I recently converted a discarded waterfall / nature sound machine into an automatic photographer for use at parties, which I have dubbed the Smilebox. The project was an exercise in salvage as I was able to find almost all the materials in piles of discarded E-Waste.

Similar to larger photobooths, the participants pose in front of a camera and initiate a countdown sequence by pressing a button. So far the unit is entirely self contained and battery powered since all the pictures are stored on the camera for later processing. In the future it would be nice to add an uploading feature so that the pictures are automatically transferred to a photo sharing site such as Flickr or Google Picasa.

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My interactive laser project, Contours, was featured as an installation outside the concert hall at Everybody Wants Everything, the 2009 MAT End-of-year show. The installation consisted of both laser and traditional video projection driven by a webcam. In addition to the live laser outline the system also periodically sampled and accumulated outlines to display history at three levels of time granularity.

See below for a more detailed look at how the project was created.

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The laser project is coming together in time for the MAT End-of-year show on Monday. I have dubbed it ‘contours‘ and it will be featured on the first floor of Elings hall during the show.

I am now working on the projected view that will accompany the laser. My goal is to show change over time, both short term and long term. I am experimenting with different ways to handle and display blob data and also how to animate the display. Here are a few more in-progress shots: