IDAT106: Final Project

As mentioned before, the basis of my final project for IDAT106 involves using the ArchOS data collected from the Portland Square building, and to be presented on the Portland Square building's greenscreen. The greenscreen itself is an array consisting of 50x80 RGB LED pixels. When designing projects for the greenscreen there are several different factors you need to think about. The first is the dimensions of the screen itself, its been recommended that the source media is to the resolution of 330x500 pixels onscreen; so what can be displayed is very limited by this factor. This got me thinking visually what im going to display on the screen and what scale its going to be.

First off I researched different style types such as grunge, minimalistic, retro, futuristic etc and found that a very basic retro style was the best way to go forward. When I say the style retro I mean very basic block images with defined edges such as graphics seen in very early video games.

In the games above both of them seem to use a sort of tile based system consisting of a grid of squares. Inside these squares different shapes/colours are used to show different directions/solids. This idea of using a grid system to define tiles seemed like a really awesome way of creating simple yet effective boundaries between transparent and opaque.

This lead me onto my first idea for a visual look on my project, by creating a grid of patterned tiles in a 8x12 grid, to the size of the screen (330x500). Each of the tiles could either be opaque, transparent, or a mix of the two.

The above image is a possible outcome of a randomly generated set of tiles, with a mirror along the middle to create a great visual effect. This mirroring idea lead me onto a great idea for how I could manipulate the ArchOS data to generate these funky pattern designs. After a discussion with fellow members of my course, the huge contrast of the transparent/opaque look makes the design look like a sort of ventilation system on the side of the building. I then took this idea further and thought about doing a contrast between the temperatures inside and outside of the building, so I could open and close up individual vents depending on the difference between temperatures inside and outside of the building.

After many hours of planning and coding, I managed to create an algorithm which managed the flow of the 'ventilation' tiles, which over time opened and closed the vents to adapt to the temperature change. For example if it started getting colder outside of the building, the vents would start closing up to seal more of the heat inside the building and vise-versa.

Click here for a link to Tiles v1

IDAT101: Interventions

Previously for my IDAT101 project entitled "Site Specific Brief" we collected and processed data found in the Plymouth main Train Station. This data was not only just numbers on a spreadsheet, we also managed to record a general ambient sound emitting from the station, as if we were capturing the environment at the time.

For my original idea I planned to play footsteps back into the same environment and record the surroundings on video, to do this I would have to submit a video protocol.

After not being able to get permission to record video in the Plymouth Train Station I decided to take the contents of the station and place them elsewhere!



...such as the University of Plymouth Student Union (UPSU). At the UPSU there is plenty of people that will be passing by and a whole different environment to the train station. I played the environment recording from the station into this new environment to see how people would react to the changes; this is what happened.

IDAT106 Workbook: Final Project Proposal

For my final project I am definately going to be working closely with the greenscreen linked to the Arch-OS system.

IDAT106 Workbook: Workshop Synthesis

From the previous workshops I have taken particular interest in the last segment of sessions. By combining the Arch-OS system with the greenscreen a very powerful and interactive application can be developed. The first set of workshops made me alot more aware about re-visualising our surroundings and how it can be visualised. This also links into the second set of workshops by visualising the hertzian space around us which a more digital aspect of the previous workshops. By using ideas from the first 2 sets of workshops something special can be conjured up and displayed onto the greenscreen to the general public. By doing this you can make the general public alot more aware of their own surroundings and the invisible space around them.

IDAT106 Workbook: Introductory Greenscreen Project

As we had to complete a practical piece for this section of the workshops, we were asked to build a small application using either video streaming or the use of ArchOS and the greenscreen. For my project I decided to use the greenscreen as it had the higher interest for me. I looked into different types of applications and decided using a combination of Flash and the Arch-OS system was the best way to go. We were already provided with a basic XML parser for Actionscript 2.0 with use in Flash but we have recently been taught how to use Actionscript 3.0 which uses a whole new language system, so the old code would not run and contained tons of errors when compiled in the new language.

In the IDAT102 module we have been taught the basics of AS3.0 but didn't really get told anything relevant to using the Arch-OS XML parser. After hours of slaving over helpbooks and browsing various Internet pages I managed to code my own XML parser in Actionscript 3.0 which utilized the Arch-OS system and output values which I could use to manipulate objects in Flash. I then studied the values output from the system and noticed that the most commonly updated values involved using the wind speed and direction from the wind vane on top of the Roland Levinsky building.

After experimenting with different ways of outputting this data onto the screen and for other users to make any sense of this, I managed to conjure up a nifty application called the "Wind Clock". The Wind Clock operated by drawing a line depending on the wind direction, and its thickness determined by the strength of the current wind. Each second a line would be drawn in progression to the previous, slowly making its way down the screen until the next minute arrived. After a couple of minutes the display would build up a sort of linear spirograph showing the history of the winds direction and strength.

IDAT106 Workbook: The Territory - Arch-OS

The Arch-OS system is a huge network running through the Portland Square building, containing heaps of information about the building itself. The system is interpreted as the buildings "Operating System" as if the building was actually alive. It is capable of monitoring all sorts of data about the building and relaying information back to itself. Not only does this let the building actually manage itself, it allows others to research the data collected and study how to create a more environmentally friendly building to use.

On the Arch-OS section of the Plymouth website any user from around the world is capable of looking at selected sensors placed throughout the building and is able to use this data for their own devices. In our section of the workshop we were asked to use this Arch-OS data and create a very simple Flash application which utilises this data and outputs it into a more user understood way.

http://arch-os.scce.plymouth.ac.uk/live_data.php?refresh=5

In the link above there is a live feed of all of the values output from the Arch-OS system to the web. It contains all sorts of different sensors ranging from lecture theatre temperatures to wind speed/direction.

IDAT106 Workbook: The Territory - Greenscreen

The next segment of these workshops revolves around the use of the greenscreen, located on the front of the Portland Square building. The greenscreen is a grid of bright LED lights layed out into a square grid of 50x80 LEDS, each capable of performing a full RGB spectrum. The recommended resolution of graphics for the greenscreen is 330x500 pixels where you can run any multimedia application such as a flash document or video stream. The recommended use of the greenscreen is to use as much contrast in colour as possible and alot of motion to be able to notice a difference in the picture.

The following video is entitled "Connected Environments" which was a workshop held the previous year in using the greenscreen combined with processing Arch-OS data.



All in all, the greenscreen was designed as a public interface as to where any type of information can be relayed and displayed to the public. Some of the examples in the previous video change the way they look depending on the environment surrounding the screen (wind, temperature etc.)

One other great example of work used on this greenscreen is the Noogy project. The Noogy project was a visual character displayed on the screen of whom that reacted not only to values relayed from the Arch-OS system, but was also capable of watching the public through a video feed and receiving messages via an SMS text system.