Assignment 3 – Drawing from data

In this third learning exercise you are asked to create a procedural drawing using processing.  Starting with an xml data file of your own development, use the xml data to generate X number of custom class objects.

As we saw in class this week, it is quite simple to create a relatively large XML dataset using the XML functionality built into Microsoft Excel.  As demonstrated this process begins with creating a sample xml file which establishes the structure of the data.  For instance:

– Here is a pretty straightforward example which follows the in class example from Wednesday.

As a point of departure for this exercise use the linked files below:  The basic structure of the sketch is provided and commented to help direct your efforts.  In short you will need to define a custom class, using the xml data during instantiation of the custom class.  The class need not be animated or interactive, but simply produce a dynamic field drawing.

For more examples and class information for working with XML in processing, refer to the XMLElement reference on the processing website.  For more information on generating custom classes and the concept of object orientation, visit the learning section.

Assignment 3 Files

!!! 2/1/12 CLASS CANCELLED !!!

Due to family circumstances Professor Kearns will need to cancel class tomorrow, February 1st.  We will continue next week, pushing the schedule of topics one week.  We will try to find an alternative meeting time to make up the lost course time before the end of the semester.  Sorry for the inconvenience.

Anatomy of a Blog Post

How do you define a succesful blog post???  You can browse through this very website and see countless examples of bad posts.  You know the ones, some image stolen from some place and not attributed, with a couple poorly written sentences that basically say … how cool is this?  Might as well just have been a link shared on del.icio.us would have been more effective.

do a quick search on google for “anatomy of a blog post” and you will find a number of people, most who are probably more legitimate bloggers than myself, giving you there [N] tenants of what constitutes an [enter adjective here] blog post.  You should look at these, create your ruleset, and use it.  Here I will break down not a complete spec for how to do a post, but instead a few key do’s and don’ts.

#1 Attribution

You must attribute anything and everything you reference as thoroughly possible.  This ecosystem that we are trying to participate in is heavily dependent on attribution, its currency and Karma is a bit

#2 Have something to say

Especially in the context of a course such as this where the focus is on critically exploring these technologies, your posts are more or less meaningless with saying something unique, something personal.  Blogs are quite editorial in nature, take advantage of this reality.  Nobody wants to hear that something is cool, they want to hear about what actually makes it cool.  Make some comparisons, put it in perspective, establish a context.

#3 engage the reader

Many bloggers seem to agree that ending with or at least embodying a certain amount of questioning back to the reader is a great way to engage them in the post.  Perhaps to comment and explicitly participate in the dialog.  Its generally the case that the big powerhouse blogs, the blogs with engaging and interesting content, and those that have things to say are generally the blogs/posts with huge collections of comments and dialog and debates following them.

#4 Use media

In most cases you are going to be referencing something someone else has already blogged about or something you saw in the wild.  Link to the content, reference the images (with attribution and a link of course), embed the youtube clip, make the diagram, bottom line, get multimedia content into your blog post to get the reader to stay and to help the reader understand.

#5 USE the cms

For this class, any post that is published without proper categorization and tagging of the content of the post, will be discredited.  The usefulness of the blog as a catalog of research and investigation is dependent on a good system of browsing. Tagging content with topical tags enables us to quickly and powerfully filter and target the types of content we are most interested in.  Furthermore, all options and aspects that are possible for you to contribute within the content management system(cms) the richer the potential experience will be.

 

Huge model of Shangai

Transformers

Computer graphics

Intelligent animals

Playstation 3 not the only gaming platform with a new arsenal.

AR gamers can now purchase a gun shaped holder from AppToyz that mounts smartphones equipped with Augmented Reality games to enhance the realism of the shooter gaming experience. Uses two rubber “thumbs” controlled with a trigger and button for endless AR shooting fun.

http://www.augmentedplanet.com/2011/02/ar-app-gun/

http://vimeo.com/viewdle/viewdle-photo-and-video-face-recognition-tagging

http://www.augmentedplanet.com/2011/03/2012-the-year-of-face-recognition/

Face Recognition in the I-Phone’s future?

Future of I-Phone includes possibilities of auto tagging photos, unlocking with facial recognition, ability to get recent tweets and posts of an individual by pointing face finder at them, and gathering contact information by taking a photo of an individual.

Konstruct Augmented Drawing Board

http://www.augmentedplanet.com/2011/04/combining-ar-with-art-with-konstruct/

Free APP on site ^

Augmented reality turns your I-Phone into a geometry constructor. By utilizing the video camera on the I-Phone Konstruct gathers color data and creates 3D geometry within the image based on voice command. The louder the users voice gets the bigger the Geometries grow. By moving back and forth users can shift the canvas off the screen and draw more shapes. By moving back to any location with Geometries already drawn the I-phone repopulates the screen with the shapes as drawn originally.