January 2010
29 posts
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Final Zoom Phase roundup.
I don’t feel particularly happy about writing this ‘round-up’ post as it implies that things have reached an end when they very much are just beginning. While the zoom phase has really helped me unpack my idea and repack it in a very strong way I feel like I’ve not quite got there quite yet. Perhaps I’m just being paranoid or maybe it’s a little flutter of low...
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WatchThis makes me want to leave Dundee, buy a 1D and live somewhere where its acceptable to have bonfires on a regular basis. I can’t wait for the future.
reblogged from Finlay:
Wow. So simple, yet so mesmerising.
Hope you enjoyed this as much as I did.
F
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Thinkin' website.
How I do love quick, A4 ‘mock-ups’ (if you can call it that). Anyway, have been thinking about the necessity of a website and what it would bring to the project. My gut feeling is that it should be there, however, I’m wondering if I’m only saying that because websites are my comfort food; I can build a website quickly and without too much effort.
Assuming I do include a...
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Camera casing
I ordered a dummy CCTV camera (thanks to inspiration from Jen) which I hope to use as the foundation for my camera mount on the tripod. It may be slightly small but for use as an experience prototype I think it’s perfect.
I intend to use the large white cover and the bit that it sits on as my case for the camera and build the moving parts around it. I’ve not thought to hard about...
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More iPhone goodness + a little UI design
What you see on the image above is the iPhone simulator running a combination of native iPhone code (the tab bar and the titles) and a webpage (everything else).
My worry last night was that the webpage wouldn’t work very well with the rest of the interface, but, thanks to HTML 5 this is not the case. Using the HTML5 video tag I can embed a video which then takes over the fullscreen app...
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iPhone goodness + Lateness.
Hmm, spent today working out what may be the ebst way to develop my iPhone app. I want to do this just right as I think there is something particularly fun about being able to access the footage on the slope immediately after the run or session.
I’ve pretty much ruled out creating a fully functioning app. I don’t think I could learn how to do it in the time limits I’ve got. So...
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Downloading xCode takes foreverr.
Massive (2.5Gb) downlaod of the iPhone SDK (Software Development Kit) to try my hand at iPhone web development. I’ll work on what I was chatting about below now then I guess…
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Should there even be a website at all?
What exactly are the key areas of interaction? What are the most interesting points of view? What I mean is what combination of camera units, iPhone app and website work? Would the entire project be more exciting if the whole point was that you explicitly watched back the footage on your iPhone/iPod touch?
Thinking about it if you have an iPhone you will likely want to share your video it with...
I Make My Case →
This site is pretty epic. Custom designed iPhone cases created from elements pre-made by the artists on the website. Good value as well at $35 - wanna buy me one?
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Five day zoom roundup.
Final deliverable for the zoom phase is on Friday. Let’s get nostalgic and do a little self reflection for the past few of weeks.
I initially started out thinking I was going to focus on a highly crafted and reliable experience prototype: the actual camera/tripod unit itself. It has become very clear, however that the camera unit is actually a very small part of the interaction and in the...
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iPhone app: Mock 1
With a little help from Emma I have finished the first mock of a potential iphone app. The idea behind this app is that end-users can view footage as soon as it is compiled (informed via push-notifications) with the option to save to the device for offline viewing or share with friends via social networks such as Facebook. The app may also provide real-time weather for participating resorts. I...
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iPhone app UI thoughts
Spent the morning designing a potential UI for an iPhone application. I feel, if I do make an iPhone app, it should feel native to the device am not introduce useability concepts which are entirely different from other apps available; all elements should be recogniseable and the methods in which a user engages with the app should be familiar.
I shall upload the mock later when I get an Internet...
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An iPhone companion app?
Spent 5 minutes brainstorming the possible functionality of an iPhone app which could be used in conjunction with the system. The app could potentially have the following features:
Streaming viewing of the most recently captured complete run including: the compiled Animoto video (see below for an Animoto example, also not an option yet as no API exists but for concept purposes just now this is...
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[insert project name here]: a resort based system
I definitely think that a system based around a particular resort is the way forward. From what I can deduce from comparing the two hypothetical scenarios option two will give way to a far more broad and meaningful user experience.
Here is a breakdown of the potential experience, with photos of my doodles - please exscuse my handwriting…
Option 1
This approach is perfect for those who...
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Settling on concept
Today I am leaving the electronics be and focusing on crafting the concept of the idea a little more. I definitely haven’t been wasting time getting the electronics working but I must press on and nail the core elements of the project down so that I don’t get carried away fiddling with something to get it just right when I may end up changing it later down the line for whatever...
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Zoom Phase, roundup.
Had a chat with Graham today about the progression of my project. Rather disappointing actually. He seems very anxious about everything, likely with very good reason as I still feel rather lost in what I’m doing and just fumbling along.
While it’s all good and great that I’m getting my electronics working to quite a high level it feels like the project is becoming a product design piece. I think...
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Today's goal
Up early, aiming to be in by 9. Been trying to work out what today’s goal is as I don’t have all my components yet so can’t battle on really with code. I think I’m going to sketch up some visuals of what this may look like.
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In fact, no.
A bit more playing and I realsie I’m actually better off hacking IDEO’s code rather than try to write my own clean version. Whilst a clean version would be the ideal scenario, IDEO’s code has already got in place a calibration system and perspective correction – something I don’t even know where to start looking at.
I am now trying to understand enough of the code (which has little to no...
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Today was win. WiiMote and motor talking to each...
It’s just gone 4pm and I have successfully connected all (almost) of the parts of the puzzle. In one sketch I am successfully connecting to the WiiMote and the Arduino, instantiating a class for pitch and pan (i.e: each separate motor on each axis) and executing the method which will move the motor at the desired speed.
At the moment it’s hard coded which direction the motor turns and there isn’t...
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Talking to a stepper motor via serial
Today’s major goal of the day was to be controlling the motion of a stepper motor from the computer, preferably in Processing, thus completing the path from detection (WiiMote) to physical movement (motors) - theoretically.
I have been successful to an extent; I can control the motor from Processing - great - but not in the way I would have liked. I was aiming to be able to explicitly tell...
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WiiMote + MacBook = :)
Well, today was a success. I have now got the wiimote connecting via Bluetooth to my MacBook and it’s all happening in Processing. This is ultra cool as before all the connections were happening through compiled applications meaning that I was unable to script custom code easily without some level of hacking; but now I have script access to it meaning I can pull data from the sensors efficiently...
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Step 1: WiiMote talking to MacBook.
Today I’m going to attempt to get the WiiMote speaking to my Mac, then I can begin to develop an idea as to how likely (or, rather, how hard) it will be to read the data and use it to generate coordinates for a series of stepper motors to follow.
Confused? I sure as hell am.
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...still starting
[mirrored from my IMD blog - link]
I have not really been the best at keeping a blog of my Zoom phase, and if I’m being honest (which is really the only thing I should be doing here) I haven’t really got much to show.
With my concept constantly changing from day to day towards the end of last semester I found my initial plans for my Zoom phase beginning to disappear – to the point where come the...