TouchDesigner & Arduino

You can use Arduino to send (sensor) data to TouchDesigner and vice versa.

For example, you might want to measure the light condition of a room and use this data to trigger something in TouchDesigner. Or you might want to be able to have a light bulb react to a sound file, or a motor spin in sync with a projection.

Using Serial Communication

Serial communication is a method for transferring data between devices. It is able to send data sequentially over a wire. In this case the USB cable that connects your Arduino with the computer running TouchDesigner.
For this example we are getting sensor data from a LDR and a Ultrasonic sensor, sensing light values and distance.

Arduino to TouchDesigner

Arduino wiring and code

 
//LDR PIN and VARIABLE
int sensorPin = A0; // select the input pin for LDR
int sensorValue = 0; // variable to store the value coming from the sensor
//ULTRASONIC SENSOR PIN and VARIABLEs
const int trigPin = 2;
const int echoPin = 3;
long duration;
int distance;

void setup() {
  //start serial communication
  Serial.begin(9600); //sets serial port for communication
 
 //define ultrasonic sensor pin as in or out 
  pinMode(trigPin, OUTPUT); // Sets the trigPin as an Output
  pinMode(echoPin, INPUT); // Sets the echoPin as an Input
}

void loop() {
  //getting sensor data from LDR 
      sensorValue = analogRead(sensorPin); // read the value from the sensor

  //getting sensor data from ultrasonic sensor 
      // Clears the trigPin
      digitalWrite(trigPin, LOW);
      delayMicroseconds(2);
      // Sets the trigPin on HIGH state for 10 micro seconds
      digitalWrite(trigPin, HIGH);
      delayMicroseconds(10);
      digitalWrite(trigPin, LOW);
      // Reads the echoPin, returns the sound wave travel time in microseconds
      duration = pulseIn(echoPin, HIGH);
      // Calculating the distance
      distance = duration * 0.034 / 2;
      
   // Prints and sends the LDR and distance sensor values on the serial monitor on two separate lines 
      Serial.println(sensorValue); 
      Serial.println(distance);
}