Last night I went to check out a group called North West Audio Visual. I was delighted to find a very intelligent and creative group doing amazing work right in my backyard. The group had a fun interactive “check in” software, written in Flash, that took a quick headshot of people as they arrived and projected their picture name on the wall. It was a small detail but was extremely useful because as the evening went on I could supplement my failing memory of names by simply looking up at the scrolling list of faces in the back of the studio.
The meeting was at Second Story interactive agency in Northwest Portland. The first presentation by Second Story was about a market data visualization development and installation made for the Bank of America headquarters in New York City. The presenter did a fantastic job and didn’t mind fielding detailed technical questions about the make up of the hardware and software used for the project. The team put together a 12 plasma screen mirrored display that presents live stock market data in a creative and unique manor. The visualization is ironically located on the “second story” of the in the bank headquarters. What I found most interesting about this presentation were the creative ways in which the 3D shapes and objects were used to represent data. Bar graphs and pie charts are the norm in this industry and this group did an excellent job representing the market data in a completely new and artistic fashion.
Here’s an excerpt from their site:
Integrated into the architecture of the Bank of America Tower trade floor elevator bank, the Market Data Mirrors interact with live data feeds and visualize financial information on a mirrored surface. These dynamic 3-D visualizations bring form, color, and motion to live market data in an intelligent and elegant manner, allowing viewers to quickly grasp current data and market trends over time. The different data sets—indexes, commodities, rates, and currencies—are realized in colorful patterns and shapes on different planes, each taking their turn on the stage communicating their value, volume, and historical trajectory.
The second presentation was a multitouch interactive sound visualization. Christian Bannister talked to the crowd about how his multitouch audio catup system works. He could control synthesized bass, filter modulation rate, bit crush, sample and hold, feedback, oscillator phase and fm synthesis with his multitouch system. His homemade multitouch monitor is made of a reflected projection on a LLP (Laser Light Plane) glass display. The blob detection is captured with a PlayStation Eye camera and processed with Community Core Vision open source software.
The evening ended with a live performance from Brandon Thompson aka Middleman. He is a one man band and here is one of his music videos:
So, if you are around the Portland or Seattle area, make sure to keep a close eye on the NWAV website for upcoming events and information. You will be sure to have an excellent time and you may even learn something while you are at it.
