the singapore river as a psychogeographical faultline

25 JULY: me and dominic conducted the first preliminary hardware tests within the actual physical box which will be used in the exhibition. the following discoveries were made:

• IR light reflects somewhat differently from visible light. rather than defusing in the same way that visible light usually defuses on normal surface, it bounces straight off some surfaces which might be expected to absorb visible light, like cardboard
  
• even though you cannot see IR light, IR LEDs still get very hot if left on for long. also, projectors get very very hot as well, so computer fans and good ventilation/air conditioning will be ESSENTIAL in a DIY tangible table setup
  
• infrared light hotspots (insufficient diffusion and spotlights instead) adversely affect the detection of fidicuals
  
• accidentally sticking your finger inside a computer fan does not actually result in injury or death
  
• tracing paper will warp with moisture over time. an additional acrylic sheet is essential for holding down tracing paper and for improving sensation of touch on the touch surface.
  
• using developed film as a "poor man's IR filter" is not effective enough for the use of a tangible touch table which wants to detect fidicual symbols. purchasing specialised IR filters and additional focal lenses will be crucial to the success of the project.

29 JULY: After significant wrangling and wrestling with Singpost's Speedpost service, I received the 2nd PS3 eye camera with m12 mount with 850nm IR filter and set of lenses ranging from 2.8mm to 16mm. (these were purchased online from peauproductions, which stocks a lot of essential equipment for DIY touch surfaces)

With the 16mm lens, reactivision can now detect 3cm fiducials at a range of 1 metre!

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footnote: i assumed i needed the BIGGEST lens initially, but later dominic showed me that the smaller lenses could SEE MORE, and the final lens we went with for our table was 3.6mm

Good news, world. After the previous night's lows and minor setbacks, this is something akin to a miracle. After Dominic's miraculous and patient disassembly of the camera, following the faithful instructions of the following videos, tonight there has been success in modifying the PS3 Eye for IR light!



Those who attempt to take out this camera may want to note that it is very hard to open the casing, and that the removal of the lens may benefit from the use of a slightly heated metal blade or tool to cut and melt the plastic around the lens area until it can be gently popped out - brilliant method which Dominic thought of.

We cut up an old negative which had been developed, popped it inside the lens, and then tested it with a TV remote. It picked up the flickering IR signal very clearly.

Other notes:

• Noticed a small cloudy pattern - not sure if my negative had a cloud in it which was not so visible to the human eye. Must ensure that negatives are actually totally blank and not just one of those awkward pointless frames of blue skies with faint clouds which I am so fond of taking.
  
• I will have to build a new housing for the camera as much brute force is required to open the housing and its nearly impossible to put back together.
  
• Purchasing online may be more tricky as there are apparently two types of cameras out there (US vs Non-US, both with different lenses). Having bought it from the internet, I was lucky that my camera was the good type which I needed in particular for this project.
  
• One sheet of negatives may not suffice; will need to replace the negative and put multiple sheets of cut negatives inside.

Besides modding this camera, there are many more unforeseen horrors to be tackled, but at least the camera is actually working after initial attempts at modification!


The CMOS Sensor

Playstation Eye for PS3 (USB)
Video Capture: 640x480
Field of View: 56˚ to 75˚ FOV zoom lens
Frame Rate: 60fps (640x480) or 120fps (320x240)

It finally came in the mail. Although this was not any particular milestone, I should add that I spent a good 15 minutes SIMPLY TRYING TO OPEN THE PACKAGING. I just had to say that this reminded me of the time I bought a £3.99 blender from Argos and spent more time wrestling with the plastic packaging and reducing the hard plastic shell packaging to disorderly splintery bits with a blunt scissor in the process of trying to extricate the goddamn product - and then everyone said, "But why of course, you bought it from Argos..." Why do companies fashion such impenetrable packaging for certain electrical/electronic products?

I installed macam and it works with my mac without a cinch. Interestingly, I can even run both my mac's inbuilt camera and the PS3 Eye (via macam) at the same time?


Uncanny resemblance of the word "macam" with the slang word "maciam". Brings unexpected local flavour to this rather functional program. "MACIAM NOT COMPATIBLE THEN HOW?" That is my greatest fear. Or do I have faith in information from the internets?

Next: to test this particular camera for use with reactivision, and to modify it for infrared.

I did a radio interview on "The Living Room" on 938LIVE last week - much thanks to the Substation for arranging this. You can stream it from that link or download it here (18MB).

Meanswhile, due to work overload, things have been going a bit slower than I would have hoped. So far, I've sketched out the shape of what the setup will be like and the carpentry will be done soon.

I'm waiting for the PS3 Eye that I've ordered to arrive and after that I will need to find someone more nifty with disassembly to help me / guide me in removing the IR filter. Perhaps it is idealistic to hope that we can do this entirely with guides and information found on the internet, but CAN WE DO IT PLEASE!

• Code Laboratories: PS3 Eye Disassembly
• CDM: Trick out your PS3 Eye
• PlayStation EYE Driver Research/Info/Download Thread

In other news, there have been heavy rains here, with apparently 60% of the entire month of June's rain within a 3 hr rainfall occurring on 16th June - resulting in flash floods in Singapore, in unlikely places such as Orchard Road. thus causing it to be dubbed as "Orchard River".



Now it has become clear why underground MRT stations here have raised entrances - to prevent flooding! Also, in videos on youtube, you will notice that the water was flowing in the direction of the cars or away from Delfi. Here is a map from Stomp explaining the location of the blocked drain:



This is a picture of the singapore river later that evening, the same brown colour as "orchard river", instead of its normal army camouflage green. I contemplated going down to town to see how wet it was in orchard, but, seriously... no.