Sensorium Project - 3D-360-degree Multi-touch(less) HID sensor

We've successfully interfaced our solid-state 360 degree sensor with Arduino, Teensy and Processing to control 3D Processing and Arduino java sketches & 3D objects as well as emulation of mouse, keyboard, joystick e.g. for massive online multiplay online gaming (MMOG).

Yes! we are developing interfaces to use the sensor as a 360 degree / 3D HID type of mouse ! Proof of concept is now completed (see videos).

We are also taking this much further and developing gesture sensing applications - but there is still a long way to go to.

Touchless sensors are seen by many companies as the future such as leapmotion used by HP

We therefore have opened up discussions on processing forums for some further ideas and programming support.

Some possible development directions could also be...:

• • 3D gesture sensing, for example using the TUIO interface

  • 3D midi interface (see 3D drum machine example)

  • 3D interface to kinetic art projects

  • 3D Touchless input to mobile device

  • Control of multi axis CNC machines and Robots

moving a hand over the sensor controls PC applications

Background to Sensorium Project

We used Arduino UNO & Teensy to control the serial communications between 360 degree HID sensor and the Arduino Uno , Teensyduino and Java / Processing sketches on the PC/Mac. The sensor controls 3D graphics (Java sketches), or can emulate Mouse, Joystick or Keyboard on the PC (or possible would also work on Apple Mac, Andriod, Ubuntu, etc but have not test this yet.) to control any 3D applications such as Google Sketchup, Google maps, AutoDesk Inventor - CAD type application.

Develop your own Arduino Sketch or Processing.org sketches

We are using Processing.org , Arduino, Teensy as a development platform as it's real easy to develop cool java graphics programs and Processing GUI is free and really a great way to learn about programming and interfacing..

3D Mouse / Keyboard / Joystick Control

Plug the IRCF360 sensor into a Teensy2 to enable 3D mouse, joystick, keyboard interface to your Arduino projects. The Teensy2 can be configured as a USB device such as mouse, Joystick, keyboard which allows the sensor to control your PC or Mac ....adding new dimensions to your projects.

So how does this work?...By moving your hand over the sensor the direction and distance of your hand / fingers are sensed and translated into values within the Teensy2.....

Gaming control

Keyboard emulation interface

Sensing directions are translated into keyboard keys. This is programmed into the Teensyduinon - sketch using the usb keyboard commands:

Keyboard.set_modifier(0);

Keyboard.set_key1(KEY_W);

Keyboard.send_now();

e.g. configurate of the keys WASD to control online or Massive Multiple online (MMO) games - spaceship speed control is achieved by mapping mouse or keyboard keys to the distance readings from sensor.

Mouse emulation interface

Sensing directions are translated to mouse directions. This is programmed into the Teensyduinon - sketch using the Mouse.move (x, y) USB mouse command ; e.g. configurate of the keys WASD to control online or Massive Multiple online (MMO) games - engine / speed control is achieved by mapping mouse or keyboard keys to the distance readings from sensor.

Joystick emulation interface

Sensing directions are translated to Joystick directions or commands. This is programmed into the Teensyduinon - sketch using USB Joystick command to add Z directional control to your project too.

The joystick usb interface has

• • 32: Buttons

  • 6: Axis (X, Y, Z, Rotate Z, Left Slider, Right Slider)

  • 1: Hat Switch

Joystick.X(value);

// "value" is from 0 to 1023 Joystick.Y(value);

// 512 is resting position Joystick.Z(value);

Joystick.Zrotate(value);

Joystick.sliderLeft(value);

Joystick.sliderRight(value);

Adding 3D Control to your Java and Processing Sketches

We've opened up an open source project on various forums for support to develop your own Arduino, Teensyuino or processing sketches.

It's easy to develop cool java scripting based graphics programs using the FREE development environment from processing.org and Arduino. Processing is free and opensource and really a great way to learn about programming and interfacing.

. .read more

Using Arduino or MAX232 serial interface to a PC the sensor can control your java and processing sketches. Examples are:

• Rotating earth and space junk example

• Kinetic Art demo

• Multi-touch 3D gesture sensing demo

• 3D demo

• 2D mechanical linkage demo

Start writing your own Arduino or Processing.org sketeches to interface with the IRCF360 to visualise the results. The example below is the multi-blob tracking demo, where the two large blobs are tracking the closest and 2nd closest object. The brown 'spider-web' is a representation of all other directions. For more advanced Java programs & sketches the pattern could be used to interpret different hand gestures to add more advanced controls.

Background of 3D-360 degree sensor