Quartz Composer

Quartz Composer is, and I quote, “a node based visual programming language provided as part of the Xcode development environment in Mac OS X v10.4 ‘Tiger’ for processing and rendering graphical data.”

Here is a link to this article

I really like those visuals and I think it represents energy, it might help our inspiration for the visuals!

Plain visuals

Imagine if you will a few hundred ribbons moving through space. Sometimes they move as a unit, sometimes alone. Each ribbon exudes a mist of black ink which descends slowly onto the paper below. Actually, perhaps black powder would make more sense, because if the ribbon descends low enough to touch the paper, it ends up wiping the powder away and re-exposing the white paper beneath. The higher the ribbon, the more spread out the mist, the lower the more concentrated.

Video version below, or you can watch the Quicktime for a different image here.

Those images are taken from flight 404. I think those images are beautiful and the 3rd one is very energized and strong. Those visuals make you suck deeply into them, I would like to see how they look like with 1 or 2 colors in them.

Work overview

The “SIPER” group is reproposing parts from a computer mouse with the addition of turbine blades to create a wind driven installation. We are using a photo interrupter sensor to provides speed and direction data. It is combined with a small turbine, to detect forced movements from user's breathing. We want the user to be able to give his energy into the work.

We have almost finished the wind driven installation, only need to refine the form. We decided to use a black “grid box” and a copperware to represent energy.

The interface is still under construction we are making an abstract city that lights up every time the user blows his energy into the work. We are working with Quartz composer and trying to find a java script to control the vertical remote.

w3Schools

I have been using help from w3schools for Javascript. We need a script that makes the mouse go from the top and down again, the mouse only goes in 1 direction with blowing on the fan.

Visual Ideas

How are these images made?

Occasionally people ask what kind of software I use or what kind of process I follow to make these images.

It's a little difficult to answer that questions for much of my fractal work -- the reality is that I fiddle with this and muck with that and then I look at it and I say "maybe if I changed the background more to something like that stuff I did in that other picture but more in a direction of that or, wait, maybe I should put another inflection point there and, hey that looks cool; maybe with some of that scaly texture on it...." and in the end I get something I kinda like.

Really a lot more perspiration than inspiration.


At the core, all of my images tend to use one of the fractal engines out there -- Ultrafractal (for much of my older stuff), flam3, Apophysis, Chaoscope ... the basic shape you see usually comes from an equation. The rest boils down to choices from location in the fractal landscape through things like light and color and shade to subtleties of composition and emphasis.

Then there's a bunch of self-created filters; mostly composed from the netpbm library, but I've also written the one or other ImageMagic-based tool. There is sometimes a certain amount of GIMP work that is put on top of it all.

Experimenting until I like it. A little math, a little art, a little idle play...

Now any one image in particular may adhere to this general description more-or-less closely. An image might, for example just simply come out of the fractal engine just perfectly the way I like it. That is rare, but happens. Luck. Or otherwise (much more often, I fear) I can spend days, sometimes weeks fiddling with some concept and never actually manage to get it where I'd like it to be.

Here is the link to his website!

photo interrupter sensors

Photo interruptors consist of an IR (infrared) LED and an IR detector aligned across a gap. When something is in the gap ("interrupts" the IR beam) the detector switch turns 'off' and when the IR beam hits the sensor, the switch turns on. By using a turbine, we could use the sensor to provide speed by blowing on it!

The photograph and information is from Cee Jay.

Experimentation

Those images are my first experimentation of Quartz Composer! I Composer! I really like those lines, they inspired me when we were thinking of the first idea of our visuals. We thought of having a city build up in lines.

Digital Voice Changer Kit

This DIY Digital Voice Changer Kit lets you mask the sound of your voice by playing with the pitch and vibrato of your speech. Just speak into the built-in microphone, adjust the pitch control, and you can sound like anything from a hostage taker to a mouse on speed.

The kit is just $12.95, but does require assembly, so you need to be electronically inclined. You’ll also need to connect either an external speaker or amplifier to hear your modified vocal stylings.

ULTRASONIC WIND SPEED METER

Using ultrasonic techniques, this solid-state design has no moving parts. This wind speed meter (anemometer) is intended for use in a variety of sports-type activities, such as track events, sailing, hang gliding, kite and model aircraft flying, to name but a few.

Specifications:

• L: 3-1/4" W: 2" H: 1"
• Power Supply: 9 to 12 volt dc (not included)
  (Need a Power Supply?)
• Display in Meters/second, Feet/second, kilo/hour and miles/hour.
• Resolution is to the nearest tenth of a meter per second from zero to 50mph.

