In the last 2 weeks I've been kind of out of range for everyone... I started working for a company ( Unfortunately not a a11y work ) and I haven't had time to get on-line, but it doesn't mean I haven't worked on my real passion (A11y) even if I haven't dedicated the time I would like. Anyway, I wanted to give some updates about mousetrap and what I've been doing for it.

In the last 2 weeks I've been re-factoring ( Unfortunately just in the nights and weekends ) some of the mousetrap's modules.

In the Events Module:

The active ticket is: http://mousetrap.flaper87.org/trac/ticket/15

The ticked is based on the creation of a new events handler for mousetrap changing the old conditional method for an asynchronous functions based one that will handle the different mousetrap's states.

In the settings module:

The active ticket is: http://mousetrap.flaper87.org/trac/ticket/14

The ticket suggests the change of the current settings handler for the internal python settings handler . The python internal settings manager reads a simple script with a known format and make it easy to load, reload and save settings

In the Cam module:

The active ticket is: http://mousetrap.flaper87.org/trac/ticket/5

The idea is to create a security system for the cam module that will keep the track of what's happening in this module, and give fallback support if anything goes wrong.

Hopefully all this will be ready for the release of version 0.4 ( 30/09/2008 ).

Well, These are the last news I hope you all like them and if any of you wants to help just mail me. XD

Yes It's true!!!

An Accessibility planet has born.

After a week of hard work we definitely can announce Planet-A11y. It is a Planet ( Web feed aggregator ) that will collect all accessibility posts from all the accessibility heroes. YES Heroes, because there's people that work really hard making technology accessible for everyone.

So.. If you are one of those heroes and have a blog where you talk about it go and register it in the accessibility planet.

The urls you should visit:

http://www.planet-a11y.net (The Planet)

http://www.planet-a11y.net/?page=3 (F.A.Q)

http://www.planet-a11y.net/?page=4 ( How to use Planet-A11y )

"The Uphill Climb isn’t so steep anymore…" This is the title used by Bryen Yunashko in one of his latests posts where he expresses what is really happening in the a11y world and what people should know before posting such ridiculous jobs requirements.

This is the bryen's post link: http://www.bryen.com/?p=47

READ IT!!!

Hi all!!

Yes! It's true, I'm releasing the mouseTrap version 0.2 so it can be downloaded by anyone.

What offers mouseTrap version 0.2:

* Complete control of the mouse pointer via webcam.

* Mouse Movements

* Mouse Clicks events ( left, double, drag/drop, middle, right... Scroll Up/Down coming in the coming revisions )

* Compatibility with other Assistive technologies ( MouseTweaks, GOK)

* Multi Desktop Manager application ( Tested with: Gnome, E17 and OpenBox W.M )

* Complete Documentation for developers ( using --enable-pydoc and --enable-doxygen for building it )

* more......

The Code:

It is written in python using OpenCV library, and can be browsed from:

http://mousetrap.flaper87.org/trac/

Or downloaded using the subversion repository:


svn checkout http://svn.flaper87.org/mousetrap mousetrap

Installation:

MouseTrap uses the autotools for the installation process, so it is as easy as doing:


$ ./autogen.sh && make

AS ROOT:

# make install

Suggestions:

Read the README file :D

Coming on future versions:

* Eye tracking

* More Stability

* Different clicking methods.

* mouseTrap Art ( Icons, Images ) ( Any help needed!! )

Well, I really hope you like it and I'll be waiting for your feedback ( please write me to: flaper87 [at] flaper87 [dot] org )

Thanks all

Español:

Bueno acá dejo un vídeo realmente corto para demostrar el funcionamiento de mouseTrap con aplicaciones como OpenOffice Draw, el diseño que realizo es un simple cuadrado mostrando el uso del panel de click y específicamente el click Drag and Drop.

Disfrútenlo!!

English:

Well, Here's the video showing how to use mouseTrap for drawing in applications like OpenOffice Draw.The design is a simple square showing the use of the buttons click panel and specifically the Drag and Drop click method.

Enjoy!!

Italiano:

Ecco qua un piccolo video di come funziona mouseTrap con applicazioni stile OpenOffice Draw. Si fa vedere l'uso del panello di click e specificamente l'uso del click Drag and Drop.

Spero vi piaccia!!

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rjyEouT-Hw

Well Here's a short video showing the first mouseTrap mouth Click.

I hope you like it.

Acá les dejo un pequeño vídeo con el primer click ejecutado con mouseTrap.

Espero que les guste.

URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfNRS1oSb34

Hi!!

I've been programming the httpServer and the dbusServer for mouseTrap and I wanted to share how simple is communicate with our applications using dbus and its python bindings.

