[ANN] Tuio - Tangible User Interaction by video tracking physical objects.

Simon Holland s.holland at open.ac.uk
Thu Oct 4 16:28:22 UTC 2007


Hope I didn't mislead anyone by keeping the announcement brief.

What the video camera actually tracks is  small paper markers  (called
fiducial markers) that you can print off and attach to things. The camera
can sense the orientation of each marker, and each marker also has a number
that can be parsed from it. This may sound a bit meh but can be used to
quite spectacular effect, especially using a light table.  You put the
markers on the bottom of objects  and move, remove and twist  them around on
a transparent table underlaid with semi-transparent paper. The camera then
goes underneath the table, along with a data projector so that you can back
project the UI.
Try it in a semi-dark room.

The reactivision engine is a separate, cross-platform open source program,
mostly GPL but cobbled together from subcomponents with various open-source
type licences. But that component is distinct and stand alone from anything
to do with squeak. The engine squirts out OSC at a rate of knots and Tuio
for squeak, which is MIT licence, picks this up & parses it to make morphs
dance. OSC for Squeak is also MIT licence.

Thats it. Then you just need a video camera or webcam.

More can be found at 
http://mcs.open.ac.uk/sh2/squeakmusic.html
and here
http://mtg.upf.es/reactable/?software

Look at the great video here ** NB proprietary NON-open source music
software NOT available**
http://mtg.upf.es/reactable/?media
of  NON-AVAILABLE music software using the original barcelona version of
Tuio and the Reactivision engine. Gives you an idea of what can be done with
a Tuio & a light table.


Cheers
Simon Holland


Very cool.

* Are there non-table uses (such as registering facial features, as 
opposed to opentouch fingers-on-a-table stuff)? I couldn't find demo 
pics/movies of any.

* Do I understand correctly that:

   + Tuio for Squeak and the pre-requisite OSC are MIT license.

   + Any application will require that the user separately have the 
reacTIVision framework installed, which is GPL (not LGPL). Being 
separately installable, it should be sufficiently "arms length" to use 
with non GPL licenses.

   + No other parts to worry about?

-Howard


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