Sensors -- hardware? Reading data?

#1

Hi all,

What is the simplest way to hook up a sensor like a light meter or motion detector to a MacBook and read (polling) that data in SuperCollider?

I would like to avoid soldering, building custom stuff if possible. Happiest y to buy something and plug it into the usb port. …

I am also wondering if I could read data using the /dev directory given that the OS is unix underneath the pretty.

Thanks!

#2

I used one of the following products:

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#3

If by any chance you happen to be measuring people, I cannot recommend Google’s mediapipe enough - here is an article talking about it - Create your own depth measuring tool with MediaPipe FaceMesh in Javascript | by Susanne Thierfelder | Medium . It just uses a webcam.
You’d probably want to do it in python then send the data to supercollider using OSC.

Providing you have a well lit image, it is stupidly accurate, to the point where you can respond to the raising of an eyebrow from over 10m away with acceptable latency.

#4

Thanks!

Was the part usb powered, like could you just plug it and go?

Also how did s you access the data inside supercollider?

Thanks!

#5

Maybe interesting for you (it did involve some DIY, minimal soldering was required to make it easy to connect cables to the arduino): I’ve attached 16 light dependent resistors to an arduino and used them to control supercollider.

#6

Yes!

I cannot remember it exactly. Anyway, I used it on Raspberry Pi 3 and 4 as follows: