It recently came to my attention that I still have this blog up and running. I have actually rennovated my site using wordpress and now that is where my blog is hosted so please make your way over there to view future blog posts.
www.tomsaundersmpt.co.uk
Sunday, 9 October 2011
Wednesday, 18 May 2011
Digital Artefact - The Final Product
I decided that the final product would be a web page displaying the images exported from the Processing script and that a user would visit the web page and decide what image most appealed to them and that is how they would choose the song they wish to listen to. The first and most important thing to do was create this script using Processing.
The very beginning used bits from an example we were shown in the labs by Hannah. The sound example which visualised noises from a microphone in wave form. My script uses the minim libraries and uses a lot of the ‘map’ facility to get the desired image output. The buffer and the frequency from the audio were mapped to different numbers to get positions of shapes and also used for colours. The preferred output was an image that looked like a painting so the rectangles and ellipses were made to look like brush strokes. Once the script has finished a function was written to stop the player and to export the image as a PNG. However the line of code that exported the image wasn't very reliable and would sometimes break the script. So unfortunately I had to choose screenshots but the images look the same as if they were exported anyway so I'm not really bothered.
The final artefact is of course the website. It is full of the finished images with a short explanation of what the project is about. The person visiting the page is encouraged to pick a song based on what aesthetically pleases them and they are taken away to the song’s location on ‘Youtube’ where they can listen to it. I would have liked to have it stored on the website but there are legal issues I have not explored properly so not prepared to take a risk.
Overall this project definitely something I have enjoyed working on and I am very proud with the outcome. Although there is definitely some scope to improve it in the future I do feel it is some of my best work. It is definitely true when they say you work best when you are enjoying what you are doing.
The very beginning used bits from an example we were shown in the labs by Hannah. The sound example which visualised noises from a microphone in wave form. My script uses the minim libraries and uses a lot of the ‘map’ facility to get the desired image output. The buffer and the frequency from the audio were mapped to different numbers to get positions of shapes and also used for colours. The preferred output was an image that looked like a painting so the rectangles and ellipses were made to look like brush strokes. Once the script has finished a function was written to stop the player and to export the image as a PNG. However the line of code that exported the image wasn't very reliable and would sometimes break the script. So unfortunately I had to choose screenshots but the images look the same as if they were exported anyway so I'm not really bothered.
The final artefact is of course the website. It is full of the finished images with a short explanation of what the project is about. The person visiting the page is encouraged to pick a song based on what aesthetically pleases them and they are taken away to the song’s location on ‘Youtube’ where they can listen to it. I would have liked to have it stored on the website but there are legal issues I have not explored properly so not prepared to take a risk.
Overall this project definitely something I have enjoyed working on and I am very proud with the outcome. Although there is definitely some scope to improve it in the future I do feel it is some of my best work. It is definitely true when they say you work best when you are enjoying what you are doing.
Tuesday, 29 March 2011
IDAT204: Garry's Mod Race Event
For our project we decided to follow the second pathway and host an event in a Virtual Social Environment. The environment we chose was Garry's Mod where we invited players to design and build their own vehicles to take part in a race. The reason we chose Garry's Mod to host such an event is because the player can build his or her vehicle using a variety of objects and it is so popular these days that there would be no end to the list of potential people willing to take part. These objects too are of course also available to us to build the race track so we can customise the course in any way we feel to make it interesting for the people taking part.
Friday, 18 March 2011
IDAT209 - The Six Wedges Website
The website was the part of the project that I was assigned to do. It uses php and mysql to store and display players' profiles and statistics.
First things first I had to code the html and forms that would be used for users to log in and register etc. I knew that when I took on the responsibility that this would probably be the easiest part of the coding this website. Next I created the database, I decided that I would go with four tables. One would be a player's table that would hold all of the user's details such as the emails and passwords and they would be assigned a user ID as this will be useful for later. The next table I made was the category table so I can assign them ID numbers aswell to make things easier for the questions table. This table has rows for category id, the question, the correct answer and the four possible answers. Finally I created a progess table that tracks how the players are doing. Each question has 4 states, not seen, seen and not answered, answered wrongly and answered correctly. Now we have the tables set up we can start coding the php.
First I did the login system which checks the players table for what the user types into the text boxes and if its the same as what is in the table. Next was to set up the registration page, this pulls in what the user has typed into the text boxes and adds a new entry into the players table. Now that was out of the way it was time to start coding the most important page the question page. This is where the user would be taken once the QR code has been scanned, to get this to work I needed to display data from the questions table to show them and once they've been answered I needed to check the login details and then update the progess table to say whether they have it right or wrong. The hardest thing about this page was what to do if it wasn't a returning user but a new one looking to register. To bypass this I used the same form as the login but added a tickbox and asked the user to tick it if they were a new user looking to register, if this was ticket I needed to add a new user to the players table and update their progess table aswell, this took my a fair amount of time to complete but eventually worked fine.
I'm quite pleased with the outcome of the webpage and its probably the hardest thing i've had to code so far. I managed to get my heard around it but there were parts where I had to get help with to finish. All it needs are the usual finishing touches such as css and a few things to be ironed out but its essentially finished.
First things first I had to code the html and forms that would be used for users to log in and register etc. I knew that when I took on the responsibility that this would probably be the easiest part of the coding this website. Next I created the database, I decided that I would go with four tables. One would be a player's table that would hold all of the user's details such as the emails and passwords and they would be assigned a user ID as this will be useful for later. The next table I made was the category table so I can assign them ID numbers aswell to make things easier for the questions table. This table has rows for category id, the question, the correct answer and the four possible answers. Finally I created a progess table that tracks how the players are doing. Each question has 4 states, not seen, seen and not answered, answered wrongly and answered correctly. Now we have the tables set up we can start coding the php.
