http://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=71649

http://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=71649

Last night I presented “Using Interfaces Without Interfaces” at Show and Tell Pdx. I showed off some Flash motion detection, Flash color detection and even demo’d a little voice speech recognition in Flash. Some of you asked for more info on how last one was accomplished. I’ll be posting more on this later.

Thank you to Substance for hosting, and thanks for all that attended and enjoyed the show. I had a lot of you come up to me and say that my work has insipred you to experiment more. Just wanted to say, that kicks ass.

http://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=71649

Today is my last day at North. I’ve decided to leave my current position as Interactive Director to start my own business. The new business, an Interactive think tank with a focus on the experimental, is being developed and formed by myself and two other partners. In one short month we’ve gone from barely knowing each other to formally signing papers, creating our brand identity, designing our website, organizing business processes, locating and acquiring office space as well as the acquisition of new business. In short, it appears that we know how to get shit done. Instead of a long winded paragraph about our plans I’ve decided to break it down into some handy faqs. I’ll certainly be posting more as more developments occur, and as I can get some free time away from the madness that is the initial steps of creating a business. I’d like to thank the talented folks at North for the opportunities they afforded me, and moving me to the amazing city that Portland is. I wish them the best of luck and hope to work together in the future on a project basis.

Why would you start a new business with people I barley know, are you insane?
I’ve started a business before with close friends. I feel that a business can succeed or fail in either scenario. Each has it’s advantages and it’s disadvantages. Previous personal baggage vs. not knowing how to properly convey opinion to complete strangers. Therefore, the decision to dive into a business with strangers seems as logical to me as the alternative. That said, I indeed just may be insane. However, I seem to have found partners who fit the same diagnosis.

Where is your new space?
We are going to be located on the first floor of this building in the Pearl. Coming from Boston, where I lived and worked downtown, I’m excited to get back to a bit of my roots and the industrial feel of the location.

What is the name of your new venture?
We shall be called “The Good”.

What do you mean by experimental?
Interactive concepts that may not currently be widespread that we see as ubiquitous in the future. Some of my experiments here lean in that direction. We will also be focused on more ‘traditional’ interactive production such as mini sites, content management systems, development, design, online branding, social media and applications. Finally, time given, we’ll be creating our own software and applications which we hope to release to the public.

What new business have you closed?
These shall be revealed using traditional communications means. Meaning, we’ll be showing off the work on our site and across the many social media outlets we pepper.

What’s your url, let’s see the new site!
We have not completely settled on a domain and are in negotiations for one possibility that has been previously taken by a third party. The website has been partially designed but not developed. The Good is coming soon.

Who are these other two partners?
Jon MacDonald and partnerX*. Like myself, both have extensive experience and knowledge in the interactive domain. Both are also seemingly clean upstanding earthlings.

Why are you calling yourself a think tank?
We’ve gone with think tank in a response to industry changes. We feel it’s not ‘alright’ to call ourselves just a development shop, or just an agency, anymore. The industry has grown up a bit and people should take notice. People are taking notice. Interactive projects require more than just production. They require strategy, brand insight, technology chops blended with creative thinking. To use a political reference, they require someone to guide policy. We feel we are best suited to be the drivers of interactive policy.

More FAQ’s will be added here as I see fit. Thanks for reading!

*parnterX identity protected until he is free from his current position.

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=2566287&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=0&show_portrait=1&color=ffffff&fullscreen=1
Snow – Interactive Installation from chris teso on Vimeo. Commercial produced North.

Project Client

City of Portland Downtown Marketing Initiative in conjunction with North.

Project Goal

Create an outdoor reactive environment in which passersby could interact, based on their location and movements, with artists interpretations of snowfall in Portland.

Project Strategy and Equipment

Display – Custom made acrylic panels lined with photosensitive film built and erected to exact dimensions of installation window
Projection – Rear projection with flipped signal using a 5200 lumen Sanyo PDG-DXT10L Projector
Video Capture – Logitech QuickCam® Vision Pro
CPU – Mac Pro Quad
Application – Flash AS3
Industrial Design – Two large tarps sewn together to create light blocking canopy. Lining to seal off windows and acrylic. A shitload of Velcro.

Project Synopsis

As part of a larger campaign to brand Downtown Portland North was charged with creating an outdoor reactive environment in which passersby could interact, based on their location and movements, with artists interpretations of snowfall in Portland. Three traditional artists were commissioned by The Portland Institute for Contemporary Art to create their interpretation of snowfall in downtown Portland. These pieces were then transformed for use with my motion detection and tracking application built entirely in actionscript. The application was built to display 3 different scenes with randomly generated snowfall. The three scenes were set to rotate on a time interval. The application used motion detection to make the falling snowfall react and animate based on the location of an individuals movement. The application also incorporated and automated snapshot function that took a photo every 10 minutes and posted it to a private flickr account. This function was implemented solely for remote monitoring, ensuring the application was up and running. After going to the installation location and taking careful measurement of everything from window frame to projector distance, the installation was built and staged at North. We built a ‘to scale’ model of the window in the back of the office. This was necessary for accurate calibration of projector, and optimization of motion detection and tracking code. The staging was an extremely helpful and necessary step in eliminating early stage bugs such as projector calibration and camera positioning. We quickly learned the maximum distance for a USB signal, the proper use of DVI vs. DHMI to projector and the challenges of doing motion detection in every possible light range from complete darkness to bright sunshine. After testing stage was complete we moved the entire rig over to the installation spot located at 6th and Alder in Downtown Portland. We went about setting up a canopy to block out all extraneous light leak. The interior of the installation space was two stories of extremely large windows. The canopy we chose was a homemade compilation of two tarps strung up to the surrounding walls with rope. Since there was very expensive equipment residing under the canopy, the fear lingered of canopy failure collapsing down, resulting in devastating loss. We next set out to install the panels into the window frame. Since they were pre-cut to exact dimensions these flowed right in smoothly with only small light leaks needed to be sealed. We then hooked up the projector, cpu, camera, monitor, and application and set to testing. Testing in a staging environment is one thing. However, most tests are rendered moot when on-site. I quickly learned that reactive environments are just that, entirely dependent on their environment and all the challenges that come along with it. The motion detection is to run 24/7 for six weeks during all weather, lighting situations, and process location accurately with varying levels of distractions. Since the installation is located on an extremely busy downtown street corner, distractions ranged from traffic movement, pedestrians, bikers, storefront lights and weather. For testing purposes I built many functions that allows the system to be calibrated without actually going into the code, but rather using an external UI to update blurring, light detection levels, contrast, and other variables. After several days of calibration, code tweaks and testing the application has been running uninterrupted and has gained quality exposure for Downtown Portland. Many fine citizens of Portland have had a unique interactive experience, and have consequently spread kind words about the project. Furthermore, the project is a successful case study on the implementation of new technology and reactive medium into a larger branding campaign.

Project Challenges

Development – Create a motion detection application that worked in every possible light and weather condition.
Design – Making traditional raster art work work in a complex location detection application and animation.
Industrial Design – Create an environment that optimized presentation and functionality in varying environmental variables.

More information on the design and development process

Permalink: http://www.christeso.com/index.php/portfolio/snow-a-reactive-environment-inst…

photo by .:9:.
With just a couple days until the launch of the interactive installation in Downtown Portland I’ve been going mad tweaking code and functionality to run motion detection in rain, darkness and direct sunlight, with multiple object motion distractions such as pedestrians, bikers, segways and automobile headlights stopped at the traffic light precariously located directly in front of the installation camera. Simultaneously we’ve been crazy busy setting up the environment. Designing and developing the application for motion detection has kept me busy enough and has been an awesome learning experience using Flash as an interactive installation platform.

What I’ve underestimated are the challenges and learning curve associated with the industrial design end of the project. The challenges the environment has placed on us have been many. I’ve mentioned the lighting situation and the application challenges of varying weather, lighting and motion objects. There have also been other challenges such as getting the lens and projector right to cover the entire store front window from an elevation, keystoning [ keystonery? keystoningness? ] focal and clarity perspective. Properly aligning the webcam for best motion detection and display results within the application. [ viewers will be video overlayed in the application ].

Sewing together multiple tarps and hanging them one story above the installation to block out extraneous light that would dull the projection. Major issues with using an AT&T 3G card for connectivity in the absence of any wifi. [ the application takes a snapshot and posts the image to a private flickr account every 10 minutes so I can ensure the app. is up and running ]. Dealing with not being able to use an internal monitor while running the app with the projector. Adhering the specialized light sensitive acrylic pieces properly into each of the six window frames. The list goes on and is still mounting.

All this said, testing is moving along nicely. As you can see from the images below there have been people using the app. in its beta stage already. The feedback has been amazing. Standing on the street corner and watching people interact with the snowflakes and move around the area waving their hands and legs has been great. It’s been especially cool pretending to be an innocent onlooker to overhear the conversations and guessing of how the entire thing may be working. I saw more than a few people physically touching the glass guessing that they could effect the display ala touch screen. Several people danced in front of it. A few people looked semi frightened by the whole scenario. The best quote of the night came from a man who was simply amazed by the display. After carrying on about how cool it was he wrapped up the rant by exclaiming “this is downright amazing… but pfft… they’ve probably had this in Tokyo for the last 10 years”.

More testing tomorrow… and posting to ensue.

Watch the news report on the installation
Steve’s coverage of the install

Permalink: http://www.christeso.com/index.php/lab/interactive-installation-testing-tribu…

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=2317056&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=1&color=00ADEF&fullscreen=1
Look ma’s, we’re on the news! from chris teso on Vimeo.
We’re on the news! Wait, I abhor the news and their ratings motivated scare tactics.

Well, anyway, Lis and I were on Portland news Channel 8 last night. Lisa is making her acting debut in some of the commercials for the city of Portland this year, and I was interviewed for an interactive installation I’m developing and installing @ 6th and Alder.

The piece is about North’s work for client The Downtown Marketing Initiative and highlights this years campaign to drag the economically scared shitless consumer out of the suburbs and into the unique beauty that only downtown Portland can offer. I’d say we’ve done a bang up job of it.

Coming from New England, I never thought I’d be so into foliage. I think it’s because living in Boston proper we never got to see the colors that the burbs or Vermont had to offer unless you actually left the city to traverse there, and who wants to do that? Well, I’m shamelessly admitting that I am. Into the leafs. I dig fall foliage. There, I said it. I’m a foliphile. Pdx has some redonculous skill when it comes pigment loss. It’s like the entire city is putting on an art show for you.

Anyway, I also sincerely dig staying home with my wife and poochy poochino working in this new yard we have.

So, there it is. I’m soft.

This Friday -[Oct. 17th]- I will be part of SAO and the Portland Working Artists Network in presenting at Equilibrium, the Human Mashup, using the synergy of art and technology to revolutionize society. I am currently designing and developing an interactive art installation. A brief description of the project is below. I’m super excited to see what other installations are on display. If you’re in the Pdx area and interested in what Equilibrium has to offer please stop by and paint yourself on the wall.

Brief Description
In the spirit of Multiplicity and Convergence an interactive installation will be developed that allows viewers to draw a self portrait on a wall using a motion sensing application, a camera and projector. The application will allow a user to take a self portrait photograph. They will then have the opportunity to draw themselves on a wall simply by using and moving their hand as a paintbrush. The idea is to use the human as an interface to draw themselves. The drawing will be performed using code that analyzes and compares the location of the viewers hand to the location of pixels in their photograph. As the viewer waves their hand a paintbrush will paint their snapshot onto the wall. The resulting image will then be automatically uploaded to a photo gallery on Flickr. A different version that uses music as the paintbrush and an online image as the self portrait can be viewed here.

Photo by .:9:.