As a visualist I have an incessant appetite for gear. The inaugural Plug N Play Brisbane on Tuesday reminded me that it doesn’t have to be this way, however. While I rocked up with bags and boxes of computers, cables, cameras, controllers and hardware, others arrived with a single laptop, and of course were able to put equally compelling material on the screen. Or, to be perfectly honest - more-compelling material, as I struggled to remember which icons were required to get 3L’s automation chains working.

Debilitating addictions aside; everyone present was interested in my source for cheap security cameras, BNC converters, HDMI cables and other necessary items, so I’m guessing that the rest of the community may also enjoy: DealExtreme (disclosure: Affiliate links used, if you buy stuff I get a cut).

DealExtreme has a huge range of, basically, ephemera: iPod batteries, LED torches, cable converters, chargers… The type of things you’d get for $20 in a local shop, or you could find on eBay for $2 plus $15 shipping. DealExtreme matches those deceptively cheap eBay prices, and then proceeds to not charge shipping, which puts everything into the category entitled “Ridiculously Cheap Stuff”.

The range is large and varied. This coupled with a not particularly intuitive search and categorization of the site has resulted in me wasting many hours paging through, but along the way I’ve bookmarked plenty of things which may be useful to the average VJ:

In case you haven’t seen the stunt spreading, meme-like, around the blogosphere, graffiti artist Skullphone hacked ten Los Angeles-area billboards owned by ClearChannel. It’s the coolest thing to happen to LA’s billboards since L.A. Story. And that was a movie, not real.

See it on Skullphone and Curbed L.A. via Textually and Supertouch, and F.A.T. and Anti-Advertising Agency, via Gizmodo and MAKE.

Now, this deserves special mention here because I imagine almost everyone here has dreamed of hijacking giant digital billboards — the way musicians dream of playing the Hollywood Bowl or being on the cover of Rolling Stone or something.

Not that we condone such behavior, of course. No, that’d be illegal.

Too bad you can only get away with stuff like this in LA and not, say, Times Square or Tokyo.

Okay, maybe not “hacked.” If by “hacked” you mean “rented from ClearChannel, the owner of the sign,” then this is a hack. Oops. Speaking of which, I’d better make sure to check my bank balance and make sure I can hack this month’s apartment. So much for sticking it to ClearChannel, evil corporate overlord. (Now, does someone know if you could hack these signs?)

I like Wired’s term, too — “checkbook culture jamming.” And now you know what to get your favorite visualist for his/her birthday, eh? (Thanks for the correction, mememamo!)

Dan of Dansdata has recently started a more personal blog. Whereas Dansdata is generally quite focussed on niche tech gadgetry reviews and solving reader problems, his new blog “How To Spot A Psychopath” (named after this page) is a little less focussed, running the gamut from reviews of spam emails, to using lego for casting metal, to the release of Terry Pratchett’s Hogfather miniseries in the UK, and more recently: Light bulb diffraction.

This is important information for visualists, as the colour rendering of the lighting you use effects the quality of your final image. If your bulbs have a low CRI (Colour Rendering Index), then the colours in the images captured by your camera won’t be true to life.

Dan has tested a range of bulbs, and while the results are widely known - halogen and LED are ok, flourescent makes people look like corpses - it’s interesting to see images of why some lamps are such a great choice for zombie movies.

I received my Arduino today, and in preparation I’ve been saving up some Arduino/Wiring/Processing links of interest to a newbie physical-computerer.

If you haven’t Arduino’d before, here’s Todbot on why it’s a rocking little microcontroller. Tod also tells us how to make an Arduino Breadboard Shield, for quick circuit prototyping.

You should probably familiarise yourself with the Arduino Board, then have a look at ARDUINO meets PROCESSING - physical computing and computer graphics site: Projects containing the basic physical interactions mediated by an Arduino board.

The Arduino meets Processing project intends to make it as easy as possible for anyone to explore the world of physical computing. All you need is an Arduino board as well as the Arduino and Processing software, which you can download on their project websites.

Some of the pages seem a little incomplete, but it contains basic circuit information and code for: Pushbutton, Switch(es), Tilt Sensor, Accelerometer, Potentiometer, LDR Light Sensor, NTC Temperature Sensor, Joystick, Ultrasonic Sensor, Piezo Element.

Of course the Arduino Tutorials page has loads of examples. Of major interest to VJs may be:
Blinking LED.
Dimming 2 LEDs (RGB colour mixing).
LED Driver makes use of an LED Driver in order to control an almost endless amount of LEDs with only 4 pins.

Both Peter and I have Arduinos now, so you can expect things to be getting a little more physical in the future. Don’t be scared, we’ll be gentle.

