http://curtwalker.tumblr.com/

I suck at updating.

Thu, 11 Nov 2010 19:40:35 +0000

Wow, it’s been a while! The past 7 weeks have totally flown by since starting back for the first semester of my second year at Derby University. I found it a lot harder to get back into the swing of things after coming back from a (stupid) 17 week summer.

I am fully back in action now though. I’m currently taking a break from coding up a Software Development assignment which is due next friday. I hope to have the code finished soon so I can start working on some Unit tests and UML.

I’ve only taken 3 modules this semester, which means I’ll be taking 5 after christmas. I’m a little apprehensive about it seeing as I’ve got a ton of work to do just for these 3, but I’m sure I’ll work it out. I currently have a database report to finish, a database & application to develop, analyse and produce use case, class and sequence diagrams for a given scenario for my object oriented systems analysis class and work on these software assignments. Busy!

I will get around to uploading a video of the pong game in the post below, using both the iPad, iPhone and slider controls using the Arduino.

Back to work!

iOS Device Controlled Pong

Tue, 14 Sep 2010 19:28:00 +0100

Here is my simple game of pong programmed in Processing. Uses iOS devices to control the slider. Could easily be modified to use the mouse or another piece of hardware to control the slider.

I’ll be posting a video demo and altering the code to make it multiplayer using 2 x iOS devices or 1 iPad, using the larger screen. (Code below updated to include multiplayer via 2 iOS devices or 1 iPad.)

//import libraries
import oscP5.*;
import netP5.*;
OscP5 oscP5;
import processing.serial.*;

//score
int cScore = 0;
int pScore = 0;

//direction start
int x_counter = 0;
int y_counter = 2;

//paddle global

float pY = 0.0f;
float p2Y = 0.0f;
//start points
float bX = 300.0f;
float bY = 200.0f;

//serial port
Serial myPort;

//ball speed
int h_speed = 15;
int m_speed = 5;
int l_speed = 0;

//iOS device control
void oscEvent(OscMessage theOscMessage)
{
String addr = theOscMessage.addrPattern();
float val = theOscMessage.get(0).floatValue();

if (addr.equals("/1/pY")) { pY = val * 250; }
if (addr.equals("/1/p2Y")) { p2Y = val * 250; }
//add more to use more devices

}
//setup
void setup()
{
  background(0);
  size(600,400);
  frameRate(55);
  myPort = new Serial(this, Serial.list()[0],9600);
  oscP5 = new OscP5(this, 8000);
  delay(2000);  
}

void draw()
{
  
  background(0);
 //centre line
  
  //basic setup
  background(0);
  smooth();
  fill(0);
  stroke(255);
  
  //ball
  fill(255);
  rect(bX,bY,10,10);
  
  //dotted lines
  for (int i = 0; i < 401; i = i++ + 10)
  {
   rect(300, i, 2, 2);
  }
  //main program
  
  //switching directon
  //right
  if (x_counter == 1)
  { bX = bX++ + h_speed; }
  //left
  else if (x_counter == 0)
  { bX = bX-- - h_speed; }
  
  //down
  if (y_counter == 1)
  { bY = bY-- - h_speed; }
  //up
  else if (y_counter == 0)
  { bY = bY++ + h_speed; }
  //central
  else if (y_counter == 2)
  { bY = 200; }
  
  //bounce from paddle
  if (bX == 15)
  { 
    if((bY >= pY - 5) && (bY <= pY + 150))
    { 
      x_counter = 1;
      if ((bY >= pY - 5) && (bY <= pY + 50))
      { y_counter = 1; }
      
      else if ((bY >= pY + 100) && (bY <= pY + 150))
      {y_counter = 0;}
    }
    else
    { x_counter = 0; }
  }
  else if (bX < 0) 
    { 
      bY = 200;
      bX = 300;
      cScore = cScore +1;
    }
  
   if (bY <= 15)
    {
      y_counter = 0;
    }
    else if (bY >= 385)
    {
      y_counter  = 1;
    }
  //bounce from sides and roof
  
