(via projectprovenance)

projectprovenance:

The Smarter Objects system explores a new method for interaction with everyday objects. The system associates a virtual object with every physical object to support an easy means of modifying the interface and the behavior of that physical object as well as its interactions with other “smarter objects”. As a user points a smart phone or tablet at a physical object, an augmented reality (AR) application recognizes the object and offers an intuitive graphical interface to program the object’s behavior and interactions with other objects. Once reprogrammed, the Smarter Object can then be operated with a simple tangible interface (such as knobs, buttons, etc). As such Smarter Objects combine the adaptability of digital objects with the simple tangible interface of a physical object. We have implemented several Smarter Objects and usage scenarios demonstrating the potential of this approach.

Setting up a Pebble Watch Face Development Environment

Pebble provides a decent set of instructions at http://developer.getpebble.com/1/01_GetStarted/01_Step_2 for setting up a development environment but they only support native development on OSX and Linux at the moment and suggest using Ubuntu in Virtual Box on Windows. I tried the Virtual Box route using Ubuntu 13 desktop and while it can be done it take a long time to setup, configure and futz with before you’re actually coding. And then you’re still tied to a single workstation that is hosting the Virtual Box instance.

I’ve been thoroughly enjoying Digital Ocean’s super cheap SSD backed Virtual Servers for a while now and decided that’s exactly what I needed to host my Pebble development - and I would be able to access that environment from both my Windows host and my iPad.

The following steps are synthesized from Pebble’s GetStarted page.

  1. Get an account at Digital Ocean: https://www.digitalocean.com/.
  2. Create a New Droplet: Give it a hostname. I chose pebble-dev. You only need the cheapest and lowest end droplet for this. I chose the 512Mb / 1 CPU / 20Gb SSD for $5/month. Click or tap the Create Droplet button and in less than a minute you will get an email with your login info and a new droplet.
  3. SSH into your new droplet with the credentials found in the email. Change your passsword: passwd
  4. Create a new user (yourname?): https://www.digitalocean.com/community/articles/initial-server-setup-with-ubuntu-12-04
  5. Install Git (You’re going to use Git right?): https://www.digitalocean.com/community/articles/how-to-install-git-on-ubuntu-12-04
  6. Install FTP: https://www.digitalocean.com/community/articles/how-to-set-up-vsftpd-on-ubuntu-12-04
  7. It looks like Digital Ocean are missing two steps that I’ve noticed with all my VSFTPD setups so far:
  1. sudo chown -R username /home/username/files
  2. sudo chmod -R 777 /home/username/files
  1. Create directory: mkdir pebble-dev
  2. Change to directory: cd ~/pebble-dev
  3. Download SDK: Do this on your local workstation via their web interface. Make sure you’re logged in first. https://account.getpebble.com/sdk_releases/2/download/pebble-sdk-release-001.zip
  4. Copy to your dev server: Use FTP to copy pebble-sdk-release-001.zip to your Digital Ocean server.
  5. Install the toolchain dependencies: sudo apt-get install libmpc2:i386
  6. Download toolchain: Do this on your local workstation http://developer.getpebble.com/files/sdk-release-001/arm-cs-tools-ubuntu-12.04-2012-12-22.tar.bz2
  7. Unzip the toolchain: tar xjf ../files/arm-cs-tools-ubuntu-12.04-2012-12-22.tar.bz2.tar.bz2.tar.bz2
  8. Export path: export PATH=~/pebble-dev/arm-cs-tools/bin:$PATH
  9. Confirm path: arm-none-eabi-gcc —version and get

arm-none-eabi-gcc (32-bit ARM EABI Toolchain JBS-2012.03-56-v2011.09-69-17-g3019757) 4.6.3 Copyright (C) 2011 Free Software Foundation, Inc.This is free software; see the source for copying conditions. There is NO warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

  1. Install Python and dependencies:
  1. sudo apt-get install dpkg-dev
  2. sudo apt-get install python-dev
  3. sudo apt-get install python-pip
  4. cd ~/pebble-dev/pebble-sdk-release-001/
  5. pip install —user -r sdk/requirements.txt
  1. Ensure waf is executable: chmod +x ./waf
  2. Let’s test it:
  1. cd ~/pebble-dev/pebble-sdk-release-001/
  2. ./waf configure
  3. ./waf build
  1. Let’s serve it:
  1. python -m SimpleHTTPServer 8000
  2. Navigate to http://198.199.81.95:8000/build/ using Mobile Safari (iOS Chrome does not work)
  3. Tap the .pbw file and follow the prompts

The buzz grows around teaching kids to code. Now before reading?

http://readwrite.com/2013/04/23/kodable-teaches-kids-to-code-before-they-learn-to-read?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed: readwriteweb (ReadWriteWeb)

Several colleagues and myself have been discussing this topic a lot recently. They all have children from roughly 3 to 13. I have none but keenly interested in sharing my passion for tech, creative problem solving and the natural intersection we call programming.

Articles are appearing almost daily on those subject and its popularity is definitely growing with parents. Something we are acutely aware of and actively looking at participating in.

facelr

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