screenfashion http://screenfashion.org/ en Copyright 2008 Sun, 25 May 2008 21:19:07 +0100 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/ http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Old computer + old TFT + some Ruby = Fancy departures board display for my home :) As I live in Berlin and student tickets are cheap, I have no need for a car and use only public transport for getting from A to B. The only problem is that I can't remember the departure times of all those trains and buses... Saturday at about 5 p.m. I decided that I really needed a fancy, realtime-updated display with the departure times of the nearby bus and S-Bahn railway stations. A few hours of hacking later (and 15 minutes today for assembling) everything was finished :) Now I won't miss my trains anymore at the station. And if it's delayed, I won't be too early at the station for nothing (the departure times are also correctly updated in this case). Used tools: A milk-glass cabinet door from IKEA as table, An old G4 PowerBook, an old 15" TFT, (don't laugh) the MiniKidsGames framework (based on RubyCocoa), around 80 lines of Ruby code and some XML/XPath queries for parsing output from VBB online with the REXML library.]]> http://screenfashion.org/2008/05/old_computer_old_tft_some_ruby.html http://screenfashion.org/2008/05/old_computer_old_tft_some_ruby.html Stuff code hacking ruby rubycocoa Sun, 25 May 2008 21:19:07 +0100 Interview on laptoprockers.eu laptoprockers.eu is a hip tech blog aimed at digital music producers. They have published an interview with us. There you can find out more about the history of The Wiinstrument—and how it works :)]]> http://screenfashion.org/2008/01/interview_on_laptoprockerseu.html http://screenfashion.org/2008/01/interview_on_laptoprockerseu.html The Wiinstrument wiinstrument Mon, 14 Jan 2008 17:10:21 +0100 How to: Bluesoleil and The Wiinstrument on Windows Here is a guide for all Windows users that explains how to connect your Wiimote to the BlueSoleil stack to use it with The Wiinstrument. http://screenfashion.org/2007/11/how_to_use_bluesoleil_and_the.html http://screenfashion.org/2007/11/how_to_use_bluesoleil_and_the.html The Wiinstrument tobias wii wiinstrument midi guide windows bluetooth bluesoleil Thu, 29 Nov 2007 23:01:13 +0100 The Wiinstrument and OS X Leopard (New Release) Mac OS X Leopard, we've got a new release of The Wiinstrument for you.

Download The Wiinstrument 0.2b1151 for Intel macs with Leopard here.

Like the last Windows release, this version is an in-between release on the way to version 0.3, aimed at people who switched to MacOS X Leopard lately. It's not working on PowerPC processors, but the next release should work on PPC again. the_wiinstrument_on_leopard.png This build includes a new, experimental UI for the DrumStiicks (MIDI) mode, shown on the image above. Have fun with it! :) Sebastian / screenfashion.org Update: It seems that this version works only on Intel machines with Leopard installed. We're working on a fix, till then, try one of the old versions that are mentioned in the comments...]]> http://screenfashion.org/2007/11/the_wiinstrument_and_os_x_leop.html http://screenfashion.org/2007/11/the_wiinstrument_and_os_x_leop.html The Wiinstrument freeware release wii wiinstrument Fri, 23 Nov 2007 19:55:16 +0100 Wiimote drumming with your Windows PC: The Wiinstrument 0.2.1 Released

Good things come to those who wait.

Well, unfortunately it took us a lot more time to port "The Wiinstrument" to Windows than promised, but polishing the UI for the Microsoft OS required some extra work. Thanks to Sebastian, who has created some nifty bitmaps and UI changes. The Wiinstrument UI looks equally great on all platforms now. Credits fly also out to Julian, who has put some extra effort into a redesign of the Gosu library, which now supports OpenGL under Windows. The Wiinstrument 0.2.1 is an in-between release, so you'll get to experience some nice features originally planned for version 0.3 (see the changelog for more infos), but many of the really great things are still missing. Visit SourceForge and download the first Windows release of The Wiinstrument!]]> http://screenfashion.org/2007/11/first_wiinstrument_release_for_windows.html http://screenfashion.org/2007/11/first_wiinstrument_release_for_windows.html The Wiinstrument release tobias wiinstrument Tue, 13 Nov 2007 12:46:52 +0100 MoteDaemon integrates Wiimotes in your Flash app (OSX) WiiFlash API. Now, there's another possibility: MoteDaemon. motedaemon_0.5_screenshot.png MoteDaemon discovers Wii remotes in range, connects to them and listens on a TCP socket for incoming connections from your Flash/Flex application. When your application is connected, it instantly receives Wiimote motion and button data in a simple XML format. We decided to provide all sources and a little example Flash application for free. The XML parser is encapsulated in a little class, so it should really be straightforward to use. Have fun with it!

