A New GestMini Design v.5.0: The Box
Giving a final touch on redesigning my mini DI setup, i have replaced the old carton box with a wooden one made out of melamine. The dimension of the box are the same as my previous setup: 40cm length x 30cm width x 40cm height, with a wood thickness of 1,6mm. The equipment has been placed with the exact strategy as the old setup. The camera in the bottom center and the infrared lights as pairs on the longest sides of the table.
Price: 50€
Cygnus Thu, 12 May 2011, 12:54PM
A New GestMini Design v.5.0: The Camera
The tracking equipment used on my DI setup is the Custom Housing m12 camera purchased from Peau Productions. The camera kit includes the camera, the m12 mount, the filter and a variety of lenses.
The camera is a USB PS3 Eye camera. The m12 mount allows the ability to add m12 lenses to the camera so that you get perfect, adjustable focus of your subject. The filter is the 850nm - 850DF10 (m12/CS) band pass filter with diameter of 11.5mm and thickness: 2.9mm.
Price: $130,00
The lenses are the m12 lenses. This Standard lens pack has 6 single, fixed focus m12 lenses. All lenses do not have any filters in them, so they can be used in any setup, whether it’s for visible or infrared applications. The lens kit includes the:
- 2.8mm 92 degree Lens
- 3.6mm 79 degree Lens
- 6mm 54 degree Lens
- 8mm 42 degree Lens
- 12mm 29 degree Lens
- 16mm 23 degree Lens
Price: $25,00
Also an additional lens, the Vari-Focal lens has been added to my equipment. This lens lets you adjust the field of view without changing lenses. No filters installed so it can be used for any setup. The specification are listed below:
- Focal length = 2.8 - 12 mm
- Aperture (F) 1.4
- m12 (board) mount
- Horizontal Field of View = 92-29°
- Manual Iris
Price: $42,00
When testing the lenses on my setup, i have found that the Vari-Focal lens suits perfectly to my installation, because of its ability to adjust the zoom field and the focus. This enables to frame the specific area that i would consider the appropriate each time for every custom setup and application use.
The Standard lens kit is also working fine with my GestMini table, but since i am using the Vari-Focal lens i didn’t put the into more tests.
Total Price: $197,00
Cygnus Tue, 10 May 2011, 15:52PM
A New GestMini Design v.5.0: The IR Led Emitters
Additionally to the acrylic surfaces, research has been made in order to seek for an efficient way to light up my DI multitouch table. The new GestMini is now equipped with the 4 bar infrared LED emitter kit - 850nm (from Peau Productions, USA).
The kit includes:
- 4 high flux infrared bars
- 4 bar joiners
- 8 angle clips and screws
- 8 straight clips and screws
- 1 power cord with in-line switch
- 3 20 inch cord to connect the bars to each other
- 1 12 volt 60 watt power supply with plug
Price: 213$
The IR Emitter Kit provides enough infrared light to light up my setup. Due to the small size of my DI table, i have place a pair of infrared bar on each of the widest sides of my rectangular setup. This have caused an unequal light diffusion to the rear surface of my table. A larger setup will solve the problem caused from my GestMini table.
Note: To reduce any hotspots caused by the LEDs, i need to purchase the LED Bar diffusers sold from Peau Productions.
Cygnus Tue, 10 May 2011, 14:03PM
Gestus Sound Library: Looping the Robot
The following example has been added to my “SC Sound Library” as another synth that can be assigned to a fiducial object or a blob in order to enrich musical experimentation. Here is the code:
3. Looping the Robot
// Set a value to x
x = 1
x = 5
x = 7
x = 15
( // Play the loop
{
loop {
{ FreeVerb.ar(Blip.ar([x*1500.rand, x*1700].rand) * EnvGen.kr(Env([0, 1, 0],[0.1, 0.3],\welch), doneAction: 2), Line.kr(10, 0.2, 0.1)) }.play;
0.2.wait;
{ FreeVerb.ar(LFSaw.ar([x*1500.rand, x*1500]) * EnvGen.kr(Env([0, 0.5, 0],[0.1, 0.3],\welch), doneAction: 2), Line.kr(10, 0.2, 0.1)) }.play;
0.2.wait;
{ FreeVerb.ar(Impulse.ar([x*500.rand, x*700.rand]) * EnvGen.kr(Env([0, 1, 0],[0.1, 0.3],\welch), doneAction: 2), Line.kr(10, 0.2, 0.1)) }.play;
0.2.wait;
{FreeVerb.ar(VarSaw.ar([x*1500.rand, x*1500.rand]) * EnvGen.kr(Env([0, 1, 0],[0.1, 0.3],\welch), doneAction: 2), Line.kr(10, 0.2, 0.1))}.play;
0.2.wait;
}
}.fork;
)
Cygnus Tue, 10 May 2011, 13:40PM
A New GestMini Design v.5.0: The Surfaces
A new surface material has replaced the old plexi glass that i have used in my previous versions of GestMini multitouch surface. I have purchased (from Evonik, Germany) and used the following acrylic materials:
- ACRYLITE® Rear Projection Grey 7D006 RP (used in the Microsoft Surface Tables)
- ACRYLITE® Rear Projection Grey 7D512 RP
Both Grey 7D006 RP and Grey 7D512 RP have worked well on the testing procedure. The tests have included both fiducials and multitouch finger recognition. The 7D006 RP acrylic works only from one side (focus), in comparison with the 7D512 RP which can be used on both sides. Personally i prefer the 7D006 RP which has 45.0% light transmission and a darker color. The 7D512 RP has a light grey color and a 64.6% light transmission. Depending on different environmental conditions both acrylic materials come in handy.