Multivoicechanger

The Multi Voice Changer by Tech-Gear brings innovative fun and creativity to a young mind.

Thousands of sound combinations offer a variety of voices such as Alien, Robotic and many more! 10 different voice modifiers!

Children voice changer

Voice changer that once pointed in the direction of sound can change it in to child, animal or adult sound. Unique design with speaker and microphone, volume control and 6x finder scope with crosshair. Requires 4 AA batteries, not supplied. Age 8 and above.

Response to an article

What Puts the Design in Interaction Design?

This is a response to this article:

Is there a design school culture? in which the thread instigator contemplated the difference between designers who went to art/design school and those who did not. Yes you cant hardly compeer the thinking of people that are educated in business or are educated in art/design. Most of the business people are very narrow-minded while the designers are very open-minded and have learned to think out of the box.

Looking back, interaction design was for me a result of a process, not a pursuit of design. I agree with this statement, our blogs are showing our process and makes the final product.

What’s the magic and why should I use it? In other words, what puts the design in interaction design?

My design statement is:

“Design is a personal response to combination of function and beauty.”
” This combination makes a good design!”

Signý Björg Guðlaugsdóttir

“Furthermore, our pursuit through design is to create a good fit between form and context.”
Alexander

A mouse is the best example of this convergence. Designed to solve the problem of interaction with the virtual world, the mouse is one part handle and one part button.
* 1-D—words—which are interactions = our brief
* 2-D—visual representations—which include typography, diagrams, icons, and other graphics with which users interact = Quartz Composer visuals
* 3-D—physical objects or space—with which or within which users interact = our wind driven installation.
* 4-D—time—within which users interact—for example, content that changes over time such as sound, video, or animation = wind + quartz visuals
* 5-D—behavior—including action, or operation, and presentation, or reaction = website of our process and final outcome + video of the product interacting.

UNIVERSAL WALL ADAPTER POWER SUPPLY

This is a practical power supply for all your projects. It provides 6 different outputs between 6 and 20VDC @ 500mA. There are also 6 different size jacks to accommodate most projects and two alligator clips just in case there isn't a jack.

Note: This is not a kit, no assembly required.

Specifications:

• L: 3-3/4" W: 2-1/2" H: 2-1/2".
• Output Voltage: 6, 9, 12, 15, 18 or 20 VDC.
• Output Current: Up to 500 mA.
• Includes 6 different size jack connectors.
• Jack can be reversed from center positive to negative.
• Includes alligator clips for projects without power jack.
• Includes 9 volt snap type connector
• Input: 110VAC

Voice Changer

This kit is uses a Voice Modulator Chip. Change your voice from male to female or vice versa. Add a vibrato sound to voice like the sound used to protect witnesses or anonymous rats on TV. Also includes robot voice. A mic and speaker are included on the PC board, power with a 9V battery.

Specifications:

• L: 3-1/16" W: 1-15/16" H: 1/2".
• Requires 9 volt battery.
  (or Use this Power Supply instead of a Battery)
• User selectable outputs
• Includes Mic and Speaker.

Rutla Remake (2002)

Ruta Remake (2002)
Nomeda and Gediminas Urbonas (LT)

Playing Ruta... and Listening
Otto Kränzler

"Women's Interviews" (Excerpts)
"Ruta Remake" Main Page

Deutsch

Blow up by Snibbe

quicktime video

Blow Up records, amplifies, and projects human breath into a room-sized field of wind. The installation comprises two devices. The first is a rectangular array of twelve small impellers, which stands on a table on one side of the gallery. This small input device is electronically linked to a large wall of twelve electric fans, which divides the gallery in half. Each tabletop impeller is spatially and temporally synchronized to a corresponding fan in the wall, so that the speed and relative movements of each impeller are replicated by the fans’ speeds and movements. When “senders” blow into the first device, “receivers” experience the magnified breathing patterns with their entire bodies. When “senders” stop blowing, the wall continues to play back the most recent breathing pattern, captured in an amplified loop, until someone inspires a new pattern.

In the physical world, we become aware of our bodies through transactions with other phenomena. We hear our voices via the vibration of air, we see our faces via the bending of light, and we mark our comings and goings via the signs we leave on the furniture of our everyday lives. Breath is as essential attribute of one’s person, whose existence we may only infer through other media: the sight of our chest rising and falling, the sound of air rushing into our sinuses, the disturbance of the atmosphere near our skin. We mentally connect this evidence-of-breath into a coherent whole, and then label it “my breath”. Yet what distinguishes ”my breath“ from mere air and, further, what distinguishes this breath from my person?

