Date: Wed, 16 Mar 2016 17:49:15 -0700
From: Dave Cerf
Subject: Re: Laser painting (was: "serengeti")
This is really brilliant. It seems obvious in retrospect (thus: brilliant). Bret always points out Paula’s brain—well, the wooden brain she made—as an obvious-yet-not-obvious thing that happened in the Research Gallery: “Oh, we can point to the thing itself instead of a 2D picture of the thing” and call up the email thread about it.

In this case, you’re calling up recordings of past moments in a particular place. Instead of having to run back over to the Research Gallery to find the video.

In general, I like the idea of making a video recording on a camera and “leaving it” somewhere—in this case, next to or near the Serengeti—for others to find. But what exactly does one leave behind in that case? In the past: a VHS tape. In the present, a DVD or USB stick with a QuickTIme movie. In the Dynamic Medium: a video coaster?

In the same way that so many CDG folks seem to have realized in RoomOS that “the code is in that patch of wall,” perhaps video and audio can be thought of similarly. “I record some video and now I’m leaving it behind ‘in this video coaster/video binder page’.”

Imagined workflow:
• point a camera at a scene; press record
• press stop
• somehow tell the camera to “put the video” on the wall surface, maybe even by drawing a rectangle with a laser pointer that the camera can see!
• the camera (or some other device—a nearby printer?) prints a binder page or visual button or a coaster with a single thumbnail or column grid
• you leave that object in the space
• When someone else “triggers” that object, the video plays in the designated space

I am just realizing how excited I am by this… in some strange way, it enables a form of video graffiti. Even Minority Report failed to imagine the possibility of “temporal vandalism.” Now writing a sci-fi movie script…

From outside a movie theater in Philadelphia, not too far where they are boringly playing a video on a regular screen. What about all these other walls?!

Dave

On Mar 16, 2016, at 4:51 PM, Glen Chiacchieri wrote:

I noticed during a few of Bret's tours for lab guests that he mentioned Dan's kids painting on the system, and I thought, "why isn't that moment reified?" I know it's in the research gallery, but it seemed like it should be near Laser Painting itself. So I added it!

<giphy.gif>
(the video on the wall is around 2 minutes long)

Something feels a little awkward about keeping this picture on the wall (the meta experience mixing with the experience), but I wonder what it would be like if these pictures were stored in the drawers beneath the diorama and to show guests we could take out the picture we wanted and somehow project the video the picture represented somewhere on the walls so our guests could all see it easily.

On Thu, Jul 23, 2015 at 11:33 AM, Bret Victor wrote:
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On Jul 23, 2015, at 11:26 AM, Glen Chiacchieri wrote:

Yesterday, Dan Amelang brought his children into the office. Here's a short video of them playing with the laser painting and safari:


They played with it for good portions of the afternoon. The boy, James, made some of the most complex paintings done on the system so far:

<kids_painting.jpg>

In fact, James was super impressed with the laser painting and serengeti, and wanted to use it in his school. I know Bret took a picture of James drawing a more complex picture than the one above yesterday. Would you mind posting it here, Bret?

From this video, it's easy to see that the painting should support multi-laser drawing, though it does appear to be kind of fun to make a mess with someone else. The social dynamics of navigating who's doing what are interesting, too. When is it okay to change the color or brush size while someone else is painting? Maybe there should be private color/brush controls per laser, but it's neat to see what happens when there isn't, especially depending on the users' relationship: brother and sister, colleagues, strangers, etc.

I should also look into making the painting perform a little better because it really gets bogged down after a bit.

Also, I've had a lot of fun playing with the kids we've brought into the office so far. More kids, please!