If I build this would you use it?

[lboucher]

Hi All

So my initial hopes of getting this fully developed for this year just wont work out. But I still want to see it work.

So I am looking for feedback from everyone as to whether or not you would use this in your show.

Background:
I work in robotics and have been looking for the best way to bring actual control of the light shows to the people/kids viewing the show.

The Idea:
Real time touch control of the light show via a smartphone.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ex87AmSZKMM

I have this working (Much thanks to KC) but requires Vixen 2.5, I think I have a workaround for those that still use 2.1. If I impliment this, it will be kinda a hack job that will require a bit more user setup than i would like, but could still be setup in an hour or 3 (Depending upon how complex your show is.)

So whats your thoughts?

[xtreme christmas]

If you build it..... They will use it......

[rokkett]

Now that looks fun! My kids would steal, I mean "borrow", my android phone constantly to show off to their friends.

I am interested in testing it...

[budude]

My droid is willing... Does it support gestures like expanding the window so you can select things a little easier for us fat fingered folks?

[Virtus]

It appears you already have the hardest part finished. That looks like a fun addition to introduce. Actually, it is quite amazing. Does it dim them as you drag from one channel to another or is it straight on/off?

[jem5136]

I would use it, guess that means I have to get a droid now:D

[lboucher]

Nice to see the interest, keep the questions/suggestions coming.

To answer a few questions.
Overall it will probably take all the little time I have to get this to a state that others can use. So that being said, I am going to impliment the bare minimum required and then go from there. (Why do I know I will regret this, but really I don't have enough time to worry about doing it right. I am an ME so software isn't my super strong subject and I am currently laid off with only 30 days left to work. Hoping to get a call about another job soon.)

Ok all that said.
My initial plan includes absolutely zero android user setup, buttons or menus.
I plan to use GPS to find out which house the person is looking at, so literally an android user has to do nothing but stand in front of the house and start the app and up pops the picture of the house.
While the effect each touch has could be expanded for ever, my intial setup will just be a half second fade whenever a new pixel is touched. So currently no user control (i should be able to easily add that later.)

Ohh and the funny part is, I don't own a smartphone, I am to much of a cheap a$$. Although this might just be my excuse for buying one.

[dirknerkle]

I don't have a smart phone. I own a stupid phone. It's the only one they'll let me have because they said it was perfectly matched to the user. :(

[lboucher]

Ohh, you don't actually have to own a smartphone to have this as part of your display. Probably good to have a friend with a smartphone so you can test your setup at least.

[jpb]

I would almost buy a smart phone just so that I can use it. That looks fantastic.

Jon

[rcouto]

My Droid is itching to give that a try!

Nice work!

[oldcqr]

Nice to see the interest, keep the questions/suggestions coming.

To answer a few questions.
Overall it will probably take all the little time I have to get this to a state that others can use. So that being said, I am going to impliment the bare minimum required and then go from there.

Let me ask this: Do you ever intend to charge for the app? If not, open source it! :D There are a bunch of people here who do software for a living who could help out.

It's neat, that's for sure!

[lboucher]

Honestly, yeah I was planning on charging a buck, see what happens with it this year and then maybe make it open source. (Honestly hoping to make enough to justify buying an android phone to the wife.) But regardless of what I do, now that the idea is out in the open I highly expect others to take the idea and expand it alot by next year. My problem is I have no access to the light controlling software, so I cannot take advantage of the data already stored in the adjustable preview.

[oldcqr]

Honestly, yeah I was planning on charging a buck, see what happens with it this year and then maybe make it open source.

Ok, cool. I have no problem with people making money on software - that's how I make MY living! :)

It's a really neat idea. I know others have had success in putting out 'touch screen' controllers for shows (where the visitor can select the next song), so that is some additional functionality you may want to add (in the future of course).

I really wish I could justify the month-to-month price of a 'real' cell phone. I looked the other day at Evo 4Gs, and when I was done, the monthly bill was $110. My cell phone right now is $5/mo and my home phone is less than $7. $12 < $110 :D

[deplanche]

I want it... I want it for Halloween this year. Quit your job, stay up 24/7 until this is done!!

And I'd be more than willing to pay a buck for it. :)

[txag2008]

Iphone availability?

[lboucher]

I want it... I want it for Halloween this year. Quit your job, stay up 24/7 until this is done!!

