{"id":2528,"date":"2014-10-16T14:01:39","date_gmt":"2014-10-16T21:01:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.digilentinc.com\/?p=2528"},"modified":"2015-08-03T17:40:09","modified_gmt":"2015-08-04T00:40:09","slug":"who-is-labview-hacker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/digilent.com\/blog\/who-is-labview-hacker\/","title":{"rendered":"Who is LabVIEW Hacker?"},"content":{"rendered":"

LabVIEW Hacker<\/a> is an organization that has created a pretty awesome set of tools that\u00a0make it easy to program an interface with various devices. The LabVIEW Hacker libraries are add-ons for LabVIEW, so if you want to learn more you need to know little bit about LabVIEW first.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What is LabVIEW?<\/strong><\/p>\n

So what exactly is LabVIEW<\/a>? LabVIEW is National Instruments\u2019 program development environment.\u00a0 The name is short for \u201claboratory virtual instrument engineering workbench\u201d.\u00a0 NI created LabVIEW to enable domain experts to focus on building systems by abstracting the hardware and software. \u00a0For example, their hardware and software allows a chemist to focus on chemistry and not get bogged down with analog signal conditioning for thermal couples or advanced programming techniques.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The software has two distinct features worth mentioning \u00a0which are, its GUI builder, and graphical coding system. Unlike most other development environments, \u00a0LabVIEW focuses on implementing code by connecting inputs and outputs of graphical blocks, rather than by organizing lines of text. The graphical language itself is referred to as G by most labVIEW users. On top of a graphical coding system, LabVIEW lets you seamlessly create a GUI interface alongside your code. Creating the GUI is so simple and intuitive it almost seems to build itself alongside your program!<\/p>\n

\"\"
An example of a GUI interface in LabVIEW with its corresponding code.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Who is LabVIEW Hacker?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Now that you have a little background on LabVIEW, lets talk about what LabVIEW Hacker has done. Basically, LabVIEW Hacker (LVH for short) has created free open source add-ons for LabVIEW that lets you control and interface with various maker friendly devices. In a sense LVH has the same goals as LabVIEW, just with a different target audience in mind. \u00a0The libraries they create are intended to allow Makers to focus on building their overall projects where they have expertise and prevent them from getting caught up in small technical details. For example, if you have an idea for a project using a Kinect, but don’t know how go about interfacing with one, LabVIEW Hacker provides a library and example project<\/a> to help get you started.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The libraries currently available aren’t only limited to the Kinect. Below is list of all the things that are currently supported.<\/p>\n