Control: Software for End-User Interface Programming and Interactive Performance
Charles Roberts · University of Michigan Library Repository · 2011
The author presents Control, a software application for mobile devices enabling users to define custom graphical user interfaces for transmitting both OSC and MIDI.Unlike other similar mobile applications, interfaces are defined using web standards such as HTML, CSS and JavaScript.The widgets that come predefined with Control can be extended by users via JavaScript; scripting can also be used by users to define new widgets from scratch.The ability to add user defined scripting provides flexibility, dynamism and sophistication to interfaces that is absent in other mobile interface applications.Control is free to download from the Apple App Store and will also be freely available from the Android Market by the time this paper is published.Devices running Control can be automatically discovered on a network; once this occurs servers can "push" interfaces to them that are ready for immediate use.Bi-directional communication with Control also allows servers to update widget values and dynamically restructure interfaces on the fly.These features make it ideal for audience interaction pieces and installation art as participants can download the software for free, be pushed a custom interface and quickly begin interacting with a work.This paper will describe the advantages and disadvantages of Control over other interface applications for mobile devices.