Video Documentation

User experience of my project.

I'm proud to see my work shows an interesting feedback from my peers and visitors.

People around are keen to try to interact with the setting and that 's a good sign.

I wished I was provided with a closed and quieter space, the sound would rather be better without distractions from other projects displayed in the same room.

some would be confused about the video.

let me explain or u could read the previous blog posts content.

do you see the tiny black cross stick to the floor?
THAT is the hot spots for audience to trigger the sound of the videos according to where they're standing.

It should have the sound of the videos you see in the pails of different footages.

There are hidden sensors at each pail which detects motion and it triggers the sound of the video in the pail.

e.g. water dripping video : triggers water dripping sound.

When more sensors are trigger, it forms a mixture of different water sound.

That 's the whole concept of 'Water Symphony' .

an experience of sound mixing with water sound samples.

whoever got the tempo and beat, you might have composed some unique melody out of it.

Enjoy~

LOOK!

yup!!
the setting of my project.
Bucket used: all the old ones. some might be as old as 40 or 50 years old.
These buckets are old and they still remain in good condition. just like the old days, people need to fetch water from the well when the water supply system has not been any advance like what we are enjoying now. also the function and usefulness of the buckets when we talk about water in our daily lives.

the sensors are attached to each buckets. from the image you could see that actually the sensors are wrapped with a cone shape white paper. I did that to limit the range of the sensor to a specific spot on the ground so that users knows the active zone of the sensor.
I need to do that to prevent confusion for audience.

Drips the miracle

Why the title?
just thought that every drop is special.
It could mean so much.
different sound, pitch, volume, etc. it forms a simple melody.

The drippings from mlngjle on Vimeo.

the more volume it comes out from the pipe, u see bubbles on the water surface.
when u allow more water out, the sound deepens. and less bubbles.

Isn't it beautiful?

the Fall

Presents you the Waterfall!!!

Waterfalls from mlngjle on Vimeo.

Do you remember how refresh you feel after playing at the waterfall?
the water from the waterfall has natural energy, makes us energized and refreshed.
now i missing them!
p.s: location: Kanching Falls & on the way up to Cameron Highlands (forgot to remark its name).

Rain drops falling

Next is the Rain.
I realized from the shooting that rain could be so beautiful.
Let's appreciate downpour!
We're being lucky for we could enjoy the rain as much as we can while some other countries facing draught all year long.
Here..

Rain from mlngjle on Vimeo.

the Sea

Hi! I'm back with the videos!

This first one would be the waves.

Waves from mlngjle on Vimeo.

The waves at this period is rather calm. no strong waves at the west coast of the Peninsular. However, the sound of this small waves creates peaceful rhythm, soothes your mind and soul.

Manual

anyone wants to know how to set it up.
it's here.
:)

Sound Recorder

wave

drips

waterfall

rain

boiling

Up soon!

Updating very soon the videos and pictures during the showcase!

wuhoo!~ :)

Comments & Critics

Showcase 's over!
Final Year Project is Over!

Recalling comments & critics that I've received so far.
Thanks for all the comments and critics.
more are welcomed here.

Critics:
>>Selection of bucket to be matched with the relevant visual.
e.g. boiling water - old kettle

>>Video content:
instead of shooting images of water ( waterfall / dripping/...etc)
it could be something as in how people use those water for.
e.g. video of woman washing clothes / dishes

>>projection:
best in top down view (which is exactly what i wanted but it couldn't be done)

>>Sound:
surround speaker could be channeled one to each speaker
overlapping sound makes it confusing

>>for now i can only remember these main ones.

>>concept:
Interesting!
Nice!
Nice idea of projecting on buckets
Cool~

>>sensors detection:
some commented that people needs to know where is the hidden sensors location and mark it down for indication.
(explains the 'X' sticker on the marked active areas around the buckets)

Technical statement

As mentioned, my installation is about audio and visual, therefore my main contents are sound and video footages. i used a portable surround sound recorder to record sound and a digital camera to record HD videos. In addition, I also used the piezo sound vibration sensor which I found to be really useful recording sound without noise.

For the interactivity part of my project, I used the Arduino microcontroller board and the PIR motion sensors and played with wiring. With the open-source platform of Arduino, I connect the sensors to Arduino using Arduino Programming language and communicate it with another software - MaxMSP. I control them on my laptop and the speakers for sound output. The videos of different footages are played with a projector from the top. I mapped the videos into the buckets with a very flexible projection mapping application- VideoProjectionTools (VPT).

The installation is simple. Each sensor is programmed with different sound. When motion detected it plays the sound of which the sensor is triggered. Users are encouraged to experiment with the sound.

Artist statement - refined

My project is an interactive audio visual installation. Initially, this idea is inspired by water issue in Malaysia where some parts of this country was facing water shortage problems. I have researched about the lackadaisical attitude of Malaysians towards environmental issues; water be one of the main ones.

