7 in Seven

Ghost in the Machine necklace

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 23:03:00 -0400

I wanted to make an object with used circuit boards. I finally actually finished yesterday. I used a jewelers saw to cut out a piece from a pcb board i found on ITP’s junk shelf. Then i came across a few piecs of white plexi that sort of looked like ghosts. I drilled holes in it to make eyes and mouth shape. I attached them with some jump rings and some chain. Here’s the necklace that resulted:

Day 7: Window Ghosts

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 18:46:06 -0400

Click here for video documentation that’s sweeping the nation!

So as Kate says below…Day 7=Window Ghosts. I can’t believe I made it through all 7 days without collapsing. It took alot of patience and food delivery but I made it. And then I slept for three days and forgot to put up this video documentation. So there it is. Take it…already.

MUSIC OF THE DAY: Aphex Twin

Day 7: Window Ghosts

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 01:39:45 -0400

For my 7th and final project, I collaborated with Gabe Barcia-Colombo on a video installation called Window Ghosts. I initially got the idea for it one night when I was leaving work, walking down Waverly, and looked up at the Tisch bulding to see to two people standing in a window. There was something eerie about the way they looked because they were high within the frame of the window and there was a curtain drawn close behind them. The overall effect was that it seemed as though they were floating.

This, in combination with the realization that we have some prime, publicly-viewable, rear-projection real estate in the windows of the Resident’s office and the ITP conference room, made me want to create my own “window ghosts” - video projections of people that would stand at the window, passing the night by gazing at the street below.

Gabe is my favorite projection expert and he knows all about projecting people in weird places, so it was a match made in heaven. On Saturday night we installed a single projection (thank you, John Schimmel, for your sleepless night at the window!), but we hope to further develop the installation so that it includes multiple projections and perhaps some other iterations. Don’t be surprised if you pass by some night and see my toes wiggling in the window, 5 feet tall!

You can expect the final installation to be featured in the upcoming ITP Residents Show.

I’m working through the really terrific book...

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 00:08:52 -0400

I’m working through the really terrific book “Collective Intelligence” by Toby Segaran and developing the examples in Java, with the idea that I might create a nice open source Java (Processing?) recommendation / classification library someday.

oreilly.com/catalog/9780596529321/

It’s clear to me why Toby chooses to use python in the book. Much cleaner. I’m hoping to discover some nice ways of doing all this in Java that doesn’t give programmers a headache.

This book is awesome. Do I see an ITP course “Collective Intelligence” in our future?

download zip of source (proceed with caution, results are correct, but still working on cleaning this up)

XBee Interface for the Mac

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 23:28:00 -0400

Programming XBees on the Mac isn’t as easy as I would like it to be because there aren’t any GUI interfaces like the Digi XCTU for Windows. I decided to build one in python using Tkinter and pyserial. Here is an initial version which I will be improving soon.

In this current version you must use a search term (above usb) to open a serial port at 9600 baud rate. Usually most XBee USB dongles or USB->Serial converters show up with a ‘usb’ in the path.

A more advanced version will be coming soon!

I also worked on putting my favorite drawings up on my website:

And of course the infamous Action Park Album, which you’ll have to ask about if you want to hear. Or just bug Gabe. But a hint, in that it sounds like those 4 above sang it.

Day 6: The Elbow Detector

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 19:40:32 -0400

For airplanes, elevators, and other tight spaces, the Elbow Detector is a wearable device that notifies you of the presence of another elbow so you can avoid that embarrassing moment of bumping elbows with a stranger.

I have two variations in mind: the silent notifier (that signals the wearer with a small vibrating motor) and the alarm system (a more aggressive version that activates a buzzer when the elbows get too close).

I made a rough prototype using the Arduino Lilypad, a Maxbotix Ultrasonic Rangefinder, and a Radio Shack buzzer mounted on an ever-so-elegant wrist band from American Apparel.

Better documentation coming soon. It basically works, but here are some next steps:

Smoothing code. Right now I’m just doing down & dirty “if the sensor value is below X, then turn on the buzzer”, which obviously makes the buzzer a bit warbly.
A different form factor. Obviously a wrist band is meant to be worn on the wrist, not on the elbow. Might try working off of an elbow brace like this or else making a custom piece.
A different sensor. Though I am interested in proximity, the Rangefinder doesn’t provide enough resolution in the distance range that I’m interested in. Ideally, I’d like to be able to sense the difference between something being 1 or 2 inches away.

