Hi Davis, Would be interested in opening a regular contact with you guys on this .. at least fire off random ideas and get feedback. A very loose peer review if you like.
I am knee deep in a similar project. It started off a simple thing to manage the bookkeeping and maths in large Napoleonic wargames (miniatures). I ended up doing it as a plain vanilla web app using PHP/CodeIgniter. Details : http://15mm-madness.blogspot.com.au/search/label/Computer On to round 3 of the project now, using new tech. There are a few basic problems with the PHP/CodeIgniter approach, and lucky for me node offered a simple solution to all of that. At last - 'real' programming on the web ! Evented async IO is the way we always did things on large defence projects, and its an absolute blast programming in that style. Very happy to discover node recently. So the next round of development has a nodejs core application, with each user on the tables interfacing to the main system through a cheap 7" android tablet with touchscreen. The miniatures sit on a bases that will have RFID chips in them .. see here : http://15mm-madness.blogspot.com.au/2012/06/more-battalion-sabot-bases.html So a large convention game - if you can imagine it, has hundreds of these units running around fighting each other, with a dozen or so players issuing orders to each unit. This pic is a good example : http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xW7vUwqancI/T5gM8bgEhgI/AAAAAAAABLg/OHq-c1OcPEM/s1600/Salute2012041.jpg Each of these 'units' represents about 1000 men, and the game requires that details on casualties, morale states, fatigue, sub-unit formations, ammo levels, etc, etc, etc .. are all accounted for and tracked., The rulebooks for these 'games' are expensive, heavy and several hundred pages long, -and full of charts, tables, maths, and detailed rules. Its definitely a hobby of crazy people with OCD. The Cool Tech Stuff : Am experimenting with the best solution for RFID at the moment - I like the small 13MHz paper tags .. but 125KHz has advantages as well. Getting both in and having a play. Am building handheld arduino based RFID readers that talk to the main system via an XBee mesh network. Struggling to get my head around local wireless mesh networking at the moment though. In addition to that, I want to put a 'Colorduino' sheild on the reader, which gives a snazzy 8x8 color LED grid. The idea being to use that grid to display some sort of animation on the reader whenever a unit is scanned. This can show the health of the unit, and some other stats. No specific plan yet, but that will be fun to do. On top of that, I want to start embedding sensors on the tabletop terrain, with a view to gathering enough data so that the main server can work out where each unit is, what class of terrain its in, what the range is to the enemy, etc. All this data is needed in-game in order to work out the effects of musket volleys and things, and therefore requires data entry. The more I can automate of that, the better. Its an interesting UI problem, because players actually enjoy measuring distances and rolling dice .. they just hate the bookkeeping and calculations. So this problem has to automate things without taking away the original fun. That is a challenge. Finally - the cream on the cake will be to link tables at remote locations across the internet, and to allow remote players to also join in a game and command some units from any web browser. This means having webcams all over the table for a troops eye view of things, and doing broadcast audio streaming, so they can join in the laughs and chit chat. around the table. Thats the sort of stuff I am working on anyway. It is all funded out of my own pocket, and my own 'spare' time. Only doing this for my own fun for starters, but it is startinig to attract commercial attention. Nobody in the industry is doing anything remotely like this. Commercialization is always hard and drawn out ... but all this convergence stuff feels very very different to whats been happening in the last few decades. I get a feeling that things are about to explode, and there will be countless commercial ops just sitting there for the taking. For me - getting something like this working is just a stepping stone to being a player in these emerging new markets .. and that it makes it 100% worth the investment. If you are interested, It would be cool to touch base every now and then, and talk about problems and solutions discovered .. new products that are worth playing with .. new code libs that make life even easier, etc. PS: The whole 'gamification' thing is real interesting too .. recently bumped into some googletalks on the subject on youtube. Its like we are only just starting to discover what really motivates people. I found this fascinating ... crazy, but fascinating : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6O1gNVeaE4g Cheers Steve On Friday, June 29, 2012 11:58:38 PM UTC+9:30, Davis Ford wrote: > > Hi all, > > I'm working on a single page, real-time webapp that allows users to > interact with small wi-fi hardware devices that are chock full of sensors > and controls (e.g. temp, humidity, magnetometer, accelerometer, gpio, etc.) > -- think Arduino meets a modern webapp with websockets. > > The hardware + webapp allows you to do things like: > > * Get an sms/email/phone call if a sensor triggers a certain value (e.g. > temp in my house drops below 55F - alert me, front door to my house was > opened - SMS me) > * Control a relay in your house remotely through your browser (e.g. open > your garage door, turn on/off electric blanket, etc) > > The app is already receiving data from our hardware, storing it, and is > able to be visualized in the webapp using flot charts. There is also a > visual drag-n-drop rule editor built that I am now porting over to the new > app (think Yahoo Pipes). I'm just looking for good people to help push it > to completion faster than I can myself. > > This is a passion project. None of us are getting paid (yet). What's in > it for you? > > * You'd get free hardware that would allow you to "sensor-up" your house > and do cool stuff > * Fun: this is the most fun I've had building software, and I have ~17 > years exp. building stuff in embedded/C, Java, .NET, various web > technologies > * Hone your chops on all this new tech > * Part-ownership: we have established a corp.; there are two of us (1 > hardware guy, 1 software guy) - we aren't making anything yet, but if we > are able to turn a corner on that, we'd be happy to consider part-ownership > > If it sounds intriguing at all, drop me a line off-list. I'll be happy to > show you more details, demos, code (github). > On Friday, June 29, 2012 11:58:38 PM UTC+9:30, Davis Ford wrote: > > Hi all, > > I'm working on a single page, real-time webapp that allows users to > interact with small wi-fi hardware devices that are chock full of sensors > and controls (e.g. temp, humidity, magnetometer, accelerometer, gpio, etc.) > -- think Arduino meets a modern webapp with websockets. > > The hardware + webapp allows you to do things like: > > * Get an sms/email/phone call if a sensor triggers a certain value (e.g. > temp in my house drops below 55F - alert me, front door to my house was > opened - SMS me) > * Control a relay in your house remotely through your browser (e.g. open > your garage door, turn on/off electric blanket, etc) > > The app is already receiving data from our hardware, storing it, and is > able to be visualized in the webapp using flot charts. There is also a > visual drag-n-drop rule editor built that I am now porting over to the new > app (think Yahoo Pipes). I'm just looking for good people to help push it > to completion faster than I can myself. > > This is a passion project. None of us are getting paid (yet). What's in > it for you? > > * You'd get free hardware that would allow you to "sensor-up" your house > and do cool stuff > * Fun: this is the most fun I've had building software, and I have ~17 > years exp. building stuff in embedded/C, Java, .NET, various web > technologies > * Hone your chops on all this new tech > * Part-ownership: we have established a corp.; there are two of us (1 > hardware guy, 1 software guy) - we aren't making anything yet, but if we > are able to turn a corner on that, we'd be happy to consider part-ownership > > If it sounds intriguing at all, drop me a line off-list. I'll be happy to > show you more details, demos, code (github). > -- Job Board: http://jobs.nodejs.org/ Posting guidelines: https://github.com/joyent/node/wiki/Mailing-List-Posting-Guidelines You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "nodejs" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/nodejs?hl=en?hl=en
