HW2: Sound Peeking

Peter Li

10/21/2024

Music 256A / CS 476A, Stanford University

Project Name: Electro-Camera!

Project Description

I was inspired by the icon for the iOS camera app to make a 3D version of it where a camera shape is constructed and circular “sound rings” visually radiate outward from the camera lens. A rectangular ring surrounding the body of the camera represents the waveform of the input audio, while the sound rings represent the frequency spectrum of the input audio mapped with respect to time. The closer a ring is to the camera, the earlier the input sound passes there. In other words, sound flows from the ring closest to the camera outwards until it eventually vanishes. The sound waves increase in amplitude over time. Rotating the camera will make it point to something that is an ode to my spring 2024 SLOrk piece.

Project Demo

How to Play

Project Screenshots

Final Reflection

As my first audiovisualizer project, my experience designing it has taught me so much in terms of creative programming. While SLOrk last spring gave me experience in coding computerized live music, I am now learning to add a visual aspect to it! I am proud of what I have accomplished, from being clueless on what to create 2 weeks ago to a functional project that has a main idea. I constructed the camera because I like taking photos of random things in life that tend to whiz by quickly without much of a footprint. For the final deliverable I added a "train" to this project due to my love for transportation (and a "sequel" to "A to JFK") and the fact that people tend to not notice the beauty in their design. The train gets revealed when the user turns the camera around as a surprise element. I also revised several parts of the "camera" from the milestone, including the width of the audio waves, the thickness of the camera (so it's not like a phone, oops), flash mechanisms, and wave amplitudees that sync with the audio input. It would be lying to say that I did not face any difficulties. Along with picking a concrete idea to work with, ChuGL did at times make it hard for some of my ideas to come into reality. However, the process of recognizing what was feasible and what was less so given my constraints was a wonderful learning experience as well. Finally, I would like to express my utmost gratitude for Kunwoo and Andrew for being extremely helpful whenever I had creative and coding questions. Thank you!

Milestone Demo