Research

There were various factors involved in choosing the right camera. Low light and short focus were essential, however cost effectiveness and the ability to be seen by MaxMSP on a MacOS driven computer were also crucial.

In the end, it was luck. I had researched as many webcams as possible online, and decided to go for the relatively inexpensive but highly reviewed "Creative Labs Live! Cam HD" because it was allegedly supported by MacOS X natively, and it was able to shoot at hd 720p, higher than its nearest competitor.

On it's arrival, a focus test was performed, and in a relatively dimly lit room, I found that the minimum distance possible was around 19cm from the lens. During my wait time for the camera to arrive, I had estimated a 30cm distance based on the 720p built-in camera on my Macbook, and so had began plans to build the box at 30x10x10cms.

- Illustrating the webcam viewing the sketch card.

The second part of my research (admittedly, had to be done after webcam arrival) was designing a MaxMSP patch to fit the concept. During my presentations to my peers, I discussed the concept of an X and Y axis system, whereby the webcams input would be read by .jitter in MaxMSP and the Y axis would be output as "pitch" with the X axis outputting bangs via a clock. These bangs would as a result have a fixed time, resulting in each card being the same length (which would be determined in the final test stages)

My problem with this idea was the sheer volume of data being output and the matrixing involved to maintain a smooth stream if the user were to draw a long smooth line, for example.

Onward I moved, simultaneously researching, building (and deleting) Max patches and creating the housing.