Blog

A new dimension is born

4D, 2009-03-11 01:55:17

I changed my application so now its producing sine waves as opposed to cubes. The colour of the sine wave is also based on the brightness of the pixels. I'm taking the pixels brightness value and then inserting that into the 3 values of RGB.

I'm extremely happy with the result, the performance has also improved considerably. My only problem is now to think of ways in which I can use this application. I'm thinking of using it for visualising architecture in a different perspective and to measure the way light affects a space.

Anyway, here are a few images:

New Idea

4D, 2009-03-10 14:50:57

It's been quite a while since I've worked on my 4D project, but I've spent most of the week working to improve the performance and to experiment with my application.

As I mentioned in a previous post I may have to drop the cubes. I would prefer to have the cubes as they relate to the theories discussed in Flatlands, however they are a huge CPU drain. One idea would be to turn the pixels from the captured image into sine waves. As the application is based on the capturing and the measurement of light a sine wave would be appropriate.

My intention would be to measure the brightness of each pixel and then to take that value and pass it through a sine wave filter. This filter will produce a sine wave for each pixel. The brighter the image the more the sine wave will be extruded along the z-axis. As a sine wave has both positive and negative values, this will create depth and add to the 3D affect as the image will be extruded further.

I will post some images once I have it working.

Further Developments

4D, 2009-03-10 14:50:41

I have a few problems with my application, mainly the framerate. At the moment the framerate is around 4 FPS, which is practically unusable. If I want to use the appication for an interactive installation I will need at least 25 FPS.

The main drain is drawing hundreds of cubes on the screen and varying the size and distance on the z-axis per second. I'm not too sure how to achieve 25 FPS whilst drawing cubes. I have even reduced the number of cubes drawn on the screen and limited it to around 100 cubes, however this has an impact on the image quality and it makes it harder to distinguish the captured image.

One possible solution would be to drop the idea of simulating all the different dimensions and instead alter my application to visualise a new perspective on the world or a new dimension. I could then develop a tool which I could use to film locations or objects in this new dimension. The 4D element of the project would come about by creating timelapse footage of this new dimension.

More Progress

4D, 2009-03-10 14:50:25

I've now managed to change each square of pixels into cubes of pixels. I had to remove the image and draw the cubes, however it is still possible to make out the details of the video image due to the cubes making an outline of the image. Also, the cubes are positioned in the z-axis based on the brightness of the pixels. So, the brighter the image the more pronounced the image becomes. With the mix of bright and dark pixels it is quite easy to make out the video image.

Here is an image:

2D squares



3d cubes

2D/3D

4D, 2009-03-10 14:50:09

I've finally managed to use the brightness value to manipulate a live video feed. Processing has an example which deconstructs a still image based on mouse movements, so the more you move the mouse the more the image breaks apart: processing example.

I have taken this example and changed it so the pixels from a live video are broken down based on the brightness of each pixel. The brighter the pixel the further the pixel is extruded along the z-axis.

At the moment I will be considering an individual pixel as 1D and a group of pixels as 2D. To achieve 3D I will try to turn the group of pixels into a cube. At the moment I'm not too sure how to achieve this by manipulating pixels.

The following image is an example of what I have been able to produce so far:



I will post some screen grabs once I have it working fully.