Re: [Pd] OT: this is the kind of interface I want

2006-11-13 Thread Damian Stewart

Claude Heiland-Allen wrote:


Something like this?

http://www.inference.phy.cam.ac.uk/dasher/


yes! that was the one i was thinking of :-)

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Re: [Pd] OT: this is the kind of interface I want

2006-11-12 Thread Arie van Schutterhoef
 The problem with video tracking is that there is no way to to track your
finger,
-It lacks the physical contacts.

instead it just tracks shadows.  What happens is if the video tracking
looses track of your finger for one instant, then it thinks you picked up
your finger and put it back on the table. That can definitely screw up
your actions.  And unfortunately which ever video tracking system thing I
have seen, that exact thing happens quite frequently.
-If you want to control things in concert, this is clearly something you
can do
 without.

Then there are multitouch sensors, which probably more reliably track your
finger, but they are quite slow, so they work fine for moving sliders and
pressing buttons, but for drawing or musical control, they are quite
limited.  
-Lemur seems to be 'performable', because at least there is no free space the
 surface and your fingers.

I think that using pressure sensors will probably be the better way,
-FSR's are still very usable.

over video tracking, but don't hold your breath either way.  Plus, more
importantly, I haven't seen any killer apps for this yet, that's key. 
Sure, its nifty to wiggle images around and zoom and navigate, but that's
a really simple app. 
-I guess that's what 'modern video art realtime processing' is all about...


I am just sick of the amount of hype these days.  All these media labs
put so much energy into hype,
-The 'medium is the message', no matter how crappy this al in one is.

instead of making better things.
-Takes too much time and needs a longer attention-span than generally people
 are capable of. No typing, just connecting virtual wires to virual boxes.

AvS






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Re: [Pd] OT: this is the kind of interface I want

2006-11-12 Thread Mathieu Bouchard

On Sun, 12 Nov 2006, Hans-Christoph Steiner wrote:

If you want to see a real killer demo, check out the 1968 demo of Doug 
Engelbart's Augmentation Research Center.


Yes, I often mention that one.

They should a actual, functional system with hyperlinks, a basic GUI, 
the mouse, video conferencing, custom computer furniture, etc.


AFAIK, he invented a lot of things: not only the mouse, but also 
undo/redo, copy/cut/paste, and foldable trees; also it might have been the 
first implementation of hyperlinks, but the concept is usually attributed 
to Vannevar.



when most people were excited to be using the terminal:


BTW, back then, a terminal usually didn't have a monitor. If you had 
one, then what you had had to be called Video Terminal (VT) to make sure 
that people knew that you had those newfangled monitors. Else, terminals 
were usually typewriters equipped with a serial port. This explains some 
things in computer history, like how old UNIX plain text often used the 
backspace code (0x08) to mean superimpose two characters, and especially 
in combination with underscore to mean underline.


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Re: [Pd] OT: this is the kind of interface I want

2006-11-12 Thread Chuckk Hubbard

I'm envisioning a musical instrument akin to a keyboard that retunes
itself.  Wendy Carlos made something like this, I think, but I want
something more versatile.  Monzo lattices, maybe, for selecting notes,
and then separate commands for transposing the whole system of notes
to different roots.
Monzo:
http://tonalsoft.com/enc/l/lattice.aspx

I'd also like to try an instrument that displays its frequencies
linearly instead of logarithmically.  I could do that without one of
these interfaces, but I'd like to try playing it with some kind of
multiple-touch screen.
A pedal or two might help with this as well.

-Chuckk


On 11/12/06, Hans-Christoph Steiner [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:



Actually, the most difficult thing to do is make it work well in the real
world.  Making it work isn't too difficult, there are lots of working
variations, including the Pd-powered reacTable.  But video tracking is
really limited.  You have to have completely steady lighting conditions
(notice the lights were turned off in that demo).

I used that exact table interface at NIME at IRCAM.  It is certainly nifty,
but it needs work to work in the real world.  The problem with video
tracking is that there is no way to to track your finger, instead it just
tracks shadows.  What happens is if the video tracking looses track of your
finger for one instant, then it thinks you picked up your finger and put it
back on the table. That can definitely screw up your actions.  And
unfortunately which ever video tracking system thing I have seen, that exact
thing happens quite frequently.

