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Graffiti Analysis 2.0 (Motion-)Captures Our Attention

by Matthew Zuras on January 19, 2010 at 07:30 AM

Graffiti enthusiast and programmer Evan Roth, who co-created the EyeWriter system for disabled taggers, has recently launched Graffiti Analysis 2.0, a "digital blackbook" that archives the mathematical expressions of graffing. Utilizing an LED light pen taped to a fat Sharpie, along with a camera and a video capture card, Roth has been able to record the movements of a tagger's hand as they draw and store the information in an open-source programming language called GML (Graffiti Markup Language).

What's truly amazing about the video below is that not only are the taggers' movements captured in real-time, but that the subtleties of how the stroke moves (and when) are not restricted to a 2-D plane. Recording the movement in a Z-axis provides for image depth in the analysis, which is of particular interest to other taggers and totally fascinating for the rest of us. And, of course, once that information is digitally captured, modifications like the exploding effect seen in the video are bound to be exploited for even greater ends.

Since the language is open-source and Roth provides detailed information for building your own graffiti-capture setup, anyone with the rudimentary implements can record their own or others' techniques and upload them to 000000book.com, an already massive repository of real-time tag data. Whatever your beliefs are on the morality of tagging, you have to admit that this is an awesome use of motion-capture technology. If this kind of tech can be applied to street art, we can only imagine the possibilities of other applications. [From: BERG]

Tags: evan roth, EvanRoth, graffiti, Graffiti analysis 2.0, GraffitiAnalysis2.0, motion capture, MotionCapture, street art, StreetArt, top

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