Welcome to the online portfolio & blog of Luke Chambers containing work and ramblings completed whilst studying Digital Art and Technology at the University of Plymouth.
This web site serves as a place where I can articulate my ideas and thought processes as well as show off previous work.
PROJECT: SOFTWARE & HARDWARE
Posted February 27, 2008 at 10:48 pm
After pulling my hair out trying to get the HP iPaqs to work with the GPS middleware I was given by Speedy I finally managed to get it working with some different hardware. Adam has kindly lent me his old xda mini pocket pc and I’ve also borrowed a GPS receiver off of Tom. With these combined the software works perfectly, allowing me to read in the GPS longitude and latitude. With this I’ve managed to build a little flash app that can log the gps data to an xml object within flash and then at a touch of a button send it to my server and save it as an xml document. I can now use the basis of this app for my space project. Photo time:
Comments (0)SPACE: SOME BINAURAL RECORDINGS
Posted at 5:41 pm
This afternoon I went down to Mutley plain and took some recordings using my binaural setup. I’m pretty pleased with the results which make a good starting point for more recordings. You can have a listen to them below, put make sure you’re wearing earphones so as to appreciate the full effect.
- Mutley plain facing north: Listen
- Mutley plain facing south: Listen
- Mutley plain facing east: Listen
- Mutley plain facing west: Listen
What I’m hoping to do is use these to show how the GPS jitter as someone stands in one place, moving the sounds in a virtual space.
Tags: SpaceSPACE: BINAURAL RECORDING SETUP
Posted at 1:33 pm
After buying some electrical tape this morning my binaural recording setup is complete and it didn’t cost me an arm and a leg. Here’s what I used to make it:
- Minidisc recorder – borrowed from the equipment loans in uni
- A 3.5mm Stereo to Two Mono Adaptor – bought from Maplins
- Two stereo clip mics – borrowed from the equipment loans in uni
- A pair of earphones – Ipod earphones
- Lots of electrical tape – bought from Maplins
Total spent: £3.02. Sure beats £50 from eBay. I’ve done some test recordings around the house and the results are very promising. Here’s some photos:
Tags: SpaceNARRATIVE: IDEA
Posted February 26, 2008 at 11:58 pm
After today’s meeting I’m fixed on my idea now. My starting point is the book of Hundred Thousand Billion Poems by Raymond Queneau, a set of 10 sonnets. Each line of the sonnet is cut which allows you to select which line you want from each of the other 9 poems. This was originally written in French and has since been translated into English by many different people. I’ve found a few on the internet:
- http://www.bevrowe.info/Poems/QueneauRandom_v4.html
- http://www.uncontrol.com/deploy/content/EXPERIMENTS/massin/
Using this as a source for the poems I will create a GPS version of the book. I’ll create this using mediascape and map out the hot-spots around Plymouth. On screen you will be able to see a map and possible narrative routes, these taking you through hot-spots that will trigger off different lines of each poem.
I hope to record these using binaural microphones so it feels like someone is in front of you speaking a line. I’m in the process of building my own set at the moment so I should hopefully have some photos of the setup and maybe a few recordings soon.
GAMES: FINALLY FINISHED
Posted February 21, 2008 at 12:59 pm
Managed to finally get the games module nicely polished off last week with the games test and handed in the pack this week. I’m really quite pleased with what I contributed to the project and I still can’t believe I programmed the whole intranet! You can still play the game if you live in Plymouth too, simply goto Shinobithegame.com and click on the join us link.
Heres a screenshot:
Tags: GamesPROJECT: KUNERILITE
Posted January 14, 2008 at 2:50 pm
Whilst looking for a solution to my project idea I stumbled across KuneriLite, a toolkit to extend Adobe Flash Lite capabilities using Symbian S60 phones. This allows you to easily use a phones technology, such as GPS, camera, accelerometer, using plugins. A very useful solution but with 1 draw back, I need a phone with GPS and a good enough camera on it!
I’ve had a look at the software and it looks relatively easy to use and bolt in to a flash lite swf so if I can’t find a solution using the windows mobile platform I may have to invest in a GPS enabled phone!
