New Firefly 1.0.0.68 Now Available!

It's been a while since we've had a new Firefly update... but finally... the wait is over! I'm excited to release Firefly version 1.0.0.068 which has several new features and enhancements.

There are also several new computer vision tools and enhancements. There are two new components which allow you to save snapshots of different Firefly bitmaps to a directory on your computer. One gives you an immediate snapshot whenever you click a button, whereas the other saves a sequence of images based on a time frequency. There's also been a few enhancements to the Kinect tools.

While we're on the topic of computer vision... I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the new Leap Motion Finger Tracking component. If you haven't seen this impressive piece of hardware, make sure you check out (https://www.leapmotion.com/). The Firefly Finger Tracker gives you immediate access to real-time location and orientation of all your detected fingers and pointers. You can also turn on/off different features like finger trails, finger mesh representations, and palm plane orientations. It's incredibly fun and has the potential to radically change how we work with computers.

In addition, the Firefly/Arduino Stepper motor workflow has been completely re-worked and now features a call-back (or echo) function which allows you to wait until the stepper has reached its destination before feeding it the next movement command. Simply connect a list of absolute movement values, and it will wait until it has finished the last command before issuing the next command. However, if you connect a single value, like that of a slider, it will automatically move to the most recent value to avoid latency. Now, you can choreograph all of your intricate stepper movements til your hearts content!

There are many more features, so make sure you read the change log that comes with the installer. As usual, you can download the latest version of Firefly on the official website. Please leave any comments if you find any bugs or errors with this build.

Click Here to Download Firefly 1.0.0.68!

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Andy Payne on August 19, 2013 at 5:01pm

@Jason- Do you have a webcam connected to your computer?

Permalink Reply by Jason Hare on August 19, 2013 at 7:53pm

There is no webcam connected to the computer.

Permalink Reply by Andy Payne on August 20, 2013 at 5:47am

I believe the issue is that currently there is a bug where GH will fail to load if no webcam is connected to your computer. It's very frustrating and I put a bunch of error checks in this last release... but clearly it's not fixed. For the time being, your best option is connect a webcam (even a cheap USB webcam should be fine) and Firefly should load properly. I will continue to try to track this down.

Thanks for your patience.

-Andy

Permalink Reply by Jason Hare on August 22, 2013 at 12:19pm

Yap that was it. Put on a cheap Logitech and away we go, components and all!

Firefly is becoming very powerful, I am wondering if you are hosting any webinars in the future?

Keep up the great work and thanks for the help.

best.

Permalink Reply by Andy Payne on August 22, 2013 at 12:24pm

Thanks Jason. I've been thinking of starting a weekly or bi-weekly series of online tutorials for Firefly. I haven't yet started, because I've been completely overhauling my website... but hopefully some time this fall I can roll them out. I will also be teaching a workshop in NY this fall (prob in Nov)... and perhaps others to come as well.