Last night in Paris Mike debuted the new raw microphone access feature coming in AIR 2.0. This is a feature that has been asked for for years and I’m really happy to see it finally rolling out. The date on the video is off by a day but I don’t have time to re-encode it right now. Now you may be tempted to ask whether this feature will roll out in the next version of Flash Player as well. That is something that I can’t talk about right now.
Lee
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After thousands of requests I have finally created an AIR application that lets you view my school photos from grades 1 to 6. This is what I love about AIR. I can have perhaps one beer too many, get a stupid idea like this, and create a desktop application in less than 15 minutes. I have actually been playing around with the next version of AIR and wish I could talk about the cool new things that are coming. There are many new features that will allow your AIR applications to be more powerful and extensible than they are today. Maybe then I will find time to think of a useful application to build. Until then you will have to settle for things like this I’m afraid  . |
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Last week I blogged about how Flash and AIR are used in the motion picture industry. This week I wanted to talk about another fascinating use of Adobe AIR. Wade Arnold and his company T8DESIGN built an AIR interface for the US military that is used to drive a cutting edge combat robot call the R-Gator. You all know Wade as the developer of AMFPHP and now the Zend AMF framework. Well in his real job he is building things that are helping to save the lives of our troops. The R-Gator is essentially an unmanned vehicle that is driven remotely using an XBOX 360 controller of all things. |
Wade talked to me a bit about the scenarios about how these are being used in the field. The R-Gator can be used as an unmanned recon scout or continuose perimeter base defense. Troops will also send the robot into hostile areas and make it appear as if it is being driven by actual troops. The vehicle can also be equipped with REDOWL, or Robot Enhanced Detection Outpost with Lasers, that can detect and locate snipers and mortars on the very first shot fired at personnel or vehicles. The operator can then provide a measured response using a 50 caliber machine gun that is mounted on the back. The R-Gator can also be equipped with a thermal laser to light up targets for air strikes. This keeps troops out of harms way while the R-Gator takes all the risks. Click on the images below to see some screenshots of the interface.
Wade also mentioned how the XBOX controller is preferred as young troops are accustomed to it which I thought was pretty funny. For obvious reasons I can’t go into a lot of details about the underlying technology but it is essentially an Adobe AIR front-end that streams live video using FMS. It has a Linux operating system and there was quite a bit of custom work that T8 had to do to get it running. The R-Gator was created by John Deere and represents the cutting edge of today’s military.
Lee
Below is the full interview with OOOii about their use of Flash and AIR in feature films like Star Trek. It is very interesting to hear about their process. There isn’t a low-level discussion of Flash techniques however, as they need to keep those details to themselves for obvious reasons. Enjoy!
Lee
I’ve been waiting almost a year now to tell you about all the cool Flash work that is featured in the new Star Trek movie. OOOii, which was formally named BlackBox Digital, is a live visual effects company run by Kent Demaine and is located in the heart of Hollywood. They design a lot of the amazing interfaces that you see on computer screens and other surfaces in feature films. Their credits include Enemy of the State, Minority Report, and The Island.
For Star Trek, senior developer Dave August created a complete ActionScript 3 framework for compositing and sequencing various effects that was used live on the set during filming. He also created an AIR application which was used for authoring the various sequences and also to control them as the actors manipulated them.
Today I flew down to Hollywood to interview them about their work. Below is a little teaser of some of the footage. These guys have the coolest Flash jobs in the world! Check out their site and go see Star Trek to witness Flash on the big screen.
Lee
Update: The guys from De Monsters are Dutch, not German. Sorry guys!
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I have just uploaded a new tutorial that shows you how to debug your Flash movies at runtime using the MonsterDebugger AIR application. This well designed application allows you to view and modify all of your objects and methods at runtime and contains a host of advanced features. It also features a very clean CS4-like interface which I love. This tool works equally well for Flash, Flex, and AIR applications. |
Lee
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Here is a cool little utility that I made that makes creating a Flex Builder project for Flash CS4 really easy. You basically give the application the project name and it creates the simplest possible Flex project including an FLA file. The project automatically references the Flash Player 10 SWC so you are good to go. What it creates is simply a document class and also copies over an FLA and renames it. All you do is import the new project into Flex Builder, double-click on the FLA to open it in Flash, and start coding. You can configure it via an XML file. This hasn’t been tested on a PC so let me know if it works. Watch the video below to see it in action. |
Lee Brimelow is a Platform Evangelist at Adobe focusing on the Flash, Flex, and AIR developer communities.
