Final Project Update - 4/25

-We now have the lightning changing color and then fading back to white on its own.

-Have started trying to get typography to appear when tweets are read in. The desired effect is for the words to appear at the end of the lightning bolt, hover for a while, and then fade out again.

-Have contacted Cody at the Federal Building to set up a time to get wifi access for our project. We want the tweets being read in to be from a live stream, not from a preset library.

-Have checked out a projector from Glen and will be coming up with ways to stabilize it in order for it to project onto the ceiling. Concerns are that the power cord plugs into the back of the projector, the projector is designed for air flow to be horizontal, not vertical, and that the projector is very heavy and not easily stood up on end. These things are being figured out.

Final Project Update - 4/18

-We have decided to use a projector setup to project our display on the ceiling. We liked the idea of having it be symbolic of the tweets entering the "Twitterverse", the invisible network of tweets flying above our heads to their destinations.

-Using Processing, we have gotten to the point where the lightning shoots out from a central point, and wanders around the screen randomly. We have also gotten the lightning to change color depending on a variable. The "tweet-reading" technique is still being perfected.

Final Project Aesthetic Crit - 4/11

This twitter data visualization will have 3 specific elements to it:

1) "3d" objects representing the different subjects tweeted about

The different subjects of the tweets will be represented as cubes, spheres, and prisms. They will cluster together according to their type, and will appear individually as tweets come in. The objects fade over time so they visualization doesn't become too cluttered.

2) color changes depending on positive or negative connotation of tweets

If positively associated words are used, such as "awesome", "good", or "best", the objects will be blue. If negatively associated words are used, the objects will be red.

3) visually stimulating effects, such as lightning "synapses" between objects and a "gravity swarm" effect.

http://www.openprocessing.org/sketch/2363
http://rdwong.net/archive/lightning/

Other elements:

-A virtual camera will rotate around the "scene" 360 degrees the entire time.
-The background is completely black.

Final Project Technical Crit - 4/4

Example of this working in-browser: Click Here