Classes

Here is a project I finished recently, check it out. I intended this project to be an installation/projection, however I think it’d also make a really interesting screensaver and might create one if I find anyone would be interested in this.

Description:
I’ve been digging into the New York Times data APIs recently for a class I’m taking, and the biggest thing I noticed was that there is no way of getting any images past a 75×75 thumbnail. Furthermore, most stories don’t even have images. So I wanted to see if I could both show the stories that the NYT felt were worthy of finding an image for as well as sidestep the 75×75 tiny limitations and create a unique data stream from this.

ImageWorthy does this by
-Connecting the the Times Newswire API
-Extracting the last 200 stories in real time
-Finding stories that include images
-Loading these images into memory
-Analyzing them for average color as well as value
-Creating halftone images superimposed on a background color that is the average color of all the pixels in the image
-Cycling through these every 15 seconds with simple audio effects based on the average value (lightness/darkness) of the image

I have been using my own file templates for openFrameworks for a while now, but since I found out about this in China and was messing around with it on a train between Shanghai and Hangzhou I totally forgot about it. Recently people in class have been asking about creating classes in OF, so I’m taking this as an opportunity to fix some things I have been meaning to correct in my file templates and put them up for people to share/use.

These templates are file templates, if you’re looking for Project Templates Memo Akten has a great post on how to install his XCode project templates for both desktop and iphone. You can check that out here:

Memo’s iPhone Templates

To install these templates, you first need to create the following folder:
(Your Hard Disk)>>Library>>Application Support>>Developer>>Shared>>XCode>>File Templates

The next step is to download the zip I’m including below and copy the files into your File templates folder (specified above).

Now if you go into XCode, open a project, right click on the SRC folder and select “Add>New File…” you’ll be presented with a dialog. You should see the category “User Templates” on the left, and under that “openFrameworks”. Click on “openFrameworks” and select “basicClass”. Hit “next”, name your class, and click “finish”.

You now should have a new OF/C++ class ready to go with the basic setup(), update() and draw() functions, header includes, definitions, etc.

Enjoy!

Files for Download:
openFrameworks File Templates

Here are a few things I have done recently, I think all for my setPixel class. My thesis work is in other posts and my data vis class is still getting rolling work-wise (expect a first project from there by next week), so most of the work I have done this semester is from this class.

I won’t go crazy into descriptions, but basically the images here use algorithms I wrote to accomplish “square-packing” and “circle-packing” by finding the largest square or circle that would fit in each image, drawing it, then finding the next largest, so on and so forth till the image is recreated using squares or circles. Really hard for me to figure out but the effect is awesome and was well worth the effort I think!

These videos are made by averaging the pixels of two movies (The Darjeeling Limited) and reproducing the colors of the frames from every second of the movie. Really interesting how a movie as colorful as the Darjeeling Limited reduces to a lot of browns (most likely due to complimentary colors)

Here is a quick edit I made of 5 pixel-based simple animations I made as an intro assignment for the class setPixel() at Parsons.

Each number is executed in a different language and animated in some way. Some came out more successful than others, not super happy with the processing one but there wasn’t a lot of time to work on them.

Languages used (in order): PHP, openFrameworks, Processing, AS3, Javascript

stringTheory from Steve Varga on Vimeo.

stringTheory is an experimental program I made that is not as much data vis as it is abstract data. Using the concept of String Theory (theoretical physics) to visualize my email, the program first shows everyone that has sent me email in the last year as particles within a group of atoms. Each node when rolled over shows the numer of emails this address has sent me as well as playing a tone based on this number. After clicking one of these nodes, that person’s messages are abstracted further as particles (protons & neutrons maybe? that doesn’t quite work yet but its loosely based…) which contain particles of the subject of the email. Rolling over one of the messages displays the message’s subject and plays a tone for each letter, with the timing based on the overall length of the subject and the tone of each letter based on both the message length and a value I’m giving to each letter.

The project uses PHP to collect my email to a MySQL database, then openFrameworks is used to grab a php file which generates XML from the database. This XML data is then used to drive the visuals.

The audio is generated by pushing OSC commands from openFrameworks to SuperCollider. The tones are somewhat harmonious but I’m just getting started with SuperCollider and I’d love to see what I can do with this data once I get a better understanding of the full power of super collider.

Overall I can already think of a lot more interesting things I could do with this but I’m super happy with the results so far….

Here are the final documentation videos for my projects for Major Studio:Computation in the Parsons MFA Design and Technology program. The first two have been posted before in different videos, the third is new. Enjoy!

Speak to Me//Breathe: Documentation from Steve Varga on Vimeo.

BeatBoxxx 1.0: Documentation from Steve Varga on Vimeo.

BeatBoxxx 2.0 Documentation from Steve Varga on Vimeo.

Flowers made from dog toys and silk flower petals, attached to servo motors. A light (photo) sensor senses the light and the flowers either hid or come out. Inspired by the movie Coraline.

Digital Flowers from Steve Varga on Vimeo.

Here are a couple mini projects/experiments with openFrameworks I’ve been working on recently. I think I’m finally starting to grasp the whole code driven audio thing, although its still a bit fuzzy to me as far as music theory and making things that sound really good. I think these could definitely be either revisited or expanded upon in the future (hint: final project?)

Circular Type Audio Experiment from Steve Varga on Vimeo.

Vibrating Shapes Creating Audio from Steve Varga on Vimeo.

Drop Sequencer v1.0 from Steve Varga on Vimeo.

Here is a project using Arduino-generated sound.

Basically I wanted to combine an old school/do it yourself 80’s nerd feeling with the old-school/do it yourself 80’s break dancing/hip hop feel. I also wanted to create something that could be sold as a kit for a very reasonable price and would allow people to create their own custom beat boxes that would be uniquely theirs. I also see opportunity for releasing a line of artist-based boxes, either in somewhat limited quantities or as one-off truly custom units that could be sold for charity.

Beat Boxx is an interactive beat creator and recorder that allows users to lay down digital loops of blips and beeps or perform them live. Through the use of gesture based beat selection, users can choose to either perform live or record a sample and endlessly loop it. Simple and affordable, Beat Boxx is available as both a pre-made ready to go unit and as a user buildable/customizable kit.

Beat Boxxx! from Steve Varga on Vimeo.

Here’s a simple example using IR sensors with some LEDs to show the distance detected.

IR Sensor with LEDs from Steve Varga on Vimeo.