Today I have class at 1:30. After that, attending university courses will be shelved away. Perhaps forever. I have this theory that things look, sound, and even smell different depending on your mindset. This morning, the buildings are already looking a little different.
The Totally Awesome Sweet Alabama Liquid Snake, and EECS 470, has 0xcea5ed to be a time commitment.
The automatic image tagging system available at this website is pretty impressive. Actually it’s kind of terrible by human standards, but since we aren’t used to computers that can do this sort of thing, you might be surprised.
As part of a potential GROCS project, I started an investigation into computer vision techniques myself. The project is to simulate complex systems (simple rules + time => complex behavior) using radio-controlled blimps. The blimps are supposed to run without human intervention, and controlling them in this way requires teaching a machine to locate the blimps in thin air.
This MATLAB plot represents the best success I have had so far. It’s using an algorithm called the Scale Invariant Feature Transform (SIFT). It identifies ‘important’ points in the image, which can be used for further matching and comparisons with those extracted from other images. Perhaps ALIPR is using SIFT for some of its tagging.
We will find out on Nov. 15 if we are selected for the GROCS grant. If so, I would like to replace this image with one of real blimps flying around familiar university properties.
I’ve currently set up my blog to require moderation on almost all comments. So, this means I need to log in periodically and approve genuine comments, and delete those that came from computers who peddle prescription drugs.
Current spam-to-genuine ratio: 480:1
Matt Pizzimenti and I have been working on something pretty hard during our first month and a half at Xanga.com in the big apple. If you’re not addicted to playing with Xanga Boost beta, stop by our apartment sometime for Matt’s special: Miracle on 34th St Pancakes with Cream Cheese*.
Disclaimer*: Matt does not actually call it that, nor does he know I referenced his breakfast masterpiece.
Robotics at Microsoft?
I’ve interviewed with Microsoft a few times, and every time I say, “Hey, I have a passion for robotics. Got anything?” Every time I hear “Not exactly, but we have some cool embedded applications.” I guess I didn’t look behind the right doors…
Unbeknownst to me, (and most people who actually work there, it seems), Microsoft has been readying a Robotics division. They spilled the beans yesterday. While I haven’t watched the hour-long channel9 video just yet, I noticed there is even an early release of Microsoft Robotics Studio.
So what’s the big idea? A couple years ago Prof. Dan Koditschek told me, “It’s a great time for robotics. In the past, when robotics failed to live up to promises, we’ve always been able to point the blame at the hardware: imprecise sensors, slow computers. But the sensors are getting better, and the computers incredibly fast. If we fail now, it will be because we’re stupid.”
Tandy Trower, GM of the new division, seems to agree, “We think robotics is poised to take off rapidly, and there are solid indications that this is true! With component hardware costs coming down and computational capabilities increasing, the robotics industry appears to have the right conditions to really grow quickly.”
So today they’re releasing an early studio, with simulation capabilities that plug into Direct3D and Ageia PhysX, so that you can build layered, distributed, loosely-coupled robot control applications. (That’s what the propaganda states.) I just installed the studio, and I noticed one thing is missing: where’s the Denavit-Hartrenberg robot arm specification!?
Anyway, if I interview with Microsoft again, perhaps I’ll finally get to peek behind the right doors. Especially when Tom, Tony, and I tell them about the first Microsoft-based Robot: IntelliMagellan, based off of a Microsoft Intellimouse… well, enough explanation, you can watch the old video for yourself.
Yesterday, after creating yet another password for some online account, I was thinking how great it would be if I could store these in my gmail archive. Unfortunatley, this is asking for trouble. Once you’ve authenticated to gmail, your mail is pretty much sent in the clear. Storing important passwords wouldn’t be a wonderful idea, since everyone in between me and gmail would have a chance at grabbing them.
So, I made a simple tool to encrypt short little strings like passwords. It’s simple and intuitive. You just paste some text (say, an important password) into the cleartext box, type a password, and copy an encrypted version elsewhere. (say, a gmail message to yourself).
I even emailed a copy of encryptool to myself, so I can get it anywhere. As usual, the problem is I’ve written it in C# and you need the .NET framework 2.0 to use it.
Update: Oh yeah, I intended to share this program, I’ll upload it later.
Update 2: Download. Short and sweet.
Nathan Warnick has been talking about putting together a video blog for months, and as of earlier this month, he finally got one started. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the two clips I’ve uploaded here made it in. Phenomenal, now if only he were hosting ads, perhaps I could rake in enough shared profit to purchase the overpriced caffeinated beverages I’m mildly addicted to.
Nathan, you should make a road trip out to the east coast to get some original material for your video blog. Do something nuts, like try to sell RAM chips to the guys who sell nuts on the street. Speaking of street dwellers, a homeless guy was painfully honest tonight, “Hey man I just need money for a forty.” I was quite tempted to repay such honesty.
Nicolas and Geffrie (because there is no J or y in Italian) are traveling Italy, and wanted to share a photo of our absolutely ridiculous traversal of Pompei. And we would say more, but the Internet is not free.
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On the way to a robotics competition at the Georgia Dome, it seems like a good time to get back into a regular habit of blogging. I need to be in the proper mindset next month. On my first day on 8th Ave in Manhattan, I want to hit the ground running.
What goes into a good post? Some theme-related content, well-written prose, humorous anecdodes, multimedia content?
For the last bit — multimedia content — I have an idea for mobile blogging. Before you embark on a journey, you could preface your travels with a few words on your blog. But rather than stopping there, you could insert an open-ended photostream at that point. “Another trip to the Georgia Dome. Let’s hope the circus of high school students onboard is suppressed by the early hour. If anything photogenic happens onboard — I’ll post here.”
At that point, a cellphone based application would be instructed to upload photos directly to that insertion point, within the open-ended post. When you return, or even midway, you could comment with T9 entry on the mobile device, “sunrise over the dome.”
Anyway, this particular journey is nearly over, so I’ll suspend discussion for now.
Good luck to the Huron High School FIRST robotics team, team 830, at nationals in Atlanta.