March 22, 2004
this week in movies
off subject, but since i know most of you dont follow my 'other' site:
'dogville', lars von triers newest movie plays at the egyptian on tues night at 7.30. 'cremaster 1 and 2' are a double feature thurs night at new beverly cinema. fri night at the egyptian is 'ace in the hole' (billy wilder/jack lemmon) which is unavailable on vhs/dvd. sat and sun afternoons are screenings of lars von triers 'the kingdom' (split into 2 parts).
i would love company to any or all of these, given my health holds/continues to improve. let me know - these should all be awesome shows.
March 13, 2004
thesis_r
slim pickings for now, yes. but most of my links for video blooging are on my desktop at home.
buts here a google search for the term "video blogging" (3,560 on march 22)
March 09, 2004
thesis specs
Video blogging will happen. The idea of not disposing or editing the footage,
instead allowing the end user the ability to quickly summarize the footage
and then drill down as interest piques is what has prompted this research project. I plan to focus on two halves for my thesis – both the creation of such a system, as well as attempting to create compelling content for it.
Certainly, video capturing hardware, filesizes, network connectivity, GL planes (or simple 2D frame representation) in a browser window, security, multi-user representations, GPS data and other technical pieces help make up the system.
I believe that something interesting happens when you begin to acknowledge this camera – your life, your choices change. You look at different things, aware other will judge based on the decisions you make constantly. Your decisions become more fake. Fake, in that you are no longer leading your life, you are performing for an audience. You are presenting a viewpoint that you have engineered for entertainment purposes. But this fake movie happens in reality. An interesting feedback loop emerges - living a lie that is presented as fact - and is fact because you are living it, though it is in direct contradiction with how one would normally behave. It is this dichomity I want to explore as content for the software.
Scott has pointed me to a lot of other resources on the net that are involved in similar projects - a darpa proposal for a lifelog, mylifebits, anil dash's idea of a personal panopticon. even the sensecam could be used as my hardware solution (though i have not yet heard back from steven about this possibility).
the difference here between my project and the others is not just in the collection (none of these involve recording your viewpoint for an entire day - or saving gps points), but also the interface and content issues, which is where i really want to focus my energies.
March 07, 2004
midterm, the final chapter
well, i think i got it. the bugs seem to all be gone out of this verson, though it took me a few hours longer then i wanted it to. least ill get to go home and have dinner, right?
it is looking for a path to load the movie that you wont have (i cant upload our final movies, cause they are in the range of 2-4 gb). so change the ubumenu on the 'iam' window to a folder full of quicktimes and you should be set.
i have noticed a lot of sluggishness on the large movies and the sliders not cooperating fully, but on smaller movies, they seem fine.
if anyone plays with it and finds bugs before tues afternoon, id love to know. but as far as i am concerned, it is done.
art vs. commercialism
i would like to argue that the difference between art and commercial products is user testing - that is, the willingness to modify the product based on others opinions, as opposed to your own.
(i realize an argument can be made about critiques and such with art, but the end decision always lies with the artist. this is not the case with commercial products.)
March 06, 2004
midterm redux
perhaps my final version of the patch, though i think kurt is going to pick up from here while i film.
ive been considering the name 'iam' for the project. it seems kinda suitable, though it has generally been agreed that im pretty bad with naming things. but if nothing better comes this way....
March 05, 2004
device news /ms stuff
from slashdot:
"An anonymous reader writes "SenseCam, touted as a visual diary of sorts by Microsoft Corp., is designed to be worn around the neck and take up to 2,000 images a 12-hour day automatically. The prototype responds to changes such as bright lights and sudden movements and might one day even respond to other stimuli such as heart rate or skin temperature -- to track medical problems as easily as to record a Hawaiian vacation."
this could be another device or hardware piece for my thesis.
and an article on the social computing arm of ms research, also from slashdot.
