1/27/2015
Combining Tableau, reveal.js and gesture.js
"These aren't the Droids You're Looking For". Just like Obi Wan Kenobi's Jedi mind trick hand wave in Star Wars, we can wave our hand and transition through slides in reveal.js including slides with Tableau workbooks. A few days ago, I posted about combining Tableau with reveal.js featuring Mark Jackson's Tableau Public visualization on Urbanizing China. This post outlines the same presentation methods, but I've now added gesture.js. Gesture utilizes the webcam as a sensor for gestures to control the slide presentation. This technology is not perfect, but it does work once you get the hang of the gestures.
A few notes:
1.) Requires the Chrome browser to work.
2.) Good lighting for the webcam seems to make a big difference.
3.) My first version of the presentation had a black background. I found that a dark background was ghosting the webcam on the screen. When I changed this to a lighter or white background this was resolved.
4.) It takes a little practice to figure out the optimal motion for the webcam. The motions don't need to be big motions.
Click here to see the original presentation with Tableau and reveal.js.
Click here to see the presentation now with gesture.js.
I will plan some additional posts to walk through a step-by-step guide. This technique is probably not all that useful for Tableau visualizations that are embedded in the slides if they are meant to be interactive. However, it's still interesting and fun.
I hope you find this information useful. If you have any questions feel free to email me at Jeff@DataPlusScience.com
