[REBOL] Re: rebol and kiosk systems embedding ...
From: jason:cunliffe:verizon at: 12-Oct-2002 18:54
Petr Krenzelok wrote:
> OK, I know flash is the option - the problem is that I don't have
> designer fluent at Flash right now. Anyway, thanks for the tip. OTOH I
I'm available if you are interested..
> think that flash is overhyped, well - that's just me :-) If I would use
> something for really cool presentations - I would go with Scala. One has
> to see it first to believe it - viva old good Amiga days :-) You can
> learn Scala in few hours to do basic stuff, all scripts are just that -
> editable scripts, etc.
I remember Scala - ran it on Amiga4000 early 1993.
A company has just reinvented some aspects of Scala for Flash. It's called
RoboDemo:
http://www.ehelp.com/products/robodemo/whatsnew.asp
I feel that if Flash has been overhyped, it is also vastly under-appreciated.
FlashMX which emerged this summer has some great stuff. An entirely new event
model for one. Anything/Everything can be a button with dynamci behaviors aand
more..
If you know Javascript then you can program FlashMX. Among the excellent new
features relevant to kiosk apps are 'shared object' and 'local connection
object'.
Shared object is a cache support system for flash to enable persistence across
sessions.
Local Connection Object allows message passing between any flash movies being
server from the same server. You can call functions between separate flash
movies on separate machines in close to real-time.
Both of these onlly require a few lines fo code to implement.
A community of opensource flash scripts and components including 'prototypes'
[reusable class extensions and customizations]has blossomed in the past year:
http://www.actionscript-toolbox.com/
http://www.tatsuokato.com/flash/
http://www.layer51.com/proto/default.aspx
http://www.rubberduck.nl/projects/flashcomponents/index.html
http://www.flashcomponents.net/
In addition the Flash6 player can access video.still cameras and
audio[microphone inputs]. Video/audio chat requires some serious bandwidth and
more complex server installtion. But you can still use these stand-alone to
remarkable effect.
For example I did a very quick demo using two cameras connected to my Win98se
laptop:
1. Logitech webcam on the USB port
2. Sony DV camcorder on firewire port.
Flash detected both imediately. I am able to mask and drag live local video
images around on screen and do motion detection in half a dozen lines of code!!!
Combine that with local connection object and you have some killer kiosk
features :-) AMybe not what you need now, but don't underestimate the scope and
simplicity of flah now for interfaces. Plus you can generate a fully standalone
executable in seconds, no licensing headaches. XMLsocket allows a dierct
connection to remain open to any XML server anywhere. Bypass the http dance. Use
it for sending non-XML data even :-)
I think MM have a linux flash6 player out now, but not tested it yet. If so
would likely run in Mozilla too! Best of all worlds maybe...
Anyway, here the actionscript for two buttons to initialize, activate, and
display two video cameras with rollover and motion detection. No need to fuck
with ports [USB, Firewire], it takes care of all that. Just ask for Camera 0,
Camera1 etc..
//VIDEO
cam0_btn.onPress = function(){
cam0 = Camera.get(0);
video_txt.text = cam0.name;
v.video1_obj.attachVideo(cam0);
};
cam1_btn.onPress = function(){
cam1 = Camera.get(1);
video_txt.text = cam1.name;
video0_obj.attachVideo(cam1);
};
cam0_btn.onRollover = function(){
cam0 = Camera.get(0);
video_txt.text = cam0.name;
cam0.onActivity = function(mode)
{
status_txt.text = mode;
};
};
cam1_btn.onRollover = function(){
cam1 = Camera.get(1);
video_txt.text = cam1.name;
cam1.setMotionLevel(10, 500);
cam1.onActivity = function(mode)
{
status_txt.text = mode;
};
};
./Jason