Shadow Buttons

This art installation uses buttons made of light. A projector fills up the walls and ceiling of a room while a webcam monitors the pattern for changes. When the luminosity of a given area changes due to a shadow, a midi event is triggered. The software that controls the system is written in C# and uses the Emgu CV library to handle the image processing. In the video after the break you can see that creating shadows with your hands prompts changes in the image as well as the sound.

[vimeo=http://vimeo.com/8262403]

7 thoughts on “Shadow Buttons

  1. Could they not al least release the code or give some more info on how this practically done before it’s “good enough” for featuring here?
    nicely done video, but that’s all…

  2. This kind of reminds me of the work done with the Wiimote/webcam with an IR filter to create a cheap smartboard, multitouch surfaces, etc.

    I don’t really see how this is art though. Going to a liberal arts college, I don’t really see how a lot of stuff is art these days.

  3. Heh- we used to have CdS cells on a literal suction cup for motion detection when cameras were Plumbicons. Stick that sucker on the screen and a light flicker would tickle the plate relay of an alarm box. CV is doing in software what used to take several pounds of total weight by my memory. Progress is neat. But, I may dig in the cruft box to reproduce one of the beasts. Just for showing how we used to..

  4. oren beck, i am very excited to hear your comment, i would love to see such a setup, i myself have acquired old plumbicons and wanted to use them in a project, do you happen to have schematics?

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