Adobe AIR 3.2

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Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR) is a cross-platform runtime environment developed by Adobe Systems for building Rich Internet Applications (RIA) using Adobe Flash, Adobe Flex, HTML, CSS and Javascript, that can be run as desktop applications or on mobiles, including iOS devices.

Adobe AIR requires applications to be packaged, digitally signed, and installed on the user’s local file system. This provides access to local storage and file systems, while browser-deployed applications are more limited in where and how data can be accessed and stored. Adobe AIR internally uses Adobe Flash Player as the runtime environment, and ActionScript 3 as the sole programming language. Flash applications must specifically be built for the Adobe AIR runtime in order to utilize the additional features provided.

Adobe AIR 1.0 was released on February 25, 2008, after a public pre-release in 2007. Adobe Air 3.2 was released on March 28 2012, it’s the first version supporting Stage3D on iOS devives.

Stage3D in Flash

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Adobe Flash Player 11 introduced a new architecture for hardware-accelerated graphics (processed by GPU = graphics processing unit) rendering called Stage3D (codename Molehill). This set of 3D APIs brings 3D to the Adobe Flash Platform. The book Adobe Flash Player 11 Stage3D (Molehill) Game Programming Beginner’s Guide, written by Christer Kaitila, shows you how to make your very own next-generation 3D games in Flash. Christer Kaitila is the curator of a popular news website called www.videogamecoder.com which syndicates news from hundreds of other game developer blogs.

The following frameworks and libraries are available for Stage3D :

Flare3D Studio and Mixamo’s online animation service have been integrated into a smooth workflow, allowing Flash developers to easily leverage the Stage 3D API and its capabilities. Stage3D content can be embedded in AIR 3.2 to deploy applications on mobiles, including iOS devices.

The Stage3D API includes a low level shading language, called AGAL (Adobe Graphics Assembly Language). Shaders are programs that run on the GPU (Graphics Processing Unit).

Tutorials and additional informations about Stage3D and related frameworks are listed below :

David and Nextengine 3D Scanners

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DAVID Laserscanner Software

DAVID-laserscanner is a very low-cost system for contact-free scanning of 3d objects. The only hardware requirements are a simple commercial hand-held laser and a standard camera.

A free edition of the David Laserscanner (current version 3.2.0.2830 released on March 2, 2012), with limited saving,  including a trial version of the David Shapefusion software, is available at the website. The unlimited pro-version costs 329 EUR. DAVID-Shapefusion is more than just an ordinary stitching tool, it allows a convenient alignment and combination of 3D scans from different viewing directions.

The David-Laserscanner website provides a download, gallery, forum, wiki, FAQ, references an user guide section. The lasershop offers cameras, lasers, software and accessories, from a starterkit (499 EUR) up to a structured light kit (1773,10 EUR).

A comparison of the David – Laserscanner with the worlds most popular 3D scanner, the NextEngine priced at 2.995 US $, was done in 2009 in the David – Laserscanner forum. In the meantime the speed of the David – Laserscanner has been increased with the structured light solution.

 

ReconstructMe 3D Scanner and Youworld

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Last update : May 29, 2012

Youworld by Mark Florquin ; rendered 3D scans of family and friends ; 18 May 2012

ReconstructMe is an intuitive 3D realtime reconstruction system offering unique features :

  • Multiple 3D sensor support (Microsoft Kinect, ASUS Xtion Pro Live
  • Offline reconstruction from existing file streams
  • Resuming reconstructions at any point in time
  • Surface export to common 3D file formats such as .stl or .obj

ReconstructMe is free for non-commercial use and is being developed and maintained by enthusiastic software engineers at PROFACTOR GmbH. The initiator of ReconstructMe and one of its main contributors is Christoph Heindl who owns the personal blog cheind.wordpress.com.

There are countless applications of the ReconstructMe technology, such as scanning objects to duplicate with a 3D printer, importing yourself into a video game, …

The official ReconstructMe Homepage launched in january 2012 has a blog, download, help, media, purchase and legal section to provide all necessary informations to start using this outstanding technology. The current version of the software is 0.6.0-405 released end May 2012. The commercial version was launched on May 29, 2012; the price for a single seat license is 360 EUR.

Mark Florquin, a photographer from Belgium, is the first artist to use the Kinect & ReconstructMe technology to scan his family and friends and to render photos of these 3D models. He created an own world (Youworld)  to publish the results on his website.

