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Mapping linux input events to OSC

Posted by Nikolaus Gradwohl Sun, 06 Sep 2009 02:48:00 GMT

In linux every input device registers under /dev/input/eventX and sends events in 16 byte blocks. these data chunks contain a timestamp the event type, the event code and a value depending on the event type the semantic of value changes. for a event type 1 (key event) value 1 means pressed and value 0 mean released.

here is a little ruby program that reacts to key press events and sends osc messages. which could trigger drum sounds, start play back, ...

key press events are not only sent by keyboards but also by mice, joystics, gamepads, a DDR mat, a buzz buzzer, ...

the code example is used to map keys of my PS3 Controller to drum sounds.

require 'osc';

c = OSC::UDPSocket.new

hh = OSC::Message.new('/drum', 's', "hh" )
bd = OSC::Message.new('/drum', 's', "bd" )
sn = OSC::Message.new('/drum', 's', "sn" )

File.open("/dev/input/event7") do |f|
  while true
    event = f.read(16).unpack("llSSl")
    time = event[0] + event[1] / 1000000.0
    type = event[2]
    code = event[3]
    value = event[4]

    puts "Ti: #{time} T: #{type} C: #{code} V: #{value} " if type == 1

    c.send( bd, 0, 'localhost', 3334 ) if type == 1 && code == 298 && value == 1
    c.send( sn, 0, 'localhost', 3334 ) if type == 1 && code == 293 && value == 1
    c.send( hh, 0, 'localhost', 3334 ) if type == 1 && code == 303 && value == 1
  end
end

The code was inspired by 2 articles i found recently the first one is about how to use a DDR-mat to trigger Drum Sounds and the second one shows how to read the accelerometer data from a openmonoko phone