Watch_me

Create mobile apps for Android phones and tablets faster and more easily than you ever imagined. Use “Processing,” the free, award-winning, graphics-savvy language and development environment, to work with the touchscreens, hardware sensors, cameras, network transceivers, and other devices and software in the latest Android phones and tablets.

Buy Now

Select a DRM-free Format:

In Stock
In Stock
In Stock
Buy the eBook and get these DRM-free formats delivered immediately:
  • epub (for iPhone/iPad, Android, eReaders)
  • mobi (for Kindle)
  • PDF
We can automatically send them to your Kindle or Dropbox, and for a social reading experience we can link the book to your Readmill account. (You'll need to log in to enable these options.)
 

About this Book

  • 392 pages
  • Published:
  • Release: P1.0 (2013-04-24)
  • ISBN: 978-1-93778-506-2

Whether you’re a student, teacher, hobbyist, or experienced developer, Rapid Android Development puts the fast-growing market for Android phone and tablet applications within your reach. Without needing to master the complexities of Java, Eclipse, or the Android SDK, you’ll find yourself writing dazzling graphics displays and location-aware programs in no time.

With more than 40 ready-to-run demos, applications, and games, you’ll find yourself diving deeper than you thought possible into the treasure trove of software and hardware packed into today’s Android devices. You’ll learn how to:

  • Access the Android touch screen, keyboard, and gestures to create eye-popping user experiences.
  • Tap into Android’s on-board sensors for orientation, location, motion, geolocation, and more to build environment-aware applications.
  • Use Android’s built-in networking devices to access the Internet, network with nearby Android devices, and interact with NFC-formatted RFID tags.
  • Create OpenGL accelerated 2D and 3D graphics.
  • Integrate camera images, video, and face-detection into your mobile apps.
  • Take selected apps cross-platform with new Processing support for HTML 5 and JavaScript.

And once the prototyping is done, you can easily move your work to Eclipse for debugging and deployment.

What You Need:

Users will need to install Version 2.0 of the Processing open source language and environment, a free download at processing.org. Readers also need to install the free Android SDK (Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0 or higher) and the Ketai library for Processing. An Android phone or tablet is required to test most of the examples in the book.

Contents and Extracts

Full Table of Contents

Preface

  • Getting Started with the Touch Screen and Android Sensors
    • Getting Started
    • Working With The Touch Screen Display excerpt
    • Using Motion and Position Sensors
  • Working with Camera and Location Devices
    • Using Geolocation and Compass
    • Using Android Cameras excerpt
  • Using Peer-To-Peer Networking
    • Networking Devices with WiFi
    • Peer-To-Peer Networking Using Bluetooth and WiFi Direct
    • Using Near Field Communication (NFC) excerpt
  • Working with Data
    • Working With Data
    • Using SQLiteDatabases
  • Creating 3D Graphics and Cross-platform Apps
    • Creating 3D Graphics
    • Writing Cross-platform Apps In Processing.js

About the Author

Daniel Sauter is an artist and educator with eight years of experience teaching Processing. His work has been shown internationally in numerous exhibitions in the U.S., Europe, and Asia. Daniel is an Associate Professor of New Media Arts at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and organizer of the Chicago Mobile Processing Conference.

Upcoming Author Events

Comments and Reviews

  • I highly recommend this book; there is no other text on Processing and Android quite like it on the market. It is extremely exhaustive and well structured, and it avoids the pitfalls of preaching to the converted or assuming too much prior knowledge. It is not a small thing to write for experienced creative coders and n00bs alike. Daniel Sauter clearly knows his stuff.

    —Jesse Scott Adjunct Faculty, Interaction Design and Smartphone Development Emily Carr University of Art + Design and Langara College

  • Rapid Android Development successfully aims at a wide audience—from beginners to experienced developers. I recommend it to anyone who wants to use Processing to develop Android apps, especially creative coders who will be inspired by the diverse techniques for mobile development that fill this book.

    —Andrés Colubri Computational Researcher, Harvard University and Fathom Information Design

  • Even if you think you know Processing for Android, this book will still teach you something new, be it 3D, data storage methods, or networking techniques. It provides a solid framework from which aspiring Android developers can launch into developing apps, all while being enjoyable to read.

    —William Smith Moderator, Processing Forum

  • Daniel Sauter’s Rapid Android Development provides a serious guide to using the platform for creative coding that Processing provides for leveraging the full potential of Android devices. Advanced graphics, gestures and sensors are only the tip of the iceberg, and you will find yourself diving into sophisticated sensor-based applications, games and art-ware, learning a host of techniques for coding and even publishing them in Google’s Play market. This book is invaluable!

    —Jesus Duran Artist, educator, and CTO, Ketai LLC

  • Whether used for education, application prototyping or just plain fun, Processing for Android is easy to learn and can produce truly stunning visual results. If you don’t have time or interest to learn the intricacies of Android OpenGL, radios and sensor programming, but want to benefit from all the magic that these technologies have to offer, this book provides the shortest and most informative path toward achieving that goal.

    —Mike Riley Author, Programming Your Home