Final Project Idea

I finally figured out what I want to do for my final project!
It involves touch based interaction, movement, and projection

Here are two projects that are basic variations on what I want to do:

Firewall
http://www.amusement.net/2012/12/21/firewall-spandex-and-a-kinect-make-for-a-great-interactive-installation/

Khronos Projection
http://www.k2.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp/members/alvaro/Khronos/
(I absolutely love this one! I love how the aspect of time is also involved in this one!!!)

I was thinking of introducing a difference between these pieces and my piece by allowing the spandex to be able to be touched and deform accordingly, but I would also have the canvas moving itself. I could use some simple motors to create this motion but I am actually moving away from this thought now.

Actually now I am thinking of combining this with some of my thesis research ideas. I am very intrigued and involved with the creation of  systems to ease the interaction with a digital 3D world by using traditional clunky 2D interfaces and non-intuitive tools such as keyboard and mouse. I realize that this pushing into the fabric gives us access to a third dimension that I would love to leverage to the advantage of the creation of 3D animation and art. Therefore, I will create an interactive art piece (most likely based on some sort of physics simulation) that reacts/animates due to the user's input on this screen in 3 dimensions. Then later I can extend the piece to be an actual tool for interacting with 3D software such as Maya by allowing the creation of 3D curves and the placement of objects in 3D space.

What I will need:

• A large piece of spandex
• Kinect (or an IR sensor)
• Projector
• (Maybe: Arduino and motors)

(I will update this timeline as my ideas take a more solid form and the problem areas develop in the project. My main concern right now is figuring out the best way to get the fine grain control over sensing the position/placement of user's touch on the canvas in 3 dimensions)

Timeline:

• Week 1:
• Acquire Supplies
• Generate basic installation setup (configure a stand for the fabric, figure out how to set up projector and Kinect)
• Get the projector to communicate with my laptop
•  Download Kinect software and get it running on laptop
• Week 2:
• Learn the basics of interacting with the Kinect
• Get the Kinect to recognize motions of the fabric in 3 dimensions (If the interaction is not fine grain enough we will have to move to the IR sensor)
• Finalize idea for projected images and interaction
• Week 3:
• Get basic Simulation(or projection interaction) working
• Week 4:
• Get everything that didn't go right the first time around working and work out bugs
• Week 5:
• Plan on finishing early because you won't really