Networking Book and Config Generator
Posted by BrianH | Filed under Blender Tutorial, Website News, eBooks
I have two things to announce today. The first is something that I mentioned a while back, but recently I’ve been doing a lot of work on. I mentioned before that I was working on a Blender Game Networking eBook and I’d like to give you some updates on what’s happening. In a nutshell, the book has evolved into much more then an eBook. I’ve been writing and editing like crazy on this book and I’m pleased to announce that I will be publishing this book in paper-bound form (yippe!). The book will hopefully include a CD with demo files and extra goodies to play with. However, I’m not even halfway done with writing the book yet. I’ll give you a heads up when I get close though and maybe even open a pre-order form so I have a good idea of what type of demand there is.
The second announcement, I will be launching some really cool developer stuff on my site very soon. I’m developing some code generators for compiling Blender with some easy to understand documentation. It should be a nice contribution to the community, especially for those who are just learning the ropes.
So keep your eyes open for some really cool stuff heading your way 
Tags: Blender, Config, Generator, networking
Announcing Blenderversity.
Posted by BrianH | Filed under Blender Tutorial
Yes. It’s official. I have resurrected Blenderversity.org. It all started when I was trying to find a way to bring the Blender Game Networking book to an online format and got frustrated finding a way to incorporate it into WordPress. I thought of how nice it was to have a site where I could create content like this, recollecting on the ole days of when Tim and I spent endless hours setting up Blenderversity. It was then I decided to dust off my old notebooks and renewed the domain.
The site is using Moodle as it’s backbone now. It used Claroline back in the day, but modifying the interface on Claroline seemed like so much work that we practically had to learn the entire LMS code itself. Moodle provides more flexibility for what I needed.
I’m gathering up some beta testers to work out a lot of kinks in the system. If you’re interested, let me know by following the steps listed here:
http://www.blenderversity.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=4
Tags: Blender, Blenderversity
Multi-touch and Blender 3D, Concept and Discussion I.
Posted by BrianH | Filed under FTIR Project
Lurking in the labs is a fast, growing technology that will make its way to home computers all around the world. It has already been put into commercialized production and is rapidly developing. I would like to take a moment to look at how this technology will affect us, and how to explore it yourself (on a low cost budget of course).
Multi-touch technology has revolutionized the way we interact with the user interface. Hand gestures, movements, and tracking have opened way to more “human” interaction with computers. You’ve probably experienced it on your iPod or iPhone. But what you might not know, the technology has been around for quite a while now. And it’s rather cheap to explore for yourself.
One of the multi-touch solutions that has been developing over the past several years now is FTIR (Frustrated Total Internal Reflection). In layman’s terms, infrared LED’s (Light Emitting Diodes) shine light into the sides of an acrylic sheet. This infrared light is reflected internally within the walls of the acrylic. Once a finger touches the surface of the acrylic, the infrared light is “frustrated” and reflected in an outward direction. Using an infrared camera, we can detect this frustration and use computer tracking software to put this data to use. Tracking software can also detect multiple “blobs” of frustration.
This diagram below is by Jeff Han, a consultant from the New York University, Computer Science Department. It demonstrates how the infrared light is frustrated in an FTIR setup.
Jeff also made a presentation for TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design), an annual conference held in Long Beach, California. He used an FTIR setup to demonstrate the possibilities of multi-touch design for future applications. His video can be found here.
In the coming posts, I will explore low cost solutions to building my own FTIR table. And most importantly, conceptualize the possiblities for use in 3D editing and production using Blender 3D.
Tags: Blender, FTIR, multi-touch