A few weeks ago Daniel Cooper of Ball State University invited me to take part in a study he was conducting on the topic of Augmented Reality. He emailed over a list of very smart questions.
Instead of writing out a response, I figured I’d post a video of my response. Here it is – me rambling on about some interesting topics from information design, 3d spaces, architecture, narrative, theater, etc…
Enjoy!
Hey Everyone –
So it’s been a while since I visited Spatial Computing. Spatial Computing 1 and 2 were packed with some good interesting ideas, and video number 3 is coming down the pipeline.
But I want 3 to be better. I don’t want it to be a result of rushed, work-night render sessions, and I don’t want it to take another six months to complete. I want to direct my full attention to this project to make it as awesome as it deserves to be.
And I need your help.
Whether it be pledging a couple of bucks or just spreading the word, any help I can get will get me one step closer to hunkering down and focusing in on the project that is Spatial Computing III.
To show your support, please visit my Kickstarter campaign, where you can pledge a donation and learn more about the project. There are also tools on that page that you can use to introduce Spatial Computing to your friends.
Thanks for your support everybody!
I am a thinker. I got a brain that does a lot of traversing. Some trains of thought carry me off to new undiscovered worlds, while others run me full speed off of cliffs.
Lately I’ve been recording my thoughts in 10 – 15 minute audio clips. I cover things like art, video games, dance, work, ego, and other weird observations on my daily life.
So if you’re interested in my brain’s temperature for any given day, if you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to be me, visit the podcast to find out!
Today I built the Lumarca at the Vimeo Awards Gallery:
More info is posted about the event here:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/madparker/lumarca/posts/32598
Lumarca (one of the child projects of the Wiremap), had a great showing at Maker Faire, New York, this past weekend. The project got a lot of positive attention, including 3 Blue Ribbons (I guess each editor of the magazine gets to give out one).
The project also claimed the “Red Bull Create the Future” award. It totally took Matt and me by surprise when a couple of Red Bull representatives came by to shake our hands.
What exactly is this prize? A MakerBot!
We’re taking the momentum that Maker Faire has generated and using it to fuel our fundraising campaign. The funds we raise will go towards developing a DIY kit and doing research and development for bigger and better volumetric renderers.
Please consider donating if you want to see a new tomorrow for volumetric renderers:
When I was attending the ITP Summer Camp, I went to a session at NYU’s Motion Capture (Mocap) studio. As much as I had been around the 3d digital world, I had never seen a Mocap studio in person. I was so enamored by the technology I signed up to help volunteer.
Well, the professor sent an email blast out to these would-be volunteers, telling people about a class he was teaching. Unfortunately I’m no longer an NYU student, so I thought there’d be a slim chance that I’d be able to attend this class. Well, after a number of emails he said it’d be fine if I audited the course.
Class last week was pretty cool! There’s a lot of really incredible technology that I really can’t wait to get my hands on.
The class is project- / research-based, and I’ve got an idea that I’m really excited to start working on. I wanted to take this opportunity to start building this interaction (only the stuff from 2:24 – 2:39):
This week, I finally broke out my Arduino and used it for one of my projects. Here’s a look at what I built:
It should go without saying that I’m a total n00b when it comes to hardware. All that mess of wires is just for one button. I should also note how awesome I am at stitching a button to a glove… man, I really need to figure out a prettier way to do this…
But whatever, that’s not the point. The point is that now I’ve got a button. I’ve got a button and motion tracking tools… now I just need a display.
Instead of spending my life trying to apply for / track down / fabricate an AR headset, I’m just going to cheat using head tracking and a responsive 2d display. This video, published by Johnny Chung Lee, has been floating around for quite a while now, and it transforms a 2d screen into a pseudo 3d experience:
With my glove button + real time hand tracking + head tracking, I plan on using the main idea from the video above to make something that behaves more like Spatial Computing – complete with the ability to select and manipulate 3d models in real / pseudo real 3d space.
So excited for class again tomorrow…
One of the most exciting aspects of interface design is the process of constructing new perspectives — discovering new frameworks that help explain how we behave, what our expectations are, and how they are met. Constantly analyzing and re-evaluating behavior and expectations helps identify good design patterns – and identifying good design patterns makes way for creating new, engaging designs.
To give a specific example, back when I was drafting the foundational ideas for Spatial Computing, I needed to wrap my brain around what a “3d interface design” meant and how it would work. I figured that a good way to do this would be to take a look at the interaction design paradigm that exists for things before 3d input — all types of input from 2d to 0d. Here’s what I came up with:
I was just in the shower and I made a huge realization:
I am focusing all my creative energy in the wrong places.
See, I would consider myself a thinker, a doer and maker. I’m an inventor, a designer and engineer. But looking at my life lately, I’ve been spending a majority of my energy trying to be something that I’m not — a brand.
This desire for a brand identity comes from an honest place. A year or two ago I began scaling back my work because I felt like it wasn’t really getting me where I wanted it to. I had expectations that I was an artist, and as such, I needed to do artist behaviors and have artist things. The logic being that doing this would get me into some important gallery or some cool press attention.
So I tried to design a brand and I built a website. I went to more events and started schmoozing. I started to dump a disproportionately large chunk of my energy into inflating this identity of “Phedhex” with the idea that this could be a brand that could get me things.
First off, many many thanks to everybody who submitted. Matt & I received lots photos and are really impressed by the quality of the photos! It was pretty difficult to finally decide on a winner, but here ya go:
& the winner is:
(Please click on the photos to view full size… these thumbnails don’t really do the photos justice)
Photo was shot by Jason Eppink. IOU $50, buddy.
What a beauty! Crisp, bright, and nicely saturated. Matt and I also liked how it gave a good sense of size while still managing to evoke what it feels like to be standing there seeing the whole thing.
Thanks again!
w00t!
The redesign includes a couple of cool new features. Most notably, the old… uh… plain design, has been updated to this cool, new hex design. This includes visual updates all across the site, including the mailing list page, the about page, and the empty splash page.
plain white, courier new... glad to see some color now...
The second thing the new site has that the old site sort of didn’t is a project index page. I compiled all the work I’ve done and placed it in the projects page. It may still need reworking as time goes on, but I’m pretty happy with it so far.
One of the things I noticed when building the projects page is that I had never uploaded any footage from The Imhotep Project. So I uploaded it and listed it in the projects page.
Lastly, the comments on blog posts or project pages are post it notes. I think that’s pretty darn cool. I had to do some minor PHP coding to allow the commenter to pick out which color post it they wanted to use, but I think it was totally worth it.