I want to promote appreciation towards water through video and sound, creating an experience for people to experiment with the various sound of water and at the same time enjoy the visuals. The visual metaphor of my work are the buckets, closely related to medium to carry water and its significant use especially during water shortage period.

"Water is the driving force of all nature." a quote by Leonardo da Vinci. This is a message that I hope everyone could bear in mind.

Testing 5 sensors together.

pic 1. side view of self-made male jumper wires on breadboard.

pic 2. 1 sensor connected look.

pic 3. connecting 5 sensors.

pic 4. This is how my maxpatch looks like. I modified from the Arduino2max test patch.

Budget list

Equipments list:

Speakers 2.1 / surround

Projector ( install top down)

Small table ( for laptop)

Max 5 until 1/6/2011

Printscreen from here.

I wish I did not update the Max5 5.0.6 to 5.1.3.

I wish I can still use the UDR.

but what is done is done!

Before the decision made, I went through finding alternatives way to reactivate the demo Maxmsp. I failed. then I thought maybe I could install Windows in my Mac instead and reinstall all the needed software. At the same time, Crit 03 is soon and panic, nervous, stress all come in once. and I still have loads of stuff yet to be done.

In short, to stop wasting time on all the hassles, I bought it!

Perhaps after this month I might still be using Maxmsp for other upcoming projects.

Now I can continue with my journey.

:)

New Clothes On!

Have u realized it?
I uploaded new template!

It was like this.

I'm sure it looks better with what you're seeing right now.

workplace/ progress

one.

two.

three.

four.

five.

six.

Arduino communicates with Maxmsp

Getting Arduino to communicate with Maxmsp should not be too difficult. I was lucky enough to make it work with this max patch ' Arduino2max', written specially for what i need most in my project.

You may read more about Arduino2max and download it here.

I still have one big problem here.

After the first test out which was successful ( as shown in the below video) , it is not working anymore until now. (that's why I said I was lucky)

working on it right now. hoping to get it fixed as soon as possible.

*May luck be with me!*

is checking out more about Maxuino, different versions of Arduino IDE ( maybe the updated version doesn't work in this case) and Pure data + arduino , etc relevant stuff.

ps: Thank you Cheesehed!

My sensor works!

was trying out if my PIR sensor is working.

TARA!!!!

It works! and i got the codes from here. I realized that this sensor ( Parallax PIR sensor : which is considered as a branded sensor according to the guy from Jalan Pasar) works really well. I mean it is quite sensitive to detect motion but when motion is too fast, sometimes you will have to slow down your motion. example like if you wave your hands too fast over the hot zone, i think the sensor can't really detect something moving over it.

was Happy and excited and to have some progression. This is done i think 3 weeks ago. :)

From the serial monitor in Arduino IDE, this is what we see.

Arduino tutorial

one of the tutorials I've done with Arduino and potentiometer.

the potentiometer controls the speed of the LED lights running.

just to share. :)

Sound Recorder

One of the most important elements in my project is the sound of water. In order to get clear and high quality sound. I went around doing field recording on actual spots of water source. Tools that I have been using to record the sound of water is the portable sound recorder shown as below.

Firstly I used the

Zoom H2.

I find it easy to use and it's handy and light. very convenient for me to bring along in my bag.

image source.

Then i tried the slightly advanced version of the same brand. It has more features and has two input and more feature; slightly bulky but it is still fine to be carried around.

Zoom H4

Image source.

Other experiment:

**playing with the piezo vibration sensor which is made into a hydrophone; looks like this.

Credit: Professor Owen Chapman

The hydrophone is connected to the sound recorder, eventually I got clearer sound of water with all the extra noise filtered out. because it is made of piezo vibration sensor which only detects vibration, that is why in the output sound the noise are gone.

PIR sensor

Image source.

PIR stands for Passive InfraRed and this motion detector is what I will be using in my project.

It scans and searches for passive IR reflections (such as a human). Basically works like an on / off switch ( I/0 ).

What I will do is to set this detector with my Arduino set, and try it out with the code from Arduino playground.

DFRduino Duemilanove 328 ; with USB connection ;

100% Arduino compatible.

VPT tool test out

VPT: Video Projection Tool

It is a free software where you can download it from here.

This is an application for projection mapping which I found suitable for my installation set up.

Screenshots of my test out.

The very first thing i got from the output.

Then, still confused.

got the mapping!

arranging the videos.

smile :)

*Thank you Khairul Johari for sharing this application in the class. ^^

It is not very difficult to use. first you need to read the vpt manual to have a basic understanding of the interface.

Floor plan

Flowchart

Instead of using photoshop or illustrator, I decided to google for some nice software to help me building a flowchart.

This is done using Gliffy online diagram software. link. -a free diagram editor for making things easy and nice.