Augmented stage

This is a 10 minute impression of the participatory theatre experience we’ve created as part of the Respons(e)ible project. The original piece has a duration of 45 minutes and was performed during three days at the Soiree des Ateliers – Theatre and Games -  in Huis aan de Werf , Utrecht, 14th – 16th of february 2008.

The piece is created by Joris Weijdom (this website), Bas Haas and Arnaud Loonstra and has been a cooperation of The Research Centre Theatre Making Processes– research group Virtual Theatre and Z25.org foundation.

It has been a while since you heard from me. It has also been 2 months since the start of the actual live performance of the respons(i)ble project. I can only say, all shows were sold out! The good news is, we have so much research material gathered around the project, we will release a video of the live performance and a ‘ making of ‘ documentary. The registration of the performance is at 99% completion so expect it online soon. The “making of” will take another two weeks but will be accompanied by several in depth tutorials about making these kind of virtual theatre performances.
Please visit us back soon.

  
In the past test week, we have accomplished some great test results. We still need to draw out the final ‘scan flow’, but we are already able to convert the scan images to different media formats. What follows next is, how to make use of these scans in our narrative and how we will finally display and project them in the last stage of the experience. In the first place, we want to confront the visitors with their virtual body double. We already did some small tests with some life size projecting of the scans we made. A lot of interesting ‘scan related’ questions popped up during the past days. Some of them can be answered with a few intense brainstorms, others need real life testing to see if they will work out. Read the rest of this entry »

Our third day of testing brought us some good results. We decided to start scanning with two camera’s simultaneously, both set up in a slight angle from the middle line (see screenshot). We got some distortion in our data when the projected light line crossed the same height level as the camera was positioned. We think it has something to do with the light projection angle, because the camera is picking up a lot of data slightly above and underneath the camera position.

We also get the ‘not detected on the right and left side’ errors when using the ‘2 camera’ setup. This could be an alignment problem. Because the two camera’s are not positioned in an exact 45 degrees towards the scan cabin, the light line is not picked up in level position through the camera lens. Read the rest of this entry »

After our first day of testing yesterday, we decided to buy a higher quality camera and bought the Logitec quickcam pro 9000. This camera can record in an ultimate 1600 x 1200 (we record in 800 x 600, but still), 30 frames per second and can grab textures in at least 3 mega pixel.

Today we wanted to run some tests in changing the height of the camera. We started with the camera fixed on a chair, but in the afternoon, we got hold of a tripod and were able to slightly change the height after each test.
So far, the hardware we use today is not different from yesterday. The important research we have to do today will be the further adjustment of the software. David does not automatically adapt to an environment so we have enter the settings manually. For this, we don’t use the standard settings display that comes with the web camera, but instead only use the settings menu in the David scan software. Read the rest of this entry »

Thanks to theatre ‘Huis aan de Werf’, we were able to perform the comprehensive 3d scan tests, Joris did earlier, in full body scale. With the current knowledge of the David scan software and the rebuild laser device we will put a full body scan to the test in the next couple of days.

Our main goals:

– are we able to build a full body scan setup (or multiple, and can we make it work).
– can we make a solid full body scan.
– can we do this in a certain amount of time. Read the rest of this entry »

As I mentioned in my post on the DAVID laserscan test we ordered a laser online from Aixiz through Ebay. Point of this laser module is that it has a adjustable focus lens. Although you could buy a power supply package we decided to go for our own setup. After I had done the Mediamatic workshop on soldering small robots I felt confident that I could make a simple laserbox myself. Read the rest of this entry »

To manage the project we’ve setup a TRAC facilty on the servers of Z25. The TRAC facility uses a subversion repository which we can use to exchange documents and development files. The TRAC facililty uses the following terms: Roadmap, milestones and tickets. Think of it as tickets are the todo’s which need to be done to reach a milestone. Read the rest of this entry »

Yesterday we had a first meeting with the staff of Huis aan de Werf about our project Bodycount. Mostly we discussed practical issues like budget, facilities and planning. The weekend in which we will present our installation to the public will be at 14,15 and 16th of February 2008, and will be called : “Soiree des Ateliers; Theatre & Games”. Read the rest of this entry »

Based on the software called DAVID we got inspired for the Bodyscan concept. DAVID consists of two programms: DAVID Laserscanner and DAVID Shapefusion. The Laserscanner software is free and published under the GPL, DAVID Shapefusion can be bought for a very modest price. So what is this DAVID software? Read the rest of this entry »