DAT201: Artefact: Pinklestia is not Princess Celestia

Inspired by ®™ark's Barbie Liberation Organization campaign of the early 1990s, I decided to add a section to Project Canterlot by looking into the tactics employed in their campaign, its goals, and how it would impact on the consumer, and its intended audience. Everyone knows that bronies strive for show-accuracy, and when it comes to Equestria's great ruler, there are weaknesses that need to be ironed out. Although we are promised a show-accurate Princess Celestia for Autumn, sometimes, we are a bit too impatient. The profusion of so-called Pinklestias, pink Princess Celestias, would make for an ideal scenario to perform a similar intervention.

Many things are wrong with Pinklestia's voice: she doesn't quote actual lines from the series, she talks about how beautiful her wings are (despite the fact that real Alicorns' wings are supposed to be in the same colour as the general coat), and asking if you're a princess as well, which does reinforce ancient stereotypes associated with the pre-Friendship is Magic My Little Pony, particularly the 3rd generation, and stereotypes associated with over-glorified princess-themed girls' toys in general. 

The perfect hypothetical en-masse subversion would be to repaint Pinklestia in the right colour, change the voice box so then she quotes actual lines from the series, and then re-shelf them, in a similar fashion. Even the show's intended audience would agree that the current Princess Celestia toy, aka Pinklestia, is not accurate, so this intervention would actually win favours from both the traditional audience, and of course, bronies.

DAT203: Ideas for Bretonside: interactive, visual and architectural features

After we identified key areas of improvement at Bretonside, we've outlined some suggestions for our project:

• Installation of interactive kiosks inside the bus station, and at the information column outside of RBS
•  A full, proper facelift of the façade, including some architectural sails (similar to the Sainsbury's in Marsh Mills, but done in a style that is closer to the sails that feature in yachts, thereby reflecting Plymouth's sea-faring heritage), and the interior
• Visual effects and light features installed on the exterior, and projections onto the station floor through translucent tiles on the public footpaths that run above the station interior
• A collaboration with the local College of Art to produce a mural on one of the walls
• Installation of interactive departures and arrivals boards for bus and coach services, to be placed at convenient locations, and to be linked with the GPS systems utilised by local bus operators (Plymouth CityBus and First Devon & Cornwall)

The idea of an interactive departures and arrivals board came from a coach journey to Edinburgh; whilst waiting at London Victoria Coach station, an airport-style information board detailing the departures is used, and this is very useful for providing more information to passengers, something of which Bretonside lacks. The idea has been taken further to become an interactive feature, with a wealth of travel information provided for passengers.

As we didn't notice the translucent tiles on the footpaths that run above Bretonside, we were given the suggestion to provide environmental and interactive projections that can project images, moods and effects onto the station floor, which would brighten the atmosphere for the bus station and make the environment safer for visitors.

In addition, we also suggested that the information column outside of the RBS building could be converted into an interactive information kiosk, since it has become under-utilised, slightly vandalised and fly-posted over the past many years it has been standing. Because the information column is situated closer to the city centre, and to the footpath leading into the main shopping district, it made sense that we also included that in our plans, because a rather under-utilised feature could be put into good use in an era of interactivity.

DAT203 - Infrastructure

In every city, there is an infrastructure - London has one, Birmingham has one, Manchester has one, even our own Plymouth has one as well. However, the infrastructure of Plymouth isn't as well developed as other competing cities around the UK, in fact, pretty much every major city in developed Europe. In today's lecture, we was shown many examples of urban infrastructure, both in fiction and reality, of which we were then introduced to our assignment, a joint project with Plymouth City Council.

The reason for Plymouth's slow development dates back to after World War 2, when the city was bombed by the Nazi Luftwaffe. The city had more bombs dropped on it than Coventry, and as a result, most of the city had to be rebuilt from the ground up. in 1943, Sir Patrick Abercrombie drew up a plan for redeveloping the city, and was then enacted after World War 2, with 20,000 new houses built by the 1960s, and a new Civic high-rise completed during that same period. 

The city was designed with the automobile in mind, which has resulted in an American-influenced infrastructure and architecture, which was typical of many American cities at the time. In addition, it was also fitting for Plymouth, as it was a city that has historical links with the Plymouth in the United States, of which the Pilgrim Fathers discovered, but following a trend of pedestrianisation in the 1980s and the 1990s, the main roads going through the city centre's main shopping districts were paved over, and this has resulted in an important piece of infrastructure being severed or severely curtailed. 

