Just got the Fire-i Digital Camera in the mail – works on both Mac and PC. At only $89US, it is honestly the bestest real-time camera for interactive video I have ever used, and I’ll probably pick up another the next time I get to the states. Super fast, high-quality & resolution, and sees both Color and IR (can put on a cheap filter if you just want to see the IR – contact me if you are interested in making your own visible light filter for next to nothing). The downside is that the camera does not allow you to save your settings as the new defaults, so it has to be reset each time you run your performance or installation.
For the common good of Interactive Video producers everywhere, I’m in the process of emailing with Jeremy Bernstein, over at Cycling ’74 to see how to auto-send messages from Jitter (their video modular for the Max/MSP development environment) for all the settings, and will post my findings when I have them. Eventually, I’ll also email Danny Rozin (Smoothware Design) to see if we can do this from his TrackThemColors Pro Xtra from Director, too (what I teach my students at Wits). I’m also curious as to the status of his VideoMask MX Xtra – when will that happen?…
OK. Off to Pretoria to see Abrie and the tax man (separately, of course).
