How to control HTML5 slides with your hands via webcam

Posted January 31st, 2012 in Kindle, Mashup, Mozilla, Open Technologies by Bogo

I had an idea to show kind of human computer interaction during my Fosdem talk. I may not use that, because I will not have time to polish it, but it works quite well if you want to use it.

The Idea
The idea is to control slides only by moving my hand, without any devices in it.

The plan:
0. My web-cam should detect my move
1. After detection an event should be triggered
2. As a final action the slide should move to the next one :)

Motion detect

$ git clone https://github.com/sackmotion/motion.git
$ cd motion
$ ./configure
$ make & make install

Configure it

Motion comes with a great almost working config file, so just copy it to make it “official”:

$ cp  /usr/local/etc/motion-dist.conf /usr/local/etc/motion-dist.conf

Open it, search for those values, edit them and read what are they for:

;on_event_start value
event_gap 60

to become:

on_event_start xdotool key Right /OR xdotool search "Mozilla Firefox" windowactivate --sync key --clearmodifiers Right/
event_gap 1

Event triggering

You may need to install xdotool using your package manager. This tool allows you to emulate keyboard action in different combinations, but I will need to emulate pressing the right arrow key.

How it works:

When web-cam detects movement an event emulating ‘right arrow’ key is pressed. Since I am using HTML5 DZslides from here, this allows me to move to next slide only with moving my hand in front of my webcam.

Run

Run it and move your hand in front of your camera. You may want to turn on the logging to see the motion detection and the event detection if it’s not working at first.

$ motion

If you have any questions, please let me know.

Rust Language – Hello World

Posted January 25th, 2012 in Kindle, Mozilla, Open Technologies, Uncategorized by Bogo

What is RUST?

Rust is an experimental, concurrent, multi-paradigm, compiled programming language developed by Mozilla Labs. It is designed to be practical, supporting pure-functional, concurrent-actor, imperative-procedural, and object-oriented styles. /wikipedia/

How to install it on your Gnu/Linux box?
Pre-requirements:

  • g++ 4.4 or clang++ 3.x
  • python 2.6 or later
  • perl 5.0 or later
  • gnu make 3.81 or later
  • curl

Continue Reading »

Fosdem protocol for Mozilla Firefox (fosdem:about)

Posted January 20th, 2012 in FLOSS Events, Mozilla, Open Technologies, Uncategorized by Bogo

I just uploaded for approval an Add-on that defines FOSDEM protocol.

What is FOSDEM?

FOSDEM is a two-day event organized by volunteers to promote the widespread use of Free and Open Source software.

Protocol?

This Add-on:

  • defines FOSDEM protocol  (see bellow)
  • it’s showcase how to create your own protocol for Mozilla Firefox

Supported commands:

fosdem:about – learn more about the event
fosdem:venue – learn more about the venue and transportation
fosdem:schedule – see the latest schedule
fosdem:2003 to fosdem:2011 – see the archive
fosdem:2012 – see the info about the 2012 event

Notice

If you are fan of Fosdem and Firefox – please install it (click on the link) to have fun and to help me develop it more.

A special “Thank you” goes to Mike Kaply and Wladimir Palant

See you at Fosdem in 2 weeks.

Open Source GeoServer now coding Java at light-speed using JRebel for free.

Posted January 19th, 2012 in java, Open Technologies by Bogo

Quite a while ago we decided to give free JRebel licenses to valuable F(L)OSS projects.

GeoServer is one of them:

 

GeoServer is an open source software server written in Java that allows users to share and edit geospatial data. Designed for interoperability, it publishes data from any major spatial data source using open standards.

Being a community-driven project, GeoServer is developed, tested, and supported by a diverse group of individuals and organizations from around the world.

GeoServer is the reference implementation of the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) Web Feature Service (WFS) and Web Coverage Service (WCS) standards, as well as a high performance certified compliant Web Map Service (WMS). GeoServer forms a core component of the Geospatial Web.

If you’re working in Java and you have redeploys, here’s a solution for you – Click here to download 1 month trial or see the features from here

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