Microservices using the XENOmat API on a MacBook.
This is a quick mash-up using the awesome simple SMSLib to implement a XENOmat service, which gets data from the MacBooks internal SMS device (a.k.a. the accelerometer), and some browser side hacking on some examples from d3.js and THREE.js.
With the advent of SSD's the SMS device became obsolote, and is not present (or not accessible) on newer MacBooks. If no device can be found, a random generator produces point data, so there is something to look at...
Improvements might be required by others, some of which I mention in random order:
- Return the data as a JSON array to spare som parsing (and use something like oboe.js to dynamically build the model for THREE.js).
- reduce the precision of the floating point representation to fewer digits. I guess like 3 or so would do fine, or
- cut the crap and switch to using binary buffers or even BLOB transfer, or
- render the scenes on the MacBook (in C++). The machine should have enough power, at least consistent when supplied by an AC adapter, but
- to save resource usage, consider CBOR. Your batteries will thank you (or at least they will start complaining much later).
Feel free to bring your own ideas, and consider making pull requests to this repository.
With the <xeno:pipe/> service, you can use all kinds of fancy scripts. This awesome curated list shows some of the near endless possiblilities.
Solid knowledge of the XENOmat API and DataVisualisation with d3.js was given, so the tasks were largely:
- Learn about SMSLib and how to integrate Objective-C code - 2h
- Fight with Cevelop (Eclipse CDT) about it not wanting to integrate the above into the make based build system (hence the makefile.dev in the build directories of the project) - 1h
- Learn about THREE.js, making experiments in the browser - 2h
- Polish the GUI, trimming parameters for this UseCase - 2h
- Test the service with my adolescent son on his iPad, while throwing my MacBook around, and hearing his ideas for game development - priceless
- Adding a view service and integrating into the XENOmat Demo Application - 1h
In total it took about 8 hours and gave us (besides the App) hours of fun, a lot of new ideas, and some deeper insight into OS X executables, WebGL rendering, and Eclipse CDT, which I believe will be a good investment in the future of this project.