Scratch4TuioExtension

This is a scratch extension for TUIO. The extension enables Scratch to receive TUIO messages and react to TUIO events . This way, the Scratch-programmer is able to not only create its own Tangible User Interface, but also to create interfaces using Kinect or Mobile Phones and interfaces that can track objects. Users of Scratch4TUIO can use the new blocks to react to TUIO-events such as a moving cursor or a moving object. Furthermore, they can access information about the objects such as the symbolID, sessionID, movement speed, movement acceleration, position, angle, turning speed, and turning acceleration. So technically Scratch4TUIO transforms Scratch into a TUIO-Client. You can start Scratch4TUIO by just following this link: http://scratchx.org/?url=http://caesarion.github.io/scratch4tuio/scratch4tuio.min.js#scratch. It basically opens Scratch with the Scratch4TUIO extension already loaded. On the 'More Blocks' category you can now find the additional Scratch4TUIO blocks.

Scratch4TUIO uses an OSC-Dispatcher program that relays the incoming TUIO messages, which are sent via the UDP protocol, to Scratch4TUIO via Socket.io. You can download the JAR here: https://github.com/caesarion/scratch4tuio-server/releases/download/v1.0.1/scratch4tuio-dispatcher.jar

Start the OSC-Dispatcher from console via

java -jar OSC-Dispatcher.jar -p 3333

The -p option denotes the port on which the TUIO-Server runs, 3333 is the standard port for TUIO. The OSC-Dispatcher and Scratch4TUIO use port 5000.

Now you still need a TUIO-Server, e.g. a provider of TUIO-data. You can use one of the listed TUIO-Server below. For the start I recommend to use the TUIO-Simulator: http://sourceforge.net/projects/reactivision/files/TUIO%201.0/TUIO-Clients%201.4/TUIO_Simulator-1.4.zip/download?use_mirror=heanet&download=

For more information about the TUIO protocol see http://www.tuio.org/

Some projects using TUIO and TUIO-Server: http://www.reactable.com, https://code.google.com/p/tuiokinect/, http://www.tuio.org/?software, http://www.reactivision.com

Building the extension

To build the extension you need to install npm (via Node.js) and Grunt.

First install the dependencies by running

npm install

then start the build with

grunt

Developing and testing the extension

To run the extension during development, run

grunt test

or

grunt test:win

on windows.

This will build the extension script, clone scratchx, start a webserver, open Scratch4TUIO in Chrome and watch the extension script for changes.

After changing the source code run

grunt dev

to rebuild the extension and trigger the opening of a new ScratchX tab in chrome.