And I'd be more than willing to pay a buck for it. :)


Ahh, I am getting laid off end of the month. So halloween may be a bit soon.

Also, currently I personally am not interested in doing Iphone development. Maybe next year if this idea like goes viral.
I will do my best to get this working.

[lboucher]

So questions to pose to the community. What is the closest distance between 2 people running animated light shows?

There cannot be any of us within say 1 km of each other, right?

[D4rknessxkilla]

Hi All

So my initial hopes of getting this fully developed for this year just wont work out. But I still want to see it work.

So I am looking for feedback from everyone as to whether or not you would use this in your show.

Background:
I work in robotics and have been looking for the best way to bring actual control of the light shows to the people/kids viewing the show.

The Idea:
Real time touch control of the light show via a smartphone.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ex87AmSZKMM

I have this working (Much thanks to KC) but requires Vixen 2.5, I think I have a workaround for those that still use 2.1. If I impliment this, it will be kinda a hack job that will require a bit more user setup than i would like, but could still be setup in an hour or 3 (Depending upon how complex your show is.)

So whats your thoughts?

Theres this one guy.. I dont remember his display off the top of my head.. i'll have to google it to find it... But he had a wesite and people could go to his website and turn ANYTHING in his display on or off. his display was ment for like cancer research or some other diease that his kids had... (don't remember off the top of my head) but most smart phones now can go to any site a computer can... I'll get to googleing to find it ;)

[D4rknessxkilla]

Theres this one guy.. I dont remember his display off the top of my head.. i'll have to google it to find it... But he had a wesite and people could go to his website and turn ANYTHING in his display on or off. his display was ment for like cancer research or some other diease that his kids had... (don't remember off the top of my head) but most smart phones now can go to any site a computer can... I'll get to googleing to find it ;)

after i finnaly remember it right after i posted this... heres the link:

http://www.komar.org/cgi-bin/christmas_webcam


Its pretty cool so check his site out

[oldcqr]

after i finnaly remember it right after i posted this... heres the link: ...

That name is poison. The first year he did the control thing, it turned out he was perpetuating a hoax. He played a lot of people, including the media. When that happened, several people demonstrated that it was easier to actually do it than fake it.

Then he started the 'donation' thing to try to make himself feel better about it. If he lied about the lights, is he lying about the donations (and pocketing the money) too?

Needless to say, he isn't welcome in too many forums.

[christmas-light]

Can this also work on a iPad ?

[lboucher]

I have seen the web controlled lights before. It is cool and something that I might actually persue at some point, but I think kids will enjoy playing with a touchscreen much longer than clicking buttons.

If someone did actually run a scam with lights, thats absolutely horrible. I collected for Saint Judes Childrens Research hospital last year and could not imagine pocketing peoples money.

Ipad, totally possible, but not something I think I will have time to do. But we shall see.

[soakes94]

I would use this, I think it would be useful for testing lights while away from the computer, would it work on a blackberry bold? Or would I have to get myself an android?

[Wombat]

I want it for my Nexus One. (Running Froyo 2.2)

Please let me know when you have it available to test

Wombat

[lboucher]

Update: I am currently looking into the possibility of partnering with someone to develop an Iphone version. And to that end, if anyone here has experience with iPhone development hit me up. I don't think I have the time this year to do the iPhone myself.

[Aussie Ryan]

Update: I am currently looking into the possibility of partnering with someone to develop an Iphone version. And to that end, if anyone here has experience with iPhone development hit me up. I don't think I have the time this year to do the iPhone myself.


you can get it done at rentacoder for really cheap. just post it and get bids.

[lboucher]

Have a job out on rentacoder, been there for a while and still no takers. I am not offering much money, but its open bid so I would expect at least a major high ball bid.

Also
I have truely gained respected for how much extra effort it takes to get from working prototype to handling all the errors and making a product others can use.

[lboucher]

Hi All

Lots of good progress has been made.
Currently looking for a few more testers.
Specifically interested in people with the older OS's. 1.5 and 1.6
It should work just fine on them now, but ya never know for sure till ya test.

Thanks in Advance
Lucas

[Wombat]

Ill See what I can do... I am moving in 6 weeks Just bought ourselves a new house.

looking forward to it.

Wombat

[oldcqr]

Also I have truely gained respected for how much extra effort it takes to get from working prototype to handling all the errors and making a product others can use.


I spend about 25% of my time coding 'main line' stuff. 25% is spent on documentation.

