Charity engineering project water projections

AI Thread Summary
A first-year engineering student in Christchurch is working on a project to create a water projection system for Gap Filler, aiming to project music images onto the River Avon. The project seeks to engage pedestrians with interactive music experiences, but the student is struggling to find resources on projecting images onto calm water. Discussions reveal that creating turbulence in the river is essential for clear projections, and ideas include using air bubbles or environmentally safe foaming agents to enhance the water's surface. The project is part of a competition where Gap Filler allocates funding for creative community initiatives. The team is still exploring the feasibility of their river idea and gathering technical insights for implementation.
Buggsy GC
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Kia ora
I'm a fist year engineering student in Christchurch NZ, and a few friend and I, are designing a simple engineering report for a water projection system for an organization called gap filler. Were currently thinking of projecting an image of music onto the river Avon so people can read the music as they pass the area and play the keyboards we are planning to set up by the river. The problem is I can't find any good sources that can explain the processes of projecting an image onto a calm flowing river. Any sources or personal knowledge about how to project images onto water, or on how to set up water projections would help. Thank you for your time everyone.
Ka kite ano
Yours sincerely Buggsy
 
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Buggsy GC said:
Kia ora
I'm a fist year engineering student in Christchurch NZ, and a few friend and I, are designing a simple engineering report for a water projection system for an organization called gap filler. Were currently thinking of projecting an image of music onto the river Avon so people can read the music as they pass the area and play the keyboards we are planning to set up by the river. The problem is I can't find any good sources that can explain the processes of projecting an image onto a calm flowing river. Any sources or personal knowledge about how to project images onto water, or on how to set up water projections would help. Thank you for your time everyone.
Ka kite ano
Yours sincerely Buggsy
Why do you call this a "Charity" project in your thread title?

How are people supposed to view what you project on the water? Are they on the other side of the river? Are they on a boat/ship?

What have your initial power calculations shown are needed for the projection of this image? Can you please show your calculations so far, and post a sketch of your proposed system?
 
Buggsy GC said:
The problem is I can't find any good sources that can explain the processes of projecting an image onto a calm flowing river.
With lights? You can buy a commercial projector or buy lasers or a bunch of LED spotlights...

Is it a static image? Moving (changing)? How big? How far away are you trying to project from? What research have you done on this subject?
 
Its an idea competition we haven't settled on the river idea yet. For instance we just learned that we would need to be able to create turbulence in the shallow river to clearly project any image. The image would be moving as we want use videos of people playing basic songs on the keyboard so pedestrians with no musical experience can try and play along. Its charity because every year gap filler gives out a handful of $15,000 budget packages to fund creative idea that satisfy the requests of different groups of Christchurch citizens and fill up abandoned sections of the city of Christchurch left over from the earthquakes. During our clients were around 200 or so local high school kids, who informed us during our interview and surveys, they want something that's artistic, interactive, musical, A cool place to hang out and instigramable. Very broad request but there was to many views to pin down a single concept, so were going with a broad idea. Here Gap fillers website it shows some of there other projects http://gapfiller.org.nz/. This report is simply about explaining how our idea could be implemented, If our idea is chosen then we have to make a report that budgets the cost of material, measure the length of the river, calculate the distance from the projector to the water screen or turbulent surface. Our marking scheduleis attached as EWB marking rubic.
 
Buggsy GC said:
Its an idea competition we haven't settled on the river idea yet. For instance we just learned that we would need to be able to create turbulence in the shallow river to clearly project any image. The image would be moving as we want use videos of people playing basic songs on the keyboard so pedestrians with no musical experience can try and play along. Its charity because every year gap filler gives out a handful of $15,000 budget packages to fund creative idea that satisfy the requests of different groups of Christchurch citizens and fill up abandoned sections of the city of Christchurch left over from the earthquakes. During our clients were around 200 or so local high school kids, who informed us during our interview and surveys, they want something that's artistic, interactive, musical, A cool place to hang out and instigramable. Very broad request but there was to many views to pin down a single concept, so were going with a broad idea. Here Gap fillers website it shows some of there other projects http://gapfiller.org.nz/. This report is simply about explaining how our idea could be implemented, If our idea is chosen then we have to make a report that budgets the cost of material, measure the length of the river, calculate the distance from the projector to the water screen or turbulent surface. Our marking scheduleis attached as EWB marking rubic.
how do you attach word docs to this thread
 
Buggsy GC said:
how do you attach word docs to this thread
Please convert it to a PDF first (fewer virus issues) and then use the UPLOAD button in the lower right.
 
Buggsy GC said:
Here Gap fillers website it shows some of there other projects http://gapfiller.org.nz/.
Sounds like a worthwhile ;project.
Buggsy GC said:
For instance we just learned that we would need to be able to create turbulence in the shallow river to clearly project any image.
Sorry, that makes no sense. for example...

https://thumbs.dreamstime.com/z/white-bridge-reflected-water-surface-27683515.jpg
white-bridge-reflected-water-surface-27683515.jpg
 
converted it
 

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Tom lynch of TomTom productions, has worked with projection art down in queens town, and he told me on the phone that the river Avon was to clear to get a decent projection off it, For water to be used as a screens for projections, it either has to be high in sediment, shallow or white capping.

The Avon on our slot is basically crystal clear and is about 120cm deep with a stony bottom
 
  • #10
I would be interested in how to create turbulent flow in a river to maximize the amount of white water in a spot. A more detailed explanation than just dumping object in the targeted area of the river.
 
  • #11
Buggsy GC said:
I would be interested in how to create turbulent flow in a river to maximize the amount of white water in a spot. A more detailed explanation than just dumping object in the targeted area of the river.
How about air bubbles thru a network of porous hoses? Perhaps add some environmentally safe foaming agent to the air injection.
 
  • #12
injecting air into the spot through porous hoses or running the water through porous hoses to create air bubbles. Also there plenty of organic mater in the river so it shouldn't be hard to get the water foaming if i can create some small rapids. I'm just having trouble finding a description of how to maximize rapids in one spot
 

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