  else if (bX == 585)
  { 
    //2 player 
     if((bY >= p2Y - 5) && (bY <= p2Y + 150))
    { 
      x_counter = 0;
      if ((bY >= p2Y - 5) && (bY <= p2Y + 50))
      { y_counter = 0; }
      
      else if ((bY >= p2Y + 100) && (bY <= p2Y + 150))
      {y_counter = 1;}
    
    /* 1 player
    x_counter = 0; 
    if ((bY >= p2Y) && (bY <= p2Y + 150) && (bX >= 585))
      { y_counter = 1; }
   
      
    else if ((bY >= pY + 100) && (bY <= pY + 150))
    {y_counter = 0;}*/
}

  }
  else if(bX >= 599)
  {
    y_counter = 0;
    bY = 200;
    bX = 300;
    pScore = pScore + 1;
  }
  
  //text
  fill(255);
  textSize(32);
  text(pScore, 265,50);
  text(cScore, 320, 50);
  
  //Player side
  rect(0, pY, 10, 150);
  
  //Player2 side
  rect(590, p2Y, 10, 150);
  }

RGB LED Colour Processing

Wed, 08 Sep 2010 00:21:00 +0100

Today I decided to play with the iPad, Arduino and Processing a little bit more. Ever since I received my RGB LED’s in the post, I’ve been wanting to buy some sliders to wire up and mix the colours, I could honestly spend a very long time just mixing up the colours - I find it very soothing! Well since I’ve been playing about with the iPad controls on TouchOSC just lately I thought I’d use the slider interfaces to do the same thing, I posted a small video demo.

Video

Arduino, TouchOSC, Processing, RGB LED from Curt Walker on Vimeo.

This sort of thing is a great little project for first time Arduinoers that was to make something cool and interactive. (There is no reason you couldn’t use an iPhone or iPod Touch to do the same thing, you would just need TouchOSC installed on your iOS enabled device). I will get around to posting the code and circuit diagram.

Breadboard Diagram

Arduino Code

// Output
int redPin   = 9;   // Red LED,   connected to digital pin 9
int greenPin = 10;  // Green LED, connected to digital pin 10
int bluePin  = 11;  // Blue LED,  connected to digital pin 11


long int inByte; 
int wait = 10; //10ms

void setup()
{
  pinMode(redPin,   OUTPUT);   // sets the pins as output
  pinMode(greenPin, OUTPUT);   
  pinMode(bluePin,  OUTPUT);
  Serial.begin(9600); 
}

//This function uses 255 - because I am using Common Anode LEDs, if you are using Common Cathode, remove the 255-
void outputColour(int red, int green, int blue) 
{
  analogWrite(redPin, 255 - red);
  analogWrite(bluePin, 255 - blue);
  analogWrite(greenPin, 255 - green);    
}


int* getColour() 
  {
    int* colour;
    int i;
    i = 0;
    while (i  0) {
        colour[i] = Serial.read();
        i++;
      }
  }
  return colour;
}

// Main program
void loop()
{
  if (Serial.available() > 0) 
  {
    // get incoming byte:
    inByte = Serial.read();
    
    if (inByte == 'C')
      {
        int* one;
        one =  getColour();
        outputColour(one[1],one[2],one[3]);
      } 
  }
  
  delay(wait);
}

Processing Code

import oscP5.*;
import netP5.*;
OscP5 oscP5;
import processing.serial.*;
Serial myPort;
float R = 0.0f;
float G = 0.0f;
float B = 0.0f;
void setup()
{
  size(800,600);
  frameRate(55);
  myPort = new Serial(this, Serial.list()[0],9600);
  oscP5 = new OscP5(this, 8000);
}

void oscEvent(OscMessage theOscMessage)
{
String addr = theOscMessage.addrPattern();
float val = theOscMessage.get(0).floatValue();

if (addr.equals("/1/r")) { R = val * 255; }
else if (addr.equals("/1/g")) { G = val * 255; }
else if (addr.equals("/1/b")) { B = val * 255; }
}

void draw()
{
  background(255);
  int int_R = (int)R;
  int int_G = (int)G;
  int int_B = (int)B;
  
  myPort.write("CL");
  myPort.write(int(int_R));
  myPort.write(int(int_G));
  myPort.write(int(int_B));
  background(int_R, int_G, int_B);
  
