Final Project: Ghost Baby Enhancements

The team has decided to go along with the plan to add visuals to our project. We have filmed a short clip of the Ghost Baby (right now an ugly plastic doll picked up at the dollar store) with the camera coming in at different angles -left, right, up, down, and middle (middle being the camera is steady). The Baby has two states, angry and happy, and spikes/dips in accelerometer output can trigger either state. The directions refer to the directions we're giving the illusion of; we plan on analyzing the numerical output of the accelerometers and assigning a video to each one. This way, we get clips that look as if the person interacting is actually interacting with the Baby instead of straight out controlling its actions.

While Stephen focused on some MAX/MSP programming, Oliver, Katlynn and I worked on the videos. We separated the long video footage into the separate directional chunks and added numerous effects. We made each one black and white, and utilized effects that made the Baby's head look bulbous, made the Baby blur and increased the contrast so the haunting, creepy feeling could be achieved.

Also, we fixed the wrist band so the Arduino and accelerometer were more secure. We put the Arduino (with the accelerometer wires happily attached to it) in a separate sturdy pouch that we affixed to the wrist band. We put the accelerometer in a small, conveniently located "hole" (rather, a small square depression in the wrist band) and secured that down too.

To see a sample of what the Ghost Baby video looks like, check it out at Katlynn's site, over here. I certainly hope it's creepy -it is a ghost, after all.