Vegan Pork Martini

Sun, 15 Jun 2008 23:04:45 -0400

Let’s talk about Josh Karpf. Josh and I both went to Oberlin, where we did our undergrad. The majority of my memories of him are of his flyaway Warholesque hair and a minority are about the unusual objects he kept in a pencil cup. Anyway, a number of years after we graduated I was perusing the still-nascent web and stumbled across a “site-of-the-day” depicting martinis made from meat. It was linked to from everywhere which was possible then because the Internet was still pretty small. Something seemed familiar, and then the realization flashed on me that I knew the guy who had done this. It was Josh, the dude with that hair, and it turns out his carnivore’s cocktail had taken the 1997 Internet by storm. Within a week or two it was all over the web’s list of weird, strange, new, looney, worst and best sites. The pork martini was a meme and by chance, I was on a first name basis with the source. Josh has since updated the site with new pictures and a somewhat more modern look. The other white meat martini lives on.

In the days and years that passed, when martinis or pork come up on conversation I often find myself defending Josh’s explorations to those who would close their mind to a martini made of meat. I encourage them to consider a trial swig but usually they defer. Naturally, a few of my friends get a free pass. They’re vegans, so tasting a pork martini is out of the question. Until now. Presenting an animal-free homage to Josh’s porcine concoction, devised as my last day-long project of 7 in 7. He’s a rabid carnivore so I doubt we’d ever get his full endorsement, but adventerous vegetarians and vegans can now quaff a meat-like drink without fear of sullying their fauna-free repasts. I give you the Vegan Pork Martini:

The Source

Ingredients

Infusion

The Meatless Pork Martini, BBQ Pork and Bacon Strip varieties

Bold Tasters

Kudos to the May Wah Market on Hester Street for their Vegan BBQ Pork and Vegan Bacon strips, to Gabe and Kate for tasting, and to Josh Karpf for the original inspiration and his lifelong commitment to all things meat.

XBee LilyPad

Sun, 15 Jun 2008 18:02:10 -0400

We work with the LilyPad open-source wearables system and the XBee radios a lot at ITP, so Kate Hartman and I decided that it was time to put the two together. My Friday 7 in 7 project was to create a XBee LilyPad board, the first draft of which is pictured above. There’s probably going to be a second draft before we have the printed circuit boards made, adding some decoupling capacitors and possibly a few output LEDs. I’d like to keep things pretty bare bones and just see how people might use them before adding complexity like sensors or independent power. We’re planning to run some tests on the prototypes to evaluate wearability and integration methods. The XBee can transmit information from an Arduino module, but also has some ability to function independently. There’s eight pins of input and output, including analog transmissions, that can be used without a microcontroller. Therefore it makes sense to think about another iteration with integrated battery power.

When the board files are done, they’ll be posted publicly on my site (under Projects) and can be used by anyone under a Creative Commons open-source license. A couple of my Sociable Objects students working on socially shape-shifting skirts. Hopefully the new XBee LilyPad will enable their creations.

www.lulu.com/content/2717766 While I’m waiting for my...

Sun, 15 Jun 2008 11:24:00 -0400

www.lulu.com/content/2717766

While I’m waiting for my first book — www.learningprocessing.com — to come out, I’m thinking about the next. And I’m hoping to self-publish, or at least start out that way. There’s nothing really there yet, but I plan on completing the text as I teach the course next year.

I’ve adapted my spam filtering example from programming...

Sat, 14 Jun 2008 17:53:00 -0400

I’ve adapted my spam filtering example from programming from a to z as a more generic text classification Processing library. Basically, you can create a Classifier object:

Classifier filter = new Classifier();

Train it with text for category “A” and category “B”:

String[] shakespeare = loadStrings("hamlet.txt");
filter.trainA(join(shakespeare," "));

String[] chekov = loadStrings("vanya.txt");
filter.trainB(join(chekov," "));

And then evaluate “unknown” text:

String toAnalzye = "To be or not to be. That is the question.";
probA = 100 * filter.analyze(toAnalzye);
println(toAnalzye +  " is " + probA + " % likely to be Shakespeare");

Download library + source: classifier.zip

Download Processing example code: bayes.zip

There’s a lot more that can be done here (I have working code that doesn’t restrict the classification to a binary choice) so further updates will come eventually! Also, need to allow the library user access to the underlying hashtable of words and their counts / relative probabilities.

DAY 6: Vindictive Printer by Gabriel Barcia-Colombo Click for...

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 20:36:04 -0400

DAY 6: Vindictive Printer by Gabriel Barcia-Colombo

Click for Awesomest Video Documentationish

Today my printer started talking to me. It could be 7 in 7 madness, or all the water from day 3 but I think i’m starting to lose it. Printers talking. Angry printers. Out to get me. Send help. Or toner.

MUSIC OF THE DAY: The Wombats

Don’t Blink (In Progress)

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 16:46:06 -0400

Don’t Blink (In Progress):

You look at a screen that works as a mirror reflecting your face. If you blink your eyes, a picture of me thumbing my nose at you comes up but you will never know. Just like you will never know if…

Desktop Flight Tracker

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 01:43:34 -0400

My friends and family are always coming and going. I sometimes follow their flights, especially when they are showing up at my door, or departing on a life-expanding adventure. It’s easy to do if I stay in front of the computer with a web page open. However, when I’m at the computer I’m usually working on something else that gets in the way, and away from the screen there’s no information at all.

