Bouncy Laser Awesomeness

August 6, 2009 7:10 AM

Awesome Interactive Laser Demo (via)

Some technical info on the implementation can be found here and here, some background on the concepts behind the original installation are here, and a cool musical application here.

posted by nfg (17 comments total)

Have the cats been informed?
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 7:17 AM on August 6, 2009 [9 favorites]

Hah. Great comment.
posted by bz at 7:23 AM on August 6, 2009

And it begins...
posted by rageagainsttherobots at 7:26 AM on August 6, 2009

Wow. Psychedelics just got a lot more fun.
posted by chillmost at 7:31 AM on August 6, 2009

It would be a simple software upgrade to integrate this with face recognition so that it locks on to people's eyes.

Am I a bad person?
posted by CaseyB at 7:40 AM on August 6, 2009

Have they done much improvement in the 4 years since those papers?
posted by smackfu at 8:09 AM on August 6, 2009

The edge tracking on this reminded me of a similar concept by Zach Lieberman and Golan Levin. Using the laser to track ordinary ink marks instead of needing a custom surface is a nice touch.
posted by Uncle Ira at 8:34 AM on August 6, 2009

I don't get how they are tracking multiple lasers with one photodetector. Oh wait...it's one laser using POV! Ah.
posted by DU at 8:45 AM on August 6, 2009

I actually shouted out loud when it ran up the guy's arm. That was cool.
posted by Xoebe at 8:46 AM on August 6, 2009

I saw this yesterday and couldn't figure out how they were tracking multiple objects/lasers. But I just realized: they aren't. It's one laser (or object) and a POV effect. Damn. So smart.
posted by DU at 8:47 AM on August 6, 2009

WTF.
posted by DU at 8:48 AM on August 6, 2009

Pretty sure they sell this at The Shack^®
posted by Mister_A at 9:54 AM on August 6, 2009

Reminds me of Chunky Move (YT)
posted by pantsonsteven at 10:38 AM on August 6, 2009

Reminds me of the light-based creatures in the film Dark star
posted by Dub at 11:58 AM on August 6, 2009

The immediate application of this is obviously Pong.
posted by tybeet at 12:27 PM on August 6, 2009

This seems squeakier than it really needs to be.

Still, very cool.
posted by aubilenon at 1:30 PM on August 6, 2009

I kept waiting for the dude to yank back his hands and scream "OW!" as he wafted the smell of burning flesh away. Then I would've really been impressed...
posted by Lukenlogs at 6:22 PM on August 6, 2009