  //You can uncomment the code below, prints output to console
/*  
  print(" Red: " + int_R);
  print(" Green: " + int_G);
  print(" Blue: " + int_B);
  println(" ");
  
  */
}

Processing, TouchOSC, iPad

Sat, 04 Sep 2010 14:05:00 +0100

I’ve recently started to play with TouchOSC on the iPad and Processing. I’ve written a small processing program that will track the output from the XY Pad Module on the iPad and plot it on the desktop application over a WiFi network.

TouchOSC Setup

These are what the settings on your iOS device should look like. This will work with the iPad and iPhone but the example in this post is on the iPad.

Video Demo

Demo XY Pad - TouchOSC, iPad, Processing from Curt Walker on Vimeo.

Resources

TouchOSC Processing

Processing Code:

import processing.serial.*;
import oscP5.*;
import netP5.*;
OscP5 oscP5;

float x = 0.0f;
float y = 0.0f;
void setup()
{
  size(835, 610);
  frameRate(25);
  oscP5 = new OscP5(this, 8000);
}

void oscEvent(OscMessage theOscMessage)
{
String addr = theOscMessage.addrPattern();
float y_val = theOscMessage.get(0).floatValue();
float x_val = theOscMessage.get(1).floatValue();

if (addr.equals("/1/xy1")) { x = x_val; y = y_val; }

println("Co-ords: " + theOscMessage.get(1).floatValue() + theOscMessage.get(0).floatValue());
}

void draw()
{
  background(0);
  smooth();
  fill(0);
  strokeWeight(3);
  stroke(255,255,0);

  //inner rectangle
  rect(1, 1, 832,544);
  fill(255,255,0);
  stroke(255,255,0);
  strokeWeight(1);

  //verticle line
  line(0, y*545, 835, y*545);
  //horizontal line
  line(x*835,0,x*835,545);
  fill(255,255,0);
  stroke(255,255,0);
  
  //stats
  fill(50,50,50);
  stroke(200,200,200);
  rect(1,559,834,50);
  fill(255);
  text("y " + y*545, 445, 590);
  text(" , " , 535, 590);
  text("x " + x*835, 555, 590);

   //Direction
  text("Direction: ", 650 ,590);
  if(x*835 <= 417.5){ text("Left", 720, 590); }
  else { text("Right", 720, 590); }

}

iPad / TouchOSC / Processing / Arduino / Other Stuff

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 21:45:00 +0100

So, I’ve not got around to posting since forever. I’ve not really been up to much to be honest.

Yesterday a friend and I (Tim) went to Nottinghack / HS NOTTS for the first time. It was a really good night, and everyone was super friendly. There are a lot of cool projects that other members brought with them, my favourite being the iPhone / Nunchuck controlled tank.

When I saw the application that was controlling the tank from the phone, I was really interested in using the same sort of thing to control my own projects via the iPhone and iPad. I found out that it was made possible by using TouchOSC and the Processing language. Today I started to play around with simple concepts such as moving objects on screen using the and moving a small servo with the iPad.

Here are some videos:

Moving a small Servo:

iPad & Small Servo from Curt Walker on Vimeo.

Servo & AR:

iPad + TouchOSC + Processing + AR from Curt Walker on Vimeo.

I’ll soon have a video of moving objects with the iPad that exist within Processing applets.

My mate and I!

Thu, 22 Jul 2010 12:13:20 +0100

My mate and I!

Urgh.

Sat, 17 Jul 2010 15:12:14 +0100

So I don’t really get around to posting as frequently as I’d like. Most of the time I don’t really feel i have much to write about.

Quite a bit is happening in the tech world just lately, and a lot of the attention is looming on the iPhone 4 and it antenna ‘flaw’. It always seems that if there is anything at all available to pick at Apple, people will. Even at the smallest of things. Now I’m not saying that these sorts of things should happen, because if you’re paying £500 for a handset you expect it to be perfect. Personally I’ve not had any problems with the reception on my iPhone 4.