For today’s 7 in 7 project I created a Desktop Flight Tracker that physically indicates the altitude of a live aircraft flight from online data. The system includes an Arduino microcontroller with embedded Internet connection and a small servo motor attached to a model jet airliner. Once the airline name and flight number is loaded into the system, the model jet rises off the desktop just as the real flight takes off. The model continues to rise as the actual plane climbs to its cruising altitude, then holds its position. (I like to imagine that tiny cocktails are being served inside.) For descent and landing, the model lowers itself to the desktop, just as the real flight touches down at its destination. Please keep your seatbelts fastened until the aircraft has come to a full stop at the gate.

In the hour or so since I got the prototype working properly, I’ve tracked a couple flights as they cruised into the New York area, descended and touched down at JFK—both informative and entertaining. Bon voyage!

DAY 5: Blend. by Gabriel Barcia-Colombo Click Here for Video...

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 22:44:16 -0400

DAY 5: Blend. by Gabriel Barcia-Colombo

Click Here for Video Documentation that’s really good!

Today I put a girl in a blender. No no no she was fine! Just real dizzy! Trust me! She’s fine! Blend. is an interactive video art installation that’s been puréeing around in my mind for a while but today I finally poured it out into real life. Featuring the lovely Ramona Pringle as the good sport who let me put her in a blender.

MUSIC OF THE DAY: Joy Division.

Day 5 (sort of): The Discommunicator

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 21:03:45 -0400

Ok, so this is sort of a cheat, but I today I finally documented a prototype I made a while back. It’s called the Discommunicator. It’s a tool for communication that blocks conversation. It buffers words and enforces eye contact.

Intended for heated discourse, the Discommunicator allows each person to say all the things outloud that shouldn’t actually be heard by the other person. The device is such that the two users are forced to look at each other so they are aware of the emphatic nature of what is being said, but the specific words are absorbed by the solid form they are being spoken into.

For future prototypes, I’d like to make something a bit softer that also covers the ears so that it becomes a more immersive experience. This is one in a upcoming series of “limited communication devices”.

Face the Web

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 18:12:40 -0400

Face the Web:

DAY 4.5: The Seasonal Salad Dress

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 16:50:44 -0400

I’ve been thinking about making this dress for 5 years. Maybe 6.

I got the idea when I was a professional sandwich- and salad-maker at the Garden Street Cafe in Rhinebeck, New York. Our mesclun came from Little Seeds (the local farm) in huge, clear bags. When a bag was almost done, I’d hold the it up, admiring the way the delicate, green leaves arranged themselves at the bottom. “Wouldn’t it be nice…” I thought to myself, “…if I could put ALL the parts of a salad in a bag like this, and make it into a beautiful dress. A salad dress!” I’ve been thinking about the idea ever since.

I headed to the Union Square Greenmarket to get my veggies. I originally had a fancy and complicated salad in mind, but since it’s only mid-June, many of your favorite salad vegetables are not yet available locally. Instead of hitting up Whole Foods for additional ingredients, I decided to make this the Seasonal Salad Dress and just use that which could be acquired from nearby farms.

Wash, chop, bag, seal, and voila! The Salad Dress is real!

Materials: Clear trash bags, red & green leaf lettuce, carrots, radishes, red onions
Tools: The Electro-Sealer

DAY 4: Spammed! See Video Documentation Here! Today I looked in...

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 05:19:00 -0400

DAY 4: Spammed!

See Video Documentation Here!

Today I looked in my mailbox and found over 5 thousand pieces of spam. Then I looked in my e-mail box and found way more spam than in my mailbox although this spam dripped alot less. What can you do with so much spam? Make video art! Here is a tiny woman (played by the amazing Kt Rusch) trapped in a thick juicy spam can who only speaks text from spam emails!

MUSIC OF THE DAY: Weezer (something about Weezer makes me feel it’s ok to eat meat in a can)

Day 3: Learning Processing, the cover. (Is it...

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 23:06:07 -0400

Day 3: Learning Processing, the cover. (Is it “cheating” to do a 7 in 7 project that you needed to do anyway?)

Open-source Arduino Clock Project

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 19:48:08 -0400

There’s plenty of clock projects that use the open-source Arduino microcontroller platform, but to my knowledge, none of those projects are themselves officially open-source. So as a quick one-day project for 7 in 7, I started creating clock code that anyone can use and extend for their own projects, under the GPL Creative Commons license. So far it’s simply code for tracking weekday and time in a cyclical pattern, along with some buttons to set the clock. There’s plenty of room for creative additions, and that’s just the point. Use the Open-source Arduino Clock code as a base to create something amazing!