Archive for the 'ITP' Category

Another thesis idea I had last semester was to build something I called an “iPhone Power Ranger”. I didn’t have a specific idea, but I wanted to build an app that required multiple iPhones to work. It is really interesting to see how the iPhone is such a ubiquitous device in New York, especially at ITP. It is something I found quite shocking when I first moved to this city, especially given the fact that I hardly knew anyone who owned any type of smartphone back in Montreal. Many companies simply assume everyone has an iPhone and therefore only offer services only for that specific platform. I wanted to take this idea further and push it to a ridiculous level, expecting people to have not one, but many iPhones in order to use my app.

I revisited this concept and combined it with the 3D zoetrope. I was thinking about some comments I got in class, specifically on how some people were interested in creating their own animations, and others were concerned that the same 12 frame animation would get old really fast. I started exploring the idea of using small LCD screens to hold the content so that it could be easily updatable. This seemed like a huge hassle because they need to be powered, receive content, look good, not get tangled up as they spin, etc. Then it hit me: The iPhone has a high-resolution screen, is battery-powered, has wireless networking capabilities, and can be programmed to do almost anything. It is perfect for my needs.

The idea is to create a disc that has placeholders for 8 iPhones. The disc is the same size as a 12″ record and can fit on any conventional turntable. These 8 devices are running an app which allows them to be directed by a 9th controller iPhone. The controller is used to draw frames, send them to the other phones, and keep the whole system in sync. The system is therefore not limited by a specific number of frames, as the 8 screens can queue up images and draw them in sequence.

I am pretty excited about this idea, a lot more than I have been about the other thesis ideas I have had so far, but there are still many concerns to be addressed:

1. I have to learn a new programming language, Objective-C, to write software for the iPhone. I am also going to have to dive into lots of networking code, which is notoriously always a struggle.
2. I must build a record that is light enough to be driven by the turntable, but solid enough to keep all the phones in place.
3. I need 9 iPhones. It won’t be too hard to find 8 people who can lend me their phones for a bit, but it will be more difficult to find 8 people who will let me install software on their phone and lend it to me for an extended period of time.
4. I have to make sure I can get a decent animation framerate from the system. The fastest my turntable can spin is 72rpm. At 8 screens per rotation, I get a little less than 10fps, which is not ideal.

It looks like both thesis ideas on stereoscopic vision are going down the drain.

I lost interest in the 3D camera rig idea because I met 3 people in the last week who are working on very similar projects, and that pretty much turned me off.

In regards to the anaglyph drawing machine, I was a little worried about the technology as I have not seen red/blue 3D glasses in ages; most 3D experiences now use polarized glasses. After doing a little research, I found out that the red/blue glasses technique is out-dated as it doesn’t work super well, causes eyestrain, gives headaches, and doesn’t represent true colors. I found someone online named Sylvain Arnoux who worked on a similar idea and confirmed all this over an e-mail exchange. I do not really want to work on something that is already deprecated, so I am leaning away from this idea.