I’ve seen a lot of people lately slating Apple as a company, slating their products and slating their operating system. The people I’m talking about are people who don’t own apple products and don’t use their operating systems. So i ask myself 2 things:

Without using one of their products on a day to day basis, how can these people even begin to fault these devices?

Why should the care?

The second question i find to be most important. Why on earth should they care, i can understand if you’re one of the unlucky customers who bought an iPhone 4 and you’re experiencing dropped calls, because i know i would be a little miffed after shelling out the money on a handset if you’re not going to get a reliable service out of it but for the others who own different phones, to keep on calling the device a failure and ripping into Apple, I can’t see a reason.

iPhone 4 / iOS4

Thu, 24 Jun 2010 14:08:23 +0100

This morning was the earliest I’d been up in a long while. Last night I couldn’t sleep so I ended up only getting around 4 hours worth.

I waited in line for around 4 hours to pick up my brand new iPhone 4. I am so pleased with it. It was worth the early start and huge queue, I was only 11th in the queue!

The FaceTime function is pretty sweet, I was kind of expecting slow and pixelated video quality, but I’ve just had a play and it’s very nice indeed.

Pic to follow!

Project & Ideas

Wed, 16 Jun 2010 00:56:55 +0100

Well, yesterday I started to code a small idea I’ve been kicking around for a while. On a recent project for a client I was trying to find a simple solution: An easy to use, content managed gallery that I could install for said client and have them upload / delete and rename files. That’s all I needed. I searched and searched the web for a solution but everything was over-complicated so I decided to code my own.

Now, my PHP skills are no where near perfect but last night I got all the basic functions working in a couple of hours. It’s a really simple but effective way for users to manage their images gallery on their web pages. Once I have a better version and I’ve cleaned up my code I’ll post it as a download for people to test.

I’m glad to have a project to work on over the summer now that I’m done with uni until September.

Boredom is setting in.

Thu, 10 Jun 2010 01:56:53 +0100

It’s 1.48am and I’m still up. I have nothing to be up for but it seems I’m up just for the sake of being awake.

Since finishing uni and having nothing to do, I seem to be getting very crap at going to be at sensible times. 2am seems to be the normal sort of time I’m getting to bed at the moment and i hate it because i feel so crap in the mornings.

Today however i have been less bored because I’ve just finished the bare bones of a gallery script I’m working on. I’ve also got to put the first ‘draft’ if you like to test on a clients site. I’m thinking about developing this more and creating a free app for people to use on their own projects. Early days yet though.

Tomorrow i have nothing planned, which sucks. I might possibly see if i can meet a friend on his lunch break, then head to town and grab a coffee whilst doing some rough wireframes for the UI of the project I mentioned earlier. Who knows. Then I’ll head over to pick Em up from the station at 6pm.

I also need to go register at the new doctors surgery and get my arm looked at again. It’s been over 5 weeks now since I gave blood and the needle messed up my vein and it still feels hardly better.

That is all.

Ps. The auto full-stop thing is really annoying.

iPad!

Fri, 28 May 2010 17:57:00 +0100

Right now I am typing this on my iPad! It’s amazing and i am so glad that i went out at 7.30am this morning to purchase it. I’m currently using the iPhone tumblr app to type this on and have just scaled it up. I can’t wait to see what ipad app they roll out. It’ll be awesome I’m sure! I will add a picture with my new toy later on!

EDIT

PICTURE!

Little update.

Wed, 26 May 2010 20:52:47 +0100

So today I received my new glasses (finally!) and I am super pleased with them. I can finally read small text from across the room again, the only thing is it’s taking a while to get used to them but it did with my others so I hope within a day or 2 my headaches will clear up.

Today I made the decision to grab an iPad on Friday morning. I found that Square in Derby are opening early (8.30am) and selling them on a first come first served basis. I’m hoping to have a play before I purchase, so I’ll be outside from around 7am.

It’s going to be great to have the large screen available to watch something on the way to Hull on Saturday!