In addition, the ills of the existing transport infrastructure were then felt in the 2000s and the 2010s as other comparable cities were then becoming fully developed, and with the recovery from the global financial crisis still underway, this has now come more important than ever, with the airport now closed and better railway links being needed to help boost growth in city commerce and to increase the speed of redevelopment.

DAT206: Group project using Kinect

In our group project, we are using the Kinect with OpenKinect, which is an open community-driven API that is used to access the Kinect's sensors and camera, and also allows Processing to control the tilt. The Kinect was only just released last year, so for the first time in IDAT, we will be using the many capabilities that have never before been exploited in a project.

Originally meant as an interactive peripheral for the Xbox 360, in response to Sony's PlayStation Move and the incumbent Wiimote, many opportunities became true after Spanish hacker Héctor Martín Cantero managed to create the first open-source driver for the device in response to an Adafruit competition bounty. The OpenKinect project was founded after Héctor posted the hack on Github, and is available in various programming languages; the version we're using is the Processing variant, which includes the necessary libraries in order to access the API. OpenKinect is in continuous development, and many more programming languages are being added as development progresses.

Our game will be themed on zombie survival, and the goal of the game is to survive the whole duration of the game without getting touched by zombies, and defend yourself against them. We are going to try and fuse two Kinect devices to create a 3D world, and use the tracking features in the OpenKinect API to detect the player's movement and interactions against the zombies, and to detect collisions that would result in the player's heath being subtracted. We are also going to use an object to act as the gun, which the player uses against the zombies. The Kinect will detect the player's interaction with the object, and whenever the player pulls the trigger, it fires the gun, and if the gun is aimed well at the zombies, the zombie then gets killed.

IDAT 108: Last week's meeting, progress and this week's filming

Last week's meeting managed to get everything sorted for the following week, which included getting the work schedule together and getting the storyboard onto a flowchart, in order to get an idea of what scenes are to be filmed and how they are going to be linked into the Facebook element before the multiple-choice endings, which involved various scenarios. This meeting gave me a much better picture of what will be expected out of the movie project, and how long we are going to take on the movie, as well as putting the foundations in place for preparation, ready for the filming, which was my part.

The work schedule included the filming schedule, which started from about 6pm on the 28th to the party at approximately 10pm, which then formed a central part of the character meeting the new partner, before then starting to reach the decision points where the viewer decides which ending is going to be used for the end scenario.

This week, filming has already commenced on the first and the last scenes, but due to time constraints (and the fact that the USB cable for the camera had been left at the director's house by accident owing to two bottles of cider on the first day of filming!), an extra day has been added to the schedule for the next 3 last scenes before filming is all wrapped-up and then the clips editing will be done before the premiere is due on Thursday, and also before the interactive movie is due to go live. Progress, on the other hand, is going very well, and despite the short timeframe that the project was given, it looks very good and when the premiere comes, it will all be polished up ready for it's debut.

IDAT 108: Film project with Skyzon Studios: Social Killer

As part of our project in IDAT108, we have decided to do an interactive film, which, under a fake-and-non-existant NDA (non-disclosure agreement), I can't say much to spoil the storyline (and the anticipation people are probably expecting for the film!) apart from the fact that the film features Facebook and a storyline that is decided via interactivity using Flash.

The experience of the meeting was very good as I've had a taste of what will be coming in the project, and how film projects in general work. Since then, I have been assigned the role of cameraman, and many things are starting to take shape: we now have a schedule set for preparing scripts, filming, editing, and the premiere that will take place after the film has been complete. All of that is within a given timeframe that has been set just in time for the last day of modules before the spring break, and before the SOFT131 exam and the workshops that are going to take place during May. We have also organised a party as a tie-in with the filming, and to create scenes that will be used with the film project.

IDAT 106: Plymopoly - Environmental & Contextual Aspects

In our current group work, the game is based on the Monopoly idea, but adapted to suit commerce in a real-life environment, with a vision to boost commerce in the area, and to increase the use of QR codes for delivering promotions. As our project takes place in the city, ideas pulled from the original game had to be adapted to suit retail so then delivery of promotions can be delivered effectively, and also to add an aspect to the game where both gameplay and specially-created offers are used.

