This page documents my work and experiments done during the "Max and I, Max and Me" course. Feel free to copy, but give attribution where appropriate.

final project: ISS overhead

The International Space Station is currently the only extraterrestrial habitat for humans. It circles the earth approximately every 90 minutes and thus can look down on a vast planet. Humans on the other hand rarely look up and grasp what we accomplished and what we can reach for. This small installation tracks the International Space Station and emits a notification if it is above the place of exhibition.

The technical setup consists of a computer running Max and some means of notification like a bell or a speaker. The current position of the International Space Station is calculated from its orbital data and set into relation to the place of exhibition (e.g. Weimar). If the ISS is at a place which can be considered overhead the notification is triggered. If a speaker is used the sound synthesis can encode different parameters.

== implementation note ==s The basic Max patch for tracking the ISS and sending a bang is done.

Processing TLE files and orbital data was sidestepped by relying on open-notify.org and processing JSON data. The distance (on earth) to the city center of Weimar (at 50.979444, 11.329722) calculated using the euclidian distance as a metric. To simplify the math it is assumed that the world is flat and the WGS 84 reference system is ignored. This is ok for small distances where the curvature of the earth does not result in too much of an error.

Lessons learned:

sometimes you can find an API for exactly the data you need
occasionally ignoring the material reality is feasible on very narrow bounds
school math turned out to be useful

Todo:

extend to use different satellites
leverage their orbital data
attach a loudspeaker for announcements

references

process: other peoples work to investigate

project: theremin

Assignment: Please do your own first patch and upload onto the wiki under your name

I did build a simple Theremin to get to know the workflow with Max. Move your mouse cursor around to control the pitch and volume.

File:simple_mouse_theremin.maxpat

Objects used:

process: retrieve images from a camera

This simple patch allows you to grab (still) images from the camera.

File:2021-04-23_retrieve_images_from_camera_JS.maxpat

Objects used:

jit.grab

project: screamie

If you scream loud enough ... you will get a selfie.

This little art is a first shot. Also: snarky comment on social media and selfie-culture.

File:2021-04-25_screamie_JS.maxpat

Objects used:

levelmeter~ - to display the audio signal level
peakamp~ - find peak in signal amplitude (of the last second)
past - send a bang when a number is larger then a given value
jit.grab - to get image from camera
jit.matrix - to buffer the image and write to disk

process: record and save audio and video data

This patch demonstrates how to get audio/video data and how to write it to disk.

File:2021-04-23_audio_video_recorder_JS.maxpat

Objects used:

ezadc~ - to get audio input
meter~ - to display (audio) signal levels
metro - to get a steady pulse of bangs
counter - to count bangs/toggles
select - to detect certain values in number stream
delay - to delay a bang (to get DSP processing a head start)
jit.grab - to get images from camera
jit.vcr - to write audio and video data to disk

project: color based movement tracker

This movement tracker uses color as a marker for an object to follow. Hold the object in front of the camera an click on it to select an RGB value to track. The object color needs to be distinctly different from the background in order for this simple approach to work. This patch yields both a bounding box and its center point to process further.

The main trick is to overlay the video display area (jit.pwindow) with a color picker (suckah) to get the color. A drop-down menu is added as a convenience function to select the input camera (e.g. an external one vs. the build-in device). The rest is math.

File:2021-04-23_color_based_movement_tracker_JS.maxpat

The following objects are used

metro - steady pulse to grab images from camera
jit.grab - actually grab an image from the camera upon a bang
prepend - put a stored message in front of any input message
umenu - a drop-down menu with selection
jit.pwindow - a canvas to display the image from the camera
suckah - pick a colour from the underlying part of the screen (yields RGBA as 4-tuple of floats (0.0 .. 1.0))
swatch - display a colour (picked)
vexpr - for (C-style) math operations with elements in lists
findbounds - search values in a given range in the video matrix
jit.lcd - a canvas to draw on
send & receive - avoid cable mess

project: video theremin

Assignment: Combine your first patch with sound/video conversion/analysis tools

This patch combines the previously developed color-based movement tracker with the first theremin.

File:2021-04-23_video_theremin_JS.maxpat

project: i see you and you see me

The project did not grew legs upon more detailed examination. It therefore was not persued further.

in collaboration with Luise Krumbein

Video conference calls replaced in-person meetings on a large scale in a short amount of time. Most software tries to mimic a conversation bus actually either forces people into the spotlight and into monologues or off to the side into silence. One to one communication allows a user to concentrate on the (one) other, but group meetings blur the personalities and pigeonhole expression into a cookie-cutter shape of what is technically efficient and socially barely tolerable. The final project in this course seeks to explore different representations in synchronous online group communication.

To shift the perception data will be gathered from multiple (ambient) sources. This means tapping into public data sets for broad context. It also means gathering hyper-local/personal data via an arduino or similar microcontroller (probably ESP8266) for sensing the individual. These data streams will be combined to produce a visual output using jitter. This result aims to represent the other humans in a manner to emphasize personality and not the emulation of the technicality in face to face exchanges.

project: distance communication

Different implementations of the algorithm were tried in Max. None yielded a convergence of the phases of the oscillators. Therefore the project was cancelled.

The installation "distance communication" explores and reflects on (romantic) relationships at a time where partners are apart. Their lives don't take place in the same environment anymore and are open to different influences. It takes effort to stay in sync even though a distance may be bridged by modern communication means. Two blinking LEDs represent the partners, the blinking rhythm their respective lives.

The technical setup consists of two LEDs driven by a microcontroller and sensed via a light-dependent resistor. A small computer (laptop or small form factor PC) runs both Max and a video conference software to display "the other". The Max patch and the "other" are displayed on a screen or video projector. The Max patch tries to synchronize the respective blinking pattern by leveraging the well studied behaviour of fireflies. A microphone on the floor picks up ambient sound. If this audio level exceeds a given a threshold the blinking of one LEDs is triggers / reset to introduce disturbance in the process. The installation may be presented with both parts in the same room or one part off-site somewhere else.

implementation notes

The firefly model turned out to be insufficient for the current setup due to the small number of agents. The interaction has been remodeled from first principles based on two harmonic oscillators and the Kuramoto–Daido model for phase locking.

Observing the equation system over time shows the expected behavior (when implemented in Python).

Max implementation of the Kuramoto-Daido model