End of project blog.

All remaining notes are now being written up into my final report. This blog is to serve as an archive for the earlier development of the project.

For more recent updates and information please visit the SumAntics website.

As the equipment collection had grown significantly it was time to start arranging things together to see how this could work. One idea I did have was to divide the equipment up into colour categories of older (beige/white) and newer (black/silver) and split those into layers - however it was clear I did not have substantial newer equipment, and the CRTs and towers take up much more room than the thinner new stuff.

I’m not particularly happy about the outcome but it’s a start at least. Even though I have a variety of bits to choose from, it’s obvious to me that to achieve the perfect jigsaw-type arrangement desired will require a wider choice of equipment, and/or a selection of smaller equipment (speakers, modems, routers, external HD) - the latter being the likely next step. That is unless the visual changes altogether! that’s design I guess.

View high resolution

This is the first example/test of the rough hardware setup I will duplicate in the installation. Tower PC (P4 3ghz, 512ram) with 2x monitors run through DVI splitter (ebay link)

Although the Processing application isn’t running standalone or via bluetooth, it shows the visual to be expected and the capabilities of the dual screens which I’m happy with. The tower PC has issues recognising my current Bluetooth USB dongle, and through research it appears there are other issues with the current Motorola device, so I will be purchasing new a number of other bluetooth USB dongles which will be installed with their specific drivers.

Checking & Preperation of Equipment

So now my flatmates and friends all think I’m a bit weird it was best to check over all the equipment and see what worked and what doesn’t. All items were labelled, numbered and then comments entered into a google docs spreadsheet (view here)

A couple of monitors had issues with power supplies, so I’ll need to source some of those, and it appears one of the screens doesn’t work altogether. One of the tower PCs requires a new HD as the donator had to destroy the previous one. The G4 Mac requires the OS discs for a fresh install, which I am currently sourcing.

The next stage was to reformat the PC’s with a fresh install of Windows XP, as they were originally setup for use in university labs on their network. I was unfamiliar with how to do at first as I’m not generally apt at particularly techy computer stuff, but managed it easily enough. After the first clean install and setup, I wrote a disc with essential drivers/applications (motherboard drivers, processing, flash, chrome) which I plan to use on the other machines in due course.

View high resolution

Potentially awful/amazing photo of me with all the technology I have now amassed. A huge thanks goes out to Refresh Edinburgh who yielded many responses from an email I sent out to their mailing list. About half the equipment here was sourced via Refresh, a quarter from Uni and the other quarter mine personally or purchased low cost.

Rough breakdown:

• 4 x Tower PCs
• 1 x Mac G4
• 2 x Laptops
• 7 x Flat panel displays (varied sizes)
• 5 x CRT monitors (varied sizes)
• Various speakers

Code updates.

Apologies for the lack of these, there’s been various developments in different areas but none are complete as yet so I’d rather save it all for a longer explanation.

Design Ideas

Now i’ve reached the point of attaining some hardware I attempted to position various items together, to get a feel for their compatibility and visual unison.

Immediately clear is the need for alignment perfection, evident in Michael Johansson’s work. To achieve this I suspect I will need to collect an amount of hardware over-and-above the amount actually needed for the installation, so as to be able to pick and choose parts specifically on their fitment.

Design Ideas

I’ve been much keener of late to expand the size of the installation design and add a new visual dynamic, particularly for a few reasons:

• After quickly positioning the TFT screens in a cube, it’s very obvious I will not be able to fit the computing power inside the shape. The computers would have to be stored elsewhere, and a long ‘umbilical’ cord used to transmit the monitor signals (potentially needing to be boosted mid-point) and power . This would ruin some of the encapsulated ‘hub’ feel I wish to portray on the installation as a single, contained object.
• The types of screens I have collected so far have all varied slightly in design and colour, and this will likely to continue through additional equipment. To embrace this variation requires more of an abstract, amalgamation of the technology, and welcomes to addition of other monitor designs, computers and potentially other equipment. This type of image embodies the variation in data available from the WWW.

Inspiration: The Cloud Mirror (website)

Really really like this. The same realisation impact I am trying to achieve with my installation, combined with the self awareness the viewer feels. Great use of augmented reality, personally not a massive fan of the comic book style but it works in its method of augmenting the message ‘onto’ the viewer.

The use of the additional necklace with QR code is not an element I wish to introduce into my experience. It is necessary here to recognise the position of the user (and I assume then find/track their face position?). Regardless, nice project with similar ideals to mine.

I’ve accumulated a fair bit more hardware this last week. Firstly 2x15” screens, kindly donated.

Had a little chat with the IT guys at uni and they’ve leant me 3x computers which is really helpful. Not sure on the exact specs but they have Pentium 4 processors, so should be reasonable. The technicians were really helpful about the project and offered to recase and computers (as 2 have the same case, and I’d prefer all different designs) which is mega appreciated.