ORCA UI

Web-based visualization interface for the ORCA Hand tactile sensors. Uses orca_core for hardware communication.

Installation

This project uses uv. orca_core is installed automatically from the public GitHub repo —

# Creates the virtualenv and installs orca_ui + orca_core (from GitHub)
uv sync

Using a local orca_core dev checkout instead? Edit the [tool.uv.sources] entry in pyproject.toml (instructions are in the comment there), then re-run uv sync.

Usage

By default, the UI runs for the right touch hand:

uv run python -m orca_ui.app

For the left touch hand:

uv run python -m orca_ui.app --side left

To use your own specific config (e.g. a per-hand calibrated copy), point at it with --config. This overrides --side:

uv run python -m orca_ui.app --config /path/to/orcahand-touch/config.yaml

A browser window opens automatically on startup and closes again when you stop the program (Ctrl-C). If a Chromium-based browser (Chrome/Brave/Edge/Chromium) is available it opens a dedicated app window; otherwise your default browser is used (and won't auto-close). Pass --no-browser to disable this and open http://localhost:5001 yourself.

Right and left have different sensor wiring, so the --side you choose (or the config you pass) must match your hardware. The config supplies the finger→sensor-id wiring map and the directory where calibration.yaml (zeroing offsets) is read/written; the --side defaults load the matching config bundled with orca_core.

Mock mode (no hardware)

To try the UI without a touch hand connected, run with --mock. It simulates all five fingers with sine-wave signals on both the resultant force vectors and every taxel:

uv run python -m orca_ui.app --mock

Open the UI and click Connect as usual — the port selector is ignored in mock mode. Useful for UI development, demos, or verifying the install.

Features

• Connection Management: Connect/disconnect to sensor devices
• Sensor Status: View which sensors are connected
• Taxel Counts: Display number of taxels for each sensor
• Force Visualization: Real-time force vectors displayed as arrows and numerical values
• Taxel Visualization: 2D taxel view with magnitude, direction, and arrow display modes
• Zeroing: Capture sensor baseline offsets
• Auto Update: Continuous monitoring of sensor data via WebSocket