Pipe

Overview

| is a small device that takes an input of one type and outputs it to others within a similar context. Think universal adapter for things you never had one for before.

Outline

• | Video will be a small device, possibly a cube, that will take in one video signal and output it to others.
  • Possible source of power would be usb or firewire.
    • Would also provide a means of telling the device what you're looking to do.
  • Would be covered in various video ports.
    • DSP chip would handle the conversions.

• | Audio would work roughly the same as | Video, but would likely be easier to develop initially.

• | Mix would be a small turn table device with a touch screen and custom interactive interface.
  • Will accept both video and audio input from other | devices.
  • User will be able to mix audio and video and then output it in unique ways.

Ideas

• Video conversion takes a LOT of CPU time to get anything done. DSP encoder/decoder boards are normally specialized devices that take ONE format and turn it into another specific format. For a Swiss Army Knife approach to streaming media conversion the workable direction is likely to get a consumer multicore mobile processor and do everything in code, using ffmpeg and other O/S tools to do the various D2D conversions.

• Output side should also have Video/S-Video out, also built on a basic DAC. I guess it's a two tiered approach, with simple DSP for conversion from/to analog signalling, and CPU/Software based digital to digital conversions to handle to handle the wide variety of digital formats desirable.

• • Input side should probably have Video and S-video in (with an analog to digital convertor

• • • How about one touch rendering to multiple formats? The idea is maybe a 'Web' button that spits out flash, quicktime, and windows media files.

• should it have a dvd burner?
  • Perhaps a Multi-function card reader for bringing digital media in.

• • • Can it be built into a chunk of PVC pipe?