Most of the time, the Plymopoly game takes place in shopping and commercial areas, which is a mixed environment because the main areas in the city are indoors and outdoors, and also have varying degrees of footfall, which depends on many factors such as weather, economic and other events that take place at the same time, such as student nights that take place occasionally in Drake Circus.

Drake Circus has an estimated 74 stores, whilst the main shopping districts of New George Street, Armada Way and side street Cornwall Street have an estimated 150 stores and businesses. Together, they make up about 224 shops and businesses inside the main city centre districts. Drake Circus is inside, whilst New George Street and Armada Way are mostly outside, with the latter having an inside section below Sainsbury's.

The online environment depends on how the connectivity is affected, and how reliable it is. Because of the mobile nature of the game, connectivity is required, and the game would not work if connectivity is not available, so 3G and available Wi-fi is a major pre-requisite for participation as it needs to access the internet to read QR codes, update the status of properties and register leader board statistics. Also, a working camera built-in to the device is also required because the project relies on QR codes and applications that support QR code capturing. The websites that are going to be used in the project are optimised for smaller screens and will use less bandwidth, so then the project will be accessible to all, especially those that don't have an extensive mobile internet plan.

The game will take place in an environment where the amount of people movement is expected to be high, particularly in central areas. As nothing but QR codes and handheld devices (i.e. smartphones) are involved, there are no obstacles in regards to equipment placement that will occur in the project. The most tech-savvy are likely to be the biggest users of the project, although it will be expected that casual smartphone users would also take part as well.

(Main group blog about the project is at http://www.thelockwood.co.uk/idat209/. This posting will also be cross-posted there for collation with related postings.)

IDAT 106: Large-scale Monopoly-style interactive game and initial ideas

As part of a joint project with the year 2s, we have to produce a large scale interactive version of a popular board game, which incorporates many features whilst at the same time addresses a current situation, where we have an opportunity to change it, be it worldwide or local. For my group, we decided to do a Monopoly-based game where we will set it in our city of Plymouth and use it to brainstorm solutions to the economical problem that the city suffers from, particularly due to the loss of air links owing to a drop in passengers (which later lead to a call to have the runway extended at our local airport), and also because of business going bust with (although in places it's getting better) many places becoming vacant.

This gives us the perfect opportunity to attempt to draw in more commerce to help transform our city through the wonderful medium of IDAT. We are planning to base our game on web technologies and Flash, an interactive platform that is popular for dynamic information and animations, with a view to complete it within 8 weeks before the deadline, which will be due round the spring/summer time.

IDAT 101: Reflection and Evaluation of Installation

In my opinion, this term's project was an excellent example showing my example of planning and exploring many areas that I have never been introduced to before, even before university. This has also helped me prepare for when in case I do eventually do produce an actual installation, and possibly even when it comes to the placement year. The challenges this has brought to me and also my team-mates tested how we can (in theory) produce an amazing, immersive and fun installation in such small space (and the fact that the space can get even smaller at peak times, particularly on Fridays and weekends), whilst at the same time we can capitalise on the popularity of technology and the clubbing culture.

The idea of using sequencers, ambient lighting and addressable sensors (which in turn developed from the idea of using Processing and cameras to randomly generate content on a screen) in the installation caught my imagination the most, and that was when we then decided to incorporate these ideas into the project, and also do more research on these areas.

The success of our installation depends on many factors, most of which will involve complying with:

• The requirements of the client, 
• The demographic of the general public that is expected to interact with the installation, 
• And also the, limitations of space, technology and mostly important, safety.

For instance, the requirements of safety have been met by ganging cables with the correct tape and junction boxes, and by ballasting loose equipment onto the floor so then it will become difficult to knock them out of alignment, which would have otherwise compromised our installation. On the other hand, the requirements of the client and the demographic has been met by planning out our installation and using technologies that will mesmerise our audience, and also we decided to capitalise on the idea that the audience can create the music that they want to dance to, as well as allowing the rest of the audience to participate at the same time by dancing with the music, which in turn creates a computer-generated image behind the DJ booth and influences the lighting. Space requirements were also met, by planning the equipment around the given environment, and also bearing in mind the limited dimensions of certain nightclubs.

