Check out this body movement -> vj control demo

[elbows]

OK Im only at initial stages of playing with this but actions speak louder than words so Ive uploaded an avi to demonstrate:

http://www.spongeserve.com/bodytostuff.avi (about 16MB Divx)

This is visualJockey using Nashs ImageExplorer plugin and a crappy little video camera to control variables in visualjockey. The camera is under the screen next to that glowing red thing which is a cheesy fingerprint scanner.

This means I can control variables using my body movement as the video hopefully shows. In the first example I am scratching a fractal avi, in the second example I am controlling the vertical position of my 3d rotating head.

What everyone think?

If you want a smaller avi for low bandwidth users give us a shout :)

[KillingFrenzy]

So THAT's why you're named Elbows.

Image Explorer is an interesting image analysis plugin for visualJockey.

Here:
http://www.dvmachine.com/vj/viewtopic.php?t=1048&start=0&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=

It allows you to get brightness information from defined quadrants of the screen. The differentials between the quadrants are converted into x, y position and speed data. You can also get an average brightness of the whole image. The variables can then be mapped to any of the other plugins in visualJockey, allowing you to control things using a rough position of a bright object shifting between quadrants. The result isn't very precise, because its based on quadrants, but has very low latency compared to running external analysis and using midi as a go-between. There are also really interesting ways to do what I can only term "data" feedback instead of regular feedback. I.e. the image is having its own data fed back into its control set... which is different then just having an image feeding back into an image.

The reason I use the term "interesting" is that Nash (the programmer) seems to have come at the analysis from a fresh approach (GUI), instead of just mimicing other analysis programs. I'm really happy the Visualight team take the time to experiment like this, the results are always exciting for users.

[KillingFrenzy]

My link to the thread on the visualJockey forums is okay, but
beware that the link to the plugin package in the first post is "broken".

You just have to make sure to copy the entire line with the ".exe" included, instead of the incomplete portion that highlights.

[elbows]

Heres a shorter 3MB version:

http://www.spongeserve.com/elbowshort.avi

Other formats coming soon

[elbows]

Any chance of some more feedback? Good or bad I really dont mind, I just wanna know if Im alone in finding this stuff interesting!

[syzygy]

It's definitely interesting elbows. I'm not sure I'd want to use it myself (I like buttons, knobs and sliders too much :) ) but this sort of thing could be really cool if you have a performer who is willing to have sensors strapped to them.

It would be interesting to point some cameras at the crowd and have their movement effect data settings.

SyZyGy

[eirenah]

well i downloaded it, but it seems like i don't have a propriate decompressor so i can't open it. what compression did you use?

[KillingFrenzy]

It is interesting...

But until I figure out some way to overlap the system a little bit, I found it not detailed enough, or rather too confusing to really use externally.
I think my interest is a little different, however. It would seem to work well for cueing or controlling where the user is knowledgeable of the systems limits, whereas I would like to use it more interactively where the users get no training.
Don't get me wrong, I think it is a big step, and that data feedback thing I was talking about is something I'm really trying to get a handle on so I can use it properly, but I found the limitation of a single variable set a bit, well... limiting.

You might post the FXCs along with the movie, as well. That way, new users can try it. Figuring out the variable relationships to get a good working model is not a first-time user friendly activity.

[many2]

Hey Elbows this is a nice one !

After seeing that I couldn't wait to make more tests myself (even though I was working on a DVD I must finish this afternoon :( ). This has given me a lot of ideas for an upcoming video installation I am working on.

Many-2

[elbows]

Thanks for the feedback. Its probably too primitive to do much clever stuff with at the moment but I intend to use it in combination with phyical hardware sensors, you can bet I'll post my progress here.

Did anybody want the video in other formats?