Download it

The application including sources is available as a ZIP archive on SourceForge.

How about WiiFlash app compatibility?

We've already contacted the WiiFlash team—as soon as we get a short documentation of their binary data format, we'll make MoteDaemon compatible to WiiFlash client applications so that they can also run on MacOS X.

Beta

The software is still in beta stage. If you find a bug, we'd be happy if you could report it to us by mail. Crash reports are most helpful when they contain a stack trace to find out where the application crashed exactly: Just include your ~/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/MoteDaemon.crash.log file in the report for this.]]> http://screenfashion.org/2007/09/motedaemon_05b_released.html http://screenfashion.org/2007/09/motedaemon_05b_released.html MoteDaemon Wed, 26 Sep 2007 11:04:34 +0100 The Wiinstrument 0.2 for Linux and Mac Hi, It's finally done. You can download the latest version of The Wiinstrument for Mac OS X and Linux as well as the C++ sources at SourceForge. The Linux version can be found here and the Mac OS X version here (the application) and here (source code as Xcode project folder). (Update: Release 0.2b745 fixes a bug and should now work on Intel macs!)]]> http://screenfashion.org/2007/09/the_wiinstrument_02_for_linux.html http://screenfashion.org/2007/09/the_wiinstrument_02_for_linux.html The Wiinstrument linux mac midi release sebastian tobias wii wiimote Tue, 18 Sep 2007 17:49:39 +0100 <![CDATA[Wii remote + Garageband = <3 (Howto)]]> GarageBand? No problem. Here's how you do it…]]> http://screenfashion.org/2007/09/wii_remote_garageband.html http://screenfashion.org/2007/09/wii_remote_garageband.html The Wiinstrument garageband midi wii wiinstrument Mon, 10 Sep 2007 09:40:58 +0100 We're back from IFA 2007 We are back from IFA 2007 fair in Berlin. We were not really prepared for the interest that The Wiinstrument has produced, but everything went very well—The software appears to be really stable once a Wii remote is connected. As I was forced to practice eight hours per day while demonstrating The Wiinstrument's capabilities, my rhythm skills seem to have really improved… :) Thanks to all visitors of our stand at IFA fair, your feedback is invaluable! If you have any further questions, feel free to ask. A release of version 0.2 for MacOS X, Linux and Windows will be available in a few days on this page. Meanwhile you could try the old 0.1 release (OSX only)… If you consider buying a Bluetooth dongle for connecting a Wii remote on Windows, please consult the WiiLi wiki first—some Bluetooth devices seem to be incompatible to Wii remotes. wiinstrument_at_ifa_2007.png External material The Wiinstrument as background music: Short video clip of cczwei (ex WDR computerclub) visiting IFA An interview with ‘Handelsblatt’ An interview with techvideoblog.com Some images of the event People from CCZwei filming Sebastian at The WiinstrumentInterview with German newspaper Handelsblatt An employee from Analog Devices (maker of the Wiimote's accelerometers) plays The WiinstrumentOur stand at IFA fair (Thanks to Robert, a fellow student at University of Potsdam, who took the photos) Bye, Sebastian and Tobias / screenfashion.org]]> http://screenfashion.org/2007/09/were_back_from_ifa_2007.html http://screenfashion.org/2007/09/were_back_from_ifa_2007.html The Wiinstrument wii wiinstrument Wed, 05 Sep 2007 20:06:37 +0100 The Wiinstrument Video on YouTube I'm not a drummer, but I think the instrument is real fun if you practice a bit. We're still working on 0.2 – expect a release soon! 0.2 will be released with the following features (among others): - Use pitch and roll rotation axes of Wii remote and Nunchuk as MIDI controllers - A better graphical frontend - a tiny sampler (load own WAV files into the Wiinstrument instead of a MIDI setup)]]> http://screenfashion.org/2007/07/the_wiinstrument_video_on_yout.html http://screenfashion.org/2007/07/the_wiinstrument_video_on_yout.html The Wiinstrument video wii wiinstrument youtube Sat, 28 Jul 2007 19:45:34 +0100 Wiinstrument Linux release up ahead Stay tuned! ;)]]> http://screenfashion.org/2007/06/linux_release_up_ahead.html http://screenfashion.org/2007/06/linux_release_up_ahead.html The Wiinstrument linux tobias wii wiinstrument Thu, 28 Jun 2007 11:34:03 +0100 A new way to control MIDI with your Wii remote Update: 0.1 is an old release. A newer one is available here: The Wiinstrument 0.2b713. Be also sure to check out our GarageBand+Wiinstrument tutorial!

