Open Sound Control : Constraints and Limitations

Open Sound Control (OSC) is being used successfully as amessaging protocol among many computers, gesturalcontrollers and multimedia systems. Although OSC hasaddressed some of the shortcomings of MIDI, OSC cannotdeliver on its promises as a real-time communication protocolfor constrained embedded systems. This paper will examinesome of the advantages but also dispel some of the mythsconcerning OSC. The paper will also describe how some of thebest features of OSC can be used to develop a lightweightprotocol that is microcontroller friendly.