First I did the login system which checks the players table for what the user types into the text boxes and if its the same as what is in the table. Next was to set up the registration page, this pulls in what the user has typed into the text boxes and adds a new entry into the players table. Now that was out of the way it was time to start coding the most important page the question page. This is where the user would be taken once the QR code has been scanned, to get this to work I needed to display data from the questions table to show them and once they've been answered I needed to check the login details and then update the progess table to say whether they have it right or wrong. The hardest thing about this page was what to do if it wasn't a returning user but a new one looking to register. To bypass this I used the same form as the login but added a tickbox and asked the user to tick it if they were a new user looking to register, if this was ticket I needed to add a new user to the players table and update their progess table aswell, this took my a fair amount of time to complete but eventually worked fine.
I'm quite pleased with the outcome of the webpage and its probably the hardest thing i've had to code so far. I managed to get my heard around it but there were parts where I had to get help with to finish. All it needs are the usual finishing touches such as css and a few things to be ironed out but its essentially finished.
Friday, 11 March 2011
IDAT209 - The Six Wedges Concept
So what is the six wedges? Its the name of our game which is based on trivial persuit. What our game is, is using QR codes and the university campus as our game board, and hosting all of the questions and everything else will be a website that uses php and mysql. The players will scan a QR code using their mobile phones and that will take them to a question where they can answer and then enter login details or if they haven't registered they can do that aswell.
Scattered all over the university campus there will be 6 QR codes for the players to find and therefore 6 questions to answer. Once they have answered one question from all 6 categories correct they have won the game.
Scattered all over the university campus there will be 6 QR codes for the players to find and therefore 6 questions to answer. Once they have answered one question from all 6 categories correct they have won the game.
Tuesday, 15 February 2011
IDAT204 - Doodletash
The Team
Jonathan Redwood – Main coder
Simon Batty – Styling
Tom Saunders – Interface and Presentation
Our Idea and Aim
For this project me, jon and simon took a look at the new features HTML5 had to offer. From the long list we looked into just a few and the possible projects that we could do. After fashioning some ideas we decided to go with the idea of making a drawing application. After settling on this we got talking about doodling on newspapers to deface celebrities and because newspaper sales are dropping year by year we thought that, perhaps, we could turn the act of defacing celebrities into an html5 application. Of course the most popular type of doodle is attaching mustaches onto the faces of various people so that is the aspect that we decided to focus on. So basically our aim was to create a fun doodle application that people can use to deface celebrities or their friends and share around and have fun with essentially. The target audience really could be anyone as many people doodle of all ages.
The Application
Now we could start the application. We decided to use the File API feature that is available in some browsers which allows users to click and drag images from their desktop or any other place on their computer directly onto a drawing area.
Once dragged onto the area the image is loaded onto the canvas. Now the user can draw on it as they wish. We give them several different pen sizes and a few 'typical mustache' colours to use. Once the user has reached the end of their doodle they can submit it to be saved onto the site and they can click on it and save it themselves onto their computer and share with friends.
What we discovered once the application was made and shared amongst our friends was that people seemed to use the 'past submissions' area to come up with ideas and thus the majority of the submissions are similar. Also the target audience prediction really is true. My friends who are all a similar age to me all had fun defacing facebook photos of us whilst my younger sibling enjoyed just drawing mustaches, which was the original intention. The aim of the project was fulfilled aswell as pretty much all the feedback we recieved was that it was fun to play around with for ages.
Finally here is the link to the final product!
Doodletash
Jonathan Redwood – Main coder
Simon Batty – Styling
Tom Saunders – Interface and Presentation
Our Idea and Aim
For this project me, jon and simon took a look at the new features HTML5 had to offer. From the long list we looked into just a few and the possible projects that we could do. After fashioning some ideas we decided to go with the idea of making a drawing application. After settling on this we got talking about doodling on newspapers to deface celebrities and because newspaper sales are dropping year by year we thought that, perhaps, we could turn the act of defacing celebrities into an html5 application. Of course the most popular type of doodle is attaching mustaches onto the faces of various people so that is the aspect that we decided to focus on. So basically our aim was to create a fun doodle application that people can use to deface celebrities or their friends and share around and have fun with essentially. The target audience really could be anyone as many people doodle of all ages.
The Application
Now we could start the application. We decided to use the File API feature that is available in some browsers which allows users to click and drag images from their desktop or any other place on their computer directly onto a drawing area.
Once dragged onto the area the image is loaded onto the canvas. Now the user can draw on it as they wish. We give them several different pen sizes and a few 'typical mustache' colours to use. Once the user has reached the end of their doodle they can submit it to be saved onto the site and they can click on it and save it themselves onto their computer and share with friends.
What we discovered once the application was made and shared amongst our friends was that people seemed to use the 'past submissions' area to come up with ideas and thus the majority of the submissions are similar. Also the target audience prediction really is true. My friends who are all a similar age to me all had fun defacing facebook photos of us whilst my younger sibling enjoyed just drawing mustaches, which was the original intention. The aim of the project was fulfilled aswell as pretty much all the feedback we recieved was that it was fun to play around with for ages.
Finally here is the link to the final product!
Doodletash
Friday, 4 February 2011
Digital Artefact - The Development
I got thinking about music taste and that some people like one genre whilst others don't like it. This means that even though they hate a particular genre they could be missing out on a song they could like just because they have judged it before listening to it. After a short chat with Simon I have realised that visualising music is the avenue I want to go down rather than that of creating music. We discussed the idea that, what if there was a way to pick music without knowing the name and title and what if it was chosen by the visualisation, the user picked the image that they thought looked the best.
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