Tag: hid
thunderzipper
by Jon on Dec.17, 2011, under Interface, Technology
I’ve been working on a protocol for communicating with many generic devices easily. Much there is that I can say about it, but it’s still fairly early prototype. I already incorporated some work from linmctool. With it, some glue, and carefully setup systems, I have been able to write a simple thunderzipper client that functions as a basic DMX light board – controlled exclusively with a PS3 controller.
It’s still quite an early prototype – and all the settings are hardcoded – but it’s still functional and a optimistic proof-of-concept of what I can do with this protocol.
I need to get work on my main “glue” application that routes everything thunderzipper.
In other news, I just pushed a commit that makes basic WiiMote buttons available and functional. (And without the need for a scan utility or setup.)
Photoshopping Faster: Using Your Feet
by Jon on Mar.08, 2009, under Interface, Technology
You know what they say: Use your head.
I got a better idea: Use your feet.
I originally built my foot interface for MIDI/gaming applications but I found another great application: image editing.
I was going about filling around some lines with colors in The GIMP, and as I was working I thought, Hey, I keep switching back and forth between the paint tool and the eraser tool pretty often. When I had to switch I either needed to skim through the giant tool pallet to find my new tool, or laboriously, lift my head and chin from my left hand so I could press the appropriate keyboard shortcut. It got old, but then I thought: Hey, I’ll just use my feet.
So I fired up my AutoHotkey editing skillz and bound a couple of buttons on my foot controller to the paint and erase tools (or rather the keyboard shortcuts for them). Viola! Instant speedup.
Now I can waste away my life painting away at pointless things much more quickly!
Also, I bound another couple buttons to undo/redo to help speed up fixing my mistakes. Now I just need to figure out how to make the tools pressure sensitive using the foot pedals . . .
Edit: I also set Page Up/Page Down to buttons. Imagine how convenient it is for me to just lean back and read something long, hands free!