Then there are multitouch sensors, which probably more reliably track your
finger, but they are quite slow, so they work fine for moving sliders and
pressing buttons, but for drawing or musical control, they are quite
limited.

I think that using pressure sensors will probably be the better way, over
video tracking, but don't hold your breath either way.  Plus, more
importantly, I haven't seen any killer apps for this yet, that's key.  Sure,
its nifty to wiggle images around and zoom and navigate, but that's a really
simple app.  Try making photoshop with that, where the interface just
disappears  I don't think humans could remember enough gestures to map all
the functions in Photoshop, so a menu would probably be necessary.

If you want to see a real killer demo, check  out the 1968 demo of Doug
Engelbart's Augmentation Research Center.  That's a real demo.  They
basically showed up when many people were still using punchcards, and
interactive computing was just beginning to take hold.  They should a
actual, functional system with hyperlinks, a basic GUI, the mouse, video
conferencing, custom computer furniture, etc. when most people were excited
to be using the terminal:

http://sloan.stanford.edu/mousesite/1968Demo.html

I guess I am just sick of the amount of hype these days.  All these media
labs put so much energy into hype, instead of making better things.

There, that's my rant.

.hc

On Nov 8, 2006, at 1:02 PM, Kyle Klipowicz wrote:

I think that the most difficult (and useful) thing to do would be some sort
of book keeping to track individual fingers.  Maybe some sort of gloves or
fingertip sensors?  That would make things very flexible.

It sounds neat that you're doing an implementation.  Please post any
satisfying results to the list!

~Kyle

On 11/8/06, Thomas Grill [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:




 Am 08.11.2006 um 05:46 schrieb Kyle Klipowicz:

 I KNEW this had to have something to do with Jeff Han.  Brilliant
technology.  As I understand it, Apple Computer has gotten involved
financially with this.  I'd love to see it implemented!



 Actually this is fairly easy to implement. There are a number of
descriptions floating around in the net.
 Basically you need a transparent acrylic panel, IR emitters, a beamer and
a fast camera, minor drilling and assembling skills and a multi-blob video
tracker.
 I'm currently trying to build such a system.


 greetings,
 Thomas



 --
 Thomas Grill
 http://g.org





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Re: [Pd] OT: this is the kind of interface I want

2006-11-12 Thread Damian Stewart

Hans-Christoph Steiner wrote:


Actually, the most difficult thing to do is make it work well in the
 real world.  Making it work isn't too difficult, there are lots of 
working variations, including the Pd-powered reacTable.  But video 
tracking is really limited.  You have to have completely steady

lighting conditions (notice the lights were turned off in that demo).


i'm working for a small New Zealand company called Lumen Digital at the
moment. we actually have a *very* robust finger-tracking system based on
OpenCV that we currently use for digital map interfaces, and one of our
future research projects could involve some sort of tracking-based music
interactive table.

the lighting conditions do have to be controlled to some degree, but in
our case it's not a matter of needing no external light cast over the
interface so much as it is in needing lighting that doesn't change too
much over the course of interaction. i've just completed install of our
table in a gallery which was lit in the vicinity of the table itself by
more than 16 halogen bulbs, which together generate a considerable
amount of spill and shadow, and through all this our tracker was able to
reliably track hands to within a few pixels accuracy on a 1536x1024,
roughly 3m x 2m projection.

(by the way, if anyone's looking for a job in digital museum
interactives and not averse to moving to beautiful New Zealand to do so,
we're looking for programmers at the moment, email me at
[EMAIL PROTECTED] or jared forbes at [EMAIL PROTECTED]
for details.)


I used that exact table interface at NIME at IRCAM.  It is certainly
nifty, but it needs work to work in the real world.  The problem
with video tracking is that there is no way to to track your finger,
instead it just tracks shadows.


not so. we track fingers, not shadows.


