The Building's Dream

After using the vision system video to draw out the movement of the people through the atria, I removed the video from the animation, leaving just the movement squares and placed them on a black background to match what is needed for the GreenScreen. However, when drawing my animation I did not match to the GreenScreen resolution and therefore the animation is currently the wrong shape for it to be properly streamed through the screen. This is not particularly important though as this animation is only to give some idea of what could be produced. The result is shown below:

Although this is not currently in real-time, if it were to be developed it could be programmed to run directly off of the vision system and so could be made to be more relevant. This animation is quite a literal representation of the original data but does look quite interesting as the direct relationship with the movement in the video has been removed. This changes the viewers perspective as they do not have the video to relate to and so they are able to focus on the less obvious aspects of the video displayed in the animation. The interaction between sets of squares is particularly interesting as separate clusters merge together at times, whereas the people they resemble were unlikely to touch at all. This is similar to the concept of personal space. By using squares which extend the space taken up by the people, the personal space that they have in some way visualised. The completion of this project completes this streaming section of the module. The next step is to document and synthesise all of the experiences and information gained since this module began, which will then lead on to developing a final project based on what we have learnt.

Seeing and Dreaming

After deciding on what my idea was going to be for the streaming project I began to design and produce it. Firstly I considered what I had available to me in terms of the movement of people through the building. Although the live Arch-OS does include the vision system data, it occurred to me that this was not currently being updated, and the last updates were made in 2008. This meant that I could not use the actual data from Arch-OS at the current time as it did not resemble the movement of people through the building. However I had previously seen video footage of the vision system working and so considered using this instead. This would mean that my production would not be working live, but would give an impression of what it would look like if the vision system was working. It was also relate more closely to the personification of the building as the video is what Arch-OS(the building) sees and then 'dreams' about at night. The vision system footage looks like this:

I considered a number of different ways of manipulating this into an animation to show the movement of people through the building, but concluded that the best option was to draw upon the video and use the motion recognition system but abstract it from the video so that its purpose would be harder to recognise. This would make the animation more intriguing and interesting to watch while being simple and dynamic. I therefore began to build my animation in Flash by copying the red squares from the video and their movement through the atria. This meant that I could then remove the video itself and be left with the squares alone. By removing the relationship between the footage and the squares it makes it less obvious what the data is demonstrating and therefore makes it more abstract. To see the final animation see the post above.

My Streaming Project

In order to demonstrate our understanding of this third section of the module we were asked to carry out a short project relating to streaming. The aim of this project was to use some or all of the resources that have been introduced to create an interesting and relevant product. This could be a video stream, a visualisation of particular Arch-OS data, an animation for the GreenScreen, or a combination of such things depending on what we have found interesting would like to investigate further.
In terms of my streaming project I was particularly interested in designing an animation for the GreenScreen based on the Arch-OS data similar to other visualisations produced previously. I was drawn towards this concept as it allows for a wide range of different interpretations and also approaches an abstract understanding of the world around us. The idea of being able to personify a building by studying and displaying the changes within it is unusual and relatively unique in that not many locations yet have technology such as Arch-OS to carry this out. This therefore makes these particular areas more engaging and intriguing, which encouraged me to choose these specific areas to focus my project on.
In order to decide more specifically on what my project should be about I decided to make a mind map with which to investigate the possibilities:



By looking for ideas using this mind map as well as elsewhere I was able to come up with my project idea. It occurred to me during my search for an idea that the vision data system is separated into a grid which is similar to that of the GreenScreen. The vision system recognises movement using a grid and colours the grid accordingly. The similarity between the two grids led me to thinking of a way in which the movement of the people through the building could be displayed on the GreenScreen so that those outside could see what was happening on the inside. After discussing this further with my lecturer however, it occurred to me that the screen is only really functional at night at a time when there is little movement through the building. I therefore decided to develop this idea further relating to the idea of personifying the building. By showing the movement of the day through the night, this resembled the process of dreaming and therefore by carrying out my idea I could present it as a visualisation of the building 'dreaming'. Once I had this concept in place I then began to develop my visualisation.

Arch-OS

The last example of streaming that we have studied is the Arch-OS system incorporated into the Portland Square building of the Plymouth University. Arch-OS is built as an operating system for contemporary architecture which monitors the building and stores the data which can then be manipulated to provide a manifestation of the life of the building. In particular this allows the ecological aspects of the building to be studied enabling a more environmentally friendly building to be developed. By being able to access this data the building can become more dynamic as well as allowing for the production of works which are able to demonstrate the life of the building and improve awareness of occurences within it.

There are a number of different types of data that are available from the Arch-OS system. These are vision data, web traffic data, BMS(building management system) data and the network traffic data. Some of this data is complied together as part of the live data stream which updates every 5 seconds (see right). Data in the live stream includes temperature, humidity, wind-speed, electricity and CO2 levels. This is a big benefit as it means that any installments made that work from this data is relevant at the specific time at which it is viewed as it is using up-to-date data.