The piece of code we are interested in is this:

import dbus
import gobject
import dbus.service
from dbus.mainloop.glib import DBusGMainLoop

main_loop = DBusGMainLoop()
bus = dbus.SessionBus(mainloop=main_loop)

DBUS_NAME = "org.myApp"
DBUS_PATH = "/org/myApp"

class myAppdBus(dbus.service.Object):
    """
    Our dbus Class
    """

    def __init__( self ):
        """
        Starting the dbus service.
        """
        global bus
        bus_name = dbus.service.BusName(DBUS_NAME, bus=bus)
        dbus.service.Object.__init__(self, bus_name, DBUS_PATH)

    @dbus.service.method(DBUS_NAME)
    def do( self ):
        """
        Function to execute using dbus service
        """
        print "do function has been called using dbus service"


class myApp:

    def __init__(self):
        self.loop = gobject.MainLoop()
        d = myAppdBus()

    def start(self):
        self.loop.run()


if __name__ == '__main__':
    app = myApp()
    app.start()

It is a simple script with 2 classes. The main class called myApp will call the dbus class (myAppdBus) and will start the applications main loop. The second class (myAppdBus) is the dbus class, it starts the service and register the methods that can be called using dbus.

The script can be executed like this (in my case the name of the script is dbus_script.py):


$ python dbus_script.py


After running the script it is possible to execute the do function like this:


$ dbus-send --reply-timeout=30000 --print-reply --dest=org.myApp /org/myApp org.myApp.do


This last command will show us the information related to the call we just executed. The output is something like:

flaper87@r4-p17:~$ dbus-send --reply-timeout=30000 --print-reply --dest=org.myApp
/org/myApp org.myApp.do
method return sender=:1.6 -> dest=:1.7 reply_serial=2

Ass you can the classes are really simple and show an easy way to communicate with our applications using dbus. There are a lot of options a tweaks that can be implemented so it's all in you hands now.

Good Luck.

P.S: Quick post, isn't it? :P

mouseTrap: This is the name of my new application. It is being developed using python and its main and most important function is allow users to control their mouse using a Web Cam and their faces by tracking specific points of the face previously detected. It is also capable to perform clicks and all the mouse options (at least it will). At this moment it is completely capable to perform mouse movements using at-spi's python bindings (pyatspi).

1) History:

mouseTrap started as a simple widgetsTrap (read bellow), while the development advanced new ideas were coming and one of them was the idea of creating an application to move the mouse with the head using a simple and low cost web cam. After doing some research I found OpenCV ( base library of mouseTrap ). After downloading and testing OpenCV I found out that it is capable to do amazing things including face detection. After this I just performed some other tests and apply everything into mouseTrap and so the Web Cam feature became the main function of it.

2) Project Main Goal:

The main goal of the project is to become a completely accessible application for people with movement impairments and so take care of that important part of accessibility that wasn't covered until now. With this, It's possible to expand even more the Assistive Technology and Computer Accessibility and so make the technology accessible for more people.

3) What does mouseTrap use to model the head movement into mouse movement?

It calculates the 2D coordinates variation of the face movement on the Web Cam image and after that it executes the required movements with the pointer. It is a really simple calculation that gives an absolute and flexible control. The required movement is completely customizable by the user through the gtk based GUI.

4) Other Important Features:

• WidgetsTrap: The widgetsTrap is a time-out focus executer feature that catches all the selectable and focusable widgets of the current window ( Desktop or any other application ) and if the mouse hasn't been moved in the setted time-out the nearest selectable or focusable widget will be focused. A demonstration video can be found here
• HttpServer: It is a basic httpServer to communicate with mouseTrap using command line ( wget ) or a simple web browser.
• KeyBindings: Yes Keybindings! The keybindings let the user perform some extra mouseTrap actions like, re-detect points, enable/disable features and so on...
• Mousebindings: There are also mousebindings for the main or most important actions ( like re-detect points ) so the can be executed using the Web Cam too requiring less movement.
• Internationalisation: multi language support.

5) Future Features:

• Eyetraking: This is the most important feature to implement, hopefully in a short future. This will allow the user to move the mouse just with the eyes, just watching the point in the screen where the mouse should be moved.
• Plugins Interface: a simple interface for plugins implementations.
• More Features to add soon...

I've recorded a Demo Video where is possible to appreciate how mouseTrap works. [video here]

There is a lot more to write, but i wanted to give a resume.

I hope you like the Video and even better the project.

Best Regards to all.

P.S: SPONSORS, Ideas, Suggestions, Opinions, Helps, DESIGNERS are welcomed so don't think twice and feel free to submit a comment or mail me to: flaper87 at flaper87 dot com    :P

Video on youtube:

Latest videos:

First MouseTrap Click: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfNRS1oSb34

MouseTrap + MouseTweaks: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqaT0YhPpjU

MouseTrap + MouseTweaks using screen mode: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5jPzbCIlOE