What happens is if the video tracking looses track of your finger for
one instant, then it thinks you picked up your finger and put it back
on the table. That can definitely screw up your actions.  And
unfortunately which ever video tracking system thing I have seen,
that exact thing happens quite frequently.


we currently get around that one by not actually detecting whether 
you're pressing on the table or not (although doing so would just 
involve a relatively simple capacitance sensor on the table surface). 
since our table allows for multi-hand tracking (we've tested with up to 
eight individual users using one or two hands around a 3mx2m table, and 
theoretically it could go higher) there's no reason why you can't have 
the right hand doing pointing the and left hand hovering near an active 
area (or two, or three) that vaguely corresponds to a mouse button 
click. the trick in our industry is to make it intuitive, so joe public 
can pick it up in literally five seconds.



Sure, its nifty to wiggle images around and zoom and navigate,
but that's a really simple app.  Try making photoshop with that,
where the interface just disappears  I don't think humans could
remember enough gestures to map all the functions in Photoshop, so a
menu would probably be necessary.


gestures are another thing all together. having done tonnes of research 
before starting to code this project, i ended up concluding that 
gestures were far too fragile a system for public use, and having a 
palette of active areas as described above might be better for multiple 
actions. i remember finding a kind of a system that involving pointing 
at a small list that, as you got closer to it, kind of expanded in scope 
so that you were able to zoom through a large tree of options by subtle 
variations in the direction you moved the mouse. something like this 
would be ideal.


--
Damian Stewart
+64 27 305 4107

f r e y
live music with machines
http://www.frey.co.nz
http://www.myspace.com/freyed

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Re: [Pd] OT: this is the kind of interface I want

2006-11-12 Thread Claude Heiland-Allen
Damian Stewart wrote:
 i remember finding a kind of a system that involving pointing
 at a small list that, as you got closer to it, kind of expanded in scope
 so that you were able to zoom through a large tree of options by subtle
 variations in the direction you moved the mouse. something like this
 would be ideal.
 

Something like this?

http://www.inference.phy.cam.ac.uk/dasher/



Claude
-- 
http://claudiusmaximus.goto10.org

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Re: [Pd] OT: this is the kind of interface I want

2006-11-08 Thread Thomas Grill
Am 08.11.2006 um 05:46 schrieb Kyle Klipowicz:I KNEW this had to have something to do with Jeff Han.  Brilliant technology.  As I understand it, Apple Computer has gotten involved financially with this.  I'd love to see it implemented!Actually this is fairly easy to implement. There are a number of descriptions floating around in the net.Basically you need a transparent acrylic panel, IR emitters, a beamer and a fast camera, minor drilling and assembling skills and a multi-blob video tracker.I'm currently trying to build such a system.greetings,Thomas--Thomas Grillhttp://g.org ___
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Re: [Pd] OT: this is the kind of interface I want

2006-11-08 Thread Kyle Klipowicz
I think that the most difficult (and useful) thing to do would be some sort of book keeping to track individual fingers. Maybe some sort of gloves or fingertip sensors? That would make things very flexible.It sounds neat that you're doing an implementation. Please post any satisfying results to the list!
~KyleOn 11/8/06, Thomas Grill [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
Am 08.11.2006 um 05:46 schrieb Kyle Klipowicz:I KNEW this had to have something to do with Jeff Han. Brilliant technology. As I understand it, Apple Computer has gotten involved financially with this. I'd love to see it implemented!
Actually this is fairly easy to implement. There are a number of descriptions floating around in the net.Basically you need a transparent acrylic panel, IR emitters, a beamer and a fast camera, minor drilling and assembling skills and a multi-blob video tracker.
I'm currently trying to build such a system.greetings,Thomas
--Thomas Grillhttp://g.org 
-- http://theradioproject.comhttp://perhapsidid.blogspot.com(()()()(()))()()())(
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Re: [Pd] OT: this is the kind of interface I want

2006-11-07 Thread Kyle Klipowicz
I KNEW this had to have something to do with Jeff Han. Brilliant technology. As I understand it, Apple Computer has gotten involved financially with this. I'd love to see it implemented!~Kyle
On 11/7/06, Chuckk Hubbard [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
There was a short discussion of interfaces a while back, and I broughtup touchscreens, and some people didn't understand why I would wantone.I hope this sums it up:
http://ted.com/tedtalks/tedtalksplayer.cfm?key=j_hanflashEnabled=1-Chuckk--Far and away the best prize that life has to offer is the chance towork hard at work worth doing.
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