Spacebrew: The Overview

Spacebrew Workshop - NYU ITP - Brett Renfer
Spacebrew

Spacebrew Basics

Obligatory hype video!

Spacebrew…
• is a service and toolkit for
choreographing interactive spaces
• makes it easy to connect interactive
things to one another
• was developed to support prototyping-
driven design efforts

Spacebrew at SFPC - Brett Renfer
Spacebrew is supported by a
group of amazing people.

Arduino Day - NYU ITP - Brett Renfer & Julio Terra
Remote Presence Experiments
Havas Madsci Lab
Whispering Stairs,
Shu Yang Lin
Next Round
Gustavo Faria, Bernardo Schorr and Stephanie Burgess
Forget Me Not Remote Flower Watering,
Lucy Matchett, Joselyn McDonald, Nicole Messier

“Landing Page”, Mountain View, CA, 2010 
with LAB at Rockwell Group

JS
Libraries
Spacebrew aims to be
implementation agnostic. 
We want to use the right tools
at the right time!

Why?
• We’ve used a lot of “glue” languages/
toolkits in the past, but there wasn’t one
that was truly cross-platform/cross-toolkit. 
• Wanted to build a toolkit with a low floor
and a high ceiling: easy for speed
prototypes, advanced enough to handle
commercial applications.

client
app
client
app
client
app
client
app
Client-Server Model
Each client can feature one or
more publishers and subscribers.
The server can be hosted online
or run on a local network (more
on that later).

client
app
client
app
client
app
client
app
Client-Server Model
Clients communicate with the
server via WebSockets. All data
is formatted as JSON

Client-Server Model
The server routes all publishers
and subscribers. Routes can be
edited via a switchboard-like
interface

Data Types
Three standard types allow for
quick and easy routing.
Custom types are also supported
= true or false
= 0-1023
= “some text”

Publishers + Subscribers
Each client announces its
publishers and subscribers to
the server when it launches
client app
Publishers:
...
Subscribers:
...

This announcement includes the
name and type of each, allowing
for semantic relationships and
automatic routing between
different apps (respectively!)
client app
Publishers
Subscribers
CUSTOM
BOOLEAN
RANGE
RANGE
STRING

Names of publishers and
subscribers can be anything. 
 
We try to make them make some
sort of sense…
client app
Publishers
Subscribers
“TEXT”
“MOVING”
“COLOR”
“TONE”
“POINT”

Messages
Apps send Messages out on a
publisher route. Each Message
contains the name and value.
Messages of a custom type also
include their type.
client app
Name: “MOVING”
Value: FALSE

Messages
Apps receive Messages from the
Spacebrew server on a
subscribers route. Each Message
contains the name and value
matching a route in the app.
Messages of a custom type also
include their type.
client app
Name: “TEXT”
Value: “Hey!”

Messages, Illustrated
client
app A
client
app B
App with boolean
publisher “MOVING”
Route between
A:”MOVING” and
B:”BG ON”
App with boolean
subscriber “BG ON”

Messages, Illustrated
client
app A
Name: “MOVING”
Value: FALSE
Name: “BG ON”
Value: FALSE
client
app B

Using Spacebrew

Spacebrew Libraries
Each Spacebrew library:
• Connects to a Spacebrew server via WebSockets
• Has an API to declare its publisher(s) and
subscriber(s)
• Receives messages from Spacebrew and dispatches
events accordingly

Spacebrew Libraries
Connecting to Spacebrew in each Library
• Create a Spacebrew Object
• Tell your object the IP or hostname of the
Spacebrew server
• Declare any publishers and subscribers
• Connect

Spacebrew + Processing
• spacebrewP5 is a Spacebrew-supported library 
• install the library from 
spacebrewP5/dist/spacebrew to  
~/Documents/Processing/libraries  
(make the folder if it doesn’t exist!) 
• restart Processing if it was open 
• open the spacebrew_base example to get started!

Thinking About Apps
• We try to silo apps whenever possible
• Create specialized apps that are easy to re-use
• Allows for multiple languages for each need
• Quickly and easily move between machines/
networks when necessary
• Allows for easy prototypes in the future!

Spacebrew + Javascript
• spacebrew.js is a stand-alone script that can run in
any browser that supports WebSockets 
• this includes: Chrome (OS X, Windows, Android,
iOS), Safari (OS X, iOS), Firefox, Opera, IE 10 
• open the spacebrew slider example in your text editor 
• open http://bit.ly/sbslide on your smartphone 
• also try http://bit.ly/sbaccel

Spacebrew + Javascript
• spacebrew.js uses query strings to dynamically pass in
the name, server, and description: 
 
http://YOUR_APP.com/index.html?name=NAME&server=SERVER 
• The first query string always starts with “?” and the
rest with “&”. They follow the format &NAME=VALUE 
• Any app that uses spacebrew.js can do this!

