Looking Back at Almost perfect...

Hey I'm on TV.... ;)

Ladybug Woes on a Mac

http://sourceforge.net/projects/libdc1394/files/

Been working with the Libdc1394 version 2 library thanks to a tip (thanks Louis!) and am trying to get the ladybug working with Max/MSP. The OSX port of Libdc seems fine until you try to capture a series of images and I get a "bus Error". Tried posting to the forums, no luck, but I solved it, it seems there's an error in the "BASENAME" string in the Sprintf function. If you change:
sprintf(filename,"%s-%05d-%d-%d.jpg",BASENAME,i,cam,k);
to
sprintf(filename,"%04d-%d-%d.jpg",i,cam,k);

AND
sprintf(filename,"%s-%05d.raw",BASENAME,i);
to
sprintf(filename,"%04d.raw",i);

Tah-Dah, it works (though it drops all your frames in your current folder... sorry about that). Will try and figure out how to get that running soon, and then, on to getting it running with Max/MSP.

Wrapping up the Year

The year ends with one of my favorite things (something I'm terrible
at). I haven't had to solder much in my life. I must have seen it
done a hundred times. I even went out an bought a soldering iron for
the AR Lab to swap LEDs for infrared emitters in dollar store
booklights. The picture is of Stefan at Brock showing me how it's
done. He really had the knack but I think I held my own pretty well.
The component is a Parallax RFID reader, I'll post the code I got from
the arduino playground and the Max/MSP patch I've been using from the
forums.

IASC Media Tools for Interactivity

I've been keeping busy since I've been back in Ontario.  I've been teaching part time at Brock University in St. Catherines.  The course is Media Tools for Interactivity as part of the Interactive Arts and Sciences program.  It's a course on graphical programming languages and peripheral devices framed by a survey of New Media Art  History.  It's teaching students to explore digital art and interactivity as practitioners.  It's loosely based on programs that I took in the Digital Media stream of Fine Arts Cultural Studies at York University though the focus on graphical programming languages as their own entity is an important part of the course.  And of course there will be good fun with Arduino boards.

It's got me thinking about what sort of courses I'd be interested in pursuing.  I'm definitely still interested in taking a course on 3D Modeling and perhaps one on C programming (I'm kind of getting anxious to program for platforms like the iPhone).  But what to do about a Masters or PhD?  While taking more interactive art programs such as ITP in New York sound great, I can't help but think I still want to pursue Augmented Reality as a field of research (both practical and theoretical).  I'm not sure yet what courses are better suited to that kind of research.

All Good Things...

The "Almost Perfect: Call and Response" Locative Media Co-Production Residency grinds to a halt as all things must. I will post more about the Gremlin-infested Positioning System shortly but would like to take this moment to acknowledge the wonderful people I worked with and met at the Banff Centre. To all of you, my advisors, the staff at the BNMI, and the rest of the Almost Perfectionists, I'd like to say thank you for making it an incredible experience. I learned so much and can't wait to expand my practice further into the field of Locative Media.  I will cherish the memories and endeavor to keep in contact with all of you.

Here Be Gremlins

Well, it serves me right invoking the gremlins name as part of my project. Technical glitches abound. Though it's finally taking shape tonight, there was one perfect run, and another in which the sound from all the videos suddenly cut out for no reason. And the keyboard for the tablet kept popping up which has never happened before. Oh, and I got chased by deer again. I think they see a kindred spirit in my glassy eyed stare into the bright light of a computer screen. Either that or they want to bite me.