The Arch-OS system has already been used for many different projects. These include a number of visualisations of the data that is available (see data screensaver left), as well as uses of sounds around the atria. The Noogy project (mentioned below) was also incorporated with the Arch-OS system so that Noogy portrayed elements of the environment. For example the wind data was used to animate Noogy's hair so that it was as if his hair was blowing in the wind. This convergence of the GreenScreen and the Arch-OS system is particularly interesting, as by doing this the building was given a public personality that provided a realistic and dynamic portrayal of the environment.

Overall the Arch-OS system is a unique and intriguing source of data. By streaming the data live from the building, and then developing this into a dynamic real-time visual or audio projection a new awareness is raised of the building's hidden changes and developments, as well as raising awareness of ecological elements and encouraging changes in peoples behaviour to suit the building and the environment better. This is particularly interesting as it suggests a reversal of roles between the building and its inhabitants, in which the inhabitants are able to take a more active role in using the building and are able to see the results.

The GreenScreen

Another section covered in this section of the module to do with streaming is the Plymouth University GreenScreen. Rather unlike the name suggests this screen is actually a large LED screen displayed on the front of the Portland Square building. The screen is made out of a mesh of 50 x 80 RGB LED's that span 3 floors of the building. Although the actual mesh is built at the resolution the screen can show work in a resolution up to 330 x 500 pixels. This is a particularly low resolution which is due to the construction of the screen itself. This means the images that are streamed through the greenscreen have to be well contrasted and not very detailed as the resolution of the screen is not high enough to support complex images. A large amount of movement is also good for the images that are broadcast on the screen as movement draws the eye and therefore makes the image easier to see, as well as being more interesting. In terms of actual streaming the GreenScreen is able to recieve images that are directly streamed from a computer. As well as this the overall system can be publically interactive through the use of mobile phones and the web, and so deal with information that is being streamed to it from other locations.
An example of the work that has been previously displayed in the Plymouth GreenScreen is the award winning Noogy.org project.

The aim of the Noogy project was to show ecological and social data around the university campus through a character called Noogy. By using data from the Portland Square building in which the GreenScreen is placed, and data from the public via text messages, Noogy was able to portray information about the area through his personality. By placing this on the GreenScreen this could then be recieved by the public, making them more aware of their environment.
Overall the GreenScreen acts as a public interface by which information can be delivered. It is a unique and interesting take on the concept of Urban Screens which can provide relevant and intriguing information about its surroundings.

Video streaming

The first section covered in this streaming section of the 106 module is that relating to video streaming. In particular this covers elements of broadcasting video using the internet so that others can watch live video that you are streaming, as well as being able to watch other videos you have taken. This also includes the ability to share live videos that are being broadcast through a mobile phone as well as through an ordinary camera such as a web camera or a camcorder. To be able to broadcast a live video stream a server system is needed to transmit the video to multiple computers. There are two examples of systems that can be used to do this.

The first is the Quicktime Streaming Server (QTSS) which includes Quicktime Broadcaster. This is the Apple based streaming server which allows Apple users to stream live or pre-recorded videos which can be easily recieved by others who have access to the internet. This system allows videos to be recieved by a number of different devices, including mobiles and set top boxes and can broadcast at a high quality with high compression e.g. H.264.
The second example is very similar to this is that it is based upon the QTSS. The Darwin Streaming Server is an open source version of the QTSS which can also be run on multiple platforms rather than only on Apple computers. The basis of the product is however the same in that it enables users

to broadcast both live and pre-recorded video. By having an open source version developers are able to take the software and modify it to fit their needs. As well as these examples it is also possible to carry out streaming using your mobile. An example of a product that enables this is the Qik.com website. Once registered with the site, this system allows you to stream directly from your mobile phone camera (video) to the site where people can then watch the broadcast. This again allows both for live streaming and streaming of videos that have previously been uploaded or broadcast via the mobile. It is, however, easier to come into problems with this system than systems such as QTSS. Firstly it is not necessarily all that easy to get the right software on your mobile phone as not all phone types are listed in the inital set up. This means some users have to take more time, and possible cost to be able to use the facility. Also by relying on mobile phone cameras for the video the quality of the stream this means the actual video quality that is broadcast may not always be as good as that of normal cameras. Finally using a wireless submission system such as that of mobile phones makes the connection less direct, and therefore slower and less reliable.
The concept of live video streaming is quite interesting as there are many possible ways of using it. All sorts of data can be broadcast leading to a broad variety of possible outcomes. Possibilities include videoing your every day life, a daily video blog, or a live video tutorial. However a lot of video streaming has already been incorporated into everyday computing with help of sites such as YouTube that broadcast information in this way.

Live Streaming

The final area to study in this module covers aspects of live streaming. Live streaming is the ability to broadcast information in real-time as it is being produced and can be done through a number of different methods. Live broadcasts on TV are one example of this, and most radio broadcasts are also examples of live streaming. In this module, however, there are four specific areas that are investigated relating to live streaming. These are the Darwin Streaming Media Server, Qik.com Mobile Phone Streaming, the UoP GreenScreen and the Arch-OS data stream.
The aim is to study these elements and then produce our own unique stream using the resources that have been demonstrated. In the next few posts each of the sections will be investigated and this will help with defining what I want to include in my own stream.