Research - Ben Johnson

Just thought I should update this blog showing some of the research that I did for the project:

Research about the function of the brain was done using this website:

Cerebral Lobes...

The association videos I used were:

Movement

Vision

Hearing

Speech

Looped Spinning Brain video

With more time and knowledge, all of the above videos would be created from scratch, but for this project, pre-made videos had to be used.

Lemur Interface - Ste Shine

Just a final post before the presentation on Tuesday to show how the lemur reacts to interfacing, unfortunately because I need two laptops to show the fully functioning interface this is just a short video to show the essence of what occurs. In the full installation on Tuesday it will be functioning with mine and Ben's laptop.



This is done by using an object in Max called UDPsend which allows the user to send messages to the lemur via OSC. By typing in the arguments of the IP address and the OSC port you can then send a variety of different messages which casuses different actions to occur on the lemur iself. In this case every time a button is pressed the lemur automatically changes to the related interface page containing the information regarding that particular part of the brain, when the video has elapsed the lemur resets itself to the inital interface, allowing the user to select another area of the brain. I have also programmed messages to fade in the text on the lemur but this is not demonstrated in the video above.
In other news, Ben and myself have prepared the presentation for Tuesday and are confident that everything is fully functioning.

All is well - Ste Shine

We've recorded the voice over for the videos and managed to get both laptops communicating with each as well as the Lemur also communicating with one of the laptops, simultaneously.
Everything is on course we just need to combine both patches and ensure the data is interrupted correctly.
Will upload some pictures of the Lemur and Max patch soon, possibly a video of how the lemur alters during interaction.

Multiple Updates - Ben Johnson

The script for the voiceover needed in the installation has been written. Also, the video patch has been completed. There are a couple of problems with the patch though:

• There is a slight pause between one video ending and another starting. Although not a massive problem, it would have been nice if the transitions could have been totally seamless.
• The patch is also still a little messy, so this needs tidying up, and simplifying.

The the first draft of the videos has been created (without voiceover though). Although the videos are not first class, epic graphics displays of brilliance, they will do for our purpose as the most important part is the voiceover. Also, I did the best I could!

The patch and draft videos can be downloaded from here, simply launch the Max/MSP patch with the videos in the same folder and they will all be loaded in order.

Interfacing options - Ste Shine

I've been working on the interfacing for our project and the patch is working successfully and today me and Ben managed to allow our laptops to communicate with each other via an Ethernet cable and the MXJ object in Max.
However in terms of the physical interaction there has been a few issues which i am currently trying to resolve. We initially intended to use an old computer keyboard and large push button lamps to activate various video and audio files in max, however i'm having trouble getting the keyboard to communicate with my computer and have started working an alternative max patch which uses the Leamer as it's interfacing device. I intend to try and get the keyboard working but am using the Leamer as an alternative as time is a factor.

Project Outline - Ben Johnson

Ben: For Brain Awareness week our project has been designed to 'promote the brain' and to give children, specifically early secondary school children (age 10-14), an introduction into what certain parts of the brain control. 

The brain will be divided up into 5 categories, each of which will be explored with the press of certain buttons. The five categories are as follows:

Movement - Frontal

Hearing - Temporal

Speech - Frontal/Temporal

Visual - Occipital

General Sensory - Parietal

The design of the installation will be as follows, diagram to come later:

At the entrance of the space is a podium, around waist height. On top of this podium is a model of the brain. On this brain, the 4 different lobes of the Cerebrum are coloured differently. (Frontal: Blue, Parietal: Red, Temporal: Green, Occipital: Yellow)

Behind the podium are objects that appeared to be scattered on the floor. As each object is picked up/pressed, various videos and sound files are loaded and played. 

Surrounding the objects and the podium are walls covering 3 sides, onto each of these will be a projection. The projection at the front will show the educational film explaining how that area of the brain works, and the side walls will show a short film relating to the object that was pressed. Example: for a video explaining about memory, the object could be a set of polaroids, and the side videos could show a home movie. All videos to be projected onto the side walls will be downloaded from the internet, with permission documents from the owner.

As there are only two people working on this project instead of three, tasks will be split as follows:

Scripting - Ben

Composition of sound - Ste

Interfacing - Ste

A/V Design - Ben

Space Design - Ste

Triggering - Ben

GUI - Ste

Further posts will be made regarding each of the separate elements.