Being totally new to Max, I have difficulties orienting my way around the software. Instead of completely referring to the emulation provided rightaway, I decided to play around and make a few trials on my own first.

TRIAL 1:

After googling for some useful objects to use, I spotted a few enough to run a very simple trial.

“metro 50”: Output a bang message at regular intervals

“ jit.qt.grab 320 240” : Digitises video with two arguments (320 and 240) that specify the width and height of the matrix output by the object

“cv.jit.framesub”: Returns the absolute difference between consecutive frames.

“gate”: Passes input to an outlet.

The effect turned out to be rather peculiar, with the left screen showing as a normal camera (webcam) screen and the right screen totally black. However, when fast movements are detected in the left screen, these movements are translated as images shown on the right screen and the black space clears out according to the silhouette of the movements. (effect of cv.jit.framesub) Although, this is definitely not the intended outcome of the mirrors assignment, I felt that this first trial was still fun to document.

 

TRIAL 2:

So I fumbled around again and added a few more new commands.

“jit.rgb.2luma”: Converts RGB to monochrome (greyscale)

“cv.jit.faces”: Find faces in an image

“jit.dimmap @invert 1 0”: To invert the image horizontally so that the mirror effect is done the right way

After the addition, I find that the reflection is done correctly this time.

 

TRIAL 3:

 The objects jit.iter and unpack splits the x and y coordinates of the detected face into 4 values. The minimum and maximum area of the detected face are calculated with the x and y values subtracted and multiplied which also indicated the distance area proportion of the face and screen. However, both screens blacked out in this trial.

 

TRIAL 4:

I added quite a few more things and although the screen does not black out this time. The mirror effect occurs now at the centre split of the screen. I see 2 of myself with mirroring on either side of the screen. The window has also turned blue.

 

TRIAL 5:

After shifting some things around and reconnecting things, I finally got the screen on the left to show up without the greyscale function working. The face detection appears on the right screen instead.

 

TRIAL 6:

Finally I got the face detection and the greyscale working together on the left screen.

 

TRIAL 7:

The face detection and the dimming effect is erratic. When the face is further, it turns black as well. I suppose one of the issues may be due to poor and uneven lighting in the room.

 

FINAL TRIAL 8:

 

I think that I learnt a lot fumbling with the commands in MAX MSP even though it can be quite confusing at times. Hope to explore more with MAX!