tristan1990

I'm pretty new to using MAX for video. For a piece of artwork I will have 4 projectors connected to 4 macs, all connected by a LAN cable to a router.

I want to be able to use an Xbox Kinect to 'spin' the videos around the room. (around the 4 projectors horizontally)..

I'm pretty new to using MAX for video. For a piece of artwork I will have 4 projectors connected to 4 macs, all connected by a LAN cable to a router. 

use-max-to-spin-4-videos-over-4-macs-over-a-network

Maybe simpler solution is 1 mac with multiple video outs (new Mac Pro, or older with 2 dual-head video cards or Matrox TripleHead [or Matrox DualHead x 2])...

Thanks for the reply. I'm on a real budget with this so wouldn't be viable to buy a card. Would it be a complicated thing to do in MAX? Which additional objects would I need?

Depends, what "to spin" means ;-) Max (on OSX) is a good tool to do that (in my opinion ;-)), but maybe you have to test other components before serious decisions. For example: Kinect has very limited range (in terms how far this device can "see" depth image) - 5 ~ 8 meters is max. I'm not sure, where you want to put the Kinect and what kind of space you want to cover by projections. Sometimes "ordinary" mapping is good enough (max has some nice features like [jit.gl.cornerpin] and others to make job easier).

Oh. about the externals. In this case (you don't need skeletons, right?) [jit.freenect.grab] is ok for handling Kinect. For good video quality check [jit.gl.hap].

I keep trying to type an explanation but it just sounds confusing. Hold on - I'll draw a diagram!

There is no reason to rush. Contact me via mail if you want to send more info/questions ;-)

Basically depending where people are standing in the gallery space, the videos will rotate either right or left around the full 360 degrees on the X axis.

Heres a test we did with two projectors/macs using the Processing coding language. Problem is is that it is laggy and we were hoping to stream out of MAX to four Raspberry Pi's due to limitations with hardware.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aE3Fi3x9aYg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKZu2zNtV4U

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aE3Fi3x9aYg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKZu2zNtV4U


Kind of "video-panoram" + rotation? Ok. Important thing is: where to put the kinect? Best location is probably: over the audiences heads... What about the distance between the roof and the floor in the gallery space?

Anyway... the concept is clear and realistic. You have to compose your video, made simple video-tracking system around the Kinect, find bast location for the Kinect. Some details more, but nothing very hard ;-). And Max is good tool to do that, of course ;-).

Some of my installations are Kinect-based, actually I'm just finishing some patches I want to publish for others. Stay tuned ;-)

Yeah that would be a good way to describe it. It's actually my girlfriends artwork, but I'm just trying to help out with the technical bits where I can. I have a little experience with MAX using it for audio, but I must admit its quite new to me. The roof is reasonably high, but I think there will be blindspots. I was thinking one of the cheap "fisheye" iPhone lens covers might come in useful, just to get a bit of a better view.

Would I need to download any extras, or are all the necessary objects already in max? - Thanks :)

'cause Kinect has very special lenses you can't use iPhone fisheyes. But it's very bad idea to use this kind of stuff for video tracking. And, if you have enough distance to the roof better is just put the Kinect higher.

Just play a bit with the Kinect and [jit.freenect.grab] (

 and check how it works. Check the [jit.gl.hap] too (

 for optimal video quality. This is enough for beginning ;-)

And I'm not sure, what kind of video tracking you want to build, but you may also look here: 

 - for good externals for video tracking, etc.

And one trick: find good USB->ETHERNET->USB extension (eg. 

http://www.amazon.com/Gigabit-Ethernet-Network-Indicator-Ultrabook/dp/B00EHC7RVW)

 - you need relatively long wire between Kinect and computer, and ordinary USB extensions are really bad for this job) ;-)

Just play a bit with the Kinect and [jit.freenect.grab] (http://jmpelletier.com/freenect/) and check how it works. Check the [jit.gl.hap] too (https://cycling74.com/tools/jit-gl-hap/) for optimal video quality. This is enough for beginning ;-)

And I'm not sure, what kind of video tracking you want to build, but you may also look here: http://jmpelletier.com/cvjit/ - for good externals for video tracking, etc.

And one trick: find good USB->ETHERNET->USB extension (eg. http://www.amazon.com/Gigabit-Ethernet-Network-Indicator-Ultrabook/dp/B00EHC7RVW) - you need relatively long wire between Kinect and computer, and ordinary USB extensions are really bad for this job) ;-)


Awesome. Thanks for the detailed response. I'll let you know how it goes. ;)

just wanted to say that i have had a traumatizing bad experience with trying to have Max over 4 computers (or 5 ?) in a ethernet network with a hub ; it was a mix of Windows and Macintosh. The network never worked, and we never found out why. Just to say that if you ever go for the network solution, just test it beforehand.

hey
just wanted to say that i have had a traumatizing bad experience with trying to have Max over 4 computers (or 5 ?) in a ethernet network with a hub ; it was a mix of Windows and Macintosh. The network never worked, and we never found out why. Just to say that if you ever go for the network solution, just test it beforehand.


Yes, we are sharing very similar experience... Sync over LAN is possible, but - due to many unexpected problems - I never trust in this technique. Actually to sync multiple machines (different OS's) I prefer old, good MIDI.

Use Max to spin 4 videos over 4 macs over a network