@InteractLight
↓

Introduction

@InteractLight is an interactive light-installation that makes use of a multitude of input and output channels. It is also an encouraging plattform for experiments. A wide range of sources for input data are available, for example twitter streams, MIDI, web interfaces or a conventional keyboard. Core elements on the output side are the custom handmade modular LED-Pixel-Screens, audio signals and a website.

The installation connects the digital social world and translates it to light and colour. It allows for visualisation of localised tweets around the world in realtime, in the form of a world map on the LED-Screen. Simultaneously the tweets fly past in the beamer projected image displaying all the incoming data.

Because @InteractLight itself is a Twitter account, users and spectators can send tweet-commands directly through Twitter. A fascinating form of interaction emerges as multiple people start tweeting to @InteracLight.

How it works

Functionality

In our tests the installation was mainly controlled through and by Twitter. There are different modes built in that can be activated by a tweet from a user. The command "map of the world" for example, activates the map mode with the bounding box "world" and a real time visualization of localized Tweets from all around the world is then displayed. To change the bounding box simply tweet the name of another predefined location like “Europe”, “Saudi Arabia”, “New York” or one of many others.

@InteractLight does not only show tweets on the LED screen, it can also give audio feedback in the form of bird noise or a piano sound for every incoming tweet. If the installation receives a tweet containing “piano” or “orchestra”, it will switch to piano mode or to orchestra mode respectively.

Tech

Technical Details

User Action

A simple user action triggers the installation. For example a tweet.

Since @InteractLight establishes a connection to the Twitter Streaming API it is able to read out the commands that are tweeted to its account. Under the hood the data is processed by a NodeJS application which takes care of computational tasks and routing inputs and outputs.

Twitter







NodeJS

The application sends DMX signals over the ArtNet Protocol to a device called Open Media Controller (OMC). Since the OMC has both DMX and ArtNet protocols implemented NodeJS can easily address channels and send data. (The OMC was developed by iArt from Basel, Switzerland and is Arduino compatible).

Thanks to NodeJS’ lively module eco-system it is a piece of cake to output MIDI data as well. In our experiments we challenged ourselves by mapping the data stream to a C major key according to the timezone of the tweets location. Another approach we investigated was to produce a natural appearing audio feedback in the form of bird noise. This was achieved by creating a custom Instrument with the EXS24 Sampler in Logic Pro X.

OMController



LED Screen

Sampler



Speakers

Webinterface



Beamer

Impressions

Impressions & Imagery

The LED screen in action.

A map of the world is displayed on the LED screen. The bounding box can be modified through tweets.

@InteractLight set to video mode can play video files as well.

Development of the screen modules.

Simulation of the pixel screen on the computer.

Displaying text on the screens.

The piano sounds and the custom “bird instrument” were created in Logic Pro X.

Single LED's light up as a tweet from this region is registered.

Projections complement the installation and create a holistic experience.

Code

Code of Interactlight

Information about dependencies, structure and the installation process can be found on Github.

Interactlight on Github

Other Code

During the process of creation – besides the actual installation code – three open source modules for node.js were created.


node-pixelscreen

A plugin that allows to create virtual pixelscreens that inhabit or partially inhabit a bigger virtual pixelscreen. This allowed us to map each physical module onto a different part of our virtual "main screen".

This allows for a multiple occupation of the certain screen area, overlapping screens and (in the future) rotated output.


node-terminal-pixelscreen


This module allowed us to prototype the screen animations and verify image streams without having to use the actual physical screen.


node-image2pixels

image2pixels converts any image to a three-dimensional pixel array. (Height, Width, RGB). We also added a conversion callback/hook, so potentional filters can be hooked in between conversion and the final callback.



@Interactlight

A project by
David Simon
Marco Ehrenmann

Special Thanks goes to
Florian Bachmann & Marcus Pericin
at the Colour and Light Centre.