In the past, if we wanted to copy some data from a camera object to a bitmap, we would need to draw the data from the display object using flash.display.BitmapData.draw() and then manipulate it in some way. This is problematic at times… if there is no way of knowing whether we have valid bitmap data to draw from! Using Flash Player 11.4, we have a number of alternatives to this workflow which allow us to both listen for an event to fire once a frame is available to have its data harvested, and a number of methods from retrieving the frame data from the camera object in order to manipulate it.

The Challenge Queuing Theory is included in many introductory Operations Management courses and plays an important part in a company minimizing costs and/or improving customer satisfaction. However, the theory tends to be rather dry and the math can be complex and abstract. As a result, learners often struggle to get a good understanding of Queuing Theory and how it can be applied in real-world contexts. Solution Part 1: QueueSim QueueSim is a web application developed with Flash Builder, Photoshop, and InDesign that runs on desktop computers, iPads, and Android Tablets. QueueSim simulates one or more queues for one or more service stations. The graphics in the animation are meant to roughly represent queuing in an Emergency Room. The animated queue and real-time chart are intended to help students get a visceral understanding of queuing, to really see and feel the effects of queues while allowing them to adjust a wide range of parameters to explore different queuing scenarios and how they might better manage these scenarios for better results. Solution Part 2: K-Blocks Simply asking the learners to go play around with QueueSim would not have been effective in drawing out key takeaways, so a set of structured questions was developed in K-Blocks to guide the exploration in QueueSim. K-Blocks is a full-featured Learner Management System created with Flash Builder, Flash Professional, Illustrator, InDesign, and DreamWeaver. K-Blocks enables instructors to quickly create a structured course with a variety of media and question types. The administrator’s app allows for viewing learner responses in both tabular and graphical display to quickly look for any patterns in responses across the class that could merit further discussion for in-class time. For the Queuing Theory unit, three modules were developed. The first presented some basic multiple choice and short answer questions to explore learner intuitions about queues. The questions presented a histogram of all learner responses so the learners can see how their responses align with other learners in the course. Except for one question on calculating the utilization of a service station, “correct” answers were not offered in order to encourage a feeling of exploration and curiosity. Learners began using QueueSim in conjunction with K-Blocks in the last two modules of the Queuing Theory unit. The questions in these modules presented instructions on what to do in QueueSim using the presets and then asked a question about what was observed. After responding, a list of all other learner responses to the question was displayed. The learner could reply to any of the responses or give a thumbs up to responses they found helpful or interesting. K-Blocks draws learners into a crowd sourced learning environment around QueueSim, resulting in a rich, multi-perspective understanding of queuing. QueueSim URL = http://www.bizsimz.com/queuesim/ K-Blocks URL = http://www.kblocks.com/app/ K-Blocks Sign In Info: K-Blocks ID = 8 K-Blocks Password = adobe User Email = demo1@kblocks.com User Password = demo1 Or click Register and enter your email and password (Student ID is not required)

This is an Adobe-Air App created with Adobe Flash Professional CS5.5. The app includes 1500 academic words that appear frequently in academic texts. The app provides learners with the ability to learn these words via powered quizzes, look-ups from the dictionary of their choice, and also offers flash-card like activities to review the words. There is also a search functionality that allows learners to search using any keyword imaginable to find synonyms to the words. The powered quizzes allow learners to focus on words they usually get wrong on the quizzes. Every word has a power number that goes up every time the word is not identified on the quiz correctly. The number goes down when it is identified correctly on the quiz. The app also allows learners partial credit if they can guess the meaning of the word by giving them three tries. This app utilizes the Touch Features available in the Adobe CS 5.5 Flash version. The learners swipe up to look up the word using Google images (to help them see the word in different contexts), or swipe down to close the app. Swiping left displays the next word in the built-in dictionary, and swiping right brings up the previous word in the dictionary. Learners can also define their dictionary of choice to as a method to look up the meaning of the word, in addition to the built-in dictionary.

Starling is an ActionScript 3 2D framework developed on top of the Stage3D APIs (available on desktop in Flash Player 11 and Adobe AIR 3). Starling is mainly designed for game development, but could be used for many other use cases. Starling makes it possible to write fast GPU accelerated applications without having to touch the low-level Stage3D APIs. Most Flash developers want to be able to leverage GPU acceleration (through Stage3D) without the need to write such higher-level frameworks and dig into the low-level Stage3D APIs. Starling is completely designed after the Flash Player APIs and abstracts the complexity of Stage3D (Molehill) and allows easy and intuitive programming for everyone. Obviously Starling is for ActionScript 3 developers, especially those involved in 2D game development; of course you will need to have a basic understanding of ActionScript 3. By its design (lightweight, flexible and simple), Starling can be used also be used for other use cases like UI programming. That said, everything is designed to be as intuitive as possible, so any Java™ or .Net™ developer will get the hang of it quickly as well.