Improvements

Like any project set to a deadline, I am filled with ideas that could have been.

One notable improvement would have been to change the "key" that the songs were in through different mood cards. Varying colour of the cards could have been a signal to play back samples in a different key, creating a "mood" for the users.

The concept of enveloping the video before it reached the webcam was actually and idea thought about during the first sketching process, through the idea of a "pinwheel" between the camera and the card.

The idea was that the use would have control of this pinwheel from the top, allowing for slow or fast blanking of the source image before the webcam could see it.

A number of reasons existed to stop this from happening:

1. The webcam had a fixed frame rate, and any movement on the pinwheel was met with nearly always being too fast to be noticeable.
2. The camera, to be recognised by MaxMSP, was set up to run on an open source driver (Macam) and so ran at a lower resolution (160x120) with a relatively noticeable latency. So much latency, that the concept of moving it to create an envelope to the signal in any kind of meaningful way was impossible.

QR Coding a "mood" was another thought, to allow for an alternative to the previously mentioned concept of coloured cards affecting a pitch from the sine tones. This overall idea was interesting to me but almost impossible in my time frame. Where QR code analysis exists and could be implemented in Max, as well as a zone set aside specifically for this, It wasn't something I was able to create in time.

My concept has been accepted to appear at a proposed "sound design zone" at a local festival, and between now and then, QR code moods are the most likely "next stage" to this project.