Kaleidoscope

The Kaleidoscope is an interactive, reactive system for tessellating the world around you. The project is part of an ongoing investigation of creative expression using images from the world around us. It uses a live web-cam as the video input, tiling the image on-screen to produce kaleidoscopic images. The system also allows for feed-back loops by pointing the camera at the screen. The result is a recursive fractal image that moves and fluctuates as the camera tries to auto-adjust to the ever-changing image.

The idea for a video kaleidoscope was the result of brainstorming with Hayes Raffle and Sean Follmer at Nokia Research. For the installation, the camera was surgically implanted into the eye of a stuffed bunny rabbit, and the kaleidoscope image was displayed on a 28″ television screen mounted on the floor. The software was written using Processing 1.0.1. There is no other image processing done aside from taking part of the camera image and tiling it on screen (i.e. no additional color operations, etc).

Kaleidoscope from Abel Allison on Vimeo.

Click thumbnails to view full image.

: The Kaleidoscope was displayed on a standard television turned on its side. The low-res image of the tv made for some great effects.

: To make the setup look nicer, the TV was covered with a sheet. I cut a hole in the top so that the screen could show through.

: This cute guy was my excuse for a camera stand. I wanted something creative and provocative. Something to attract people to the image.

: This guy was made by cutting open his back, removing an eye, and shoving the camera up and through the eye hole. I then sewed his back shut with needle and thread.

: A wondeful look

$This is a resulting image when the refracting glasses were worn by the rabbit. Pretty neat.$: This is a resulting image when the refracting glasses were worn by the rabbit. Pretty neat.

: This shows the more traditional kaleidoscope mode. N triangles tiled around a center point. Every other triangle is reflected so that the edges coincide.