amstracker in nodebox

for who it might be of interest .. or just for the fun.

AMSTracker is a command-line program that retrieves acceleration data from the Sudden Motion Sensor in Apple notebook computers.

download amstracker at
http://www.osxbook.com/software/sms/amstracker/


you can create a pipe that will transfer data from the command line tool to nodebox by using popen() command.

in this case ..

size(400,400)
speed(10)
from math import *
from os import popen
global count
count = 0
trail,this = [],[]
 
'''
READS AND CLEANS GIVEN DATA FROM AMSTRACKER 
Only X and Y are in use here/ there is also a Z output
(doesnt seem to do that much)
AMSTRACKER MUST BE IN APPLICATIONS FOLDER.
the popen() command opens a pipe to read directly 
from a command line based app or tool
'''
def readsms():
    global Xas,Yas
    pipe = popen('/Applications/AMSTracker','r')
    liner = pipe.readlines()
    clean = liner[1]
    this.append(clean)
    if len(this) >= 2:
        del this[0]
    all = this[0]
    Xas = all[0:4];Yas = all[10:15]
    #print Xas, Yas # uncomment to see if you get the input..
 
def draw():
    translate(WIDTH/2,HEIGHT/2)
    readsms()
    global count
    count+=0.25
    fill(0)
    # DEFINE SOME VARIABLES
    m1 = 60.0
    x1 = float(Xas)*2.0-70
    y1 = float(Yas)*2.0
    xxx1 = x1*sin(count)
    yyy1 = y1*cos(count)
    # BUILD A LIST OF POINTS FOR A TRAIL FX
    punt = xxx1,yyy1
    trail.append(punt)
    if len(trail)>=15:
        del(trail[0])
    # DRAW THE THING: i-loop for WORM c-loop for 'HEAD'
    for i in range(len(trail)):
        # STORE EVERY POINT, 1 POINT BACK AND FIRST POINT 
        pt = trail[i]
        pr = trail[i-1]
        pf = trail[len(trail)-1]
        strokewidth(5.0)
        if (i>0):
            stroke(.8,(15-i)/16.0,0.4,.8);  
            line(pt[0],pt[1],pr[0],pr[1])
            strokewidth(.1)
            line(pt[0],pt[1],pf[0],pf[1])
            groot = m1+15.0*sin(i)
            fill((15-i)/16.0,.8,0,.6);strokewidth(.5)
            oval(pt[0]-groot/2,pt[1]-groot/2,groot,groot)
            for c in range(9):
                nostroke(); fill((15-i)/16.0,.8,0,.2);
                tal = random(.1)*FRAME;Hb = groot*.5
                xp = (m1/2*sin(c*tal))+Hb/2
                yp = (m1/2*cos(c*tal))+Hb/2
                oval(pt[0]-xp,pt[1]-yp,Hb,Hb)

im having trouble with the codepart in the editor (help-:)
you might remove the ' between STORE and EVERY .
copy and paste seems to do the trick..
action: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNZG54qE94U

It would be nice if we bundled this into a library. However, the author of AMStracker prohibits redistributing his application. If we could get his permission to bundle the tool in a NodeBox library we would have a fun little toy.

Best regards,
Tom

do I or do U send him a mail ?
or did you already ? it would be
stupid to do it twice ..

Best if you do it. Then you can give an example of possible usage with your project.