match a certain paper size for the generated PDF. Today I finally had a quick look at the source of the underlying iText library on which Processing’s PDF wrapper is built. As expected it actually includes a convenience class which has presets for all common page formats. This is great, but to make this even slightly more user-friendly you can take this snippet and keep it:

/*** Convenience method to be used instead of the normal size() command.* Creates window matched to a given paper size** @param r a predefined constant of the iText PageSize class* @param isLandscape true, if you want landscape orientation* @param renderer class name of the Processing renderer to use*/void pageSize(com.lowagie.text.Rectangle r, boolean isLandscape, String renderer) {  if (isLandscape) {    size((int)r.top(),(int)r.right(),renderer);  } else {    size((int)r.right(),(int)r.top(),renderer);  }}

And here’re a couple of examples how this snippet would be used (make sure you import the PDF library):

void setup() {  // create window @ A3 landscape using OPENGL  pageSize(com.lowagie.text.PageSize.A3,true,OPENGL);}

void setup() {  // create window @ US Letter size, portrait using default renderer  pageSize(com.lowagie.text.PageSize.LETTER,false,JAVA2D);}

a geometry study, still: http://www.flickr.com/photos/davebollinger/895021579/

Author: davebollinger
Keywords: geometry 3d processing.org povray
Added: July 25, 2007

Rather late than never, here’s finally some brief documentation of Moving Brands‘ latest interactive installation, after Muon our second one this year…

The brief and objectives set by the London College of Fashion were similar to last year’s, only with the added challenge of having to show work of twice as many students (18 courses), almost 500 in total with 10+ images each. Our solution to that was a digital approach, housed within a ‘library’ setting where visitors could browse students work in two stages: First, scanning and selecting students of interest, followed by detailed browsing of their work. To reflect this, the library also consisted of two complementary parts, one “analog” and one “digital”. Each student is represented by a post-card sized tag which is located on the installation walls. On the back of each card is a unique pair of identifier tags, so when the card is placed on one of the four interactive tables the student’s work is revealed. The cards also acted as student “business cards” (with their contact details) and could be taken away by visitors, which often were recruiters.

After lots of deliberation the software side of the installation was developed using the fabulous reacTIVision & Processing. The former is used to analyse and identify the printed markers, however the major problem we had to overcome was that the tool only comes with a set of 90 markers, whereas we needed close to 500. After initially considering the definition of custom markers, I then opted for combining 2 markers into pairs (hierarchical index) and so end up with a maximum of 45*45 = 2025 possible identities (due to the special cases caused by the fixed usage scenario of the tables we could theoretically reach a higher number). The next challenge then was to identify pairs from a given set of visible markers (easy) and robustly track these as single entity over time (not as easy), especially since the software was built to support a multi-user scenario. Delaying and aggregating events broadcast by reacTIVision to Processing made all the difference and helped tackling the temporary breaking up of groups do to sub-optimal light conditions and/or user actions.

So as soon as a group of markers is identified, a background thread is started to load in the various portfolio images of the related student. This multi-threaded approach is important so that any ongoing animation isn’t suddenly interrupted. However since the images loaded are quite large the loading process can sometimes take several seconds and the preloader becomes quite obvious when browsing several students in a row. Caching to the rescue! After some googling I found Whirlycache, a very easy to use Java object cache with multiple purging policies. It only took me 3 lines to integrate into my application and since the installation machines had 2GB of RAM, many images could be kept in memory and the preloader disappeared for most users. Yeah!

Finally, as with last year’s table we tried to increase the tactile feeling of the interaction and where we’ve used a visual response (soft surface simulation) in the past, this year we’ve opted for sound to make the experience seem more physical. We developed a sound palette for moments when cards are placed on the table, cards are rotated and removed – all with a noticeable positive difference.

Some more images of the installation are on F l i c k r…

interactive sketch of floating water which you can wipe away. based on a particle system. done with vvvv.
music: loving you live – alex paternson – warp records.

vvvv.org
milo.digitalsoul.org

Cast: milo

a geometry study (compression is harsh, sample still here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/davebollinger/878259402/ )

Author: davebollinger
Keywords: geometry 3d processing.org povray
Added: July 23, 2007

Made with Processing. Read about the process here…
http://www.flight404.com/blog/?p=86

Cast: flight404

I’ve just been porting my Flash physics work into Processing. A demo with big chunks of source here.

Friends of Ed were nice enough to send me a copy of Ira’s book to review. It’s taken me some time to think of stuff to say because I’m busy working in Flash these days so it’s hard to find some Processing time. To be fair – I’ve looked through it, but I haven’t used it. I want to sit down and read the collision section of course because of the physics stuff I’m doing but I also have a day job, and I’ve just managed to hack around irregular surface collisions with a rather crazy implementation of the bresenham algorithm (yup – bounce it off a surface by detecting the level of penetration into a pixel map – with one particle it’s unrealistic – with a spring box it’s like the real deal).

The book is aimed fairly well at where I was when I started using Processing a few years ago. I had no idea how to program, some pretty concrete illusions about how everything was done and no knowledge of math. If I could have sent Ira’s book down a wormhole back to me when I started to pick up this Processing lark I’d have had a much easier time of it (although the differences between Processing 68 and 120+ would have been a pain).

