On Mon, 15 Jan 2001, Dipl. Ing. Paul Szawlowski wrote:
> For me an InputDevice is a piece of HW (or SW) which delivers a bunch of values. How
> these values are interpreted is quite application specific (sure it makes sense for
> head tracking equipment or arm tracking equipment, but not necessaryly for a
> joystick).
Why would a joystick be treated any differently from a mocap suit? It's only
output is 3D data. At the same time, why would your application know anything
about a specifi c input device type? The idea behind Inputevice/Sensor is
that it presents a generic interface to any device. I download your application
to my computer, it detects what input devices I have and automatically
uses those in my application. The fact that you've chosen a joystick to
represent colour data rather than movement has now broken because I don't
have a Joystick, but a 3D mouse installed instead. If you need to make
specific interpretations of a particular device type for an application
#on a single, fixed machine, is there a point in using InputDevice? I would
argue very strongly - no. You are using a system for something that it is
not intended for and asking the makers to change it to suit your purposes
when a custom system would be much better solution to the problem.
> As far as I understood the documentation does the sensor class an automatic
> transformation according to some hot spot.
Ah yes, the wonders of documentation. I really depends on how you read it.
In my experience with InputDevices, it has never done anything except use
the raw values. :( Perhaps the FullSail guys or others have had different
experiences here?
> What generic InputDevice implementations exists ?
Well, today, none. There are a collection in the NCSA Portfolio work IIRC.
I'd like to help promote the idea of people writing InputDevices through
the j3d.org site, but getting file loaders is hard enough!
> And why should they automatically
> drive head tracker movement ?
There is an array of sensors that you can place in Canvas3D I think. I don't
have the J3D documentation handy because I'm sitting in a net cafe halfway
around the world form "home" right now. It's in there somewhere. These,
when set, as supposed to automatically track head and dominant hand movements
for you. (Yet another one of these strange magical parts of the j3d API
that almost nno-one knows about or even understands....)
--
Justin Couch Author, Java Hacker
Software Architect [EMAIL PROTECTED]
J3D.org http://www.vlc.com.au/~justin/
Java3D FAQ http://www.j3d.org/faq/
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Turn it or move it, and a new set of arrangements appears... is it
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frames or one frame for many lights?" -Subcomandante Marcos
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