Research at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation's National Measurement Laboratories during 1984

The documentary images here were taken during a period of six months or so spent working as Artist In Residence at the CSIRO's laboratories during 1984. The focus of this research was on developing hardware and software tools that could be used in unencumbered interactive installations. The pictures here show the computers used (more of historical interest than anything else) and some images of the controlled environment in which techniques allowing the real-time video image capture of a scene and its computer analysis to be successfully developed. The system employed "structured" light, in the form of a computer generated kodalithographic 35 mm transparency projected onto the scene, and a low-light surveillance camera connected to an Apple IIe computer which in turn was connected to a PDP11 mini-computer. The Apple's video input card allowed for real-time video acquisition whilst the PDP11 was used to analyse the three dimensional scene and calculate the location and profiles of any objects within it. This data could then be used to control any software that would be used in creating an interactive enviroment. Although only a single camera was used a 3D analysis of the scene was possible through the analysis of the distortion in the grid of "structured" light that was the only light source in the enviroment.

Many thanks to Dr. Zoltan Hegedus, whose insights greatly assisted this work.