Dynamic Research

I saw this cool data visualization of state to state personality tendencies and wanted to share. I think it would be interesting to present this data as a Chernoff Face.

Ball Droppings is “an addicting and noisy play-toy” designed by Josh Nimoy. It has been around for 4 or 5 years and received a lot attention when it first came out. I was surprised that I had not heard it mentioned in DMI circle’s as it is the kind of thing we DMI folks go crazy for. It requires a download and install to get it going but it is totally worth it. Basically you drop several balls from the top of the screen and draw lines that the balls interact with using simulated gravity and collision. The catch is that each time a ball hits a line a sound is produced based on the length and position of the line. For the serious Ball Dropper, you can even program your own custom sounds and use it as a live performance tool!

In terms of new media, I think Ball Droppings fits nicely with other apps like Phun, Line Rider and even things like Draw Ball and Swarm Sketch. I am not sure that we really have a name for these types of apps, I would not really call them games, nor are they really tools. I guess toy is more accurate but I feel like that in some way diminishes how interesting they are in terms of digital media.

There are several things I find interesting about these apps. For one thing, they have an ability to quickly engage and hold our attention. I think designers often take for granted that people would want to interact with whatever it is they are designing. This gets amplified when ideas never reach the a stage where interaction can happen. Without engaging the user there is no interaction.

The apps also share a minimal learning curve but allow for increasingly complex operations with out a substantial time commitment. They are open ended and facilitate the users creativity. It also seems like they are frequently created by a single person or small group. I am curious as to what others think about this group of apps. Are you familiar with others that I did not list? What would be examples of analog predecessors? How would you classify them relative to other digital media?

I knew I should have paid more attention in math class. I have been trying to wrap my head around sine, cosine, recursion and other such things. Made a few simple Processing sketches to help me along.

Spent some time messing with Ira Greenberg’s flock code. You can find it in the 14th chapter of the pink Processing book which is available free online here. You can interact with my version but I have had mixed results viewing it online. If it seems to move a bit slow and you want to run it full speed just cut and past the code into Processing.

Version 2.0

I don’t think it is a secret that I am a pretty big basketball fan and a stat geek at that. So when we were assigned a data visualization project I started messing with some data from Doug stats to see what I could make. This visualization builds caricatures based on NBA player stats for the 07-08 season.

Head Size = Shots taken
Head Aspect Ratio = Percent of shots made
Arm length = Blocked shots
Leg Length = Rebounds
Eye Size = Assists
Eye Aspect Ratio = Turnovers

Here is what I have so far.

I am interested in creating tools that facilitate creative reasoning. In thinking about this, I have come to the conclusion that computers are horrible judges of creativity, in fact, they reward you for a lack of creativity. I recently read an article on the algorithmic revolution that defined the concept of an algorithm as “…essentially an instruction consisting of a finite number of rules designed to solve a specific problem.”. Isn’t following a finite set of instructions and rules the polar opposite of creativity?

To clarify, computers are great tools for facilitating creativity as long as you do not rely on them to judge the creative output. As an anology, a saxophone is a creative instrument but we don’t expect it to judge the creativity of the music it produces.

Maybe this is all obvious. I think it bears investigation though because the types of interactions people design (myself included) often leave the user little more responsibility then to function as a trigger.

One of my favorite quotes from when I studied art history in undergrad is from Marcel Duchamp, he said “there is no solution because there is no problem”. To me it speaks to the idea of the creative act as an end to itself. I also enjoy this quote from Mihai Nedin:

“The visionaries in effect broke through the barrier of reductionist determinism and their work no longer solved problems, but generated problems! They were no longer in the service business, but contributed to the multiplication of possibilities implicit in a given product. ”

While it’s true that there are a great many useful operations that do not require creativity, I think using the computer to create tools that go outside of the problem solution mindset would be fun to explore.

Another test of the Processing .obj importer, this time with a higher poly count model that I made in Maya. Same code as the previous example, just a different model.

If anyone is interested in working with 3D content in processing, SketchUp is a free, easy to use program for creating 3D content. You will need to download the .obj exporter to get your SketchUp model into processing. You will also need the .obj library for Processing. I added a couple lines of code to the sample file to make the the “t” and “s” keys into zoom in and zoom out keys. I also changed the code so the model follows the mouse. Here is a link to a quick test I made. You may need to hit the “s” key a few times to zoom out before you can really see the model. If you are interested, the modified sample code is below.

//import processing.opengl.*;

// .OBJ Loader
// by SAITO
// Placing a virtual structure represented as mathematically
// three-dimensional object.
// SModel.load() reads structure data of the object stored
// as numerical data.
// SModel.draw() gives a visual form to the structure data.
// processing standard drawing functions can be used to manipulate
// the visual form to create deep visual experiences.
// Created 20 April 2005

import saito.objloader.*;

OBJModel model;
float rotX;
float rotY;
float changeSize = 30;

void setup()
{
size(800, 600, P3D);
frameRate(30);
model = new OBJModel(this);
model.debugMode();
model.load(”DMI.obj”);
}
void draw()
{
background(255);
lights();
pushMatrix();
translate(mouseX, mouseY);
rotateX(rotY);
rotateY(rotX);
scale(changeSize);
model.draw();
popMatrix();
}

boolean bTexture = true;
boolean bStroke = true;
void keyPressed(){
if(key == ‘t’){
changeSize++;
}
if(key == ’s’){
changeSize–;
}
else if(key==’1′)
model.drawMode(POINTS);
else if(key==’2′)
model.drawMode(TRIANGLES);
else if(key==’4′)
model.drawMode(POLYGON);
}

void mouseDragged()
{
rotX += (mouseX - pmouseX) * 0.01;
rotY -= (mouseY - pmouseY) * 0.01;
}

Very cool intuitive interface for developing complex 3D characters for the soon to be released Spore game. More here.