Current Project: Tiger Lily

I have been meaning to show the outcome of a project that I worked on with Clarence Lomiwes for a while now. We worked together on this project regularly for 4 to 6 hours a week over the course of a year (mid 2009 - mid 2010). However there were times that we had individual tasks to complete we would put in however much we could which sometimes meant 40 hours in a week, this is hard when I was working full time and he was attending university. Add to that I was living in another city close to 3 hours drive away and I would come up only in the weekend.

Clarence, for his Masters in Fine Arts, had this concept that (in a nut shell, I will try to get him to explain better soon) he wanted people to be painted using his style (portraiture) but in a way that they felt comfortable. Also to make the painting be more about the person in the painting rather than the painter. So he came up with the concept to remove himself out of the process by creating a computer program that simulates his style and paints the user it sees through the camera.

Neither of us had ever done anything like this before but he had a vision and I was very keen to give it a go. So with the kiwi spirit we forged ahead. I lost count how many times on my drive to see him I would think "how do I tell him that this is it, we can't go further". Of course I couldn't, so I had to find a way. The project came to an end just before I was set to leave the country. Below is a video he made prior to the exhibition, which I sadly missed but I am happy that his vision came to fruition. It was such a process, riddled with hurdles but so much growth. Not just in terms of coding ability or anything but in terms of seeing what can be achieved when one has a vision and the confidence to find a way to achieve it.

It's not perfect but it's something.

A BIG thank you to:
- Our families, who not only supported us but put up with our absence and crazy talk
- Our friends, who supported us, encouraged us and gave very valuable input
- Unitec for some of the testing equipment
- The team at http://www.openframeworks.cc/ for an amazing library and support in the forums
- The work being done at http://opencv.willowgarage.com/wiki/
- and to http://www.codeblocks.org/ for being better than xcode :P

p.s. I will update this post with some thoughts from Clarence and some more clarity on the project soon.

Update: New Video from Clarence

Current Project: Orcon NZ Usage Meter Gadget

So I have been meaning to have a play with building a Sidebar Gadget and I had an idea to build one that I can use to see my current broadband usage on Orcon. Orcon currently show you your current usage on their website but I thought it would be great as a learning exercise.

And it sure has been a learning curve! Either way I have a functional (emphasis on functional, haven't put any time into the layout) example which I am going to contact them about, just to make sure they are ok with me using some of their code and taping into their feed.

If you are currently on Windows 7 (should work in Vista or the Sidebar plugins for XP) and use Orcon as your provider, please check back as I will be in need of some testing :)

I have spent a total of a solid day on this, getting my head around the structure and the ways to get the Settings/Flyout views working. In the end I have scrapped using the Flyout, purely as there was no need for it.

So I am going to package it up and send it to @Orcon to see what they say before spending anymore time on it :)

Update 13/01/10 - I have heard back from @Orcon and they have been very supportive (Thanks Duncan). So now I am going to make it look nice as best I can and put it out for feedback.

Update 21/01/10 - Ok so here it is Orcon NZ Usage Meter (unofficial) (see below for download links). Go ahead, download, install and let me know what you think :) Please note that Orcon may change somethings on their end that may stop this from working. If it does and you notice, please let me know. Thanks!

Update 24/01/10 - At the request of my brother there is a Mac version in the works and not too far off.

Update 09/02/2010 - Two releases this time. An updated one for Vista/Win 7 and one for the Mac (Intel).

The new Windows one has some changes to it. First I have removed the ability to set the update time, instead it is set at 60 min and there is now a 'Update now' link. Some feedback was that this would be better. There are no other changes so you can keep the first version if you wish.

The Mac version (currently tested on Intel based OS X 10.4.10 / OS X 10.5.8 / OS X 10.6.2) and resembles the new Windows version in functionality. If it works (or if it doesn't), please comment with details of your Mac.

Update 02/03/10 - Have now updated both the Windows Version and the Mac version to include a check to see if there is a new version available for download and a link back here. Download Links updated. Only one version for each OS will be available for download (ask if you want previous versions).

Update 19/06/10 - We now have a PowerPC version! Also I have updated some of the wording in the other versions (thanks @bnorozi).

Update 24/12/11 - I have removed the download links till I can fix the Widgets. Thanks for the patience.

Update 02/03/12 - Here are the updated versions which are hopefully fixed. Please test and comment back. Thanks!
Mac
Mac (PowerPC)
Windows (Vista/Win7)

Current Project: Tiger Lily

This is a project that I have been working on with Clarence Lomiwes for his Masters in Arts. In short it's an application that uses Clarence's strokes and style to paint a person sitting in front of a webcam. It's built using Open Framworks and developed on Xcode and CodeBlocks. Prior to this I had only played around a little bit with OF and Clarence had never seen it, so it's been a huge learning curve for the both of us. We are currently working on a version that we will release to the web in order to get feedback and suggestions. It will also be interesting to see what people's reactions are to it. So stay tuned :)

Update: here

Current Projects

I have quiet a few projects running which deserve a mention. So I've created a tag called current projects which I will assign to posts for those of you who are interested in what I am working on after hours. Stay tuned :)

t61

Been listening a lot to http://www.thesixtyone.com/ recently, and am loving it. My music taste varies something crazy and I'm loving having access to so much music that is varied and quite good! Also getting Rep points and Hearts talks to my competitive side :)

I have come across a few interactive issues like some buttons don't seem to work across browser etc. However the keyboard integration is really sweet as I get interrupted quite a lot so being able to quickly switch and pause etc the player without using the mouse is definitely a plus.

Anyways check it out and if you decide to join drop my user name (Wayferer) in the referred field if you could :)

Domain Redirect

yay for blogspot allowing free domain redirect. now to see how flexible the customization is...