Real-Time Weather & Audio Reactiveness

  • audio-reactive
  • weather
  • data
  • Python
  • TouchDesigner
  • generative
  • signal-processing
  • mood
Role
Signal Architect, Mood Designer
Tools
TouchDesigner · Python · APIs
Duration
4 weeks
Output
Dual-path ambient visualisation system combining audio emotion classification and weather API data
Date
November 2024

Overview

This project combines local weather data and audio input into an ambient visualisation system that mirrors emotional tone through visuals. It maps real-time weather conditions alongside audio features to produce an environment that responds like a living system.

The system works across two parallel paths that merge into a single visual output:

Audio In → Feature Extraction → Emotional Mapping  ──┐
                                                      ↓
                                               Mood Merge → Visual Logic
                                                      ↑
Weather API → Environmental Normalisation ────────────┘

Audio Analysis

The audio path extracts:

  • Rhythm — tempo and beat structure
  • Pitch — fundamental frequency and harmonic content
  • MFCCs — Mel-frequency cepstral coefficients for timbre
  • Intensity — RMS amplitude
  • Spectral contrast — brightness and darkness in the spectrum
  • Chroma — pitch class distribution

These features feed an emotional classification model that assigns mood weights — calm, tense, euphoric, melancholy — in real time.

Weather Analysis

Weather data was pulled via Python API and normalised:

  • Temperature — scaled to a warmth/coolness visual axis
  • Humidity — affects visual density and diffusion
  • Wind speed and angle — influences directional motion

Merged Output

Both paths converge in TouchDesigner. The combined mood state determines colour palette, particle behaviour, motion speed, and visual density simultaneously. The output feels like a space that knows what’s happening — inside and outside.

Learning Outcomes

Merging two seemingly unrelated data sources — weather and sound — into a coherent aesthetic system required building a shared emotional vocabulary. The key insight: both weather and music carry mood. The system treats them as two instruments in the same piece.

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