Light Emitting Textiles is a technological theme which keeps reappearing year after year. In fact, a year ago for the Internationale Funkaustellung (IFA) Phillips announced their Photonic Textile Prototypes - rather blocky but undeniably cool flexible LED arrays.

For this year’s IFA, Phillips have upped the ante with: better resolution? Cliched example loops? Come on people, an @ symbol hasn’t meant “super cutting edge technological stuff” for at least eight years now. This is just showing that you’re as out of touch with the cool kids as the corporations who will pay to use this for their marketing.

Motion design weakness aside: I think this would go beautifully with something like the Remote VJs Control, which is way too limited for serious VJ action, but probably just daft enough to work with a fabric-embedded display.

via Processing Blogs

Ed.: While we slave away on some bigger feature stories to come — just you wait, once we’re, erm, done programming — Jaymis brings us a roundup of all things goodness. Bon Appetit! -PK

Hack your Point and Shoot

Further to my Enough Megapixels/DIY time-slice rig idea: How to wire a Canon A80 for cable release. I’m sure this technique could be adapted to whatever cheap point and shoot you can get your hands on.

Control an RGB LED Array

SparkFun has an intro to Controlling LED Arrays on TCP/IP Networks.

Logitech’s NuLOOQ

On CDMu Peter points out the Logitech NuLOOQ, which I think will be incredibly useful for VJs and moving picture producers (as long as Logi got the drivers right). I’ve spoken to Logitech’s Australian PR rep, and apparently they aren’t yet on the Aus release schedule, so for Australian readers I’ll see if I can get my hands on some alternatives.

Canon’s new HD Camcorders

Canon have announced a new line of HD cameras, the XH A1 and HX G1, fixed-lens cousins of the XL H1. Of course DVInfo.net already have an unbeatable resource page

Josh Oakhurst Makes With the VLog

Josh Oakhurst has produced his first VLog, with ski goggles!

Music Video Collection

Submarine Channel’s Pause Online has an enjoyable and broad selection of Music Videos.

Cordless Workspace

Lifehacker documents the Cordless Workplace. Strangely enough, this is my exact solution. I too use an Ikea Jerker desk (in standing configuration), and can vouch for both how much cleaner this makes your workspace, and how much happier the girlfriend is when all those cables have disappeared.

Via Pixelsumo comes a fantastic lineup of links to futuristic interfaces for music, etc. If you were impressed by Cycling 74’s new Lemur touchscreen, with the power to let you touch multiple points on a pad simultaneously for controlling music/sound/etc., Jeff Han has built his own. His Frustrated Total Internal Reflection project may sound like some sort of existential experience, but it’s really an optical system for tracking multiple finger touches on a screen. You need a back projector, so it’s not as portable or compact as the Lemur, but watch the video: extremely low latency, extremely high sensitivity. Jeff has other tricks up his sleeve, too: using LEDs for touch control, and volumetric 3D displays using dust, among others. I’m heading to NYU later this week, so I’ll have to see if there’s something in the water. If you’re at Siggraph, go check these out and let us know more!

What if Lite Brite and a tablet PC had a crazy love child? It might look something like the Yamaha Tenori-On. The basic idea is, you press buttons on a 16×16 LED grid and trigger sounds and visuals; there are collaborative features for playing with your friends Tenori-Ons, and the back of the screen functions as an LED, so instead of a private trippy experience, everyone can see the fun. Tim writes us:

On the strength of the demo videos I want one of these! I first read of its existence [at We Make Money Not Art].
Most of the official info seems to be in Japanese, but there’s a 16MB movie of someone playing with one here:
http://envol.info/iwai.mov, and info on the OS.
I have a lot of respect for designers who can create musical instruments and interfaces which even small children can play with!

I agree — fun stuff! But can we please stop repeating the cliché about new musical instruments, clearly levied at the computer? Designed Toshio Iwai is quoted on WWMNA as saying: “A violin doesn’t work if any of its beautiful shape, sound quality, and usability is missing. However, electronic musical instruments often fail to create this inevitable relation of shape, sound, and usability. My goal with TENORI-ON is to make it the right instrument for the real digital age by rethinking what musical instruments should be.”

I almost agree. But a violin’s usability? You crane it uncomfortably between your chin and your shoulder, bruising your neck, it takes months to make a sound that won’t clear the room and make people beg for mercy, and years to make music. If you never got to see a violin, it would sound just as beautiful. Instrument design is important, but let’s separate the toys from the great instruments: even if violins looked ugly, we’d still fall in love with them for their sound and expressive range. So maybe designers need to reconsider what the criteria are. I think it has a lot less to do with shape, looks, and “usability,” and a lot more to do with sound and music. (Of course, in the meantime, I do still want to play with a Tenori-On.) See also: Music Thing