TWC multimedia test facility

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The Tetherless World Constellation is increasingly branching out into multimedia projects involving scientific visualization and innovative user interfaces. In so doing, we would like to make good use of the unique, state-of-the-art EMPAC facility just down the street. Projects targeted at EMPAC not only have high visibility for our lab, but also allow us to "think big" in exploring new possibilities for user interaction with the Web.

However, there's little room for development and experimentation at EMPAC. Its schedule is too constrained, and the overhead of configuring a space in EMPAC for our use is too high for anything but a finished product. Therefore, we have put together our own, small-scale prototyping facility as a stepping stone from concept to deployment in EMPAC. This facility is housed in Winslow 1108. It is equipped with an 8-channel surround sound system, a high-definition projector, a multi-pattern microphone, and a laptop running multimedia software which is typical of EMPAC installations. The goal of the facility is not so much to replicate EMPAC in miniature as to provide some of the versatility that EMPAC provides in creating dynamic, interactive environments.

Apart from project development, the test facility is a learning and teaching environment for user interface research. Want to get up to speed on real-time video with Jitter, or DIY sensors with Arduino? This is the place (and time) to get involved.

Contents

Equipment

Computer

  • 17" MacBook Pro
    • administrative account is TetherlessWorld
    • most public projects, demos, and test programs are in shared Dropbox folders
    • note: new MBP's ship with a GS23N SuperDrive, which unfortunately does not include a Blu-ray reader
  • iomega Prestige external hard drive

Audio equipment

Video equipment

  • BenQ SP890 DLP projector
    • in this space, the projected image will fill up to a 128" diagonal display area
  • Da-Lite model C projection screen
    • 78"x139", or 159" diagonal
    • 16:9 aspect ratio (when the entire screen surface is used; normally it won't be)
    • Note: please roll up the screen when it's not in regular use. This will help to keep it clean. To avoid damaging the screen, never allow it to roll up uncontrolled.

Software

  • Processing programming language and IDE
  • Max/MSP/Jitter visual programming for real-time audio and video processing
  • Field (beta) live coding environment for digital art and visualization
  • Arduino IDE
  • SuperCollider programming environment for real-time audio synthesis
  • Cubase 5 audio recording and composition
    • Note: a USB key is required to run the software
  • OpenFrameworks
  • Dropbox
  • miscellaneous: XCode, fink, Processing, Bazaar, Syzygy, git, Audacity, Rosetta, Mercurial (1.5.3)

Demos

  • VBAP trackpad -- Max patch for 2D audio spatialization
    • See Dropbox/Shared/josh/sandbox/maxmsp/vbap_trackpad/vbap_trackpad.maxpat
  • multi-touch glove -- built with Arduino and Max for the Intelligent Sensory Substitution project
    • See projects/fortytwo/laboratory/chandellevert
    • The device is in the supply cabinet.
  • Arduino demos -- test programs for various sensors and display devices
    • See Dropbox/Shared/josh/sandbox/arduino
  • SuperCollider demos -- interactive audio synthesis
    • See Dropbox/Shared/josh/sandbox/supercollider -- esp. Tintinnabulate_performance.rtf
  • simultaneity game -- experiment into the perception of cause-effect simultaneity, built with Processing
    • See projects/fortytwo/laboratory/school/simultaneity
  • voice control -- use the pitch of your voice as an input parameter
    • See Dropbox/Shared/josh/sandbox/maxmsp/voice/voice_to_tone.maxpat
  • multi-touch music -- in Max/MSP
    • See Dropbox/Shared/josh/sandbox/maxmsp/multitouch_music/TrackPadSynth.maxpat
  • Jitter demos -- live video processing
    • See Dropbox/Shared/josh/sandbox/maxmsp/jitter
  • 8-channel sound test -- isolate and combine individual channels
    • See Dropbox/Shared/josh/sandbox/maxmsp/surround_sound/surround_sound_test.maxpat
  • 8-channel chimes -- immersive omnidirectional soundscape
    • See Dropbox/Shared/josh/sandbox/maxmsp/surround_sound/8channel_chimes.maxpat
  • Ngoma Lungundu -- 4.1 mix by Nicholas Chase from EMPAC's Lovely Isomers
    • See data directory
  • Sonicities -- 8-channel surround audio installation by RPI professors Pauline Oliveros, Jonas Braasch, and others
    • See data directory, and also Dropbox/Shared/josh/twc_josh/Sonicities_Installationguide.ppt
  • Adaptive Use motion tracking interface
    • Spotlight-search for "adaptive"
  • P5 gestural noise demo
    • See Dropbox/Shared/josh/sandbox/maxmsp/p5music
    • The P5 device is on the control desk

How-to

Configure for digital surround sound

  • (make sure the ProFire driver and user software are installed on the MacBook Pro)
  • connect MacBook Pro's FireWire port with one of the ProFire's FireWire ports
  • connect MacBook Pro's optical audio output with ProFire's optical port B
  • in MacBook Pro "Sound" preferences:
    • set sound output to "ProFire 2626 Multichannel"
  • in MacBook Pro "Audio MIDI Setup":
      • "Configure Speakers" under "ProFire 2626 Multichannel" audio device
  • in ProFire "Settings":
    • enable the "Master Volume Knob" to control all four pairs of analog outputs
    • set "Optical Port B Mode" to S/PDIF
  • in ProFire "Router":
    • under "Active Input Ports", make sure "Optical In Port B" is enabled
  • in ProFire "Mixer":
    • press the "+" icon near the right-hand side until there are 7 AUX output channels
    • for each input channel (selectable near the top of the screen), choose "SW Return X", where X is the number of the column (e.g. "SW Return 1" for the first column, "SW Return 2" for the second column, and so on, up to the eighth column).
    • for each AUX output channel, make sure all gain knobs are turned all the way down, apart from the knob for the corresponding input channel, which should be turned all the way up. So the first knob of the first channel should be turned up, the second knob of the second channel should be turned up, and so on, up to the seventh and last channel

Sending multi-channel audio from Max/MSP

  1. configure for digital surround sound as above
  2. in Max/MSP, open the Options -> DSP Status dialog
  3. next to "Driver", select "CoreAudio ProFire 2626 Multichannel"
  4. in your Max patcher, use the dac~ external with multiple output channels, e.g. "dac~ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8"


Future possibilities

Please feel free to add your thoughts and ideas. Think about projects of yours that could make use of this space, and what they would require in terms of hardware and software.

Additional Hardware and software

  • more projectors
    • reconfigurable to support:
      • two- or three-wall CAVE
      • compound, edge-blended display
  • video cameras (at least two, for 3D motion tracking)
  • Matrox splitter
  • Isadora
  • ScienceGL
  • OpenDX

Projects and research areas

Tutorials/workshops

  • Arduino, DIY electronics, sensors
  • Max/MSP and Jitter
  • Processing
  • graph visualization
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