VideOSC is an experimental OSC* controller, using the color information retrieved from the video stream of the inbuilt camera(s) of an Android-based smartphone or tablet computer. The images coming in with the video stream are scaled down to a user-defined size (e. g. 5 x 4 pixels) and the RGB information of each pixel is sent to an OSC-capable application running on a computer within the local network.

This release is a complete rewrite of version 1, using Android's native API. Though it is not yet feature-complete it should bring more stability and new features.

What's new?

Additionally to a simple, non-interactive mode, pixels may now be set in their values manually. I.e. pixels may first be selected by swiping over them and the selected pixels will be displayed then in multisliders. The multisliders on the left side of the screen display the current values of the selected pixels. The multisliders on the right side of the screen set a mix value between the manually set values and the values coming in from the camera.

From its current version 1.1 on VideOSC will also provide access to various sensors, such as orientation, accelerator, linear acceleration, magnetic field, gravity, proximity, light, air pressure, temperature, humidity and geo location. Of course, sensor support will dependent on the hardware of your device. Non available sensors will be marked as such. This feature is in preparation.

Feedback OSC: Not only does VideOSC send OSC, it is also set up to receive OSC messages. It is planned to use this ability to make VideOSC customizable by the user. At the current moment it allows one thing: If the remote client (the program or device that receives OSC messages from VideOSC) can send back a string for each pixel, allowing to display the parameter the regarding pixel is controlling in the client application. E.g. a parameter controlled through the red channel in the first pixel (/vosc/red1) can be displayed within the pixel if the parameter name is sent back in the command /vosc/red1/name. Displaying feedback strings can be activate by tapping the button.

Stability

This release has been focused on fixing various memory leaks which slowed down the application considerably during longer periods of operation.

VideOSC does not provide any sound creation capabilities itself.

VideOSC should work with any OSC-capable software. Ideally this software allows algorithmic sound synthesis and control (e. g. SuperCollider, Pure Data, MaxMSP, etc.). In the project's Github repository you will find a view (simple) usage examples using SuperCollider, Pure Data and MaxMSP in the folder "client_testing" that might help you to get going.

VideOSC is open source, licensed under the Apache license 2 - https://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0.html.
The application's source code is freely available at https://github.com/nuss/VideOSC2.
If you find problems with this current release, please refer to the 'issues' link on the afore mentioned Github page. If you don't find your problem there don't hesitate to open an issue.

[*] Open Sound Control, a protocol for communication among computers, sound synthesizers, and other multimedia devices that is optimized for modern networking technology - http://opensoundcontrol.org