Hi everybody.

Ever wanted to have a cheap external MIDI controller that's wireless? Or to play a groovy drum loop in your sequencer without having to set note delays manually? Then the following blog entry may be for you.

Having released the Wiinstrument on Breakpoint '07 in Bingen am Rhein, we decided to share a preliminary version of the software with you.

The configuration screen. The percussion mode screen.

The Wiinstrument is basically a MIDI instrument that is controlled by a connected Nintendo Wii remote (with a Nunchuk controller, if available). The controller is available separately and can be connected to your computer via Bluetooth.

It features:

  • A graphical interface with OpenGL graphics.
  • Two modes (with awful puns in their namings! \o/)
  • Percussion mode: Smack both controllers to trigger MIDI notes (with velocity recognition)
  • Keyboard mode: button presses are mapped directly to MIDI notes. Various scales (chromatic, blues, minor, major) are available so that you're even able to play melodies on it.
  • Open Source: It doesn't cost anything and everyone can implement new features!
  • It's designed to be portable, so it should be easy to port it onto other platforms like Linux or Windows.

Connect your Wii remote by pressing 1 and 2 simultaneously right after the program started.

Application examples:

  • Record groovy MIDI drum patterns directly in your software sequencer! (using a loopback MIDI device)
  • Control your MIDI compatible VJ or lighting setup with it!
  • Tape it onto your e-guitar and control your guitar effects hardware by tilting your guitar!
  • Use it for whatever you would use a hardware MIDI controller - but cheaper (a Wii remote costs about 40 EUR/USD)—and it's wireless :)

It's currently available for MacOS X 10.4.9—We're already porting it to Linux...

Known Issues:

  • The Wii remote may not always be recognized, as it identifies itself as Bluetooth HID device, but doesn't follow the HID specs. Apple's Bluetooth department seems to be working on making the Bluetooth implementation compatible to Wii remotes so that the OSX kernel driver doesn't try to make a concurrent connection to the Wii remote to an application. The result has been announced to be included in Leopard, so stay tuned :)
  • If you don't get a connection to the Wii remote when starting the Wiinstrument, don't panic: Just go to your Bluetooth system preferences, remove the connection to "RVL-CNT-01" manually and retry the connection (We're working on a simpler connection procedure...)
  • The graphical user interface is preliminary, a better looking one is in development.
  • Sometimes the MIDI output lags. We're working on a fix for that.
  • Mapping acceleration sensor axes to MIDI control change instruction isn't implemented yet.
  • If the application closes unexpectedly, please report it together with the content of your ~/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/The Wiinstrument.crash.log file so we can fix the problem.

Just download it and enjoy.

To connect it to your sequencer/sampler, start Apple's Audio/MIDI Setup tool (you can find it in the Utilities subfolder of your Applications folder), activate the IAC device (Apple's loopback MIDI device) and drag it to the first place of the shown device list. You'll see a new IAC MIDI input device in your sequencer then.

Any comments and reports are appreciated :) If you have a problem that's not addressed in the known issues above, please write us which platform you are working on.

Additional credits go to: survivor/screenfashion for the Gosu library. Hiroaki for the Darwiin Remote framework. Tobias Moebert for porting the application to Linux. The PortMidi and Boost library staff. Rest of the Breakpoint '07 staff for the wonderful party. Bye .o/ [Update on Apr 16, 2007] Linked 0.1.1 (bugfix release).]]> http://screenfashion.org/2007/04/the_wiinstrument.html http://screenfashion.org/2007/04/the_wiinstrument.html The Wiinstrument julian midi release sebastian wii wiinstrument Sun, 08 Apr 2007 18:15:07 +0100