Pete Rogers

Software Art and Physical Computing

Software art is broadly pretty much what I do and by Physical Computing I mean anything that is not standard computer in/out that negotiates with the world. These pages show some of my research and works as well as snippets of code and bits of hardware that I have found useful. Direct to links page Direct to courses page

From April 27th 2009 I am excited to be working as a researcher on this project 'The mediatised view'. To find out more about my research for click here

I have just got my xmas tree worm working. The video below shows the servo pushing out the worm from its hole then when I put my hand near it the ultrasonic sensor detects presence and shoots the worm back in its hole. Next the worm is going to be dressed up and then should be ready to be displayed.

I am interested in...

I work a lot with image analysis or computer vision and I usually capture my imagery with timelapse using standard cameras and mobile phones which have been transformed. I got interested in timelapse because of my work researching climate change. Because I am interested in climate change I am interested in change over time and because of this I am interested in time generally and how time is measured and observed.

The software or coding platforms I work in are mostly Java, Python, Processing and Flash. But working out how to talk to objects and figuring plugins and api's such as twitter and google maps usually takes up a fair amount of my time.

I am currently developing tools for mobile devices mostly for the Symbian platform using the excellent Python (psy60) scripting language, it gives me access to all the things I want including camera and GPS, todays smart phones are really for the first time quite smart.

In physical computing I do most of my experimenting with the arduino platform, but am also keen on interfacing in other ways with other things and have been recently working with tiRGBLED to get some colour in my life. I am also working on blue tooth devices and I want to connect things together to create little networked webs whose whole is more impressive than the parts.

I work at Goldsmiths University Design Department, University of London, so my research often follows what the students are up to. We are currently interested in new web based API's such as the one for twitter, flickr/yahoo, google maps and also mobile devices including the I-Phone.

I also work in 3D and I use Rhino and Maya to create physical objects and digital animations, I have been experimenting with RhinoScripting and a little bit of MEL and would like to create some data driven 3D objects and interactive virtual environments.

My camera for 'view the day' died on Weds the 19th of Nov. It is the second camera to crash out on me. I am using a Canon Powershot S1 IS which is controlled by a computer to take photos of the sky every 15 minutes. The camera is always on and I think that after a certain period the camera just gives up the ghost and dies. Nice photo series of it dieing, it goes, comes back to life for a bit and then dies again. Good job I have another camera, so should limp to the finish of taking pictures for a whole year on January 1st.