Weeks 4-‐6: Processing and Reactivision This note contains a series of exercisef for the Lab sessions in Weeks 4-‐6 L. Also included are notes on downloading and installing the Reactivision and Processing software.
Week 4 lab Aim: to gain some familiarity with the technologies we’ll be using (Reactivision and Processing) and to set up a simple tangible user interface.
Processing
Find the Processing program on your computer and run it. The the resulting window looks like the picture below. Note the three main areas: a toolbar containing buttons to start and stop program, load files, and so on; the text editor Start / stop buttons
Program text area
Status messages
area where programs are written, and the console area where status messages are displayed.
Activity
Go to the Processing web site: http://processing.org/ Find the Tutorials section under the Learning tab, and work through the Overview tutorial.
Reactivision
Reactivision works by recognizing marker symbols known as ‘fiducial symbols’, and a collection of these can be found in the Reactivision folder in
symbols/default.pdf. You can print out some of these and cut them out, stick them to objects, etc.
!"#$%"&'("#()
!"#$%"&'("#(*
!"#$%"&'("#(+
!"#$%"&'("#(,
!"#$%"&'("#(-
!"#$%"&'("#(.
Activity Preliminary bits of the exercise
Get Reactivision running and see what it looks like when it detects symbols. Make sure you have run a simple processing program and understand the main elements (setup method, draw method, etc).
Run the TuioDemo sketch to see how Reactivision can send data to a processing sketch.
!"#$%"&'("#(/
!"#$%"&'("#(0
!"#$%"&'("#(1
!"#$%"&'("#(2
!"#$%"&'("#(*)
!"#$%"&'("#(**
Activity
The next exercise is based around a simple application called MathsBlocks. The exercise is first requires you to set up and run the example program, and then to modify it to make it do something different. 34567"89:(;(+))2('=(?6@:=A@(?BCB(D"#$%"&'(@6A>4'@(!47(!7==($@=("E(%4EF$E%:"4E(G":9(:9=(7=&%HIJ"@"4E(@4!:G&7=(4E'6B(K''(4:9=7(7"89:@(7=@=7L=#B
Get it running and set up the physical elements To run this example we need some fiducial symbols from the start of the set (so numbers 0-‐5, and more to extend the activity. Cut these out. Stick them onto things). And we need a physical set-‐up where the camera can look down at the table (or at another flat surface where the symbols can be placed or stuck).
