Here’s our animation storyboard for Majic Glasses.
Archive for November, 2005
We now have the basic sensing and dimming functions completed, using the MIDI dimmer and three photosensors over TCP/IP. The effect is excellent when the refresh rate is high. If we decide to go with a less frequent refresh rate, then a smoothing algorithm will need to be added so that the light levels do not jump noticeably but instead adjust appropriately over time. Here is the current sensor and display code.
Here’s the two XPorts mounted on a single breadboard. One communicates with the other over TCP/IP and it finally works. Things I learned that I’d like to remember next time: Instead of sending inverted serial like we send to the computer from the PIC, the XPort is expecting non-inverted serial. The code for this is 84 rather than the 16468 that we usually send to setup the SEROUT2. Also, it’s normal for the voltage regulator to get hot when using these. And it’s always worth setting up a DEBUG or normal SEROUT2 for the computer to monitor what the PIC is doing. Otherwise a lot of time can be wasted debugging what you think the PIC is doing, while it’s actually doing something different. Here’s the initial sensor code and the display code. The next step will be to make display happen over MIDI.
New York doesn’t have the same kind of great outdoors that you’d find in or near other cities. Instead there’s a motley collection of concrete playgrounds and corporate plazas, interspersed with vest-pocket parks of all kinds. I grew up near the East Village back before the cafes and art galleries. Back then the buildings didn’t have windows, just smoke stains rising from vacant or bricked-over openings. Last weekend we took a walk into the depths of the former Alphabet City and discovered what seems like hundreds of little community gardens. Each one started life as the rubble of an arson reduced tenement. Over the years, the city has dubbed many as official parks and there are currently about 75 of these semi-natural reservations dotting the neighborhood. We didn’t have a map at the time, but found ourselves easily wandering from one unique park to another without needing one.
Continue reading ‘East Village Parks’
“Bret Reilly’s art evokes the power of the human spirit, especially in the 4-year wake of 9/11.” Okay, so this guy makes humorous plaster statues of elongated elephants and people holding pencils. He’s clearly got a lighthearted bent, so I doubt he had anything to do with the blurb, which repeatedly invokes the ghost of September 11th for no reason whatsoever. Must be his dealer. I guess if you’re worried about selling a $2,500 plaster elephant you might try to prop up your case with a national tragedy. But surely such tastelessness is counterproductive. Why such desperation over plaster elephants? Do they really need to cost $2,500? Around the corner at West Elm “sculptures” sell for $29. It’s nothing good, but also nobody clings to the image of burning buildings to move the merchandise. So if Bret Reilly sold his elephants for $200, off the back of a truck, could he make it up on volume? I imagine he could spend more time making funny elephants and less time letting dealers make a fool of him. Do we really need galleries, movie studios and multinational record labels to make a few of us stars? Or would we be better off with all of us making a living?