A full 50% goes to what I call 'contextual' programming and 'hardening'.

Contextual programming deals with the user experience, but not in a 'normal' way. To me, it means putting the UI into a state such that the user can't do something wrong - things like disabling a control depending on different options, etc. Hardening is catching all those unforeseen problems.

I enjoy 50% of my work (yes, I actually enjoy doing documentation). The other 50 is tedious.:cool:

[bobkeyes]

I would definitely use the IPhone app.

[lboucher]

Finally fixed a really stupid button mashing issue. I think its time to release for testing. I need to finish my instructional videos and hopefully send out all the info to people tonight.

[lboucher]

Alrighty everyone, finally time to release this to the wild.

If you would like to see all the setup videos and get a better idea how this works go here:
http://pachristmas.com/?page_id=548

If you are interested in testing this app for me please send me a message/email.
I am especially interested in people with older Droid versions.

[budude]

Well - happy to test for you - but - I have the latest Droid SW (2.2) on my htc Incredible and I'm using Vixen 2.1 - will this still work for that combination? Most Droid users have been waiting for the 2.2 release so your user base might be diminishing for older releases.

[lboucher]

Vixen 2.1 is an issue, it will only work with Vixen 2.5.0.8. I have a possible work around that I need to test tomorrow.

As for the Droid, 2.2 and all new versions of the Droid will definitly work fine. I had to write a little backward compatible code to include the older versions. I don't know anyone with those older versions so I am looking for someone to help test those targets.

[lboucher]

That was a fun night, made a little program to spam the Vixen Input Plugin with orders of magnitude more data than it should ever possibly see. Vixen/the plugin appeared to handle everything perfectly. Found a little edge condition in the plugin, but the data rate seemed fine. Now on to long term stability testing with hardware. I plan to run in a couple configurations for several days straight. Looking for the most stable way to run this. Taking next week off and hopefully releasing the final version early week after next. Hoping to hear some word back from testers. Your input is invaluable. Gotta finish this up so I can get to sequencing. (Not to mention mow the yard, darn rain.)

[zaker]

I'm game to give it a try. I have a rooted Droid Eris w/2.1. I'm starting my Halloween setup, so I'll give a shot when I get setup.

[benoman]

It's funny that I had this idea about a month ago for the iPhone and it was just being done for the Droid at the same time. Anyway, I have a working iPhone Prototype App for controlling my Christmas lights.

Image:
http://lights.83n.us/lightapp.jpg

I like linux so I've developed it to work with that. It communicates with server software I wrote to control my parallel port via IP sockets, so it will work from anywhere. I'm going to port my software to windows as well as play around with Vixen plugins. If only I had a computer with windows... :)

My software only controls 8 zones so it's nothing as sophisticated as the first post of this thread, but for all you DIY parallel port box builders it will prove useful.

Dealing with the App store is going to be an issue since I can't release an app for everyone that wants to use it. I think I'll release one app that pulls a list of hostnames/ports of lights servers, so if anyone wants to use this app for your lights, just contact me and I'll add you so you show up in the iphone app. If anyone has any better ideas, let me know.

I'll do my best to get this all done before December.

[scottmcm]

I want it... I want it for Halloween this year. Quit your job, stay up 24/7 until this is done!!

And I'd be more than willing to pay a buck for it. :)

Heck I'd pay two bucks for it! Just for the ease of testing after hookup without lugging the laptop out front.....

[scottmcm]

Oh, and I am on Andriod 2.1 Samsung Captivate with Vixen 2.5.0.8.......

[lboucher]

Cool, always interesting to see more ideas. I am hopeful to release my first year attempt soon. If people really like it I see a total rewrite and more features in the future, but I also gotta just cram to make this work for 2010.

Also I absolutely love the reflection of the protoboard in the phone. What board ya using.


It's funny that I had this idea about a month ago for the iPhone and it was just being done for the Droid at the same time. Anyway, I have a working iPhone Prototype App for controlling my Christmas lights.

[lboucher]

Hi All

So I am hopeful to release this App this weekend. (Finally get to start sequencing.)
I have only had one guy really test this so far. (Thanks TED)
I would love to get at least one more person to check this out.
Lots of progress has been made and I truely do feel confident this is releasable.
I would love to add more features and completely rewrite the thing to make the code cleaner, but I gotta cut myself off for 2010.