My Leap Motion dev kit arrived in March. With excitement, I installed it on my new 27-inch iMac. I decided that this would be the time to take the "leap" into Objective-C and explore the mysteries of Xcode. I had planned to make a simple iPad app for my 2-year-old grandson, but this inspired me to change my plans.
Why not learn Objective-C to make a simple music/art/dance Leap Motion app for little ones? My progress so far? Slow. I updated Xcode. I installed the Leap Motion SDK. I updated the Leap Motion SDK. I played with the samples that came with the Leap Motion kit. When it came time for me to try something on my own, I thought I had everything set up in Xcode. I got error messages that I did not understand. My attempt to figure things out led me to the Stack Overflow website, and by then, I had to get back to my paperwork in order to prepare for the next work day. Today I realized that I missed the link about installing the Leap API docs for Objective-C in XCode. Other things needed to be updated, so at that point, I decided to write this post....
Reflection: After writing some code and making repeated errors, I realized how much I had let Microsoft take root in my head. Until 2003, the coding part of my brain was a pristine slate. It wasn't cluttered with bits and pieces previous coding languages.
Since I tend to be a knowledge junkie, my brain soaked up more than I needed when I was taking computer courses. If you could peek inside, you'd see C# code snippets for multi-touch and NUI, a few algorithms for A.I. and data visualization, trivia from MSDN, and images of the Visual Studio workspace. There would be odds and ends from VB.Net, JavaScript, ActionScript, CSS, Java, C++, and pseudocode for a variety of computational thought experiments. A lot of stuff, and for most of it, no place to go, except for an occasional technology dream.
What's ahead? In the short term, I'll be doing what I always do this time of year. For many school psychologists, the last couple of months of the school year is sort of like tax season for accountants. I have lots of students to see, lots of psychological evaluation reports to write, and meetings to attend. The paperwork will crowd up many evenings and weekends, but there is an end in sight. Summer. This will be my summer of code. I'll be in NYC for one week in June, attending the Interactive Design for Children conference (IDC 2013). Many of the workshops I'd like to attend will be held at the same time. Take a look at the program and you'll see why! I
Decisions to be made... Although I am pretty good at keeping a lid on my desire to design and code during my day-to-day life as a school psychologist, I'm finding that it is getting more difficult to ignore. I have some thinking to do. In the not too distant future, it is possible that I'll leap out of my K-12 cocoon. I don't think I'll leap too far, because I'd like to focus my work on projects that enhance the lives of children and families. I will ensure sure that some of my work will benefit people of all ages who have disabilities or encounter barriers in their lives.
SOMEWHAT RELATED
Joy of Computing, 1985
My daughter, who was just two years old in the above picture, returned to school to take computer courses after working in the non-profit arts management field. I'm happy about this, but I know that she'll face many hidden barriers when she starts working in a male-dominated environment. She is not alone.
I'm working on a future post about computer and technology-related careers. Things have changed rapidly over the past several years and there are many new ways to learn how to code, and over time, more opportunities for creative computational thinkers - male and female, to take the lead. In Google's Inner Circle, a Falling Number of Women Claire Cain Miller, NYT, 8/22/13
Pixel Press is an early stage video design platform that supports the creation of DIY video games, without requiring coding skills. The project was recently approved by Kickstarter, with an initial funding goal of $100,000.00. The first version targets the iPad.
Robin Rath, the creator of Pixel Press, was inspired by his memories of creating his own drawings for games when he was a kid in the 1980's, and it shows. Pixel Press might appeal to gamers across generations, and looks suitable for use in school settings.
According to the Pixel Press website, there are just a few things to learn in order to create a basic video game within the Pixel Press environment, making it an ideal activity for kids and others aspiring game designers:
"You are designing five floors of a video game level. Your hero will start at the bottom and attempt to overcome the obstacles you create to reach the elevator at the end of each floor to advance up to the next floor. Your objective is to create a five floor level that is progressively more challenging from top to bottom."
Pixel Press: Draw your own video game Pixel Press: Draw Your Own Video Game from Robin Rath on Vimeo.
The video below provides an overview/tutorial of how it works:
A team from Cornell's Creative Machines Lab have been researching simulations of evolutionary robots, and as a result, have come up with an entertaining video of what they've discovered so far. According to the project's website, the work was inspired by developmental biology, to use evolutionary algorithms as a tool to develop locomotion. The following description of the video was quoted from Jeff Clune's YouTube site: "Here we evolve the bodies of soft robots made of multiple materials (muscle, bone, & support tissue) to move quickly. Evolution produces a diverse array of fun, wacky, interesting, but ultimately functional soft robots. "
LEAP Motion + Google Earth Meg, from PO-MO, has a LEAP Motion developer kit. Earlier this week, LEAP Motion provided support for Google Earth integration, and asked developers to submit videos of their experiments. I like the Superwoman theme of this video!
I have the Leap Motion dev kit and can't wait until I can use it with Google Earth. Hopefully I'll find time tonight after I get home from work! For now, here is the promotional video:
Fun with Early Math: App by Chris O'Shea - Cowly Owl
Chris O'Shea is an artist and designer who uses technology in creative, playful ways. Over the past year or so, he's devoted some of his attention to designing engaging iPad apps and digital toys. Below is a video of his Little Digits app in action:
Little Digits from Cowly Owl on Vimeo. Here is the information from the Vimeo site: "Little Digits is a fun educational app that teaches children about numbers by putting a new spin on finger counting. Using the iPad multi-touch screen, Little Digits displays number characters by detecting how many fingers you put down. Children can learn to associate the number on the screen with the number of fingers they place down, whilst enjoying the unique characters and animations of the Little Digits world...They are also games that introduce small addition and subtraction calculations, where you can work out the answer using the same multi-touch finger detection."
I admit that sometimes I just don't have the time to hang out and watch interesting or quirky tech/future tech videos on the web. Here are a few that passed me by the first time around. Enjoy!
The first video for this post is of an interactive game installed permanently for children at the Royal London Hospital. Woodland Wiggle is a work commissioned by Vital Arts, in collaboration with Nexus Interactive Arts, Chris O'Shea, Felix Massie, and Brains & Hunch. The game was created in C++ using openFrameworks, and relies on an Xbox Kinect camera. The installation is part of play and garden spaces designed as healing environments for young patients. (See links in the "Related" section for more information.)
The next video is the creation of Igor Labutov, Jason Yosinski, and Hod Lipson, of the Cornell Creative Machines Lab. AI vs. AI: Two chatbots talking to each other
I liked this video because I once created a chatbox video game for an AI for Games class I took several years ago, and have fond memories of the hours I spent reading the textbook supporting the display on the right- Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach)
Tom Jenkins and Simon Sharp, of thetheory, created the following two video shorts. Address Is Approximate is a stop-motion video about a lonely desk toy who makes a journey across the US via Google Maps Street View. Speed of Light uses a pocket projector, a video feed, and creativity to create an augmented reality-like police-chase short. According to information from the Vimeo website, Speed of Light was filmed using a Cannon 5d Mkll + HD MiniCam, with MicroVision projectors. Address Is Approximate, from The Theory
