Board SDK Integration

Expert knowledge of the Board SDK for Unity, enabling touch input, piece detection, and hardware integration for the Board multi-touch display.

Board Hardware Overview

Board is a specialized multi-touch display with:

• Unlimited touch tracking - No 10-touch limit
• ML-powered piece recognition - Physical game pieces with conductive glyphs
• Noise rejection - Filters palms, wrists, elbows automatically
• 1920×1080 resolution - 16:9 landscape display

Core Concepts

Contact Types

Type	Description
Finger	Standard touch point from a finger
Glyph	Contact from a physical Piece with conductive pattern

Contact Phases

Phase	Description
Began	Contact started this frame
Moved	Position or orientation changed
Stationary	Held in place, no change
Ended	Lifted from surface
Canceled	Tracking interrupted

Pieces and Glyphs

• Piece: Physical object with conductive glyph on base (no electronics)
• Glyph: Unique pattern identifying the Piece
• Piece Set: Collection of Pieces trained together (one active at a time)
• Model: .tflite ML file for recognizing a Piece Set

SDK Components

BoardInput (Touch Input)

Primary input API for contacts and glyphs:

using Board.Input;

// Get all active contacts of a type
BoardContact[] fingers = BoardInput.GetActiveContacts(BoardContactType.Finger);
BoardContact[] pieces = BoardInput.GetActiveContacts(BoardContactType.Glyph);

// Get all contacts regardless of type
BoardContact[] all = BoardInput.GetActiveContacts();

BoardContact Properties

Property	Type	Description
Id	int	Unique contact ID (persistent during lifecycle)
Position	Vector2	Screen position in pixels
Phase	ContactPhase	Current lifecycle state
Type	BoardContactType	Finger or Glyph
Orientation	float	Rotation angle (glyphs only)
IsTouched	bool	Whether piece is being held (glyphs only)
GlyphId	int	Specific glyph identifier (glyphs only)

BoardSession (Players)

Manage player profiles and sessions:

using Board.Session;

// Get current players
var players = BoardSession.GetPlayers();
foreach (var player in players)
{
    string name = player.Name;
    Texture2D avatar = player.Avatar;
}

BoardApplication (System)

System integration features:

using Board.Core;

// Show pause screen
BoardApplication.ShowPauseScreen();

// Check if paused
bool isPaused = BoardApplication.IsPaused;

BoardSaveGameManager (Save Data)

Persistent storage per player:

using Board.Save;

// Save game data
BoardSaveGameManager.Save("slot1", saveData);

// Load game data
var loaded = BoardSaveGameManager.Load("slot1");

Input Handling Pattern

In This Project

InputManager.cs is the ONLY file that imports Board.Input:

namespace ZeroDayAttack.Input
{
    using Board.Input;

    public class InputManager : MonoBehaviour
    {
        public static InputManager Instance { get; private set; }

        // Events for other systems
        public event Action<BoardContact> OnContactBegan;
        public event Action<BoardContact> OnContactMoved;
        public event Action<BoardContact> OnContactEnded;

        void Update()
        {
            var contacts = BoardInput.GetActiveContacts();
            foreach (var contact in contacts)
            {
                switch (contact.Phase)
                {
                    case ContactPhase.Began:
                        OnContactBegan?.Invoke(contact);
                        break;
                    case ContactPhase.Moved:
                        OnContactMoved?.Invoke(contact);
                        break;
                    case ContactPhase.Ended:
                        OnContactEnded?.Invoke(contact);
                        break;
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

Token Detection

TokenManager.cs subscribes to InputManager events:

void Start()
{
    InputManager.Instance.OnContactBegan += HandleContactBegan;
}

void HandleContactBegan(BoardContact contact)
{
    if (contact.Type == BoardContactType.Glyph)
    {
        // Map glyph to token
        var token = MapGlyphToToken(contact.GlyphId);
        // Convert screen to world position
        Vector3 worldPos = Camera.main.ScreenToWorldPoint(
            new Vector3(contact.Position.x, contact.Position.y, 10));
        // Snap to nearest edge node
        SnapTokenToNode(token, worldPos);
    }
}

Simulator

Test without hardware using Board's Simulator:

1. Open Board > Input > Simulator
2. Enable Simulation
3. Use mouse to simulate touches
4. Place virtual pieces

Simulator Features

• Mouse clicks = finger touches
• Keyboard shortcuts for piece placement
• Virtual glyph positioning

Coordinate Conversion

Screen to World

// Board SDK provides screen pixels (origin bottom-left)
Vector2 screenPos = contact.Position;

// Convert to world coordinates
Vector3 worldPos = Camera.main.ScreenToWorldPoint(
    new Vector3(screenPos.x, screenPos.y, 10));

World to Grid

// World position to grid coordinates
int gridX = Mathf.FloorToInt((worldPos.x - LayoutConfig.GridLeft) / LayoutConfig.TileSize);
int gridY = Mathf.FloorToInt((worldPos.y - LayoutConfig.GridBottom) / LayoutConfig.TileSize);

Glyph ID Mapping

Map Board SDK glyph IDs to game tokens:

// In TokenDatabase or TokenManager
Dictionary<int, TokenData> glyphToToken = new()
{
    { 1, redAttack },
    { 2, redExploit },
    { 3, redGhost },
    { 4, blueAttack },
    { 5, blueExploit },
    { 6, blueGhost }
};

UI Input Considerations

BoardUIInputModule

When using Unity UI on Board:

// Replace standard InputSystemUIInputModule with BoardUIInputModule
// The SDK blocks system touch events

This is required because Board SDK intercepts touch input before Unity's standard input system.

Best Practices

Isolation

Keep Board SDK imports isolated to InputManager:

• Other scripts subscribe to InputManager events
• Enables testing without hardware
• Prevents SDK coupling

Coordinate Handling

Always convert coordinates:

• SDK provides screen pixels
• Game logic uses world units
• Grid positions use integer coordinates

Contact Lifecycle

Track contacts properly:

• Store contacts by ID on Began
• Update position on Moved
• Clean up on Ended or Canceled

Touch State

Use IsTouched for gameplay:

• true = piece being held/moved by player
• false = piece resting on surface

Additional Resources

Reference Files

For comprehensive SDK documentation:

• Documentation/Board-SDK-Documentation/ - Full SDK reference
  • overview.md - SDK introduction
  • learn/concepts.md - Core terminology
  • learn/touch-system.md - Touch handling details
  • learn/pieces.md - Piece/glyph recognition
  • guides/touch-input.md - Implementation guide
  • guides/simulator.md - Simulator usage
  • reference/ - API documentation

Key APIs

• Board.Input.BoardInput - Touch contact access
• Board.Input.BoardContact - Contact data structure
• Board.Session.BoardSession - Player management
• Board.Save.BoardSaveGameManager - Save data