Let’s back up for a second. You hear terms like “spatially augmented reality” or “projection mapping,” and it may seem as though you’ve wound up in the latest movie adaptation of a Philip Dick sci fi short story. When we talk about these terms, we really mean one thing: getting projection off of flat, rectangular […]

Whatever your feelings about Microsoft, their R&D operation employs some of the smartest minds in the business – and has done so for a long time. TechFest is the event that shares some of the best experiments. Some turn into products, others don’t, but the events always have some gems, and can provide plenty of […]

Maker Profile – Computer Making Music on Make: television from make magazine on Vimeo. Make:Television has done a really lovely piece on CCRMA, the research center at Stanford University that works on problems ranging from acoustics and sound to musical instrument design. CCRMA is really just one microcosm of the whole music tech making scene […]

Simulated guitar? Gibson gets carried away, but the law wins. Photo/bento creation (CC) Sakurako Kitsa.(Yup, this is a Fender Strat, but this is my kind of simulation of a musical instrument – in cheese form!) Gibson, the guitar company, has been on an utterly absurd campaign against music games, bringing lawsuits against the developers of […]

Touchscreens are often compared to the ground-breaking – if imaginary – designs of Star Trek: The Next Generation. But Brazilian Paulo Egidio Silva must be a real Trekker. His elaborate touchscreen panel configuration really looks like the LCARS computer system simulated on the TV show. Of course, that isn’t to say this isn’t a practical […]

VJ Kung Fu: Structure in VJ Performance from Momo the Monster on Vimeo. Sometimes, paradoxically, doing more prep and adding more structure is what allows you to really let loose when you improvise. That’s true of music, and it’s just as true of visuals. You’ve no doubt seen “button-mashing”, chaotic VJ sets – and maybe, […]

A big thanks to Resolume for their support of coverage on Create Digital Motion this month. We have the final say on which sponsors we work with, and we’re pleased to be building relationships with people we believe in. One of the trends we see coming is the release of visuals on “labels”, curated and […]

The urgency of being way behind a single dominant player can make electronics makers do some odd stuff to promote their products. iPod, once an icon of digital cool, has achieved such ubiquity that it doesn’t even try to be hip any more. The thing is being promoted with American Idol, for crying out loud […]

Ted Pallas sends along this terrific video of a hacked hardware crossfader, created by John Beez, that slides up and down on rails. Slide the crossfader itself vertically, and you change the pitch. It’s always fascinating to see this kind of solution — a bit like the keyboards that added pitch bend by letting you […]

MGFest, the Motion Graphics Festival, continues its multi-city tour March 5-8 (next weekend), on its way to Boston / Cambridge, Massachusetts. The whole conference is just US$7 for all the events. Here’s a quick look at the schedule and highlights: Screenings: if you’re ready to see motion reels on a big screen instead of YouTube, […]