Board SDK Integration

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 (BoardContactType)

Contact Phases (BoardContactPhase)

IMPORTANT: Handle Stationary in addition to Began/Moved/Ended. A glyph placed directly without movement triggers Began then Stationary (not Moved). This is critical for piece placement detection.

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

Note: Screen origin (0,0) is bottom-left. Convert orientation to degrees: float degrees = orientation * Mathf.Rad2Deg;

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 BoardContactPhase.Began:
                        OnContactBegan?.Invoke(contact);
                        break;
                    case BoardContactPhase.Moved:
                        OnContactMoved?.Invoke(contact);
                        break;
                    case BoardContactPhase.Stationary:
                        // IMPORTANT: Handle Stationary for pieces placed without movement
                        OnContactStationary?.Invoke(contact);
                        break;
                    case BoardContactPhase.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.screenPosition.x, contact.screenPosition.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

Simulator Icon Setup (Required for Glyph Testing)

To test glyph/​piece detection in the simulator:

1. Create Simulation Icons: For each piece type, create a BoardContactSimulationIcon ScriptableObject

   • Right-click in Project > Create > Board > Contact Simulation Icon
   • Set the GlyphId to match the token's GlyphId in TokenDatabase

2. Configure Palette: Add icons to the simulator palette

   • Open Board > Input > Simulator
   • Add each simulation icon to the available palette

3. GlyphId Mapping: Ensure TokenDatabase GlyphIds match simulation icon GlyphIds

Token in TokenDatabase    Simulation Icon GlyphId
─────────────────────     ─────────────────────────
Red Attack (GlyphId: 1)   → SimIcon_RedAttack (1)
Red Exploit (GlyphId: 2)  → SimIcon_RedExploit (2)
...

Troubleshooting: If glyphs are not detected, verify GlyphId values match between TokenDatabase entries and simulation icons.

Coordinate Conversion

Screen to World

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

// 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, you must use BoardUIInputModule instead of InputSystemUIInputModule:

Why Required: Board SDK intercepts touch input before Unity's standard input system. Without this, UI elements won't respond to touch.

Setup:

1. Select your EventSystem GameObject in the scene
2. Remove or disable InputSystemUIInputModule component
3. Add BoardUIInputModule component

// In scene hierarchy:
// EventSystem
//   └─ BoardUIInputModule (instead of InputSystemUIInputModule)

See vendor-docs/​reference/​Board.Input.md for full API details.

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 contactId on Began
• Update position on Moved or Stationary
• Clean up on Ended or Canceled
• Use isInProgress helper to check if contact is active

Touch State

Use isTouched for gameplay:

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

Reference Files

This skill's references/ folder contains complete SDK documentation organized for efficient navigation.

Custom Guides (8 files)

Vendor Documentation (26 files in vendor-docs/)

For complete SDK API details, see vendor-docs-index.md. Organized by category:

API Reference by Namespace