The book pretty much covers the basics of everything. Which is a very Processing way of going about stuff. You don’t get into the complications of heavy Java which most advanced users get into. On the whole I find I pretty much understand everything explained to me in the book – which is a miracle for a book on programming. A lot of the examples look quite pretty and inviting and I can see myself thumbing through it if I hit a creative block.

If I had a criticism of it it would be the shotgun approach to learning that goes on in it. It’s a great book for getting someone into Processing and I would recommend it to a student but I tried using it for reference purposes a few times and it cut me off before I could find the specialist information I needed. So either I’m a little above the target audience’s level or I’m just too picky about what I want to find out. There’s points where I’m looking through it thinking, “ayuh, there’s a faster way of doing that,” but you can’t really confuse beginners with the speed stuff straight away I guess. Basically, it’s a teaching book, not a reference manual – it won’t revolutionise the way you code, just expand your horizons.

So if you’ve got an artist friend who wants to get into using Processing, I would recommend this book to them, it should help a lot. More advanced users might find it a strange book in terms of use for programming. I’m used to “get to the point” manuals, harrassing people on the web (sorry forum) and online tutorials. As programming books go, it is incredibly wordy, but artists (and I am the exception to the rule) are also wordy creatures, so this may go down well with the new breed of art-geek that has hit the world this century. In summary – if I was teaching Processing I would find this useful for shoving under my students noses, and I think they would find it useful too.

Colour of Munny exhibit
CAPTCHA being defeated by image analysis – PWNtcha
Dollar origami
Echodrome trailer – optical illusion game for PS3

InkScape: Open source vector graphics tool

Mitchell asked in a comment to the Technology is knowledge is power post:

How does this all reflect on your own practice as an artist/designer? What does *sustainable* generative design look like? Open source is perhaps one answer…

It’s a hard question to answer really how this reflects on me personally since am still only coming to grips with it slowly… It’s not that most of this was truly new to me, but I’ve been doing lots of reading & thinking about these things only recently, and so haven’t managed to form a full opinion yet. I think all the real answers to the sustainability question are hidden below the usual layers of conversation and discussion had, and hence why I quoted Illich in the post. Like a good visualization piece he manages to give you a view of the data from a totally different angle. Generally I agree with many of his points about the formal western school system ultimately fulfilling a more profound function in our society of encouraging (and persisting) a class system based on certification, (over)production, consumption and compliance. This is especially true when “exporting” this system to the Third World. (Btw. Seeing school’s role more in terms of teaching compliance to established norms vs. current reality also moves ADD into a different light. Stowe Boyd has more about it.)

As long as consumption remains the main engine of our society it’s hard to seriously address sustainability. The problem is also further complicated that much of the current sustainability discussion is about the purely environmental aspects of the concept, whereas these issues are just a part of the bigger picture. This is why we need to generally acquire a better global understanding of the complex interlinked nature of the systems we live in: The systems we built ourselves only recently and the ones which pre-date us but of which we only realize now to which extent we have changed and shaped them…

Every tool requires a certain level of literacy to be used creatively and I think it’s wrong to assume that we as societies at large have acquired these skills and mindsets to a level that they can be creatively used as tool by as many members of society as possible. Governments and mainstream media with their tendency to either ignore or to create spin around these complex issues are totally throwing spanners in the works. The “simplicity” term has already started being subverted by marketing and this is also why I’m very wary of it being preached as the main answer if the questions needing to be tackled are some of the biggest and complex we’ve ever faced. Simplicity is relative – reaching for better levels of literacy in systems might be more fruitful than risking important concepts being unwillingly dumbed down and diluted.

Not using this as an excuse, but partly being a product of my environment I can’t say that in the past I actively cared that much for sustainability myself (above and beyond recycling, public transport, energy saving etc.). Yet I’ve always believed in learning by doing and I quit college for the same reason. Most of the valuable things I’ve learned and the ones I’m most proud of, are the result of self-initiated projects and sleep deprivation fed by a genuine hunger for trying to uncover hidden layers & systems in nature. Probably like many others in this field (generative design) I’ve always had more interest in the synthesis and simulation of (new?) concepts vs. sampling “cultural” symbols and trends. Yet am often also wondering if this discipline has not positioned itself in a vacuum if the knowledge we acquire by doing this isolated artistic research will never filter into something more important. ?!?!

Given that computers and software are our current state-of-the-art tools for problem solving, all in all I’d like to believe that a continued cultural rise and awareness of open source, hacking, informal learning, workshops, blogging, tool making, digital fabrication, generative design can be and already is all part of the bigger solution:

• Code literacy requires good skills in the abstraction and decomposition of ideas and acknowledges the process nature and connectivity of systems
• A designer’s appreciation and sensitivity of form and aesthetics informs adaptable software architectures required for building modular and agile tools.
• Open Source tools acts as platform builders (technically and socially), distribute development costs and reduce the entry threshold by enabling anyone with an interest and access to hardware to become part of ongoing projects and communities.
• Hardware initiatives (e.g. OLPC, Arduino) and communal digital fabrication centres allow for grassroots education, experimentation and production of tools for fulfilling local/individual needs not catered for by corporations.