Making a TOP from a DAT

General TouchDesigner Discussion
1

I have a text file that is a list of mono pixel values to describe an image 16 x 192.

having converted it to a table, I want to show it as an image.

I have tried for hours to get this to work but I’m missing some crucial step.

attached is my messings so far. can someone help me out here?

clearly the method I’ve used here is a processor-hog. there must be a simpler way to do this?

[i]I think we need more in the WIKI that helps beginners, like myself (only 5 years working with Touch!), to get their heads around one of the most fundamental and powerful aspects of Touch - the idea that [b]everything's just a bunch of numbers[/b] that can be converted back and forth. Image can become sound can become geometry can become tool-paths for a routing machine etc. The process of converting and preserving essential qualities of the previous 'incarnation' of the data is something we need to understand better I think.[/i]

Rod

t077_Patt_to_TOP.6.toe (12.6 KB)

2

Hi Hiro!

Try this toe, doesn’t quite make it but it’s an idea.
t077_Patt_to_TOP.14.toe (18.8 KB)

3

no idea if this actually produces the image you are expecting, but you can bend space and time by converting your DATs to SOPs and the just render it with an ortho camera
untitled.toe (7.77 KB)

4

thanks Felix and Achim!

I think Achim gets the prize this time from a quick peek at the performance monitor! :slight_smile:

This helps me get a better ‘feel’ for what’s going on when the ARToolkit gets trained with a new marker. I am toying with the idea of generating such pattern files automatically in Touch when generating new marker patterns with dingbat fonts.

Felix, Noriyo was saying the other day, “It must be about time for Felix to suddenly call us from the airport!” so when’s the next stopover in Singapore? If enroute from buenos A. please bring erba matte! (plus a matte and bombe if you have cargo-space!). :slight_smile:

rod.

5

Nevertheless…

It should be possible to do this kind of thing with a TOP rather than going into sop space.

In my case though, I could use this as the different ‘Hiro’ images in this file are example transforms for the recognition algorithms in the ARToolkit so it can more quickly know which way around a particular marker is. I figure I can use touch to generate this automagically.

anyway, thanks again.

rod.

6

mapping the 1D bitmap with displace top into 2D pic with proper red/blue coordinates should be straight forward. It’s only a displace top cooking, actually once for one image.
Didn’t compare the performance but should fly. The issue is generating the appropiate red/blue coordinates for the mapping as to get full position control for each source pixel, without pixel interpolation.
I think that keeping the prob within the TOP realm makes it more straight forward, and faster, right? computed on the GPU.

but there’s an issue with the precision of the color coordinates you provide for the displace TOP. Even in 16bit, if you check the chopto CHOP chan of an horizontal black to white ramp TOP with high x res, you’ll notice how the values start to get quantized as you start moving from the 0 value. At 0.25 there’s less precision, then 0.5 and so on. as you get closer to the value 1, you’ll be rising in steps of 4 or more samples with identical value (at least in high resolution images).

let us know if you get this right. Use D Force!

so rod, me? I’ve just landed a few weeks ago here in Barcelona (from Buenos Aires), so I’ve started connecting all these surrounding wires into my vital organs. That means, for the moment, that I’m happy again with all this tech, willing to do as many components as I can cook. We all agree in this one I assume? …?
Maybe you coming to Europe some time before 2010, whaddya think? Let me know if you have any idea on doing something together as to present here in europe. No asia trips for the moment, but siggraph Japan sounds interesting. We should post Taketoshi’s animation, do you still have the video somewhere?

[url]http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/david_merrill_demos_siftables_the_smart_blocks.html[/url]
check the latest example. Maybe we could turn these into Touch operators.

:exclamation: Actually if any touch user around there (here) happens to be in Barcelona or Berlin, make sure to send a signal, there are even rooms to stay, maybe even a CPU with an 8800 I think, so it’s easy.

looks like I’ve overloaded the topic counter for a single post, but then so much more of course. Maybe I’ll just listen to some music for the day (while experimenting on this new midi thing in touch oPviously)

enjoy!