Kaleidocam
British artist Ian Kirk has created a new app, Kaleidocam, that works with a basic webcam, converting the image into a kaleidoscope. This pattern can also be used as your screensaver.
Kirk’s software is an interesting modern variant of Marshall Yaeger’s Kaleidoplex – a 1970s projector that created a kind of fractal kaleidoscope image using multiple mirror systems feeding into each other.
Yaeger used the kaleidoplex as part of the light show he produced for organist Virgil Fox (most famously at New York’s
Filmore East). Images created with a video version of the Kaleidoplex are available from Yaeger on DVD.
October 1st, 2005 at 10:26 am
It was curious to see this design. It appears to be a simple kaleidoscopic pattern, not a Kaleidoplex pattern. To see why, one can look up my patent (4,077,706) to see how the real instrument works.
Marshall Yaeger
October 1st, 2005 at 10:57 am
Yes, it doesn’t use feedback, like the Kaleidoplex. Here’s a digital image I generated, which does:
October 1st, 2005 at 10:58 am
http://www.flickr.com/photos/krazydad/3489487/