Freedom & Other Stuff

Mon, 17 May 2010 17:52:43 +0100

That’s it, it’s all done. My first year at the University of Derby is complete, the week following my last day was used to catch up on the huge lack of sleep I’ve had in the past couple of weeks, I really needed it!

The night/morning before deadline day I was up finishing up / preparing my work for print. I handed everything and then checked my prints on the laptop again, only to notice I had a layer turned off when I converted to PDF. FML. I’ll just have to see what I end up with, even so I am really quite angry at myself.

Today I purchased new glasses (finally!) after having my eye test 8 months ago, I have finally got around to getting new glasses, they’re nice and I have got 2 of the same pair, just in different colours because they were on buy on get one free. Super pleased.

I’ve started to write the code for a small Arduino project I’m working on (for Windows only at the moment) but I’ll be working on this properly in a couple of weeks time when I have all the time in the world to plan, write and test the code properly.

I’m also planning to start designing a new website for myself. Just a simple one where I can blog and share photos, and bits of code. Possibly some uni work. Thinking about using SquareSpace, just because I really can’t be bothered with the whole design process, because I don’t enjoy it anymore.

I’ve also really want to re-arrange my workspace. I’ve been looking at a couple of 23” Acer external displays and a ViBook USB graphics adapter to allow me to run 2 external displays from my MacBook Pro, and also from the Windows machine I sometimes use to run Visual Studio for University work. I also want to get some nice lighting and a plant.

Motivation and the lack of it. + Other stuff.

Fri, 16 Apr 2010 01:52:00 +0100

Today I had planned to get a decent amount of work done for uni. It hasn’t happened. I got a little bit done, and I mean a little. I have been hitting brick walls all day when i’ve been anywhere close to doing anything creative.

Mainly my day consisted of, getting ip at 9am, grabbing breakfast in town with uni people at Standing Order, heading to uni, coming right back because I just wasn’t in the mood, sitting around and writing small bits of code that will never amount to anything, creating database tables in access.

There’s my day. I’ve been tired for the most-part and now when I should be going to sleep, I feel as though I should be doing something rather than sleeping (hence the post). One good thing did come out of this evening though - I re-discovered my love for Rhapsody, they’re such an amazing band.

I may stay up for a couple hours and get some forms built for my database driven application, or I might just do what I been doing all day, which is practically nothing. I get quite angry at myself when I haven’t really done much, it’s just super hard when I have no creative energy whatsoever.

On another note this weekend should be full of megaepicness (yeah it’s a word, i promise). It’s Em’s (late) birthday party and we’re heading out for fancy dress bowling in Manchester. My costume is going to pwn all others, I promise. I’ll post pictures.

For the past couple of months I’ve been wanting to find a meetup for likeminded people that I can attend every so often, but to no avail. I’m still on the lookout but I found a group of people that meet and tinker with stuff, the group is called Nottinghack and I’m considering popping over to their next meet on the 28th, depending on what my workload is like during the week.

I’ve also been trying super hard to find a specific website my lecturer has mentioned once before, whereby you can find problems that are solvable by code, you solve the problem and post your solution. It’s times like these that I need to sink my teeth in to some sort of problem to get me out of this motivationless mindset that I seem to be in, that being said it doesn’t happen all too often (thank god).

The iPad was released last week and it’s very exciting! I was all set on grabbing the 16gb WiFi version when it was supposed to be released over here in the UK in late April (rumours said 24th) but due to large demand over in USA, we’ve got to wait another freakin’ month! I felt so let down! I am so looking forward to getting my hands on one though, and I’m also looking to upgrade my MacBook Pro as soon as possible, as the weight of the previous generation I’m currently lugging around is just about killing my upper back, plus with the new core i5 and core i7 processor upgrades, I’d be crazy not to, right?!

Long time since last update.

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 00:50:00 +0000

Well, I’m currently all blurry eyed because I had a 9am-9pm at uni today, which totalled out at about 6 looking square eyed into the monitors in B302 writing C# classes I should have written a long time ago - I always seem to leave Software Development until everything else is done, mainly because I don’t normally have too much problems with it.

