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Lately I've been developing a kaleidoscope application called ScopeWorks for release on the Mac App Store.

The app takes a source image and allows you to flip and rotate the image using a variety of different kaleidoscope templates. The results can be quite striking. When you use a fractal as a source image it makes it easy to create the type of fractal kaleidoscopes I've posted here before.

Most recently, I taught ScopeWorks how to import a video feed from a connected digital video camera and use a live stream of frames from the camera as the source image for a kaleidoscope. The results can be pretty hypnotic, but not exactly fractal.

What happens if you point the camera at the kaleidoscope output, though? The results are quite striking. A frame from the camera is sliced, diced, flipped, and rotated, and projected onto the computer screen. That image (or part of it, at least) is then fed back into kaleidoscope program as the source for the next kaleidoscope. You wind up with sequences of patterns repeating on smaller and smaller scales, with varying amounts of distortion thrown in. The images warp and evolve as you watch, and the brightness of the image pulsates as the automatic gain control on the camera interacts with the feedback loop of the images.

Still images don't really do the whole process justice, but they will have to do for now. I haven't tackled saving the output from the program as a video file yet, although I intend to try.

Here is a typical sample image:
(http://www.pbase.com/duncanc/image/134630811/medium.jpg)

Click below to see a larger version:
http://www.pbase.com/duncanc/image/134630811/original (http://www.pbase.com/duncanc/image/134630811/original)


I've read about video feedback fractals before, but this is the first time I've tried to create them myself. As far as I know the digital kaleidoscope twist is my innovation.


Duncan

You have got to move on from the mapple app store!

Too many people can't use it.

Well...

One.

Me.

I can't use it.

And that's One Too Many!

Sockratease,

While the app is still in development it's available as trial-ware.

You can download it at this link:

ScopeWork download link (http://web.me.com/dchampney/Site/Kaleidoscopes.html)

Looks like fun. :) I like the idea of using live video feedback as a source, then adding in some controllable effects to stir things up.

I remember seeing a video involving multiple projectors and feedback that produced some very fractl-y images. Maybe there is some way to simulate this in software?

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jj9pbs-jjis

I have tried simulating video feedback before with some success.  Being able to inject a live feed would be very cool.  Mutliple projectors could be simulated by feeding one simulation output into another simulation with different parameters.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxJ5c1CTt9s

More info here
http://softology.com.au/videofeedback/videofeedback.htm

Jason.

Interesting. It looks like those fractals were based on just projecting 3 duplicate images of the video output in a triangular pattern, then pointing the camera at the group of 3 images. My kaleidoscopes app is based on a template files that let you describe the layout of a particular kaleidoscope. All the current kaleidoscope templates are based on taking a triangular slice of the source image and flipping/rotating it into some sort of tiled pattern to create the 'scope. It would be quite easy to create a new building block which is a complete copy of the source image. I could then create "kaleidoscopes" that were a triangular group of copies, and point the camera at the group of images, just like in that video. Dynamically moving the images around like the video would not work with the current structure of the program however.

This sounds like a lot of fun, wish I had a Mac so I could give it a whirl. :) It'd be perfect for my BrainBlinks series of experimental videos. I hope you get the video output working, I'd love to see the effect in action.