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Introducing Mr & Mrs Battle

Just a quick post to say that we’ve made it to South Africa and back and I’ve successfully found a wife.

Michael Battle - Wedding

Everything was perfect. The church service, the reception (the speeches were great), the trip to game park with the family and then the honeymoon at Victoria Falls.

We’re now busy packing up our things and will move up to Brisbane next week. The plan is to take a month or so and find a good home… and ease into the second chapter of our lives.

Click through for a few photos:

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Off to get married

Well, it was about 13.5 months ago that Samantha said ‘Yes’, which means that the nuptials are well and truly upon us.

Michael Battle - Wedding

In about 8 hours we’ll be leaving for South Africa in plenty of time to prepare for our wedding on April 12th. I really can’t wait! First off, leading up to the wedding, we have planned a week of touristy things to enjoy with my family. Thereafter, both immediate families are spending a few nights at a fancy game park. Finally, and of greatest importance, we venture off to the almighty honeymoon at Victoria Falls.

So - I’ll be back at the end of April and I’d really appreciate it if you guys helped out and wrote a few blog posts. If you’ve got a blog already, it may be a good way of getting a little extra attention. If you don’t have a blog and just have a cool experiment that you want to show off, here’s your chance.

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Experiment: Impressionist Image Renderer

Well, it’s not quite Monet or Renoir, but I bet van Gogh would’ve given his left ear for a piece of this action…

Michael Battle - Impressionist Image Renderer

Ok, so maybe I’m being a little flexible with the ‘Impressionist’ title but I think what we’ve got here is a valid way of artistically presenting images in Flash. Warm up the Louvre… I need somewhere to hang this stuff!

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Experiment: Progressive Dissolve Image Filter

Here’s a quick demo of an image filter that I thought up during one of my last projects though it never managed to find itself in the launch.

Michael Battle - Progressive Dissolve Image Filter

Click through to see it in action.

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Experiment: Mandelbrot Fractal

There comes a time in every programmer’s career when they are drawn to the Mandelbrot flame. Like the rest of us, I’ve known about it since I was a kid, but never have I really worried about checking it out. I guess I felt that the concept was familiar enough already - what could I gain from touching the code?

Michael Battle - Mandelbrot Fractal

It’s hard to explain just how awestruck I am at how wonderful and beautiful the pattern is. In many of my experiments I’m trying to formulate complex patterns from simple rulesets, in hope of tripping over that line where the emergent behavior becomes art. Having played with the code a little, I’ve now realised that the Mandelbrot set is my Mona Lisa.

Check it out for yourself.

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Jobs on footloosemoose

Look out Seek… move over Monster… footloosemoose jobs is mowing your lawn. You may just find your next employment adventure right here.

Michael Battle - jobs

Every week I get sent a few emails asking me if I’m available for freelance work and if not, if I know of anyone who may be. So I’ve decided to dedicate one page on this site to perhaps help you to make cash from Flash.

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Site: NewAccord.com.au

Let me take a moment of your time and tell you about the site we recently developed for the new Honda Accord.

Michael Battle - newaccord.com.au

What started as a prototype that saw 3D dots swarm from location to location, has evolved into an interesting microsite that shows off the Accord’s most revolutionary features.

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Lucid Touch Feels Good

Proving that his finger is well and truly on the pulse, Michael Rees (my supervisor from my beloved university days) has found a interactive gem (I endorse everything of his except the title on the linked blog post!).

Michael Battle - Lucid Touch

Lucid Touch, the brainchild of Patrick Baudisch (Microsoft Research), seeks to solve the occlusive problem found in multi-touch interfaces… that being your fingers getting in the way of the content. Using a concept he calls ‘psuedo-transparency’, the user navigates the interface my touching the back of a mobile device - something that looks quite intuitive and, for some reason, it strikes me as a more personal experience than the common alternative.

Check out the following video for something new.

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Experiment: Radial Cipher

Here’s a quick proof-of-concept for an idea I had this afternoon.

Michael Battle - Radial Cipher

As you’ll see, the concept has a few flaws and limitations - and to be honest, I’d be surprised if it hadn’t been done somewhere before - but hopefully it will be new to you and perhaps, just perhaps, you’ll think of some way to make it better.

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Site: VaryWell

Here’s a site that’s worth a look for all those who appreciate interesting navigation, innovative use of both 2D and 3D… and connoisseurs of anything cool.

Michael Battle - Varywell

Ryan and Jason (brothers/buddies??) proclaim their solemn oath “to inject pure premium-ness into everything we touch”. Who can argue with that strategy? Bravo.

Their site oozes slick ribbons of style… I feel cooler for just looking at it…. get your dose:

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Head-Tracking with the Wiimote

OK, I know over 2,500,000 of you have already seen this… but it seems that I missed the boat so I’m assuming that there are still at least a few who will dribble at the sight of this. I was totally inspired and impressed by what you’re about to see.

Michael Battle - Head Tracking with the Wiimote

Johnny Lee, who evidently loves a challenge, has a number of demonstrations that feature motion detection in one form or another. His latest uses a Nintendo Wiimote and some sexy hot-wired goggles to give the wearer a truly enveloping 3D experience.

You’d better loosen your shoes, because this is about to knock your socks off!

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Video Trace Rocks My World

Over the last year or two we’ve seen a number of advances that make the jump from two to three dimensions seemingly quite trivial.

For example, there have been algorithms that extrapolate depth and perspective from photographs to form 3D environments (see fotowoosh) and professional services that create 3D models from a series of photographs (goo3d).

Michael Battle - Video Trace

Whilst these ideas and implementations have all been interesting and food for thought, none have rocked my casbah as much as this. Wow!

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2008 Resolutions

Hey everyone - hope your Christmas and New Year celebrations made you forget all about your computer for a few minutes! My folks and brother visited us for the Christmas week so that was great.

Michael Battle - resolutions

I’m heading back to work tomorrow so I thought now was a good time to get my head straight and tell you about the things that I AM GOING TO DO this year! On this new day of this new year, I’ve made up my mind - certain things are going to happen. By writing them here, I’m going to play them like a contract/promise between me and you… not that you’ll really care, just that at least it’s a matter of my word with a pinch of pride thrown in.

Here’s what I am going to do doing - starting now:

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Asimo awarded FWA

For those that don’t religiously check the FWA Site of the Day (SOTD) for inspiration, let me draw your attention to something that popped up a few days ago…

Michael Battle - Asimo gets FWA SOTD

Asimo.com.au got site of the day - and what makes that particularly noteworthy is that it was made by a few of the guys here at work! Huge congrats go to the lads involved! I’m stoked to be embedded in an office that produces such great work.

For those unfamiliar with the concepts, Asimo is an advanced humaniod robot created by Honda and The FWA is a site that awards excellence in web development.

Here’s a little more about the project:

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Plush Toy Modelling Interface

OK - this one’s not Flash, but it is 3D and it does demonstrate a novel use of an interactive interface. Maybe you’ll get some ideas for your next game or application?

Michael Battle - Plush Toy Modelling Interface

In the following video, Tuki Mori from the University of Tokyo tries very hard to tell us about her new application that enables a user to interactively design and sew a plush toy. The program automatically provides the sewing pattern which can also be manipulated and visualised in real-time.

It sounds a little left-field… but take a minute and give it a look - I’m sure you’ll find the interface interesting.

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