Pete Hindle's Repository of Stuff

Here is the very earliest part of my research into making a printing machine, as part of my bursary at Northern Print. I've created a very small program using Processing and it's JMyron library. This allows me to easily track movement when a camera is plugged into the computer (so if you want to download it and give it a go, nothing will happen unless you plug a video camera in).

Behind the scenes, ever piece of movement returns a number relating to the position of that movement on the screen. This comes as a number in two parts - an X and Y coordinate, like 140, 78. In the future, I'll be writing a piece of code that uses that number to move a motor, which basically means that the movement will translated into a form of markmaking.

If this sounds like something you want to play around with, I've included the application files for each one as attachments to this post. My house rules for attachments: you'll need Java and something to Unzip the files, and you are not allowed to use the bits that I've made without attributing their creation to me (aka the Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial Share Alike 3.0 License) Although I'm no programming behemoth and most of the cool stuff was already done by the team behind JMyron.

Here's a picture of it in action, tracking me as I dance:

And people say I'm nerdy. Pfft.

Well, here's the new site - I'm using the Aberdeen theme from the main Drupal site, which is really delightful and fit's in with my planned use of lurid greens.

I'm going to be blogging some more about the Northern Print bursary soon, which is something that I've been planning to work on for a while. My application to them basically stated that I would be making a mark-making machine, that would probably work with input from sound and movement to create marks on a surface. Originally I was thinking this would be some sort of etching, but most etching metals are quite a bit harder than I had figured.

Another thing that's holding me up - and I know most serious programmers would laugh at this - is storing a number in the computers memory with snarling it up. I'll post some code later, probably a snippet of processing, but I'm still at a considering stage rather than a doing stage. However, I think the first thing to do would be make a program that tracks the movement of the biggest block of colour...

Also, tonight is the night that my father flew off to the Lego hotel in Denmark! Hopefully, he'll keep me updated on his progress, and give me a full report on the Lego hotel décor.