Sunday, April 17, 2011

Saturday Sessions

So Saturday a handful of us came in and worked for the afternoon. Pics!













Friday, April 15, 2011

real vinyl!

Nick asked me to hang some test vinyl QRs and see how color/finish was. One was glossy pink, the other matte red. The matte works SO much better and refracts nearly no glare at all. When Alex held his CELL PHONE light up to one of the registration marks on QR, my scanner couldn't read it. Plus, I think matte just looks better. Anywho, heres a couple pics.


Tilingg

So the tape QR was removed, and we projected a new QR leading to the show site. We took measurements, and I took pictures. Figured it all out in illustrator and then I printed and tiled the entire thing (66 sheets!!!!!) It worked (PHEW) and so it's just a few more steps till the real deal...
















Monday, April 11, 2011

vinyl frustration

Soooooo in an attempt to see how a nice cut vinyl qr would look, I want to murder vinyl and never look at it again. I thought it would be easy...it was not. I spent about 40 minutes formatting the document so it would cut right, I then cut on black vinyl, white vinyl and furry brown vinyl becuase I ran out of the others. I wasted over $20 in material and killed about 3 hours of my time. I'm extremely frustrated and really just not happy right now. In any case, here is some damn process:






And the language for the phones and wall after scanning



Thursday, April 7, 2011

Will it scan?

Hello and welcome to this weeks edition of Will It Scan?

All I have to say is that my fingers hurt and you should watch this awesome video:


















Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Prototyping

We did some preliminary prototyping with different kinds of materials and different angles, brightnesses and phones.

The important facts are these:

>>brightness DOES matter, too high sometimes contrasts out, while too low doesn't always read
>>a direct parallel to the camera is essential for the best read and reaction time
>>the fiducial does not read on all brightness levels when colored (it was pink)
>>the fiducial seems to work on both iphone and android on all brightness levels when black
>>how well the fiducial reads is directly tied to how fast the reaction is
>>the reaction seems to lag about a half of a second at it's highest read
>>the camera will have to be mounted under the plexi, all in a self-contained space



So I measured the windows and these are the dimensions. We really want to use vellum as it rear-projects nicely and looks the most professional when mounted on the glass.







Will was very excited.





Monday, March 28, 2011

What they do and how they be

Fiducials!

Here are plans for incorporating the population experience into the fiducial one, and some functionality and how the users affect the aesthetics. The background will not be a grid, I just haven't quite figured that out yet and it was easier to design on it in the meantime.





The interaction will start with only a few "pink" squares. We'll call these "population" squares because they will have the ability to change color. The # of population squares in the interaction is based entirely on how many people have scanned the QR code. This causes the fiducial interaction to be tied to the population count, and creates an experience with a lot of variety and change as the event progresses.

The green square is the repeller. It not only moves the population squares away, but if it comes in contact with the black attractor square, it causes an explosion of all the population squares following the attractor and scatters them across the screen.

Example of the repeller square pushing away some population squares

The "orange" square, we'll call it the "controller" square, has the ability to change the color of the population squares.

If it comes into contact with any of the population squares, they will take on the controller square's color.

More color changing

Once the controller square is out of range, the colors stop changing. This allows for the interaction to become multi-colored and more interesting for the users

The repeller square can also repel the controller square

The user that has the fiducial for the controller square can rotate their phone to switch the color of their controller. This makes it so that it can change the population squares into a variety of colors at the users will.
A diagram of how more people scanning the QR code causes more population squares to appear

Monday, March 21, 2011

Fiduciaries & Awkward Pictures

Awkward Picture

I think a shape could be used around the QR code that is split in half just like the code is. That shape would be used as the "target" box for the two people that have the codes on their heads. In my opinion this would allow users unfamiliar with what fully formed QR codes look like, the ability to understand the experience without it being explained. If there is a "blob" or a distinct shape of some kind around the QR, the users see that and then see the joined shape somewhere on the screen and get the idea that they should merge the shapes together.

Potentially there could be a little rack next ot the screen that would have cards in it with the QR code that leads to the gallery where the pictures are going to be uploaded. Also on that card, there could be the URL so that people lacking smartphones could also access the gallery.





Also, the camera could be mounted on top of the projection screen and the projector should be behind it. This backlighting would make it so that the shadows were not on the screen and would not detract or confuse the user in the experience.

The pictures being taken could also be uploaded and transferred to a live, growing QR code on the wall opposite of the gym on the main floor. This would build using the pictures being taken by the Awkward Picture experience and when complete, lead the public to the gallery of the pictures.





For the fiducial experience, the setup could be on the 8th floor where there are two windows leading to the staff kitchen. There would be two screen/sheets behind on the inside of the windows that are being back projected on by projectors in the kitchen. There would be random/abstract shapes being projected. Between the two window son the outside (where the users will be) there will be a mounted camera and below that 4 QR codes. Each QR code corresponds to a different element of the experience (e.g. light, screens, sound and movement). When scanned, the user receives a fiduciary on their phone that they hold up to the camera and control that element with. LEDS inside the kitchen affect the screens ambient color and that is controlled by one QR. Another controls the shapes themselves that are on the projection. One other controls the sound coming out of the speakers next to the windows, and the last QR controls the speed and randomness of the movements of the projected shapes.




Wednesday, March 16, 2011

QR Sketches

Experiments for incorporating QRs into a more interesting context