Video Gong Show

Last time I was in Houston doing a screening at the Aurora Picture Show, Andrea Grover and I had a discussion about doing a video gong show. The key would be to automat the process and place the control in the hands of the audience. Each audience member would be handed a "voting button" as they entered the theater. As they grew bored with whatever was playing onscreen, they could depress their button. A electronics circuit would be built which would tabulate the votes in real time, and display the percentage of unhappy viewers on screen. Once 50% or more of the viewers were unhappy, a large gong would be rung automatically and the video would shut off. A tabulation of how long videos "survived" would be kept, and a prize would be given at the end for the video that survived the longest and the shortest. The whole event would be an open screening, with people invited to bring in whatever videos they had on hand.

I've done about 50% of the work. Joel Murphy helped me build the vote switches, I've done some design work on the circuit, and I purchased some hardware to superimpose the vote data on the screen as the video plays. This one could actually happen!

Update -I'm scheduled to present this in Houston in July, so I think we're a go. I've written up some submission guidelines.