I “play tested” the laser and OSC control using phone accelerometers with a few students. There were quite a few iterations and accessibility issues I ran into last minute:
Test One:
Three phones controlling a single pitch. Created a sum of float values from each accelerometer (X, Y, Z) instead of each axis controlling a different pitch. This worked pretty well, although the scaling was a little off. Having three students control a single pitch caused them to interact more with the laser’s shapes, as they honed in on combinations of frequencies that made more interesting shapes. I generally liked this approach, but the issue was OSC applications on iOS that are free and easy to setup are practically impossible to come by.
This is a big problem for class demonstration. I can’t spend a lot of time setting up the OSC routing for multiple applications, particularly the iOS variants which are convoluted.
That leads me to solution #2:
Have only two phones control two pitches via (X, Y) accelerometer data. By ratio, two people in class should have android phones that can install “oscHook”, which is free and very easy to setup. This gives two users four pitches total to manipulate. Four pitches seems to make the most complex shapes while still allowing for the more simple shapes to occur (from unison notes).
I can also guarantee with “oscHook” that the OSC packets being picked up by Max through the [udpreceive] object are the same routing. They all are sent as “/accelerometer/raw/x” and so forth.
Third, but failed idea:
Add another phone and user that could control the volume of the other two user’s frequencies. This sounded cool because amplitude controls the size of the projected shape. In practice, it was underwhelming under even half volume — the third user would essentially make it look less interesting by manipulating the volume. I trashed this idea.
Polish (or lack thereof):
I know there’s a more aesthetically pleasing setup than the balloon/mirror cupped over the bluetooth speaker I am using. I wanted to create a housing that hides the speaker and LED laser, but because I bought an LED that is button operated instead of a switch, I have to be able to physically tape over the button to keep the laser on. Housing would prevent me from doing this, so I have to leave the speaker and laser out. This is a huge bummer, and if I further iterated on the design I would buy another laser with a switch, but they go for about $35 on Amazon and I’d have to wait for shipping.
Surprisingly, the laser has great definition even from across the room in the art lab. It was easy to set it up to project onto the green wall around chest height. I think this will have to do for demonstration/presentation.
Summary:
After play testing I feel confident in how the laser operates through OSC control and accelerometers, and I’ve accounted for difference in operating systems and apps by hopefully only selecting android users to participate. The laser is set-up in the art lab at a reasonable distance and height for viewing.
I plan to record video of it in action for my final documentation.