Fast Computation

Exercising the odot language in Graphics Animation Applications

One of my jobs on the odot language development team was developing a diverse set of applications and tests to give feedback to the language design team (mainly John MacCallum) on affordances and difficulties with the language.

FastTouch Open Source Arduino Library for Fast, Portable, Low Fidelity Capacitive Sensing

The fast touch algorithm reimplemented in the library available here was developed for my FingerPhone Instrument. The fast touch library senses touch on any digital I/O pin on many embedded controllers with the Arduino IDE. This includes Atmega 8-bit, SAMD21, and Teensy. This includes most pins on most micro-controllers. A few micro controllers have analog input pins that can't also do digital I/O . The library relies on the ability to enable a built-in pull-up resistor on the pin being sensed. Here is the algorithm:
  • set the pin to output a LOW value for 1uS or so.
  • A Self Organizing Classification System by BLW Chapman

    I learned about this work as a teenager and managed to trace my fuzzy recollection while researching connections between textiles and electronics. It was published in Cybernetica Volume 2.

    "I have recently completed building an electronic model of the 'growth net' principle and will now give a brief outline of its method of operation."

    "What I described earlier as a common boundary now takes of the form of a moist fibre of cotton yarn connecting each input to the control grid of a pentode"