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CatWave interactive art installation — Parallax Forums

CatWave interactive art installation

mparkmpark Posts: 1,305
edited 2014-02-12 22:43 in Propeller 1
I helped an artist build an interactive art piece. Under the covers there's a Propeller, a couple of X-band motion sensors, and a bunch o' servos. Check out the video:

https://vimeo.com/82151118

Edit: Press release

Comments

  • Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi) Posts: 23,514
    edited 2013-12-17 20:58
    Hey Michael,

    That's something I might visit Seattle just to see! :)

    -Phil
  • kwinnkwinn Posts: 8,697
    edited 2013-12-17 22:02
    Very nice project.
  • Duane DegnDuane Degn Posts: 10,588
    edited 2013-12-18 00:13
    Very cool.

    Thanks for posting the link to the video. It was fun to watch.
  • HughHugh Posts: 362
    edited 2013-12-18 00:58
    Cool!

    If you had a couple of hundred of those, a cat-wave transmitter and a cat-wave receiver you would be able to send information over cat-wave - one of the lesser-known, but most significant, constituents to the sub-ethernet communications so beloved of sci-fi writers...
  • mparkmpark Posts: 1,305
    edited 2013-12-18 08:35
    Phil, you totally should (let me know if you're coming)!

    Glad you all enjoyed the video. I updated the top post with a link to the press release. It was a fun project to work on. Unfortunately I couldn't get the x-band sensors to work reliably, so sometimes you have to stand in front of the window and jump around until the cats deign to acknowledge your existence. I suppose it's more realistic that way.
  • Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi) Posts: 23,514
    edited 2013-12-18 09:23
    How do the cats react to a red laser pointer? :)

    -Phil
  • PublisonPublison Posts: 12,366
    edited 2013-12-18 10:55
    Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi) wrote: »
    How do the cats react to a red laser pointer? :)

    -Phil
    @ Michael, Nice!

    @ Phil
    LOL

    If I remember, Browser did not react to the red dot? My Mom's cat just yawns at it.
  • John KauffmanJohn Kauffman Posts: 653
    edited 2014-02-12 12:27
    Is it one cog per cat? If 8 cats then wouldn't you need 1 cog for main, leaving only 7? I know it is not hard to run >1 servo per cog, but just curious.
    Was the sound part of install or added to video? Controlled by Prop?
    Would be cool to have each cat on a platform servo so could rotate to greet neighbor cat.
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    edited 2014-02-12 13:51
    Publison,
    If I remember, Browser did not react to the red dot? My Mom's cat just yawns at it.
    Amazing. That's the first such report I ever heard.

    I discovered the miracle of exercising a cat with a laser when I built a laser using a helium-neon tube back in the 1980's.

    Since then I have never met a cat that would not chase that red dot to exhaustion.

    (Well, not the same red dot of course, sadly that tube laser is long since expired)
  • Duane DegnDuane Degn Posts: 10,588
    edited 2014-02-12 15:07
    Heater. wrote: »
    Since then I have never met a cat that would not chase that red dot to exhaustion.

    (Well, not the same red dot of course, sadly that tube laser is long since expired)

    I'm sorry to hear your cat exhausted your laser to the point of expiring.
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    edited 2014-02-12 22:43
    Ha! You are right Duane, the cat outlived that laser.

    I built the laser from a kit from Maplin Electronics in England. So that I could make some white light viewable holograms. Anyway, it was a very good kit except the mains transformer was under specified and many of them overheated and failed. For a while I ran it with a rather dangerously connected external transformer.

    Those tubes loose their helium quite quickly anyway.

    We are so spoiled to have all those cheap solid state lasers now a days. But I haven't heard so much about people making holograms at home recently.
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