The frame
The atom of Contour is the frame: one snapshot of contact at one instant. A stream is an ordered sequence of frames on a shared clock. Every field is sensor-agnostic, a 548-taxel glove and a 2-pad gripper produce the same shape of object, differing only in N.
Fields
| Field | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| taxelsreq Normalized contact pressure per sensing element, in [0, 1]. | float32[N] | Normalized contact pressure per sensing element, in [0, 1]. |
| geometryreq Position of each taxel in the sensor frame, in meters. | float32[N,3] | Position of each taxel in the sensor frame, in meters. |
| posereq Sensor pose, position (x, y, z) and orientation quaternion (w, x, y, z). | float32[7] | Sensor pose, position (x, y, z) and orientation quaternion (w, x, y, z). |
| normalopt Surface normal at each taxel, unit vectors in the sensor frame. | float32[N,3] | Surface normal at each taxel, unit vectors in the sensor frame. |
| shearopt Tangential (shear) force per taxel, when the device reports it. | float32[N,2] | Tangential (shear) force per taxel, when the device reports it. |
| timestampreq Seconds on a monotonic clock, shared across all sensors in a session. | float64 | Seconds on a monotonic clock, shared across all sensors in a session. |
| devicereq Device profile id, the entry in the Atlas this frame was encoded from. | string | Device profile id, the entry in the Atlas this frame was encoded from. |
| schemareq Contour version tag, e.g. "contour/1.0". | string | Contour version tag, e.g. "contour/1.0". |
Encoding
A Contour frame serializes to a flat, self-describing record. The reference client reads and writes it identically across devices, you consume the same object regardless of source.
import contour
device = contour.connect("wuji_glove")
frame = next(device.stream())
frame.taxels.shape # (548,) normalized pressure
frame.geometry.shape # (548, 3) taxel positions (m)
frame.pose # (7,) xyz + quaternion
frame.timestamp # 1.7203e9 shared clock
frame.schema # "contour/1.0"Device profiles
A profile maps a physical sensor into Contour: how its raw readings normalize, where its taxels sit in space, and what it can and can't report. Profiles live in the Atlas. Add a profile once, and every Contour tool and dataset understands your device.
Versioning
Contour versions are tagged contour/MAJOR.MINOR. Minor versions add optional fields and stay backward-compatible; major versions may change required semantics. Every frame carries its schema, so readers always know exactly what they're holding.