Blow Up’s simultaneous processes of recording, translation and amplification is meant to increase the breath’s salience and legibility, while detaching the breath from the body that allegedly produced it. The process of observing this translation and translocation of respiratory activity may prompt the sender to consider the connection between one’s person and the air it exchanges, and, more broadly, the existence of any self independent of the air which signals its presence.

Circular Breathing, 2002

Circular Breathing is a personal breath recorder. By breathing and blowing into the mouthpiece, the viewer can record a breath pattern. After letting go of the button, the breath pattern plays back indefinitely, looping from start to finish. The piece amplifies the circular process of breathing into a circular recording. The work also mimics looped composition - the breath patterns are like break beats - the carefully chosen segments of sound that make up sampled music. With practice, viewers can also create seamless air loops. The breath impart to the fan a lifelike quality, which challenges viewers to contemplate the everyday equation of breath with life.

About the Breath Series

This series of works explore the recording, playback and amplification of breath through electromechanical processes. Each piece is a phenomenological experiment in pure body intelligence. How is the disembodied representation of breath still human? How is a breath truly ones own, if it can be precisely reproduced? What connects the airflow from one moment to the next as a perceived continuity we label as breath? What ownership do we have over breath, and how can we justly label a breath as my breath when it is an equal exchange - parts of ourselves continuously being exchanged for parts of our environment? What are the implications of imposing our bodies on technology rather than the inverted relationship we often experience? How small is the least measurable expression of life and personality?

How Turbines Work

Wind turbines today are more complex than windmills and simple wind turbines of the past. The image below shows the major components of a modern wind turbine.

[image from: Iowa Energy Center's Wind Energy Manual]

The rotor, which consists of wood or fiberglass blades, collects the energy of the wind. It is connected to hub which is connected to the main shaft, as shown. Most new turbines work on the principle of lift. Just as air flows over an airplane wing and causes the plane to lift, turbines used for power generation have wings that are shaped to allow air to flow over them in such a way that the wings are not pushed, but are caused to lift. This causes the rotor to turn.

Turbines use the principle of lift, which allows the rotational speed of the blades to actually surpass the wind speed. This is described quantitatively by the tip speed ratio: the ratio of the rotation blade speed to the wind speed. Turbines today that employ lift technology can reach tip speed ratios of approximately 10.

The generator is where the electricity is produced by rotating a coil of wires in a magnetic field. Depending on the turbine, either alternating current (AC) or direct current (DC) electricity is generated. A more in depth discussion of AC and DC is included later in the Converting Electricity part of this section.

There is some general terminology that is useful to know when discussing wind turbine technology. The cut-in speed, typically 7 to 10 mph, is the minimum wind speed required for the turbine to start generating electricity. Rated speed, generally 25 to 35 mph, is the minimum speed required for the turbine to generate at its rated power.

HOW DOES WIND ENERGY WORK?

Wind turbine blades capture wind energy, a form of mechanical energy, and put it to work turning a drive shaft, gearbox, and generator to produce electrical energy. Many factors affect wind turbine efficiency including turbine blade aerodynamics. Large utility-scale wind turbines can now generate more than a megawatt (1,000,000 watts) of electrical power each and deliver electricity directly into the electric grid. These turbines are over 200 feet high at the rotor hub and have blades which are 220 feet or more in diameter. Thus, the blades of a single turbine may sweep an area 80% of the size of a football field. Utility scale turbines are generally grouped together in “wind farms.” The turbines themselves take up little space, just the area of their bases and access roads, so they are compatible with other land uses including farming. Turbines may also be installed off-shore over water where there is higher and more consistent wind speed. Each wind turbine is controlled by computer and in large projects is connected to a central computer where the turbines can be monitored. Wind turbines are designed with cut-in wind speeds and cut-out speeds (i.e. the wind speeds when the turbines start turning or shut off to prevent drive train damage). Typically, maximum electric generation occurs at speeds of 30-35mph. Over the course of one year, well-sited wind power plants operate at an average of 30-35% of their rated capacity.

Europe: Alternative Energy Iceland - Geothermal

Japan's Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) has won an order from Reykjavik Energy, a city-owned utility in Iceland, to build two 40 MW (megawatt) geothermal power plants at Hellisheidi, approximately 20 kilometers east of Reykjavik. The order marks the eighth geothermal power plant assigned to MHI by the utility provider.

