I have successfully used iPads with TouchOSC for a few art show installations but it was always a pain blocking off apple controls and starting them up with my own accounts etc requiring many visits. Has anyone used an alternative to an iPad for touch controls in a multi week art installation context? I would like to still use Touch OSC if possible but I am open to other control schemes as long as they are ultra reliable and kid proof in a public installation.
Any suggestions folks?
As far as i know TouchOSC is avaiable on IOS, Android, Windows and Linux, so you can install it in a very wide variety of devices
@Sator_Arts Thank you I agree that is possible. I was wondering more about the actual hardware option though - if anyone has used other touch screens comparable in quality and cost with iPads but simpler as just input devices without necessarily needing complex OS. Touch OSC is not essential for me if there is a simpler way to display and control…
You might give a try to ESP32 with touchscreens, but then you have to design the interface in LVGL.
This solution is more embed friendly, but requires some coding knowledge
I like samsung tablets. Android is really easy to work with without the Apple account nonsense. Also consider using AI to create python based Flask apps that run on the same PC as the TD project. I do it all the time for events were I need to register users for a game and keep track of a leaderboard or create an admin control panel for settings. Take about 15 mins to make an app like that with Cursor / Claude, then maybe another 30 mins to style it to match the creative the agency sends over. When you make the app you tell the AI that you are making this app to run full screen on a tablet as if it was a native app and communicate with TD via OSC or your preferred method. It will handle the rest including tell you how to install it.
@Sator_Arts Thank you. I will look into that more. I should have mentioned I am hoping for more of an xy pad type interface with continuous sliding control like a touch pad in addition to sliders and buttons etc. AI told me ESP32 is not best for that, but I need to learn about them. I have a bit of coding knowledge, but it’s not my preferred approach, hence my love of TD.
Appreciate your help though. Have you used ESP32 yourself in the past with good luck?
@amazingrobot that sounds very promising. Yes it is the apple account nonsense that is so annoying for a public art show so I will look into Android on samsung tablets. Interesting that AI helps you make that so quickly. I saw a talk from a guy who also uses Claude to do tons of coding but he explicitly forbids machine hallucinations etc and asks for proven code, then iterates. I have not done that yet, but am finding Perplexity is giving me good learning advice at least with less of the 80% wrong code advice I got from Chat GPT. Since I am not super at memorizing text code instructions, I should learn more from AI and try Claude.