Monday, February 15, 2010

...hopefully 'THE' FYP proposal...

I usually have hundreds ideas a minute, therefore all previous posts and sketches. I had a serious brainstorming going on in my head during the first semester.

After lecture regarding final projects I was inspired by the Litefoot. I had seen Litefoot video before and really enjoyed the idea. When I heard that technology within Litefoot may be updated and the develepoment of the prototype may be moved a step further, I felt it might be a very interesting project for me to continue.

The idea behind my project is resurgence of Litefoot interactive floor that was initially developed at the University of Limerick by M. Fernstrom and Niall Griffith in 1997 (http://www.youtube.com/user/idcvideo#p/a/u/2/1y1v-AtbrMI). My project will involve reusing hardware in the existing LiteFoot sensor floor, replacing the old microcontroller with Arduino and designing new PD/GEM based object to capture/sonify/visualize the movement.
As another friend from my class is interested in working with LiteFoot, we could possibly work on the hardware together. However, we have different intentions of using LiteFoot armed in newer technology.

I would like to make it possible for a dancer to use LiteFoot as a tool enhancing audience‘s experience of the dance performance. I want to be able to get not only X and Y coordinates from the floor surface, but also Z coordinate of the vertical axis and map them to certain parameters of sound or graphics. I’m also considering using other sensors, which a dancer could wear, that would help them establish more direct link between their performance and visual or auditory display. My aim would be to find the balance between control allowed for a dancer and randomness of effects created by software.

As I do not have programming background it is difficult to for me to imagine, at this stage, the exact effect that I would like to achieve. I usually pick up new skills fairly easy so hopefully with a certain amount of guidance I can build up my programming ability.
As a final stage of my work I imagine setting up a contemporary dance performance. It will require collaboration with a dancer during development of the project and their participation in the final piece.

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