Anyhow. Tomorrow I will be given my assignment for Software Development II, I’m kind of looking forward to it to be honest, it should be a nice challenge, just a bit nervous for the NUnit tests I’m 99% certain we’ll have to carry out, but I suppose I’ve got 7 weeks to get the application perfect before I hand it in. Along with everything else.

I honestly didn’t think that having just 1 extra module would be that bad this semester but it sure as hell has made a difference. I seem to be panicking a lot more at the moment, because I know I’ve got a shed load of work on at the moment, but I’m certain I’ll have it all done and handed in on time, and hopefully receive the same sort of grades as I did last semester (A, A-, B, B+) - so pleased.

At the moment I’m working on 2 of the bigger projects I’ve been tasked with whilst being at uni, Database Design and a Website Analysis and re-design, now I need to get cracking with my database assignment next week, I’ve added everything to my to-do list, now I just need to um..do it. Yes. The re-design also includes a wordlimitless report to analyse the existing site and explain how to resolve issues - I’ve actually really enjoyed doing this and I’m near completing this task (phew! one to clean off of the list!)

Internet for Business is chugging along, have a report due in on the 26th - Oof week tomorrow, but I’m sure I can sort that out on Monday whilst I am in the chester of Manc. It’s actually pretty much the same as my Client-Side Web Development report, but about a bigger and established business website. Can’t really say I’ve learned much more than how much the UK uses their internet connections in this module - who knows, that may come in useful some day.

I’d better get some shuteye asI’ll be back in the labs in 9 hours. Awesome ;) Fridays are the bestest!

Snowboarding

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 12:27:32 +0000

Well, last Saturday (27th) was the first time we’d been boarding, with the exception of the park when it snowed, since last year.

It was amazing to get back on the slope! I am totally in love with the Chillfactore slope in Manchester. The snow always seems to be just right.

The most fun I had was the Slalom. I’d never tried anything like that before and it was pretty awesome.

I have a video I’ll post later.

Grades

Tue, 16 Feb 2010 12:22:00 +0000

Today is the day we’re supposed to get our grades back for our first semester. I was particularly looking forward to getting my Software Development I grade back as I really liked the module.

I got an A! I’m so pleased with what I got and I am looking forward to getting my feedback and seeing where I could have improved a bit. I already have an idea.

I’m looking forward to getting the rest of my grades back, Computer Networks in particular.

I’ll keep this updated when I know more!

UPDATE

Last Friday I received my Computer Networks grade and I am pleased to have received an A- for my report and exam. I’m really happy with the grades I’ve got so far.

GUI Applications in C#

Fri, 12 Feb 2010 17:55:18 +0000

Today we had our 3rd tutorial this semester for Software Development II. I’m so stoked to be finally creating something with an interface.

Ok, so were just coding simple form applications and stuff but it’s great to be making something that now feels worth while!

I’ll start posting images and possible small applications that I build.

Cancelled Lectures.

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 19:26:00 +0000

At the start of this semester, I was really looking forward to my Internet for Business module. At the time of writing, I’ve had 6 lectures/practicals cancelled, this means i’ve not yet had any form of taught lesson in 3 weeks. Nothing at all.

I really wanted to be on target with all of my work this semester, not that I did a bad job last semester, but I can’t if I don’t know what I’m doing..

EDIT

Today I found out that the lecturer that is supposed to be teaching the class is very ill and won’t be back for at least a month. They’re working on finding a replacement.

Stepping into the world of Object-Oriented Programming with C#

Wed, 03 Feb 2010 15:31:00 +0000

At the beginning of this semester I knew that I’d have to learn an entire new language for the module I was taking. I spent the whole of last semester learning and using Python to create console based programs and I’ve also been using it to do some mini projects with my Arduino.

I had done a fair bit of C# over the Christmas break and I’m now almost at the same stage as I am with Python. I’m able to create basic functional console based programs.

This semester, it starts to get fun! We’ve just started to learn about Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) and how it can benefit the programs you write, and I must say, once you get your head around the basic principals of OOP, it is so damn useful! Being able to use classes within a program you write and not have to modify the base program is great.

I’m really looking forward to developing this further and getting to create some GUI based applications later on in the module.