Trippy visuals from mouse cursor visual feedback

Craft & Design

Check out this really cool video by Alex Schlegel created using a really simple feedback loop with a webcam, computer, and projector (no extra graphics processing):

Video experimenting with the feedback-induced patterns a webcam creates when viewing its own feed projected onto a wall. I connected a 1080p digital projector to my laptop and projected the laptop’s display onto a wall (the image was about 6ft. across). Next I connected a cheap webcam to my laptop and positioned it facing the wall, roughly centered on the projection, approximately 5ft. away, and as high as I could without casting a shadow on the projection. I started the webcam’s test program (the webcam seems to refresh at about 10-15Hz), maximized the window, and then filmed the wall using a digital video camera placed on a small tripod on top of the projector. As I filmed I experimented with different modes of mouse movement (freehand, circle, figure-eight, zig-zag, and random). I used Windows API calls from a program I wrote in Visual Basic to control the automatic mouse movements.

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Becky Stern is a Content Creator at Autodesk/Instructables, and part time faculty at New York’s School of Visual Arts Products of Design grad program. Making and sharing are her two biggest passions, and she's created hundreds of free online DIY tutorials and videos, mostly about technology and its intersection with crafts. Find her @bekathwia on YouTube/Twitter/Instagram.

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