Physics in Flash

What's used here is 2.0.1 version of Box2D - a C++ 2D physics engine for games which is bridged to Flash with Box2DFlashAS3.

Hardware + Software

When combined it works like this:

Where:

• a) Table’s metal frame
• b) Table-top - made of two sheets of acrylic glass and architect paper (working as diffuser for the picture emitted by projector) and two lines of infra-red (IR) Light Emitting Diodes (LED). It's fixed to a metal frame fixed with two hinges to the table’s frame.
• c) Two lines of IR LEDs - with appropriate power supply
• d) USB Web-camera with IR filter attached on flexible arm. IR filter is made of overexposed and processed negative film.
• e) Short-throw projector
• f) PC with Windows
  

Video analysis on one hand and Flash applications on the other hand can be quite processor-power consuming. But the video analysis and blob-detection (f) can be easily separated from the user's application (g) so both can be run on separate computers connected with LAN where 'f' will pass only TUIO information to 'g'.

Software part

The software part consist of Flash application which takes the touch coordinates from Flosc which is an open source communication gateway transforming all TUIO (OSC based) standarized UDP communication from e.g. Touchlib (which is a video-analysis software library for reading the touch coordinates on multitouch displays) or from TUIO Simulator to TCP-formatted data for Flash (via Flash's XMLSocket).

Hardware part

The multi-touch table setup is a simple solution in its idea. My table is based on Jeff Han's prototype.

But there are many ideas out there:


Thank you Lars for the photos!

Code repository for Multi-Physics

Check here for updates:
http://code.google.com/p/multi-physics/

What is Multi-Physics?

The main goal of this project is to create a multi‐touch sensitive application for two‐dimensional graphic visualizations of a few basic concepts of physics (esp. mechanics). It is meant to be used by primary school pupils as a simple educational entertainment tool making them familiar with physics and allowing for certain extent of creativity. Young users can actively participate in the learning process by designing and testing their own simulations in a visually catchy cartoon‐style environment. Therefore the program will fulfill the idea of "learning by playing" and hopefully promote interest in science and technology among children.

Created (tadaaamm!)...

This blog has been created because of my participation in GSoC 2008 programme.