I saw the Rollins Band for the first time as a teenager in 1992. I went to the afternoon all-ages show. The show was mesmerising. Pulverising. No strobes. No coloured lights. Just the band. The Rollins Band, grinding out a sonic-fury under white work-lights. I kept the flyer.
Kollum is a concept for a collaborative location-based realtime audio experience that takes place in urban or suburban environments. Kollum is an attempt to conceptualise and capture the elements of location-based audio experiences that incorporate elevation or altitude through cumulative and persistant columns of sound. Users can use the audio recording features of their smart phone or mobile device to create a new audio block that makes up a column at their location or add an audio block to an existing column nearby.
This animation is an attempt to visually represent the assembly of a number of sound columns in a urban space (Does not represent actual experience…YET!).
In the absence of my own Google Glass, I’d like some type of wearable rig that can hold a mobile device such as a tablet or mobile phone. This rig would sit on the wearers shoulder or be strapped to their chest. It would allow the wearer to view any assistive augment displayed on the screen of the mobile device and also allow the wearer to use both hands to interact with the point of interest. The rig would need to be able to be adjusted to suit the wearer and multiple types of devices to prevent a confronting experience if the mobile device was placed too close to the users face.
Come to think it, this rig may not be practical for use in confined spaces or actually anything at all. It’s not very immediate or portable. Reject.
Getting started with Kinect and Processing by working my way through Daniel Shiffman’s most helpful RGB Display RGB, IR, and Depth Images, Point Cloud and Average Point Tracking examples. Thanks for sharing your code Daniel.
Mobas was a web application that (is actually still going…) enables vocational education students and teachers to create, complete and submit formative and summative assessments from their smartphone or other Internet enabled device – it was funded by the E-learning for Participation and Skills project for the National e-Learning Strategy and released in 2012/2013.
Client
National VET e-Learning Strategy and the students and teachers at Box Hill Institute
Platform
Web application/Moodle learning management system (LMS) with a custom plug-in.
Audience/Users
Students, teachers and workplace supervisors who are undertaking and facilitating training and assessment in the workplace, specifically trades such as carpentry, plumbing and automotive.
My role – learning designer
Watch the project team share their reflections on the project and the value that Mobas brings to teaching and learning in the VET sector.
Sew, grow and mow is a multi-user virtual lawn art experience played in real locations with real dimensions in real time. Sew, grow and mow is a continuation of an existing idea about persistently augmenting a space.
The experience
Location
Users choose a location nearby or a location they can easily access to place their virtual lawn. Suitable locations can be determined by browsing satellite photographs such as Google maps. They can then choose the design.
Design
Users can choose from a library of lawn art design templates or create their own with a basic lawn art editor. Lawn art designs can be previewed by going to the location and viewing the proposed design through Sew, mow and grow or by previewing their design superimposed on an aerial photograph such as Google maps.
Sew
Users can then choose the grass (native to their area or imported) they’d like to sew for their lawn. Each type of grass has a particular quality such as shape, colour, speed of growth, resistance to drought and climate that can enhance and contribute in some way to the finished lawn art. Users have the option to review their location, design and sewing choices before they can start to grow their lawn. They can also choose the climate they’d like for their lawn. Climate can be based on location of lawn or from a weather data supplied by an agency such as the Bureau of Meteorology.
Grow
Once the climate has been selected the users can then start growing their lawn. Grass can take a long time to grow. That’s why Sew, grow and mow has a feature to expand and contract time. Doing this enables the user to grow their lawn in a short period of time. Users can check the growth of their lawn by going to the location of the lawn and then viewing the lawn through Sew, mow and grow or by viewing their virtual lawn superimposed on a satellite photograph such as Google maps.
Mow
Users can start shaping their lawn art once the lawn has grown to a minimum or recommended length suitable for mowing. Users need to go to their location and then choose from a lawn mower, hedge trimmer or mini-trimmer. Holding their device like a lawn mower, hedge trimmer or mini trimmer, users can use Sew, grow and mow to view their virtual lawn and move around their location to start shaping their lawn art. A stencil of the users design will be placed over the screen to help the user shape their lawn art. The completed lawn art can be shared with friends, removed completely or maintained for as long as the user wants to. Mistakes or errors in mowing can be repair by returning to the Grow stage.
The following diagram describes the experience of Sew, grow and mow.
I bought a Kinect sensor to use with Processing. Next, start working my way through Daniel Shiffman’s Getting Started with Kinect and Processing blog post. Fun!
