Thesis

Here’s a new toolkit for multimedia stuff using a multitouch table. Overall its been done before but just nice to have a good reference video with everything together. Awesome to see methods for using multitouch to my advantage. One thing i’m quickly realizing about multitouch is that unlike print or even a traditional computer screen, there is no real orientation unless you place it against a wall or something. I’m quickly finding out that you have to account for 360 degrees of interaction which is both challenging and awesome at the same time!

So I started buying the things I’m gonna need for my multitouch table after doing a shitload of research…

I have decided upon a Diffused Illumination setup vs a FTIR setup so that I have the option of doing fiducial tracking, which I really want to do. Its also a lot less work as far as soldering/powering/etc although I think its tough to get real good/even lighting.

Its actually pretty cheap to build a table, with the exception of the projector, which even at a heavy discount through an ebay purchase is still a pretty swift kick to my financial groin….

I settled on a BenQ MP522 Short Throw projector for both the ridiculously short throw distance (1.2 feet?!?!?) as well as the 1024×768 native resolution so I don’t get a super pixellated image. Its capable of 1280×1024 but I don’t know how that will looks since its not native. It also has 2500 lumen brightness, so it should be plenty bright for most indoor lighting. The projector goes for $870.00 new on Ebay but I got a unopened refurbished version with 0 hours on the bulb from ebay for $650.00 (plus shipping). Hopefully this will be by far the most expensive thing I purchase for thesis and I can build this table and concentrate on making software!

Here’s the projector’s New Egg page

I also ordered some IR flood lights for the table here. $18 a piece for arrays of 30 powered infrared super brights, not a terrible deal. I found another site with $16 arrays of 48 but the site has bad reviews and the lights didn’t look as nice.

I bought these here

Next things to do/buy:

• I need to get wood and plexi once I decide on dimensions and screen size. I’m thinking something around 50 inches diagonal would be pretty nice, not too big but not too small either.
• Take apart a PS3 eye and install an infrared filter on it. Also probably should get a wide angle lens for it
• Lee 225 lighting film for the projection surface and also diffusing film for the box
• power strips

I think thats it, getting there slowly but surely!

I really love the timeline element present here, this is something I really want to explore with my project. I am very interesting in how the addition of time as a dimension in visualizing data can be used effectively in interactive data projects. I think that this is the big separation between traditional data viz and computer based visualization, and all interaction past basic navigation should affect this in some way.

This thing is amazing, just watch the video!

virtual gravity – the physical weight of data from Sillenet on Vimeo.

This setup, featured in Wired magazine (found online through Engadget), is at the very least really amazing conceptually. It basically takes a live video feed of your living room and combines it with a multi-touch interface coffee table to allow you to control everything from your media (sent to tv), your lights (swipe lights in room to dim and turn off on), and even program a path for your Roomba!

Check it out here

Here is a multi touch application which is basically a tribute to ben fry and casey reas. While the app in general isn’t super amazing, I think that the interface ideas are pretty cool and the way its tilted towards the user is really awesome

http://vimeo.com/5414506

Here is a goldmine of sports visualization stuff that I found by doing some google searches. One thing this has revealed to me is that while I plan on concentrating on baseball because its what interests me the most and has the greatest possibilities as far as numerical data (that may not be true but I’m thinking it is…), its foolish for me to look for inspiration/precedence just within the realm of baseball. There are several awesome visualizations listed here which are for many other sports. One of the most intriguing that I see is the basketball vis showing where all shots from last seasons where taken from on the court. I plan on going through this page a lot more thoroughly in the near future.

http://visualizeit.wordpress.com/2009/05/07/visualization-in-sports/

I am currently reading John Maeda’s “Creative Code” as part of my thesis research, and one project in particular, “The Shape of Song” by Martin Wattenberg has grabbed my attention. In this project Wattenberg creates very interesting visualizations of songs by analyzing patterns within them, which in turn creates visuals that show the emergent patterns.

The project can be viewed Here

I’ve been reading “Visualizing Data: Exploring and Explaining Data with the Processing Environment” by Ben Fry recently (converting his Processing code to oF code), and it’s really awesome. I looked into some of Ben’s work, and I came upon his MIT thesis, which seems to fall in line with exactly what I want to investigate for my thesis. It is called “organic information design” and it details the history and future of using interactive/digital means to progress data visualization through interaction. Its a really good research document, as well as an interesting read!

Check it out here:

http://benfry.com/organic/

I dunno if I should be happy to have this as a resource, or somewhat depressed. This guy today just launched his website which is kinda like what I’ve been discussing roughly for thesis. Its totally static and not interactive in anyway, but several of his ideas are exactly what I’ve been talking about executing. Seriously last night I was thinking it’d be awesome to show the flight patterns of a major league team and compare them with their winning percentage. Oh well guess I have to come up with something cooler than him now.

Flip Flop Flyball