July 1, 2009

The NETLab Toolkit is a free set of software tools that enable designers to easily “sketch in hardware”. With no programming at all and working in the familiar environment of Flash, designers can hook up a physical sensor (e.g. a knob) and immediately get that knob to control a motor or a video projection. The toolkit works with a wide range of sensors, wireless sensors, input from the Wii Remote, controls motors and LEDs, communicates with MIDI devices, controls sound, graphics, and video in Flash, and communicates with DMX computer controlled lighting equipment, all with a simple drag-and-drop interface (of course, programming hooks are provided as well).

June 22, 2009
Paul Lamere on procedural video remixing with the Echo Nest API

Cool demo of the Echo Nest remix API. (via Waxy.org)

June 16, 2009
Opera Unite: P2P in the Browser

Opera Unite is a collaborative technology that uses a compact server inside the Opera desktop browser to share data and services. You can write applications — in the form ofOpera Unite Services — that use this server to serve content to other Web users.

Why is this exciting? Well, it allows you to interact with contacts, sharing data and services without the need for any third-party Web sites/applications to be involved at all. Think of the possibilities:

  • You could play games and chat to your peers directly using the service
  • You could share photos and videos with peers, straight off your hard drive, without needing to use third-party Web applications
  • You can work collaboratively with others on files such as data and images (think wikis or drawing applications), and then work with those files offline if you wish, before sharing them again at a later date
  • You could even start creating some crazy hacks, like an application that controls a remote car across the Web (I’ve seen a rough prototype in action)

Itching to know more? Good. In this article I first present a tour of Opera Unite, with details of how to activate it, how to install a Opera Unite service, and how to use those services to collaborate with your friends and colleagues. If you want to find out more about developing your own Opera Unite Services, read our Opera Unite developer’s primer.

Doodle.js attempts to create a fun and easy way to interact with the Canvas that is lightweight, flexible, and functional. While it contains a few shape primitives it is not meant to be a full-fledged drawing api, rather a framework that allows you to build sprites and interact with them in an expressive way.

Doodle.js attempts to create a fun and easy way to interact with the Canvas that is lightweight, flexible, and functional. While it contains a few shape primitives it is not meant to be a full-fledged drawing api, rather a framework that allows you to build sprites and interact with them in an expressive way.

June 9, 2009
Watercoolr

pubsub via webhooks, or “twitter” for your applications 

June 5, 2009
Visual Programming Environments For Kids
The JavaScript InfoVis Toolkit provides tools for creating Interactive Data Visualizations for the Web.

The JavaScript InfoVis Toolkit provides tools for creating Interactive Data Visualizations for the Web.

May 28, 2009
WJ-S: mixing the web

WJ-S is a software and a flexible public device for web performances allowing WJ-S (webjays, artists, web addicts and web mutants) to play live with text, sound and visual content available on line. WJs take the control of a multiscreens environment and surf at distance in different browser windows simultaneously. WJ-S is a visible and collective experience of the surf. WJS is an immersive experience in the flux.

May 19, 2009
Share is an experiment in designing anetworked programming tool for distributed communities of practice. It is an IDE that automatically shares all the code you write with everyone else that is usingShare, as well as keeping track of how that code is used. Allowing you to see the network that grows around code you contribute, borrow, or just happen to be interested in.

Share is an experiment in designing anetworked programming tool for distributed communities of practice.

It is an IDE that automatically shares all the code you write with everyone else that is usingShare, as well as keeping track of how that code is used. Allowing you to see the network that grows around code you contribute, borrow, or just happen to be interested in.

May 12, 2009
Field is a software project initiated by OpenEnded Group, for the creation of their digital artworks. It is an environment for writing code to rapidly and experimentally assemble and explore algorithmic systems. It is visual, it is hybrid, it is code-based. We think that it has something to offer a diverse range of programmers and artists.

Field is a software project initiated by OpenEnded Group, for the creation of their digital artworks. It is an environment for writing code to rapidly and experimentally assemble and explore algorithmic systems. It is visual, it is hybrid, it is code-based. We think that it has something to offer a diverse range of programmers and artists.