

Dancing hackers create iLuminate system for performance art - anigbrowl
http://www.iluminate.com/

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sigil
Hello there, iLuminate hacker here! My partner Miral and I founded iLuminate 2
years ago. It's been extremely fun, both on the technical side (we built
wearable embedded hardware from scratch for wirelessly controlling lights) and
on the performance side. Miral does both. If you saw America's Got Talent [1]
tonight, you may have seen her hacking away on her Mac. She was disappointed
they didn't show an over-the-shoulder shot of her typing stuff into netcat. :)

[1] [http://www.nbc.com/americas-got-talent/video/ep-601-team-
ilu...](http://www.nbc.com/americas-got-talent/video/ep-601-team-
iluminate/1331014/)

~~~
FaceKicker
Just curious - what aspects of the performance was she controlling live? I'm
surprised she was hacking away in netcat during the performance. I would think
the entire thing would have been completely designed beforehand, and at most
during the performance she'd be pressing a button at various pre-selected
points during the song to keep everything synched (or something like that ...
obviously I don't know anything about this).

Awesome stuff by the way. I happened to be watching America's Got Talent
tonight and it was by far my favorite.

~~~
sigil
> Just curious - what aspects of the performance was she controlling live? ...
> I would think the entire thing would have been completely designed
> beforehand ...

You're right. It's mostly pre-choreographed, with manual cue points for
performances involving live music or variable length pauses. But, we do use
netcat for manual overrides, for monitoring even pre-choreographed pieces, and
for testing the devices and lights. It's pretty damn handy. ;)

> Awesome stuff by the way.

Thanks! Watch for us in the next round!

------
bhousel
> Introducing iLuminate™, the first patent-pending wearable, wireless lighting
> system.

Serious question for the founding team: Why do you think what you do is
patentable? It's kinda a hot topic today.

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sp332
They're patenting a specific control system, possibly including protocols,
circuits, and/or specialized hardware. It's not like they're patenting EL wire
or something :)

~~~
sigil
This is correct, the invention is in the control system / hardware. We are not
a fan of software patents.

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chopsueyar
Good stuff.

