Introduction to OSCulator
Remote controls, Touch-enabled surfaces or even weight sensors, all of these are controllers that can be used to create. During the last few years, a lot of progress has been achieved with respect to the availability of those technologies, thanks to the development of computer processing power1). Because they are often cheap or easily found in stores2), a whole new class of possibilities has emerged, rendering the interaction with the computer and its surrounding devices much more tangible.
There is however a problem with this growing number of solutions: complexity. While the novice user is left with what is available3), the experienced one will have access to more powerful tools, but will require to reinvent the wheel every time he needs to use a new type of controller.
OSCulator is a software that connects the controllers with production devices, designed to be flexible and user friendly.
- It solves simple problems without extensive configuration4), but can be used to control a distributed network of computers as well, such as in a large artistic installations.
- It doesn't have a steep learning curve because the same principles are applied consistently throughout the software.
- It is stable and robust.
- It benefits from an ever growing user base.
The Open Sound Control protocol
Open Sound Control (OSC) is a protocol for communication among computers, sound synthesizers, and other multimedia devices that is lightweight and leverages current networking technologies. As an attempt to simplify the vast problem of inter-connectivity, the choice of using the OSC protocol has been made ; even more, only a subset of it is really used.
Almost all parameters used in OSCulator are numbers ranging from
0.0
to1.0
5)
TouchOSC or the Lemur also adopt the same convention, just as all the devices natively handled by OSCulator.