I was about to post about Daniel Shiffman’s new MPE (Most Pixels Ever) Library, when what should appear in my Processing Blogs subscription, but an extended video showing more of the ITP lab, and The Shiff (first ever rockstar processing nickname? I hope so) himself talking about the project.

Preface: If you love Processing - as we do here at CDMo - then you should already be subscribed to ProcessingBlogs, and have probably already seen this. However it’s too cool not to add to our Processing.org tag page. Hence this post.

“Most Pixels Ever” (not to be confused with “Best Pixels Ever”) is an open source Java framework for spanning real-time graphics applets/applications across multiple screens. The above video is a quick demonstration of the first prototype. Three client applications on three Mac Pros connect to six 32 inch LCD displays (each Mac has a dual video card, but this could just have easily work with 6 client machines). One of the Macs is also running a server application. The server tells each client about the master pixel dimensions of all the screens combined (here 8160×768). The client keeps track of its own location dimensions (say 2720×768) as well as its location with in master dimensions (say 5040,0). The server keeps everyone in line, making sure that frames are rendered in sync.

We’ve had a couple of people in the CDM Forums asking about multi-screen projections and video installations. It’s a logical progression for advanced projects - there aren’t many things which won’t look considerably more awesome if spread over multiple screens - but hasn’t really been an option thus far in Processing, unless you were to go the hardware multiple-monitor route.

To the video: Tech Trek: Inside ITP (episode 2) (3 minutes).
Via ProcessingBlogs.

Spencer Kiser, another whiz kid from NYU’s ITP program, gives CDM our first look at his SpinCycle. It’s a new take on the turntable: instead of tracking grooves on a disc, the device reads colors and produces sounds (and hypnotic colors). Check out Spencer’s flickr gallery for pics for now, but he promises more documentation and video soon.

Another reason I’m jealous of Spencer: he made the Vancouver conference on new musical instrument interfaces. Check out what looks like an interactive washboard-computer interface! More on all this soon . . .

A couple of weeks ago, I was able to attend the 2005 IMC Expo at NYC’s Chelsea Art Museum, a showcase of new interactive sound/visual installation works. The show featured everything from “volumetric” LCD light cubes to sci-fi-style interactive displays to installation toys. For an overview of the new works:

[wpg2]archived/imc/[/wpg2]

Catalog of Works: Studio IMC has its own gallery with work descriptions for additional background.

Many of the works were best described in early-prototype phase, but it was nonetheless lots of fun playing with motion tracking, cameras, and of course the toy piano video organ! Don’t miss last week’s report on Cybersonica for more interactive creations from the other side of the pond.

If you’ve dreamed of navigating through virtual reality worlds with just your hands, a la the movie Minority Report

, you’ll like the prototype of CINE (Collaborative Immersive Network Environment) by Miro Kirov, Houston Riley, and James Tunick with advisors Jean-Marc Gauthier and Frank Migliorelli (yes, it’s those crazy NYU ITP folks again!) Full-body gestures let you navigate in 3D.

I tried out CINE at the Studio IMC Expo. It’s certainly fun to play with, though keep in mind in prototype phase it has a ways to go before it lives up to some of its lofty design goals. There are possibilities for music and sound, too, though: the up-front interface is apparently Max/MSP. So if you’re looking to mix the Holodeck with musical performance, there may be promise.

See CDM’s IMC Expo report for more shots of this and other showcased creations.