Spacebrew + openFrameworks
• ofxSpacebrew connects to Spacebrew via
ofxLibwebsockets 
• once you have both installed, you can create
ofxSpacebrew projects via the OF project generator 
• let’s look at example_button

Spacebrew + Arduino
• Two routes: 
• the easy road: use Processing + Serial or Firmata 
• the road less travelled: Spacebrew Arduino lib 
 
http://github.com/labatrockwell/spacebrew-arduino-library 
• requires Arduino Ethernet shield
• notoriously difficult to debug!

Questions?

Lunch O’Clock

Custom Types

Spacebrew Collab - Parsons D + T - Brett Renfer & Julio Terra
Custom Types
• Spacebrew supports arbitrary type names  
and data  
(anything that reads as valid JSON will work)
• Similar to built-in types, you can only
route to matching types 
• Example: “float” cannot route to “number”

Example: Ultrabook Tree
• Each input station sent a
custom “bloom” object:
• Which image (id)
• Number of laptops
• Radius
• Relative position (x,y)
• Velocity
• Rotation

Custom Type Demo 1
• Break free of the tyranny of the int:  
let’s send some floats!

Custom Types: Basics
• Set up Spacebrew pub + sub as usual, 
but use any name (e.g. float)
• Add the onCustomMessage function to listen
• When you send, do two things:
1. Make sure you use your custom type!
2. Cast your custom data to a string

Custom Type Demo 2
• JSON in Processing
• Why JSON?
• It’s a simple way to send arbitrary
objects
• Spacebrew uses it, so all libs have some
sort of JSON library included (if there
isn’t one built in)

Quick JSON primer
• JSON is a simple way to write out objects
• JSON is made up of name-value pairs
• Names are strings (in quotes!)
• Values can be numbers, strings, booleans,
arrays, null (empty), or objects

Quick JSON primer
• { = start an object
• } = end an object
• : = between all names and their value
• , = between all name-value pairs 
 
{ 
“x”:0, 
“y”:0 
}

Quick JSON primer
{
"name":"cool object",
"position":{
"x":0,
"y":0
},
"candy I like":[
"twizzlers",
"ginger snaps"
]
}

You Got Served

Running Your Own Server
• Why? 
• sandbox.spacebrew.cc is on the slowest AWS tier
• Running over the internet introduces some level
of latency
• Running a local server OR a remote server allows
a level of control: only people you choose can
route/reroute, break your routes, etc
• Allows you to customize the server code if  
you choose!

• How?
• Setup! Only needs to be done once 
• Download and install nodejs: www.nodejs.org
• Install node dependencies:
• npm install ws
• npm install forever-monitor

• How?
• Run! What you’ll do every time: 
• In terminal, cd to the spacebrew directory
• Run: node node_server_forever.js

Running Your Own Server Online
• How?
• If you want to set up your own remote server, we
recommend this tutorial (by fellow ITPers!): 
https://vimeo.com/60001410

Persistence
• Another advantage of running your own server is you
can use the persistent admin
• The persistent admin is a separate service that
lets you edit, save, load, and persist routes
• It allows you to specify specific app routings: 
coolApp -> coolPub to lameApp -> lameSub
• It also allows for powerful wild card routings: 
.* -> coolPub to .* -> lameSub
• This routes any app that publishes “coolPub” to
any other app that subscribes to “lameSub”

Persistence
• You can run the persistent admin from the spacebrew
directory: 
node node_persistent_admin.js
• From the command line, you can list, add, remove, load,
and save routes:
• list: ls 
• add: add client1Name,pub,client2Name,sub
• use .* to create a wildcard 
• remove: remove [index]
• you can find an index after add or by listing 
• save / load (just that!)
• load is called on start automatically

Binary
• A bleeding-edge feature of Spacebrew is sending
binary data 
• The sandbox server does not allow you to send
binary data, but your own server does! 
• Let’s check out the javascript and openFrameworks
image examples

Admin

The Admin API
• You don’t just have to use our web interface!
• Javascript, openFrameworks and Cinder (Processing
soon) support the Admin API
• The Admin API subscribes to Spacebrew similar to a
client, firing events each time a client connects/
disconnects or changes its pub/sub map
• It allows you to view, edit, and add any and all
routes in real time!
• This allows for apps like the Admin Randomizer
from the Zip! Zap! Zow! exercise

The Admin API
• Try it out: http://bit.ly/sbslider-admin 
• Let’s look at the Admin API in Javascript

The End
@robotconscience
brett@robotconscience.com

Spacebrew: The Overview

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