I decided to stick with basic shapes, that change their forms according to the data from users and also a little data from music. So, any user, using a transmitter, will hear manipulated sound and will see the changes on shape’s form, on-the-fly.

I’ll send the users’ data to another computer that run Quartz Composer via OSC. Because the projection will be far enough.

During my tests, I found out that one receiver is not enough for four transmitter (sounds logical, right?) or Xbee Processing library can’t handle data from multiple data source. Sooner or later one transmitter is invading the data pool and other transmitters’ data get lost. To overcome this sh*tty problem, I tried to allocate one receiver per transmitter. In this case, everything went smoothly. So, I ordered two more XBee 1mW Chip Antenna + Xbee Explorer USB kit from Sparkfun.

For the product design side of the transmitters, I’m working with a friend of mine, a fashion designer. If we’ll have a finished design I’ll post here.

There it is my test-sketch-experimental video clip, for Flashbulb - Orange #9 , fully made in Quartz Composer. Glitches are generated in real time, so every time they are different than before.

I feel very comfortable in Quartz Composer environement (Apple’s Developer Application), so I decided to make Music Video course project with that. I’d like to use some 3d object but Apple do not offer such official solution in app. Kineme Interactive Media, a very dedicated site to Quartz Composer, now selling Kineme3D patch which support importing FBX, OBJ, DXF, DAE, MD2, and 3DS model in Quartz. I think with existing audio processing power right built in the application and Kineme patch, I can handle it. Well, in a week I’ll post the result.

Here’s the working hardware prototype. Unit on the left is the receiver (Xbee on Sparkfun Xbee breakout board + de-chipped Arduino) and the right one is the one of transmitters(Xbee on Xbee Lilypad breakout board). Receiver must be physically connected to the computer for data bridge. Receivers will work wirelessly on battery.

During my research, I found out that Xbee can operate standalone, transmit or receive data through 6 I/O pins. So I don’t have to use any microcontroller. Thanks to Dan Shiffman and Rob Faludi for Xbee Processing API, I managed to gather accelerometer data correctly (but needs noise filtering) and send to Ableton Live as MIDI signal. Next move is fine tuning.

Users will choose one of the controller and will manipulate audio and visuals in real time.

Every controller will have an accelerometer to produce data and a wireless transmitter to send it the computer for processing. Each controller will control specific parameter.

Software
Ableton Live and Processing to control parameters
Quartz Composer and VDMX to generate visuals

Hardware
Arduino Lilypad
Xbee
Accelerometer

Basic Workflow