#videofeedbackkineticsculpture

[walkswithdave]

Practice 1

and proof of concept

[tyhardaway]

By Dave Blair

[walkswithdave]

4K Video Feedback Fractal Recursion Device Practice #3 Alt

[walkswithdave]

With this device you use the knob on the side to dial in up to 30 frames of video delay (supports 4k 60fps, exactly what I need). Of course I will probably desolder this knob and bring it up to the control box.

But what affect will adding frame delay even have on video feedback - especially if it’s used on one of the monitors and not the other for the same camera output? This frame delay should have a different result than putting the system in 30 or 24fps - which adds a stutter, and a slowing of the “image to fractal” effect - this will keep the same smooth looking output of 60fps, but with a buffered delay (and, again, what will this even look like?).

And what of this ungodly pricetag? It’s too new of a product to buy used anywhere.

Sometimes you write an email hoping for the best, hoping someone gets it and takes an interest:

And sometimes someone does get it, and the best does happen:

Thank you Steve!

[walkswithdave]

[walkswithdave]

Update: Control box complete! (except for knob/switch labels)

[walkswithdave]

Working with the AIs for the python code for this has been something. I worked with ChatGPT and Gemini, having each check the other's work, having one come to the rescue when the other was stuck.

The first step, getting the initial code, itself was a lengthy process, many hours spent tweaking and improving, before ever trying anything out on the actual equipment.

At one point I had a piece of code both AIs agreed was robust and would work perfectly. I had no idea though. Would I load it up and turn it on and it would just work? Where they full of shit and it would never work?

When I finally got the switcher there were many hours spent just figuring out how to get it talking to my computer - IP addresses needed to be set - all that stuff the IT guy would normally do. And the AIs walked me through it, making some errors along the way, there were issues, there were problems there was a lot of trouble-shooting.

Once I had it talking to my PC I set the resolution to HD since that's what I'm using to test all this right now, verified it worked, and began the process of setting up the Raspberry Pi mini computer. I got the code loaded in, and nothing worked. There were many hours of debugging, once again when GPT got stuck and said something wasn't possible, or just couldn't figure it out, I'd go to Gemini, and often it could figure it out. Each time I'd present the new code to GPT, and sometimes it would say something like this is great, this is the correct solution. Or, sometimes it would say, no, Gemini is not correct here.

Through a lot of trial and error I finally had the momentary switches working. Each switch along the way presented its own issues and problems. At times I thought some features would just not be possible.

I'm continually amazed by the AI's ability to understand and to reason, while certain there's no actual consciousness there. Only once, very tired, very late at night, did I slip up and say "please" before asking for something.

And, in this circumstance, I don't think using AI is cheating. I could never figure out the programming for this on my own, or, if I did, it would take so much time it would be unreasonable. If there was no AI, and I had the resources, I would hire a programmer to write the code. But, the ability to come up with ideas and implement them almost instantly without having to wait around for an actual human to respond is amazing. Yeah, it will probably be the downfall of society, the loss of countless jobs in countless fields, but, it sure is useful.

Next, the 4x4 matrix router - we'll see how well that code does right off the bat, and how much time will need to be put into that. And, of course, the big question, will the analog knob part, the most vital part, even work at all?

[walkswithdave]

"Still to do: mess with little EDID emulator box to try to get 30fps to show up as a menu option along with 24 and 60fps already present."

Although 60 frames per second is the default for the Device (since the router can be told to output 24, 30 or 60fps individually to four feedback monitors), I might want to put the cameras into 24 or 30fps so a slower shutter speed can be used. In that case, a switch is flipped to tell the switcher to go into one of those frame rates (it can't accept mixed resolutions or frame rates).

The problem: The Nvidia Shield that supplies the secondary photo or video input did not have 4K 30fps on the menu for frame rate options, so the switcher would not see it when in 30fps mode.

Eliminating problems as they come up.