Dance at SMU
I have had the honor and privilege of working with some of the finest dancers in the world through the SMU Division of Dance.
Surviving slashdot'ing with a small server. A description of the web/ftp server
providing these web pages. Also describes the server's response to load demands
that accompany this site's listing on the web news service "slashdot.org,"
Includes some interesting data about the slashdot event itself.
Magellan's Venus: Atla Regio (35M mp4 music video). NASA's Magellan spacecraft orbited the planet Venus from 1990 to 1993 collecting Synthetic Aperature Radar and Altimetry data.
This computer generated flyby is of a section of Venus named "Atla Regio."
The video images were created from Magellan data and set to music. They explore the mountain chain and volcanos near the planet's equator. Here is a full-res version of the same
Atla Regio Flyby (125M mp4) and here's a
Windows Media version (16M).
HydroFracture (37M mpeg music video) Seismic verification of hydraulic fracture from data collected by the
Bellaire Research Center in Houston, Texas. Fluid pumped under pressure over several days causes a
series of underground fractures which are mapped by seismographic instruments deployed in three
surrounding monitor wells. Here's a
full-res version (125M mpeg) and also a
Windows media verson (8M).
Video Dance 1995 (50 Mb mpeg music video). with friends Kevin and Theresa.
Video compositing and metrical rhythmic movement triggers. I especially
like the dancing hands.
Here's a Windows Media version (23 Mb) of the same
thing.
Video Poem 1995 (33 Mb mpeg music video). Theresa, Kevin, Chess-Boy, and friends.
Animations by our (then brand-new) SGI Workstation. Here's a
full res version (136M) and
here is a Windows Media version (16 Mb).
Fun with Motion Capture (552k mpeg) There is a security camera outside my office door, looking down the hallway
towards the student computer lab. A computer grabs frames several times per second and
compares them to a reference frame. If their differences are large enough it timestamps the images and saves
them. This is an mpeg movie of the movement outside my office door, shown backwards just
for fun. The asterix (*) at the beginning of some timestamps indicates that the computer thinks someone is standing
outside my office door in the image. That's me towards the end, spinning down the hallway and thumbing my nose at the camera.
![[movie icon]](coolstuff/jpeg/rocketcam1.jpg)
RocketCam I (1M mpeg). Our friend Mark Sims, holder of several
World Records for high-power rocketry, mounted a small Digital Video camera in the nose cone of
A Very Large Rocket. The camera shuts down with the jolt of the parachute opening. You'll
have to imagine the tremendous whoosh of the rocket engine at liftoff.![[movie icon]](coolstuff/jpeg/rocketcam2.jpg)
RocketCam II (1.4M mpeg). Another of Mark's
rocket-borne video cameras
documents a perfect launch followed by a pre-mature ejection. Look closely at the first few frames
of the launch for Gumby and Pokey spinning head-over-heels off the launch pad.
Another silent film.
Geological Sciences Remotely Piloted Vehicle (3.2M mpeg).
This is a radio controlled car with a television camera and transmitter attached.
We sit in front of a TV set in my office or downstairs in the National Data Center and
drive it around the building by remote control in the wee hours of the morning. There is some more
detailed information on the
robots webpage.
This mpeg movie shows the car worrying a trashcan free from the wall and pushing it down the stairs
and running away like a naughty child. That particular trashcan still sits next to the water fountain
at the front entrance of the Heroy building. The lid doesn't fit any more. I think they've moved
the lid outdoors to the concrete ashtray on the porch. I hope none of the SMU
custodians ever look at these web pages...
Autonomous Robots. Descriptions, images, and videos of
these award winning robots
in action around the SMU Heroy Building, around the house, and around the contest course. The
one pictured here, nBot, solves the inverted pendulum problem for a moving platform.
It can balance on two wheels and drive by leaning forward at exactly the correct
angle to counteract the torque needed for locomotion.
David's Music. David at Carnegie Hall with the BL Lacerta
Quartet. Like many programmers and systems analysts, I studied music in college and have
a bachelor degree in music theory and composition. I've performed professionally in the US and
Europe since the mid-1970's. Here is a link to some pictures and mp3 files.
Jonathan's Music. Jonathan Michael Hodges Anderson,
percussionist and composer. Music and video from the UNT Drumline, Steel Band, Phantom Regiment, and 2008
Senior Composition Recital.
Friends Flying Helis. Robert, Rusty, Anthony, Marcelo, and George perform
incredible gymnastics with their R/C helicopters.
JamPact mp3. SMU Meadows Dean Jose Bowen and JamPact ensemble present Cafe Jazz improvisation and pizza.
SMU Geological Sciences
Archive