Section: New Software and Platforms

WildOS

Participant : Michel Beaudouin-Lafon [correspondant] .

WildOS is middleware to support applications running in an interactive room featuring various interaction resources, such as our WILD and WILDER rooms: a tiled wall display, a motion tracking system, tablets and smartphones, etc. The conceptual model of WildOS is a platform, such as the WILD or WILDER room, described as a set of devices and on which one or more applications can be run.

WildOS consists of a server running on a machine that has network access to all the machines involved in the platform, and a set of clients running on the various interaction resources, such as a display cluster or a tablet. Once WildOS is running, applications can be started and stopped and devices can be added to / removed from the platform.

WildOS relies on Web technologies, most notably Javascript and node.js, as well as node-webkit and HTML5. This makes it inherently portable (it is currently tested on Mac OS X and Linux). While applications can be developed only with these Web technologies, it is also possible to bridge to existing applications developed in other environments if they provide sufficient access to be remote controlled.

WildOS is used in several InSitu projects, and is also deployed on several of Google's interactive rooms in Mountain View, Dublin and Paris. It is available under on Open Source licence at https://bitbucket.org/mblinsitu/wildos .

• ACM: H.5.2 [User Interfaces]: Graphical user interfaces (GUI)

• Software benefit: helps the development of multisurface applications.

• OS/Middleware: Crossplatform

• Required library or software: node.js, node-webkit

• Programming language: Javascript