The NYC subway system as a string instrument

http://mta.me/

by clofresh • 15 years ago

276 38 15 years ago

mta.me

Jun8• 15 years ago

This is really intense! I salute the mind level that conceives such a concept (and comes up with a cool visualization).

taylorbuley• 15 years ago

Another weekend, another amazing HTML5 app produced. If only I could put these minds towards making some money..

bprater• 15 years ago

Right now, it's great to just see people expending their creative energy exploring the possibilities. They are on the leading edge giving us great ideas on how to make good use of this type of technology moving forward.

kahleballs• 15 years ago

Apparently the creator, Alex Chen, works at Google Creative Labs. http://twitter.com/#!/cwiggins/status/32178375015530496

icco• 15 years ago

I totally agree. I was kind of hoping the authors name would be in the source (http://mta.me/js-conductor/) but no such luck. It is pretty interesting code to read through though.

spacemanaki• 15 years ago

This might be the author? http://blog.chenalexander.com/2011/conductor-mta/

IgorPartola4• 15 years ago

    Registrant ID:DOT-Z21GM2Q2ZICY
    Registrant Name:A C
    Registrant Organization:
    Registrant Address:13 Charter Street
    Registrant Address2:Apt. 3Front
    Registrant Address3:
    Registrant City:Boston
    Registrant State/Province:MA
    Registrant Country/Economy:US
    Registrant Postal Code:02113
    Registrant Phone:+1.2154175999
    Registrant Phone Ext.:
    Registrant FAX:
    Registrant FAX Ext.:
    Registrant E-mail:chenalex@seas.upenn.edu

icefox• 15 years ago

Loading Sound is always at 0% for me.

sambeau• 15 years ago

There's a video with working sound, here: http://blog.chenalexander.com/2011/conductor-mta/

wigginus• 15 years ago

Did you enable Flash? I had the same problem at first, but after enabling Flash it worked fine.

pavel_lishin3• 15 years ago

Ditto for me in Firefox, with adblock and flashblock running. I suspect one of the two is the culprit.

endtime• 15 years ago

Works fine in the latest version of Opera.

adrinavarro• 15 years ago

Seems to use flash. Disabled flashblock in chrome, reloaded and worked fine. Not all html5…

Nice work though.

steveklabnik• 15 years ago

The source says that it uses HTML5 sound, but falls back to flash if it doesn't work.

jefe782• 15 years ago

Chrome loads this beautifully on Ubuntu.

lsb• 15 years ago

It's wonderful, if a little odd, to think of the NYC subway as a plucked guitar, versus the familiar steel-on-steel "ka-chunk, ka-chunk" as the trains rumble on the (unwelded) tracks.

IgorPartola4• 15 years ago

This is very cool. Here's our way of visualizing buses driving around in a novel way: http://labs.transloc.com/streetview/

pavel_lishin3• 15 years ago

Does it auto-update as the bus moves? I finally found a street-view image, but it's just sitting there.

jasonfeinstein• 15 years ago

It depends on the bus - it randomly chooses a bus and follows it. If the bus is not moving anywhere - the view doesn't move either. Try refreshing..

louhong• 15 years ago

This is pretty creative - does anyone have suggestions on how I can convert this into a screensaver?

Zev• 15 years ago

If you're on a Mac, you can do it with Quartz Composer: http://www.cybero.co.uk/QuartzComposerJavaScriptGuide-Eng/in...

If you do make a Quartz composition out of this, please do share it!

jefe782• 15 years ago

This is amazing. Would you consider offering a tutorial to implement alternate systems(other cities)?

CognitiveLens• 15 years ago

In case you haven't discovered it - you can click-and-drag your mouse across the lines to make sounds in addition to waiting for the lines to 'pluck' themselves

britta• 15 years ago

They should crash and shatter, like lightcycles.

pavel_lishin3• 15 years ago

They should be randomly delayed, like MTA trains.

zelandpanther• 15 years ago

Interesting, it's creative and artistic engineering.

goldins• 15 years ago

Open up a few tabs for a more fun and chaotic track!

Though I am having some syncing issues when one of the tabs is active.

The NYC subway system as a string instrument

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