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October 10, 2010 7:53 PM Subscribe
Art installation question about motion sensors and big stencils.
Basically, need a motion sensor to trigger audio files. Best ways to do this? Cheaper the better. Have mac laptop for source; open to using other materials.
Also: Need a way to make roughly six foot by three foot stencils with the design being done from a distance (so prohibitively expensive to make physical stencils here).
Basically, need a motion sensor to trigger audio files. Best ways to do this? Cheaper the better. Have mac laptop for source; open to using other materials.
Also: Need a way to make roughly six foot by three foot stencils with the design being done from a distance (so prohibitively expensive to make physical stencils here).
Arduinos are made for this kind of thing. You can get some freeduinos pretty cheap but the name brand arduino isn't too expensive either.
How complicated of an audio file is it? If it's a simple tune or beeps, I wrote this tutorial on playing rttl sounds through a small speaker on arduino (is it okay to post this? I hope so. Sorry if it isn't). If it's music or a recording or something, you'll want to communicate with the macbook via usb. You'll probably want to program when to play the sound or what sound in Processing since it plays nice with arduino.
As for what to use for the motion sensing, do you want it to go off when someone enters a room or when they pass a certain point? These motion sensors are pretty much tailor-made for the former; If you want the latter, you'll want one of these sharp infrared sensors. There are different ones for different ranges, so you'll want to take that into account. A caveat: infrared doesn't always work right outdoors, so you might want to go for something ultrasonic, but those are expensive.
In summary:
- The sensor checks for change in infrared light, i.e. if someone moves around. If there is movement, it sends a signal to the arduino.
- The Arduino checks for a signal from the sensor. if there is a signal, it sends a signal through USB to your laptop.
- The program written in Processing checks for signals from the Arduino on your USB port. If there is a signal, it plays the file.
It's a little more complicated than that, but that's the idea. I'd be more than willing to help you with specific code.
posted by wayland at 8:32 PM on October 10, 2010
How complicated of an audio file is it? If it's a simple tune or beeps, I wrote this tutorial on playing rttl sounds through a small speaker on arduino (is it okay to post this? I hope so. Sorry if it isn't). If it's music or a recording or something, you'll want to communicate with the macbook via usb. You'll probably want to program when to play the sound or what sound in Processing since it plays nice with arduino.
As for what to use for the motion sensing, do you want it to go off when someone enters a room or when they pass a certain point? These motion sensors are pretty much tailor-made for the former; If you want the latter, you'll want one of these sharp infrared sensors. There are different ones for different ranges, so you'll want to take that into account. A caveat: infrared doesn't always work right outdoors, so you might want to go for something ultrasonic, but those are expensive.
In summary:
- The sensor checks for change in infrared light, i.e. if someone moves around. If there is movement, it sends a signal to the arduino.
- The Arduino checks for a signal from the sensor. if there is a signal, it sends a signal through USB to your laptop.
- The program written in Processing checks for signals from the Arduino on your USB port. If there is a signal, it plays the file.
It's a little more complicated than that, but that's the idea. I'd be more than willing to help you with specific code.
posted by wayland at 8:32 PM on October 10, 2010
Best answer: If your mac laptop has a camera, or you can plug in a cheap USB webcam, it may be easiest to write a program in Flash or Processing that watches the camera for movement and then plays your audio file. I'm sure I'm not the only one here who can help you with the code if you need it!
Going in the opposite direction, towards low-tech, get a security sensor that turns on a spotlight whenever it senses movement. Where the light would go, screw in a socket adapter and plug in a boombox with a loop cassette in it.
If you want to go the arduino route and play complex audio without a laptop, you can load any audio files you want onto an audio shield.
I don't understand the stencil question - do you mean a distant designer is making stencil designs which you will have to implement? If the designer can give you Illustrator or PDF files, maybe you can have them cut from vinyl at a sign-making shop.
posted by moonmilk at 8:47 PM on October 10, 2010 [1 favorite]
Going in the opposite direction, towards low-tech, get a security sensor that turns on a spotlight whenever it senses movement. Where the light would go, screw in a socket adapter and plug in a boombox with a loop cassette in it.
If you want to go the arduino route and play complex audio without a laptop, you can load any audio files you want onto an audio shield.
I don't understand the stencil question - do you mean a distant designer is making stencil designs which you will have to implement? If the designer can give you Illustrator or PDF files, maybe you can have them cut from vinyl at a sign-making shop.
posted by moonmilk at 8:47 PM on October 10, 2010 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: As to stencils: Yeah, I'm here in LA; the actual physical installation (and audio programming) is being done by my dad. So I've got to be able to send him an image that can be duplicated easily. Vinyl sign-making sounds plausible, though I'm nominally concerned about the price.
posted by klangklangston at 8:54 PM on October 10, 2010
posted by klangklangston at 8:54 PM on October 10, 2010
and addressing the sound files--the files we want triggered are mono .wav files (I have them in several formats, but I'm pretty sure I also still have the mono .wav) that are interviews originally made with a (circa 2003) mobile phone. Right now, unmodified, they are about 60 minutes each, but I am breaking them down into smaller bits. Listeners will not be expected to "make sense of" (hear) discreet bits of conversations; it's enough if there's a wash of sounds. Another (boombox) will be set up to play ambient background beats.
posted by beelzbubba at 12:15 PM on October 11, 2010
posted by beelzbubba at 12:15 PM on October 11, 2010
Response by poster: Moonmilk's came closest to what we ended up doing. We found a shareware program (EvoCam) that would work with the built-in webcam on the Mac, and would allow us to trigger applescripts as alerts. We programmed the applescript to play the sounds.
We would have used a traditional sensor, except that everyone we were talking to said that it was going to take too long to ship it, and since this was all sort of last minute installation stuff, it made more sense to do what we could rather than holding out hope for something to be shipped.
As for the stencil, we ended up just using print-outs. I think the stencils would have looked cooler, as they would have been more of the space, but in terms of timing and turn-around, it just wasn't worth the extra money (since we didn't have any outside funding) to do them.
posted by klangklangston at 9:40 AM on October 28, 2010
We would have used a traditional sensor, except that everyone we were talking to said that it was going to take too long to ship it, and since this was all sort of last minute installation stuff, it made more sense to do what we could rather than holding out hope for something to be shipped.
As for the stencil, we ended up just using print-outs. I think the stencils would have looked cooler, as they would have been more of the space, but in terms of timing and turn-around, it just wasn't worth the extra money (since we didn't have any outside funding) to do them.
posted by klangklangston at 9:40 AM on October 28, 2010
Got any pictures or videos of the installation? I'd love to see it!
posted by moonmilk at 9:44 PM on November 4, 2010
posted by moonmilk at 9:44 PM on November 4, 2010
Response by poster: Just forwarded 'em. They're not great shots, and I'm still waiting on getting the video back from my dad.
posted by klangklangston at 8:39 AM on November 5, 2010
posted by klangklangston at 8:39 AM on November 5, 2010
This weekend for sure. The iMac I used in the capture is a little creaky & although I offloaded to a usb drive, I find I need the evocam program to access them.
posted by beelzbubba at 10:07 AM on November 5, 2010
posted by beelzbubba at 10:07 AM on November 5, 2010
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