However, I also felt that there could be room for improvement, especially in terms of team work. After a while thinking about what our installation should be based on, and our environmental and contextual studies, we then went our separate ways to work on individual parts of the project, and then afterwards, we did not have many meet-ups apart from in regular Thursday sessions. We could have been a bit more pro-active in terms of group work and also we could have looked further into working examples. I also felt that a bit more research prior to the project could have been done, but when we went off to do the blogging, I then did more research about the technologies that are to be used inside the installation, mostly focusing on a particular core technology that was researched as part of an assignment for IDAT106. And if it were possible, in resources and time, we could have practically put the installation idea into actual practice.

But nonetheless, I think that our project has been successful, and with the help of team-mates, our ideas have come full circle and were fully thought out very well from the start. Also, we have met all the requirements that our installation demanded, which is an added bonus considering that had we not met them, our installation would not have been fit for purpose, and last-minute adjustments would have been required, which would in turn delay our installation, as well as perceived anticipation by both the client and the audience. The final result turned out very well, and in the future, I could even incorporate these ideas into something that could even equal a huge profit, both to myself and the hypothetical company. Overall, I have enjoyed working on the project and putting all those ideas into the final result, which then resulted in something very interesting and at the same time, captivating to the audience, the client and the developer.

IDAT 101: Alouette, déployer la piste de danse (Deployment of the dance floor project and worst-case scenarios)

When deploying the equipment for the installation, there has to be consideration as to what the environment contains, and how the equipment is to be installed. Because in our instance, our environment is going to be very busy, especially at the peak times (typically around 22:00-02:00), which is why the equipment has to be placed in a way that will not compromise the connections of our sensors, and power cables. Also, the equipment must last at least 5 hours because in case of failures, the installation has to then be rectified, which can cause problems, especially when the equipment is in mid-usage.

In the diagram below, the floor sensors are placed underneath the dance floor using tripods with the cables being fed to a small trap door that leads to the laptop computer and controllers. The example dance floor is also placed carefully near to the emergency exit, in case of emergencies:

The plan of action for the dance floor is as follows:

• Perform research on the environment, context, requirements (according to needs, demands and instinct based on specification from the client, the customer and other needs in terms of environment that the installation is to be placed at, and health-and-safety matters that can arise owing to wires, placement of sensors, cameras and other miscellaneous equipment required for the installation) and possible outcome.
• Obtain the necessary cables and main equipment.
• Plan out setup, where the equipment is to be placed and the times in which the installation session is to start.
• Code/set up Processing (for the cameras and LCD display behind DJ booth and Arduino (for floor sensors), then set up and test controllers for sound and video.
• Set up Ableton Live and MIDI for sequencers, program in samples.
• Pre-assemble floor sensors and then store, ready for transportation
• Have at least 3 days notice before performance to test setup and at least a month before performance to iron out bugs and other faults.
• Before departure to venue, ensure equipment is secure and packed in a way that the equipment will not get damaged en-route.
• Ideally, arrive before the club even opens (with direction from management) and do pre-run tests to ensure that last-minute problems are ironed-out and eliminated.

However, there can be other issues in addition to the aforementioned generic failure. These are also listed as follows:

• Software bugs and sudden errors in operating system can result in non-operation of equipment.
• Missing essential cables and/or tape to cover cables to prevent hazards.
• Samples can be corrupted, resulting in sound problems or unusual anomalies in samples.
• Sensors can be influenced wrongly by many environmental factors, such as a magnetic field interference, spilt drinks (which can also cause damage to equipment if not placed properly) and being near toilets with turbojet hand dryers.
• Settings in the sequencers and the software can be forgotten, thus requiring a manual setup, which can delay the intended start time.
• And also, transportation factors, including traffic, security of equipment and accidents.

IDAT 102: It's here! The completed result

The specifications of the website consist of a conventional layout with a navigation menu to the left-hand side of the page and the content in the main body of the website, with a header consisting of the title and a footer consisting of validation information and links to my Twitter, Facebook and my blog here. The layout is defined by using Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), which is referenced externally in the HTML code, but stored locally in the folder and on the server the website is hosted at. The website is constructed using XHTML 1.0 Transitional and CSS2. The colour scheme, which matches my personality of minimalism and Apple, will result in less issues regarding colourblindness due to the fact that when there are less colours (especially when they clash), there are less problems, and because the text is bright on a dark background, it's easier on the eyes and because my website did not rely heavily on text-on-images (especially if it had paragraphs on it), my website will not have problems with screen readers.

After ironing out a few things (mostly regarding the validation of the email submit form on the Contact Me page), I now have a completed result of my personal website, which is at http://www.elnormo91.co.uk.