I recently had a few days to evaluate Solidworks 2009.  Perhaps the most exciting facet of the new suite was the PhotoView 360 rendering addition.  This plugin was developed by Luxology, the company that created the super amazingly awesome subdivision surface modelling/ rendering/ animation suite called “Modo.”

FINALLY, I can create a model in solidworks and make it look pretty without spending HOURS in its native rendering studio.

Here’s a small collection of a few of my quick modeling/ rendering tests using the new PhotoView 360 element of Solidworks 2009:

Busting open the keyboard and altering the way it interfaces with the computer- FUN STUFF!

For example, imagine you’re in a room illuminated by projector hooked up to a computer, and when you type “Y” key, the color of the room changes from red to blue… now. If you were to replace the “y” key with a motion sensor, that means you could have a room change color simply by walking through the door.

Why? – product and interface simulations, interactive environments and artistic installations, etc.

Videos of Keyboard Hacking Tests:

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This is a 3/4 baked idea based on discoveries made while tinkering with some miscellaneous components.

The basic idea:

Combine a pulley mechanisms with the brain and axles of a hacked PC mouse to (the older type that use a ball), then write some code to make the travel distance of the mouse correspond to the pulley’s movement.  The mouse would then be a “digital paint brush,” which can be used to write messages to be seen on the other side of the wall (mouse buttons could be used to change interaction options).

Other possibilities:

• same interface on both sides of the wall, so people on each side can communicate with the other
• Messages erode and leave faint ghosts of themselves, in the end contributing to an abstraction of text
• this might be a nice interface for changing colors / effects

This is a prototype of a programmable robot toy using the Lego Mindstorm Series as the platform that drives its functionality/ interactivity.

For demonstration purposes, it has been programmed with an algorithm for bypassing obstructions, such as walls and corners, though sometimes it chooses to crash repeatedly into an obstacle until it hears the voice command “stop that!” or “boogie-boogie,” which will make him dance (actually, any 4 syllables shouted at the bot will trigger the same action- I chose “boogie-boogie” just for show).

[click image to enlarge]

I came upon a beautiful bike frame that was just crying to be enhanced into virtuous chopper of majesty. The frame mysteriously vanished before I had a chance to get to work, but at least I’ve got this roughly photoshoped sketch of what I’d envisioned: the found frame with a bent seat post and fork quite like that from another friend’s chopper.

This is a “Blue Sky” concept of an Idea that allows for nonverbal communication between two people.

This stems from the same technology that can interpret human emotion and physical sensations as an electric signal that is very specific to situation at hand. With two, or more people using similar devices, one could transmit these signals to the appropriate sector of the recipient’s brain, allowing them to “understand” the state of the other person; know what they’re trying to say without ever having to say it.

Some Quick Thoughts:

• “Baby talk” could be deciphered ( though I’d think twice about putting something like this on an infant!)
• Language barriers could become less of  an obstacle.
• Mutes, or people suffering an injury may finally have a way to “articulate” themselves without words.

I chose wordpress as the primary tool to create and control a majority of the site content, including: site pages, catalogs, galleries, blog posts, contact forms,  and anything else that could be integrated into the site later on.  One of my main goals in using wordpress as the content management system was to NOT end up with something that looked and felt like a blog.  My solution was to create a static interface with elements that can be dynamically updated through the back end I created.

The endeavor gave me a healthy dose of knowledge in the worlds of wordpress, cascading stylesheets (CSS), php, HTML, and basic javascript.

I LOVE discovering new and emerging technologies.   I enjoy coming up with idea after idea as to how they can be implemented. I tend to scribble dozens of notes and bookmark relative findings from the web.  Sometimes,  I package my thoughts in the form of a rough concept model, sketch, or photoshop piece.

I’ll set up a section on this site sometime in the future that catalogs some of my favorites.  In the meantime, here are a few miscellaneous examples of that sort of thing (please keep in mind, the samples I dug up are probably about 4 years old, so some of these notions might seem a bit dated- I’ll add more current ones later on):

So… I was really bored one day, and decided to create a kaleidoscope big enough to fit your head into.  This was yet another spur of the moment idea, that i began to build with random scraps laying around in the studio.  I was going to use a television to show a video feed sent from a camera mounted on an RC car… Having flashbacks to warnings about sitting too close to the TV, I began to feel  unsure as to how safe it would be to stick my head in a mirrored shaft with CRT beams blasting at my face, so I decided to put the project on hold until i could get my hands on an alternative display source.

To Be Continued…

What one does on one side of the wall effects what another sees on the other side of the wall.
This experimental installation uses projectors, video cameras, Macromedia flash, and about 60 switches (the sphere shaped parts floating within the wall)

Each of the blocks (shown to the left) is pushed against one of 2 sets of prongs when the sphere it’s connected to is pushed from one side or the other. A circuit is closed once the block comes in contact with the prongs. This sends information to a computer saying that a specific key has been pressed, and depending on what that key is, the wall will respond accordingly- unmasking a specific area.

Since the inception of this experiment, I’ve come a long way in the world of neatness with wires and cable management

Sit in the chair, and the movie on the TV in front of you advances one frame each time your heart beats. (the image shown is a place holder for the actual art piece and demo video, which will be uploaded as soon as I can get my hands on the videotape of it in use)

More Info:

Just for fun…

In a room filled with ambient noise, this mutation of a homework assignment sits quietly, waiting to strike. The moment it detects an absence of sound, it lets out a series of loud pulsing thumps until the background noise resumes- works really well during critiques where nobody has anything to say.

Ingredients:

• Basic stamp
• Sound recorder board (not used in this experiment)
• Relay board
• Power supply circuit
• amplifier circuit
• 555 timer circuit (generates the thumping noise)
• fake video camera (meant to further obscure the purpose of this thing)
• bookshelf speaker

While messing around with scraps one day, I mocked up this rough concept with some implications of a controversial direction in entertainment technology. The implications might be less unsettling if the idea of entertainment purposes were swapped with medical applications.

Example Manipulation Effects:

Concept Info

Dating back as far as the Ming Dynasty, relaxation practices have been used where iron balls would be manipulated in one’s hand. As time went on, the design and fabrication of these balls became more intricate by incorporating bells within these iron forms as a source of feedback.

The concept behind the “Digital Spheres” is to take the interaction and feedback of the traditional iron balls even further. Within each ball, and the base on which they sit, there are nodes that wirelessly track the location of the balls in reference to each other and to the base. The base sends this data to a computer, which receives it through a wireless receiver plugged into the USB port.