Prices:
• 7D512 RP - 25.70 USD (Price/sqft)
• 7D006 RP - 49.39 USD (Price/sqft)
You can also check a Acrylite Rear Projection material comparison by Peau Production here: http://vimeo.com/5137562
Cygnus Mon, 09 May 2011, 22:21PM
Composition Series: 2. Wrapin’ Low
This is an attempt to compose interesting works of music in SuperCollider, using as less code as possible. This is the second track.
2. Wrapin’ Low
scope{x = Duty.kr(Dseq([0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.2, 0.1, 0.5], inf), 0 ,Drand(fib(8,8,64),inf)); CombN.ar(Wrap.ar(SinOsc.ar([x*100,x/4], 0, 0.4), Line.kr(0.00001, 0.9, 180), Line.kr(0.00005, 1, 180))) }
Cygnus Sat, 16 April 2011, 16:16PM
Composition Series: 1. Eyes Bli(p)
This is an attempt to compose interesting works of music in SuperCollider, using as less code as possible. This is the first track.
1. Eyes Bli(p)
scope{x = Duty.kr(Dseq([0.1, 0.2, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3], inf),0, Dseq([10, 20, 15, 18, 20], inf)); FreeVerb.ar(RLPF.ar(Blip.ar(LFNoise0.kr([XLine.kr(x/6, x/2, 60),XLine.kr(x/2, x/8, 180)], XLine.kr(x*2, x/8, 120))) * EnvGen.kr(Env([0,5,6,0],[10,230,20],\welch))), Line.kr(10, 0.7, 120))}
Cygnus Sat, 16 April 2011, 15:16PM
SuperColliderAU - Audio Unit Wrapper
I have managed to interconnect SC and Logic through SuperColliderAU.
“SuperColliderAU is an AudioUnit wrapper that allows using SuperCollider servers inside AudioUnits hosts on MacOSX. The embedded server may be controlled over OSC as usual. In addition, it may be packed with a synth definition and a configuration file that defines its parameters”. (SuperColliderAu Help File)
Here a simple example:
// SuperCollider Au
u = Server(\scau, NetAddr(“127.0.0.1”, sequencer’s instrument port here));
u.serverRunning = true;
u.ping(10);
// A ring-modulator effect
z = { AudioIn.ar([1,2]) * SinOsc.ar(MouseX.kr(100, 1000)) }.play(u)
I will post more on this. Next plan is to use my fiducial markers in order to change sound parameters which will originate from any instrument coming from Logic Studio.
Cygnus Wed, 08 December 2010, 08:34AM
Tracking objects with my new infrared bar emitters. This is the best object recognition i have achieved so far. Again using my GestMini multitouch surface.
Cygnus Fri, 03 December 2010, 13:27PM
This is the second approach of constructing fiducial objects. This time i have used a laser printer in order to get better printing quality, higher contrast and more vivid colors. Again, this collection of objects are both side printed.
Objects seem solid and fiducial markers are easy to track.
Materials used:
- Pieces of plexiglass (6cm x 6cm )
- Printed A4 with fiducials
- Sticker Plastic Wrapping
Total Cost: 8€
On my next implementation, i will construct one-side objects, in order to print my label/tags on the other side, since i am unable to place a label tag on the double sided objects. Also i am planning to used different shapes of plexi glass as an another way to differentiate my objects. For example a cube shape can hold up to six markers without any label tag. This would be easily used for a having 6 similar sounds or a collection of rhythmic samples in one control. More on this on my next post.
Cygnus Tue, 23 November 2010, 16:53PM
