In december I gave a workshop to students mastering in visual arts at the 'Hogeschool voor Wetenschap en Kunst' in Ghent, Belgium. The goal of the workshop was to create an interactive application / installation based on camera input. Since these students had a basic knowledge of Flash and hardly any programming experience, I tried to make it as simple as possible for them. I created a Flash component that includes many filters, edge detection, motion detection, a particle system, color tracking and a function that would map a property of the camera input (e.g. hue) to any property of a movieClip (e.g. scale). The component hides the user from all of the details and a typical application would requires less than 20 lines of code. So the students could focus on the concept and design and not get lost in technical issues.

They had to finish this project in 3 weeks (while the were doing a couple of other projects) and I 'm quite pleased with the results. Below are some example videos. This will just give you an impression because you really have to try and feel these installations for yourself.

Ghost location (by Ellen Marckx)

Motion detection and filters create the shadows of people passing by. Sequences of 1 minute ago,  40 seconds ago, 20 seconds ago and now are blended together, so people would see themselves and others from the past appear again and again. When there is no motion, the installation is quiet. But when someone passes, it'll start screaming... scary!

Innerlijke dialoog (by Yorick Phlypo)

Dyninamic Fiber (by Sara Hatse)

The idea here was to have a carpet that would show patterns under one's feet. But for practical reasons, Sara made a wall carpet. The background color also changes over time.

 Project Paint (by Jo Engelen)

The user holds a red and a green disc to draw onto the screen.  

All eyes on you (by Sigrid De Veirman)

The girl winks and whistles at people passing. Hard to see on the video, but the camera image is overlayed on the eyes.

Some of my own demos

Particles are generated wherever there is motion. 

Motion is mapped onto the size of MovieClips.

Real time ascii art