Iceland, known as the "Land of Fire and Ice," is located where the Eurasian and North American plates meet. A country of numerous volcanoes, Iceland is well suited to use of geothermal energy. Because of abundant water supply, however, the country relies on hydroelectric generation to meet approximately 90% of its power demand, but the remainder depends chiefly on geothermal power. Very few plants use fossil fuels such as coal or oil as their energy source. In this way, Iceland obtains almost its entire power supply from clean energy resources.

Outside Japan, to date MHI has delivered geothermal power plants to 11 countries worldwide, including Iceland, the United States, Mexico, the Philippines, Indonesia, New Zealand, Costa Rica, El Salvador and Kenya. Their combined power output exceeds 2 GigaWatts.

Energy in Los Angeles

Two agreements have just been recently approved by the city council of Los Angeles. And this is part of their move towards making the city use more clean energy and because of the agreements, it does look like 70,000 would be given clean energy by the city. Such would be taking effect come April 1st.

H. David Nahai is the Board of Water and Power Commissioners’ president and head and he does express, “This is an excellent opportunity to immediately increase the amount of clean, renewable energy for the City of Los Angeles. LADWP is taking a multi-pronged approach to meeting its RPS commitment of 20% by 2010. The agency is utilizing power purchase agreements such as this as a bridge to increasing our supply of renewable energy in the short term, while pursuing plans to build renewable power generation for ownership over the long term.”

Human breathing

Human Respiratory Rate Variability File. Human breathing variability file used for the study. This is the raw data from a spontaneously breathing healthy female volunteer. The mean rate was 13.4 ± 2.0 breaths/min (shown as the red line). There are 1587 breaths in this file. With BVV, the ventilator is configured as a volume divider at a fixed minute ventilation so that respiratory rate × tidal volume product is constant. Thus the breath-by-breath volume related to instantaneous respiratory rate obtained from sequentially reading the above file in any given experiment is obtained from the minute ventilation/[(instantaneous breath rate/13.4) × chosen mean rate]. Analysis reveals that these data have fractal characteristics.

Inside the Wind Turbine

Benefits of Wind Power

A wind energy system can provide a cushion against electric power price increases. Wind energy systems help reduce U.S. dependence on fossil fuels; and they are nonpolluting. If you live in a remote location, a small wind energy system could help you avoid the high costs of having utility power lines extended to your site.

Although wind energy systems involve a significant initial investment, they can be competitive with conventional energy sources when you account for a lifetime of reduced or altogether avoided utility costs. The length of the payback period – the time before the savings resulting from your system equal the cost of the system itself – depends on the system you choose, the wind resource on your site, electricity costs in your area, and how you use your wind system.

Wind Energy Projects in New Zealand

A Visual Overview of the current Wind Energy Projects throughout New Zealand

There are currently four existing wind farms in New Zealand, with a total capacity of around 170 MW. Over 15 other sites are planned for expansion or development, each with a capacity between 19MW and 300 MW.

Wind Energy

Wind Energy is produced as electricity generated by a wind-turbine, typically mounted on a tall tower to reach the higher wind speeds present above trees and other landscape features. As with Photovoltaic electricity, it is generated as DC current that can be stored in batteries or converted to AC current. A wind energy system can be "off-grid" or "grid-tied" and can also be used in combination with a PV system.

The Mead facility has a "grid-tied" 10 kw Bergey XL wind turbine on a 120' free-standing tower, with an estimated annual energy output of 8,400 to 10,800 kwh/yr. It uses the utility grid as its "battery storage," purchasing energy when needed and selling electricity to the utility when the generated amount exceeds the building's needs.

Wind energy

Wind energy, the world's fastest growing energy source, is a clean and renewable source of energy that has been in use for centuries in Europe and more recently in the United States and other nations. Wind turbines, both large and small, produce electricity for utilities and homeowners and remote villages.

Energy Conservation at Case

Throughout our country, the cost of energy (electricity, oil, natural gas, and water) has escalated dramatically in recent months, and rising prices are expected to continue in the foreseeable future. Case consumes a large amount of energy to support its education and research programs. Within the next twelve months, the university’s energy costs could easily double. As an institution committed to developing a sustainable and environmentally responsible campus, we seek your assistance and support in our efforts to conserve energy. We must work together with renewed vigor to reduce our energy consumption, conserve resources, and contain costs.

“50% of all energy use in the United States is a direct consequence of the decisions that you and I make every day. If I take the residential use of energy and the vehicle use of energy, [vehicle] energy use is roughly half of the total energy used in the U.S. today. It’s also one of the least efficient. One of my answers to that question would be, ‘If not me, then who?’ In other words, we can look in the mirror and do an awful lot for that national energy system.”

-Peter Garforth-

Hurricane - wind