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Jorge Chavez edited this page May 7, 2016 · 7 revisions

How to Build the Project

This project is conformed by three parts:

I. The Videocall Application.
II. The Physical Interface. (Optional)
III. The Gun remote control. (Optional)

Instructions

I. The Videocall application.

Pre-requisites:

  • Have Node.js (v^4.4.3) installed on the machine that runs the application.

Material Needed:

  • 2 Computers with speakers & microphone available.
  • 2 Usb Cameras (high-resolution recommended).
  • Internet connection on both computers.

How to Start?
Clone the repository of the project from Github:
https://github.com/Nearsoft/office-portal.git

Install the dependencies of the project using:
npm install
bower install

You can test the health of the project using:
npm test

Once the project is downloaded you can start the service using:
npm start

Note: Portal-NS runs the application on your localhost, it is needed to configure your public IP address or use an application as “Ngrok” to share the connection URL of Office-Portal with another machine.

Usage:

Once you have the App running:
I. The videocall starts automatically when the app is running and 2 devices connect to the app URL on port 5000.
II. The Play/Pause Function:

  • a) You can pause/resume the videocall with your computer keyboard using the "R" key.

or

  • b) Press the trigger from the Gun remote control (optional).

II. The Physical Interface (optional).

Office-Portal is created with the purpose of making a video conference system but embedded as a realistic platform to enhance the talking experience in a more stimulant and realistic way.

The idea was to simulate a sci-fi portal just as in the game "Portal by Valve" alt text

The idea was to cover the video screen to enhance a more realistic feeling when talking with someone.

so, how do we do it?

Material:

  • 1 Tv screen or large pc monitor.
  • Paper, Wood or the material of your choose to wrap the display leaving only an oval on it.

Instructions:

  1. Choose a place to mount the tv screen.
  2. Mount the display, you can mount it horizontally or vertically, we preffer it vertically.
  3. Wrap the display with the material of your choose (It's up to you so, be creative :)), leaving only an oval over the display.
  4. If you want to add decoration details to make it feel more realistic or customize it, feel free to it.
  5. Portal look & feel done.

Here are some pictures to describe how we do it:

First we open up a hole in a wall to embbed a tv screen inside of it.

Then we configure our computer to display vertically on the tv screen.

We mount the tv inside the hole.

After that we installed a wall with an oval over the hole. (It starts to look good ;))

When the app is running but the streaming is paused, or there is only one client connected, it displays a waving animation that looks pretty cool!

In the bottom part of the hole, we have an apple mac mini computer running the app and an arduino connected to a raspberry to capture the gun remote control signal.

And That is how we do it.

##III. The Gun remote control. (Optional) (Pending) A toy gun was used as a remote control to turn on and off the video and audio transmission to make the experience more like a game. An Arduino Nano and a FM transmitter and receiver were used in the gun to communicate the raspberry pi and the arduino.

Here's what you need:

  • Arduino nano
  • Arduino (uno/nano/mega/etc...)
  • Raspberry pi (2 or higher)
  • FM transmitter and receiver for arduino
  • 9V battery
  • A button
  • A switch
  • A toy gun

First we upload gun.ino into the arduino nano. Then we have to place the circuit inside the gun, basicly the circuit consist in a button and the FM transmitter.

This is how it looks on the inside:

On the receiver side we use an arduino mega/uno/nano and upload receptor.ino. Then we just wire the circuit (Add a 1k resistor between the raspberry and the base of each transistor):

The raspberry pi must run the node file gun.js.

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