PROJECT: IPAQ & TOMTOM
Posted January 10, 2008 at 12:27 am
Ok, so today I’ve been looking at a few options in order to create my project. I started looking at GPS loggers for the iPaq and found a few useful links:
I’ve also been looking into hacking TomTom navigation systems. It started off when I read an article by David M Williams about Hacking the Tom Tom through Open Source here which was very interesting. There seems to be a community that has established itself and is quite prominent. TomTom themselves have even acknowledged this open source movement and have funded it.
So this leads me to why. Why do I would I want to use a TomTom for the project? That’s easy. Its portable, it looks like you can do a lot with it and it runs linux. Anything that runs linux must be hackable! People have also hooked up a webcam and displayed the feed through the TomTom. Very cool and I could see myself using that. Anyway here’s some useful links I found:
PROJECT: MORE IDEAS
Posted December 9, 2007 at 11:05 pm
Been thinking more about how my project will shape up today. As I want to use this ghosting over video I also thought it would be cool to have a heads up display to show the intended path and route the previous rider took along the course. This could also show the ghost as well so that the current rider can see how far back or in front they are. Just a thought really.
I’ve also been thinking about the use of colour as well to represent these routes and the time. To recap I want to show the differing time lapses at of different sections on a course as people are bound to do bits faster or slower than others. So why not use colour? If your faster it could be blue, slower it could be yellow. These in themself can build up contouring time lines to produce some sort of artefact.
Right, I need some rest.
PROJECT: GPS WOES AND SOLUTIONS
Posted December 8, 2007 at 8:16 pm
At the end of my last meeting Chris kindly lent me a GPS receiver for me to have a play about with. Unfortunately it didn’t come with a usb cable so I was stuck with trying to get data off of it using its in built bluetooth. Another unfortunate thing is the fact that the manufacturer hasn’t had the foresight to write any good software or documentation for using it with bluetooth (typical). I guess it doesn’t help that they have discontinued the device as well.
So, I need to find another solution. Here’s a few things I’ve found or thought about;
- HP iPAQs – I borrowed 1 to take to Mscape Fest and I seem to remember some other software being on them which I believe will log GPS data. If there isn’t them I’m sure I can find some.
- I’ve been doing some searches and there’s 1 GPS data logger that keeps coming up time and time again, which is the GlobalStat DG100, link here. It seems to be a very value for money logger but that’s all it does.
- I’ve also found some do it yourself GPS receivers and logger; thomaspfeifer.net, jay-t.de, as well as plenty other on hack a day.
- You can also buy a logger that some one else has made that seems to be very good. Link here. This isn’t available again until the 15th Dec however and its a tad expensive.
I also managed to find a wiki from Openstreetmap.org that has reviewed many GPS devices which should come in handy when deciding where to go next. Link here.
Reading these reviews 1 of the devices seem to be a safe bet: the Scytex NaviGPS. Its water proof, lightweight, compact and great for cyclists. Its a good price too, so that’s another option if everything else fails.
SPACE: THE BIG IDEA
Posted December 5, 2007 at 11:04 pm
So after being to the Mscape festival and being enlightened to the joys of Mediascapes I have come up with an idea based on my research and previous ideas. Firstly here’s a sketch I did at the festival:
What this little sketch explains is the basic idea surrounding how it will work. What I want to do is take advantage of what some people call “GPS Jitter”. If you don’t know what this is allow me to explain. GPS Jitter occurs on a GPS system when you are in a stationary position in any given area. What happens on the mscapes is your position will circle and jump around causing this “Jitter”. So, I want to create hotspots very close to each other and experiment with sounds and light so you could stand on the boundary of a hot spot and have hot spots jump around. This could change to a different sound, layer multiple sounds and maybe even have a wearable led array or something similar change colour.
This could be a representation of the space through GPS Jitter, sound and light that could be a personal and shared experience. Could even go as far as saying its performative too. It will change the way you feel about the space and how everyone else around you feels about the space.
Whilst at Mscape Fest I attended a workshop titled “Audio Design for Mediascape” run by Duncan Speakman. He let us hear an example of a binaural sound recording, which basically records the sound from the perspective of your ears (the microphones are actually in your ears). This was kind of strange as you didn’t really know if people in the room were talking as you could hear it all around you and it really lifted you out of the environment. For this reason I am keen to experiment with these types of recordings for the project to give dis-locative audio.