Windows folders, junctions and libraries

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Microsoft first introduced the My Documents folder in Windows 95 OEM Service Release 2, as a standard location for storing user-created files. The folder was displayed on the user’s desktop, but located under the root of the hard drive where Windows was installed. In Microsoft 98 the special folders My Music and My Pictures were added, later the My Videos folder by installing the Windows Media Player 10 or 11.

In Windows XP the “My Documents folder” was set up in the user’s profile directory \Documents and Settings\[user name]\My Documents\ (alias %USERPROFILE%\My Documents\. as a special folder, which is presented to the user through an interface as an abstract concept, instead of an absolute folder path. This makes it possible for an application to ask the operating system where an appropriate location for certain kinds of files can be found, regardless of what version or language of operating system is being used.

The same was true for My Music, My Pictures and My Videos.

Windows Vista renamed the “My XXX folders” simply as “Documents, Music, Pictures, Videos” and moved them under the user’s profile directory (C:\Users\[user name]\ alias %USERPROFILE%\). To enable backward operability (compatibility) with legacy applications, the concept of NTFS junction points was introduced. A junction folder is a sort of shortcut and displayed with an curved arrow in the icon. When clicking on a junction folder in Windows Explorer, an “Acces denied” message is usually displayed.

Windows 7 keeped the same location and mecanisms, but reintroduced the “My” prefix in the user’s profile directory. Windows 7 launched also the concept of libraries to make it easier to find, work with, and organize files scattered across a PC or a network. Libraries are user-defined collections of content. To assemble a photo album for example, snapshots can be saved physically in different locations, but with a library they show up in a single window.

Windows 7 comes with one main library called “Libraries”, containing four default libraries : documents, music, pictures, and videos. They can be extended, customized and shared with others with just a few clicks. Up to 50 folders can be included in one library. Every library has a default save location. Each library contains two physical file locations, the user’s personal folder(s) and the public folder. Only locations that are indexed by Windows 7 can be added to a library.

A library consists of the following parts :

  • General library information
  • Library properties
  • Library locations

More informations about folders, junctions and libraries are available at the following links :

Text (term, word, tag) Clouds

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Examples of tag clouds

A text, term, word or tag cloud, also called a weighted list in visual design, is a representation for text data to show the most prominent terms and their relative prominence. These clouds are typically used to depict keyword metadata (tags) on websites. The importance of each tag is shown with font size or color.

When used as website navigation aids, the terms are hyperlinked to items associated with the tag. Compared to conventional navigation, tag clouds can provide visitors with an instant illustration of the main topics, giving a very specific and precise orientation of the site’s content. Examples and good practice for tag clouds, with a gallery, have been published in 2007 by Vitaly Friedman, editor-in-chief of the Smashing Magazine.

There is a number of on-line tools available which help designers to create tag clouds automatically. A few links are listed hereafter :

It’s also easy to generate hand-made tag clouds by creating the required number of css-classes and applying them to the HTML code.

Example :
CSS :

div {text-align:left; font-family:Arial; background-color:white; border: 1px solid silver}
.tag1 {color:red; font-size:12px}
.tag2 {color:blue; font-size:14px}
.tag3 {color:green; font-size:18px}

HTML:

<div>
<a href="url">Term ABC</a>
<a href="url">Term defgh</a>
<a href="url">Term 1234</a>
<a href="url">Term xyz xyz</a>
</div>

Additional informations and tools about tag clouds are available at the following links :

Sphero : a robotic ball and 3D controller

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Last update : November 30, 2013

Sphero by Orbotix

Sphero by Orbotix

Today I received my Sphero from Orbotix. Sphero is a smart robot inside an opaque, high-impact, waterproof polycarbonate shell. It’s charged with a cable-free induction charger. It glows in thousands of colors and can move (roll) up to 1 meter per second. Sphero connects with Bluetooth to iOS and Android tablets and smartphones.

The Sphero_Ball can be used as a game for adults, kids and pets or as an 3D controller for various applications. There are over 20 free apps and some paid apps available. A Full API and Mobile SDK for iOS and Android allows developers to create additional aps. I particularly enjoy to play Last Fish with the SpheroBall as 3D controller.

Last Fish

Last Fish

Orbotix was founded in 2010 by Ian Bernstein and Adam Wilson.

In August 2013, Orbotix launched Sphero 2 which is twice as fast, three times as brightly lit and much smarter than the first generation ball, which is now called Sphero Original. Sphero 2 is compatible with up to 25 different applications and games, along with the standard Sphero_App’s.

