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Upcoming Events

January 28th, 2012

Jason Kelly Johnson from Future Cities Lab / CCA will be teaching a one-day intensive "Responsive Surfaces Workshop" (Grasshopper, Firefly and Arduino) in Los Angeles, CA. The workshop will be hosted at Variate Labs. For workshop registration info visit: http://responsivesurfaces2012la.eventbrite.com/

Hey, are you teaching or participating in a workshop that is using Firefly?  Let us know about it and we'll feature it here on the Firefly website! (info@fireflyexperiments.com)

News

Attention all Firefly and Pachube users. The kind folks over at www.pachube.com have been very interested in the integration between Rhino/Grasshopper and Firefly with their web-based Internet of Things tracking and monitoring service.  So much so, they'd like to showcase new projects that feature both of these platforms on their website.  What we're looking for is any project that ties together real-world sensing (using one or more Pachube feeds) with 3D parametric modeling.  Basically, anything that uses Firefly and Pachube together.  If you have an interesting project, let us know about it.  You can contact Ed Borden, the cheif marketing and PR officer at Pachube, at edborden@pachube.com or email us at info@fireflyexperiments.com and we'll make sure to get the word out.

Firefly offers a set of comprehensive software tools dedicated to bridging the gap between Grasshopper (a free plug-in for Rhino) the Arduino microcontroller and other input/output devices. It allows near real-time data flow between the digital and physical worlds – enabling the possibility to explore virtual and physical prototypes with unprecedented fluidity.

As a generative modeling tool, Grasshopper offers a fluid visual interface for creating sophisticated parametric models, but by default, it lacks the ability to communicate with hardware devices such as programmable microcontrollers or haptic interfaces. Firefly fills this void. It is an extension to the Grasshopper parametric interface; combining a specialized set of components with a novel communication protocol (called the Firefly Firmata or Firmware) which together enable real-time interaction between hardware devices and the parametric plug-in for Rhino.

A notable distinction for Firefly is that it is the first visual microcontroller programming environment designed specifically for a 3-D parametric CAD package (such as Rhino). This feature means that real-world data, acquired from various types of sensors or other input devices (arduino, video cameras, internet feeds, or mobile phone devices, etc.) can be used to explicitly define parametric relationships within a Grasshopper model. Firefly completes the communication feedback loop by allowing users the ability to send information from Grasshopper back to the microcontroller in order to incite specific actuations (ie. lights, motors, valves, etc). Ultimately, this workflow creates a new way to create interactive prototypes.

If you've done something amazing with Firefly, we'd love to see it (and feature it on this site). Feel free to send us images or information about your project (info@fireflyexperiments.com) and we'll make sure we show the world!

Quick Links

Note: You can also download these files directly at: http://www.box.net/firefly

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