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• Grab a net and catch falling stars. Come play the next iteration of our interactive led game, StarCatcher!

  mpinner • 06/02/2022 at 15:01 • 1 comment

  Hey Friends, We have an installation coming up next week. We’d love you to join and see the latest work in progress.

  We're installing and testing this week as part of the extended reality showcase for three days during tribeca film festival. Reachout with any questions... Thanks 🙏 !

  ✨⭐🌟🌠🌟⭐✨

  What: Catch stars with us. 

  Who: YOU !!!

  Grab a net and catch falling stars. Come play the next iteration of our interactive led game, StarCatcher!

  When: June 9th ‐ June 12th

  Our specific slots within the larger showcase:

  • Thursday 8:30p-10p 
  • Friday 3p-6p
  • Saturday 11a-12:30p
  • Sunday 2p-4p

  Where: Onx Studio : https://goo.gl/maps/gkuawQcUyFfewETr9

  • Olympic Tower Atrium Gallery
  • Midtown Manhattan (51st St and 5th Ave)
  • 645 Fifth Ave, New York, NY 10022

  How: Please RSVP for FREEEEE ticket and reminders:

  • https://www.eventbrite.com/e/xtensions-new-inc-xr-track-showcase-tickets-339299202047

  We're installing and testing this week as part of the extended reality showcase for three days during tribeca film festival. Reachout with any questions... Thanks 🙏 ! 

• a starcatcher refresh is happen again in June

  mpinner • 05/04/2022 at 21:15 • 0 comments

  a starcatcher refresh is happen again in June. let us know if you are around June 6 for the install?
  or 9-13th for showdeets, stay tuned!
  

• Motivation: simulating experience with multiple simultaneous participants

  mpinner • 10/10/2017 at 05:28 • 0 comments

  Sharing an experience with multiple simultaneous participants creates an opportunity for spontaneous playful interactions

  The #playnyc games conference asked us to fill their space with an interactive experience. Given the wide range of attendees at the event, we wanted to create a game with the simplest possible interface. Strongly reinforcing a physical interaction while mixing reality seemed the best way to give people an unexpected experience while making the game very accessible.

  We invited our would-be participants to imagine an improbable reality and simulated it as best we. Simulating being outside during a meteor show creates a sense of wonder. 

  If we can give people a real net and create stars that react when caught be the net, we can create the feeling that stars are actually be caught by you. This action of catching falling stars is fun, when we believe we can really feel it.

  
  Creating this interaction from the physical nets is no small feat. We used the latest vive positioning system and tightly controlled led animations in Unity to know when a net is in position for a star to be caught. 

  We then need to reward you for catching the stars. This key to the successfully encouraging people to believe our simulation and continue moving about the space.
  

  When a star is caught you can hear the sound and see the change in color and led animations. A large projection against the wall mapped into the user’s space even shows a view of the nearby constellations and shows the stars returning home. 

  A very special thanks to our lovely friend and composer, Kevin Doucette. His willingness to discuss and design a soundscape around this notion opened up a lot of research and creativity. We worked on spatialized audio in Unity. Kevin's curiosity and knowledge encouraged us to dive deeper into understand our interaction programing star compositions and meaning.

• Building Stars

  mpinner • 10/03/2017 at 04:01 • 0 comments

  We wanted to create a sense of awe and wonder like looking up at a night sky filled with stars. This made for some obvious challenges. 

  How do we build a lot of falling stars? 

  How far could they fall? 

  How do people know when one is falling and where?

    Our initial idea involved warm white addressable leds and a ping pong ball. This made for a nice animation of falling and showed a pretty distinct star at the end. After a bit of turnign with the speeds and colors we were able to sync this up with a video projection in unity.

  The virtual world also needed a design for stars. We found a few nice Unity assets and started building particle effects in PopcornFX

• Concept

  mpinner • 09/09/2017 at 20:03 • 0 comments

  ESTIMATE the SPACE.

  
  

  Get the MATERIALS and BUILD some boards and cables.

  
  

  USE the Teensy Octo2811 Adapter for REASONS : 

  https://hackaday.io/project/4310-reactive-led-gems-make-the-music-pop

  BUDGET your POWER.

  NEXT STEP: Make Badass Stars! 

  NASA snapped this shot with hubble

• start with a net and a bit of whimsy

  mpinner • 09/07/2017 at 03:20 • 0 comments

  How does it feel to catch a falling star???  We're set to find out. 
  

  The stars hols so much majesty and inspiration. How do we begin? 

  
  

  We start with a net and a bit of whimsy.

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