Sphero user guide

When the ball flashes red three times, his battery is low and he needs charging. The ball is charged by popping him with the heavy side down in the induction charger. To find his heavy side, place him on a hard surface like a table. Sphero will naturally settle with this sweet spot at the bottom. The charger will blink blue when charging begins. After about 3 hours, the blue light becomes solid and the ball is ready to roll. If the ball is awake when charging starts, he confirms the correct charging with a rainbow cycle of  colors before going to sleep..

A quick double shake of the Sphero wakes the ball up, setting its light show going – after which it will be available to connect over Bluetooth.The ball can be put to sleep with the basic Sphero app. It falls asleep when it is inactive during a few minutes.

You need to pair your device with the ball on Bluetooth in the settings before starting an iOS or Android app. When Sphero is paired with a device, it is not visible for other devices. You must unpair it with the current device, if you want to use it with another device. When the unpairing is not possible (for instance if the current device is not available), it’s necessary to reset Sphero by placing him in the charger and running a strong magnet around his circumference. A video demonstrates this technique.

Sphero Development

Orbotix supports developers by providing a blog, a forum, documentation, resources, official SDK’s (iOS, Android, Unity3D, Windows 8.1, Augmented Reality (AR), …) and unofficial SDK’s (Node, Arduino, Python, Ruby, …) on its Sphero Developer Center.

Links to additional informations about Sphero are listed below :

I updated my Sphero firmware  a first time on May 9, 2013 (software version 2.1.2 : firmware version 1.45; Bootloader version 1.7;  Sphero identifier : 00066644024C). A second update was done on November 30, 2013 with App version 3.1.21; firmware version is now 1.49.

DLNA Media Servers and Players

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Last update : March 12, 2013

The following list provides links to informations about DLNA media devices, especially Media Servers :

A list of additional media servers and client applications is available on Wikipedia which provides also a comparisons of UPnP AV media servers.

Apple developed its own proprietary streaming protocol stack/suite, called AirPlay, that is not compliant with DLNA. Another solution to stream multimedia files is based on the SMB/CIFS networking protocols, re-implementated with Samba to open windows to a wider world.

I recommend the Serviio DLNA server which I installed a week ago on my two Windows 7 desktops to replace Windows Media Players.

Internet Hall of Fame

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The Internet Hall of Fame is an annual awards program that has been established by the Internet Society in 2012 to celebrate it’s 20-year anniversary. The Internet Hall of Fame publicly recognize a distinguished and select group of visionaries, leaders and luminaries who have made significant contributions to the development and advancement of the global Internet.

The inductees are segmented in three groups : pioneers, global connectors and innovators. The Internet history revolves around four distinct aspects :

  • technological evolution (ARPANET and related technologies, current research about scaling, performance and higher-level functionalty)
  • operational aspects of a global and complex operational infrastructure
  • social aspects with a broad community of internauts working together to create and evolve the technology
  • commerzialisation aspects resulting in an extremely effective transition of reasearch results into a broadly deployed and available information infratsructure

The Internet Society convenes an Internet Hall of Fame Advisory Board of esteemed Internet industry professionals to vote on the annual inductees. Inaugural inductees were announced on April 23, 2012 at the Internet Society’s Global INET conference in Geneva, Switzerland.

The Internet Society is the trusted independent source for Internet information and thought leadership from around the world. With its principled vision and substantial technological foundation, the Internet Society promotes open dialogue on Internet policy, technology, and future development among users, companies, governments, and foundations. Working with its members and Chapters around the world, the Internet Society enables the continued evolution and growth of the Internet for everyone.

Windows Media Player DLNA Configuration

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Last update : June 17, 2012
A personal computer running Windows XP, Windows Vista or Windows 7 can be used as a DLNA certified media server simply by activating this capability in the Windows Media Player (WMP) 11 or above. Some tutorials how to configure the WMP are listed hereafter :

In the past the media server components, now integrated in the WMP, were called Windows Media Connect (WMV) or Home Media Ecosystem (HME). The Windows Media Center (WMC) includes a digital video recorder.

Late April 2012 I set up a DLNA system in my home network with a Fritz!Box Media Server and two Windows Media Players 12 running on Windows 7 personal computers.

Six weeks later I replaced the Windows Media Player system by the outstanding Serviio DLNA server. I disabled the Windows 7 Media Player Network Sharing Service (wmpnetwk) to avoid conflicts in media sharing and to speed up the system’s perfomance. A tutorial how to turn off wmpnetwk.exe is available on numerous websites.