watch as the fundamental processes of the universe are revealed

[chaosmachine]

[youtubehd]Jj9pbs-jjis[/youtubehd]

 

I can't describe how amazing this is. No computer, just a simple video feedback loop on 3 projectors. Infinite complexity from such elegant simplicity. The fundamental nature of the universe is staring us in the face here.

 

Video feedback is a well-known phenomenon. If you hook a camera up to a TV and then point it at the TV, you get an infinite regression of images. However, you can use the same feedback phenomenon with multiple displays to make fractals. By displaying multiple smaller copies of what the camera sees, photographing that cluster of copies, and then repeating the process, you essentially create the self-similar structure seen in fractals. By moving and rotating the camera and projectors, you can create a very wide variety of fractal images.

 

The images seen in this video are not software-processed in any way. The camera is plugged in directly to the projectors. The pulsing and color shifting comes from the white balance andgain control of the camera.

 

In this setup, we're "computing" the fractal by using light on a wall as memory and the physical geometry of the path taken by the light into the camera and out from the projector as the processor to calculate the appropriate affine transformations. Given that both TV cameras and video projectors were around back in the late 1940s, it's possible that someone could have done this sort of setup at the dawn of the computer age.

 

[skotosa]

Wow this is bloody awesome! Thanks for sharing!

 

I do this using Fractron 9000 with my computer but its amazing he juts does it so well using nothing but cameras and his room as the image.

[vamos scorcho]

that's amazing.

[skotosa]

Just did this but with one screen. Its so cool.

 

http://www.techpowerup.org/uploaded.php?file=101103/Paradox.jpg

[bronchuseven]

Very sweet video! I saw a guy doing this in Berlin a few years ago using just one projector, a gigantic 80s video camera, and an equally ancient video mixer. The mixer could superimpose simple icons on the projection, like + symbols or dots, that you could position with a joystick. This was handy for generating transient images that would then cycle down through the different scales of the fractal. I bet you could generate cool effects with a laser pointer too - just shine it at the projection for a fraction of a second and the pulse would get recycled down.. I'd totally try this if I had a beamer! (and a camera too I guess... d'oh)

[splesh]

Really cool shit!

[Guest Wall Bird]

Yep. Feedback is probably the coolest thing ever.

[impakt]

Now; project the gantz_graf video and let a 3-projector system have at it, lean back and watch a singularity form.

 

derp

[Guest cardan]

holy shit

[Guest Fishtank]

what does this have to do with universal processes?

[kaini]

they are what's known as IFS tiling fractals

that's an awesome awesome hack to do em with

also, FSOL

 

chaos, you are gonna like http://sci.tech-archive.net/Archive/sci.fractals/2008-02/msg00005.html

[Guest nene multiple assgasms]

someone should do this with 3d cameras.

[MildewOnRice]

someone should do this with 3d cameras.

[Salvatorin]

if you video feedback on lcd screens, you get a radically different effect. It creates these self stabilizing blobs that you can interact with and also maps itself along the contours of your skin if you are in front of the screen.

[superstix]

Very cool, thanks chaosmachine.

 

And I hadn't heard that FSOL track in a while... sighhhhhhhhhh

[Joyrex]

Fun fact: the "howl around effect" (aka pointing a camera at it's own output) has been in use since the late 50's and was how the original Doctor Who title sequence was created up until 1973.

[Braintree]

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[chaosmachine]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[kaini]