For the past few days I have been working on a complete new layout for my personal website CrystalMinds. There are several reasons why I did that. First of all, the current blog gave me limitations, I couldn't create my own page with static content. For example a downloads section. If I would keep on blogging things that I have done and created would be very hard to find. Besides that it would be very hard to know if you had the latest version for example my soon to be release MultiTouch!Library.
Second of all, my personal website shows my process as well and I felt like everything I publish on the blog is a process as well that I want to share on my website.
Third of all, I already owned a website and I figured I might as well put everything in one place, I only needed to include a blogging system.
So with that being said I would like to introduce my NEW website at:
http://www.crystalminds.net/
Please change your RSS/Atom feeds and any link you might have to this blog. I am still considering whether or not I should re-post my older posts on my new website.
dinsdag 15 april 2008
zondag 13 april 2008
Software Application : Part IV
#TITLE:
PuzzleGame Version 2 (Final)
#DESCRIPTION:
A standard multi-touch puzzle application.
#INSTALL:
- First make sure the global flash security settings link to the swf.
http://www.macromedia.com/support/documentation/en/flashplayer/help/settings_manager04.html
- Run OSC.
- Run FLOSC.
- Run PuzzleGame.swf.
- Define the screen by touching the red crosses with one finger.
- Puzzle away!
#OPTIONS:
- Insert row; You can insert as many rows as you prefer.
- Insert column; You can insert as many columns as you prefer.
These options make it possible to create your own amount of puzzle pieces.
- Next puzzle; Creates the next puzzle by randomly picking an image from the imagelist.
#IMAGE LIST:
In the images folder you can find the photo’s and an XML document. It’s possible to add your own photo’s. Just place a photo with a dimension of 400x300 in the images folder and add it to the XML document. Click as much on the Next Puzzle button till your photo appears.
#DOWNLOAD:
Click here.
#SCREENSHOT:
PuzzleGame Version 2 (Final)
#DESCRIPTION:
A standard multi-touch puzzle application.
#INSTALL:
- First make sure the global flash security settings link to the swf.
http://www.macromedia.com/support/documentation/en/flashplayer/help/settings_manager04.html
- Run OSC.
- Run FLOSC.
- Run PuzzleGame.swf.
- Define the screen by touching the red crosses with one finger.
- Puzzle away!
#OPTIONS:
- Insert row; You can insert as many rows as you prefer.
- Insert column; You can insert as many columns as you prefer.
These options make it possible to create your own amount of puzzle pieces.
- Next puzzle; Creates the next puzzle by randomly picking an image from the imagelist.
#IMAGE LIST:
In the images folder you can find the photo’s and an XML document. It’s possible to add your own photo’s. Just place a photo with a dimension of 400x300 in the images folder and add it to the XML document. Click as much on the Next Puzzle button till your photo appears.
#DOWNLOAD:
Click here.
#SCREENSHOT:
donderdag 10 april 2008
Software Application : Part III
dinsdag 8 april 2008
Board Game or No Board Game
Developing is not all that I 've done. I also did research on how to translate the board game 'Settlers of Catan' to a multitouch device. Also talked to people about where the line for them is between something being called a board game and when it becomes a video game. I need to do more research on the matter. Interestingly enough it seems that we actually want to see a board to make it feel like a board game. So for example the videogame 'Warcraft 3' on a touch screen would still be called and feel like a videogame, allthough put the Nintendo video game 'Mario Party' on a touch screen and people call it a board game. So are the die and the old board really needed?
Software Application : Part II
One of the most annoying things I came a cross was while playing and developing with my FTIR touch screen, was that it wasn't precize enough. If it doesn't register properly where you touched the screen that get's very frustrated, mostly if you are depended on it. So I worked hard on adding a calibration handler to my class and succeeded.
With a simple method 'startCalibration()' I can now let the user define the screen size and use those values to give a more precize position of where the finger touches the screen.
It looks like this:
With a simple method 'startCalibration()' I can now let the user define the screen size and use those values to give a more precize position of where the finger touches the screen.
It looks like this:
dinsdag 1 april 2008
Software Application : Part I
On monday and tuesday I worked very hard on my very own touch class in Actionscript 3. This class is needed to parse the messages send by the OSC. It now includes the following events:
FINGER_DOWN - Dispatched when a finger touches the screen.
FINGER_UP - Dispatched when a finger releases from the screen.
FINGER_MOVE - Dispatched when a movement of a finger has been found.
With these events it was very easy to create a simple multi-touch painting software in flash. Which looks like this:
FINGER_DOWN - Dispatched when a finger touches the screen.
FINGER_UP - Dispatched when a finger releases from the screen.
FINGER_MOVE - Dispatched when a movement of a finger has been found.
With these events it was very easy to create a simple multi-touch painting software in flash. Which looks like this:
vrijdag 28 maart 2008
Project presentation : Part I
The past couple of days I really needed to focus my attention back to my research. Trying to define in a better way of what it is that I am going to do research on. In this thinking process I came to ask myself three questions. For starters, "What is a board game?", it seemed that everyone had a different opinion on what a board game is exactly. The second question was "Where does a board game ends being a board game and begins to become a video game?". And third, "Why bother?". I can't exactly give you the answeres yet as some are a bit vague, but I kept on thinking and this is the outcome which I presented today.
I became really fascinated on a new way of gaming, a new genre perhaps. It's the question mark which lays between the 'Traditional Board Games' and the 'Video Games'. It's not yet possible to imagin the feeling one experiences when playing an interactive board game. And so my new research question became the following:
Before this can be answered a couple of things are needed. First I will need to do research on the possibilities of a multi-touch table, look into the benefits and added value of such a device and write down the restrictions of a board game. But also mention the other way around, what are the added value of a board game and the restrictions of a multi-touch table.
After that schedule has been set I can pick a popular board game and begin experimenting by adding benefits of a multi-touch table into the game and look at the outcome.
Why bother? A very annoying but good question. Well first of all, to keep up with time and technology. We are living in a digital generation, with our mobile phones, computers and so on. It's only a logical step that on some point the board game would get modernized as well. And now that the multi-touch technology here, that is possible! Second of all, to remove the restrictions of a board game and to embrase the new possibilities a multi-touch table has to offer.
I decided that my target audience will be your every day family that enjoys sitting around a game board and playing a game.
Then one last thing, the quest for a beamer may have ended. More news coming up.
I became really fascinated on a new way of gaming, a new genre perhaps. It's the question mark which lays between the 'Traditional Board Games' and the 'Video Games'. It's not yet possible to imagin the feeling one experiences when playing an interactive board game. And so my new research question became the following:
"What can a multi-user, multi-touch table mean for the future of board games?"
Before this can be answered a couple of things are needed. First I will need to do research on the possibilities of a multi-touch table, look into the benefits and added value of such a device and write down the restrictions of a board game. But also mention the other way around, what are the added value of a board game and the restrictions of a multi-touch table.
After that schedule has been set I can pick a popular board game and begin experimenting by adding benefits of a multi-touch table into the game and look at the outcome.
Why bother? A very annoying but good question. Well first of all, to keep up with time and technology. We are living in a digital generation, with our mobile phones, computers and so on. It's only a logical step that on some point the board game would get modernized as well. And now that the multi-touch technology here, that is possible! Second of all, to remove the restrictions of a board game and to embrase the new possibilities a multi-touch table has to offer.
I decided that my target audience will be your every day family that enjoys sitting around a game board and playing a game.
Then one last thing, the quest for a beamer may have ended. More news coming up.
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