Blog
It's all in the mix!
Thursday April 8, 2009
It has been quite a while since my last blog entry. My official reason is an artificially induced stasis for the past several months. However, while I was in this immobilized state I did manage to finish my thesis proposal in my head and then write it all down once I'd recovered. It is on it's second draft currently and needs a few more tweaks to be done.
Tomorrow is the College of Architecture Research Symposium. All VIZ students working on a thesis are making a brief presentation on their area of research. Four minutes is pretty short so I think I'm basically going to explain my concept, my motivations, and my current progress. With a few slides to round things off and keep people awake I should be good to go for this dog and pony show. Or is it 'horse and pony'.
This semester I'm trying to mostly focus on my thesis research however I have had to put a lot of time into my only class, Advanced Physically-Based Modeling. Which has been a very interesting and informative class but also very time consuming. Fortunatley, I have managed to somewhat merge my final project for the class with my thesis and turn it into an installation for Viza-Go-Go. All in all I think I have managed to convert the last month of the semester into a manageable ball. Well see how it goes...
The Matrix Has Your Thesis Proposal
Sunday Novemeber 9, 2008
My progress continues onward and upward. I'm very excited that my proposal is finally getting close to done. At this point I've only got the methodology and implementation sections left to write. It still needs some revision and proof reading. I'll show it to a few people with grammar good and nice spilleng. I think what I have presents a clear and focused goal which I feel is the biggest challenge in writing a thesis. I also restructured what I had a bit. I added a terminology section and rewrote my entire introduction :-P, but what I had was really not an introduction.
I'm starting to turn my attention more and more to creating the multi-user system I will use for testing and possibly for the actual study. I borrowed a projector from the lab that works well enough and hooked it up to my computer. As I mentioned before I now have several pieces to the puzzle and am about ready to start developing. I still haven't had any luck in finding a diffractive optical element. I even paid a visit to the pyhsics department. I think they thought I was making the device up. They gave me a few research supply company names but still I didn't have any luck. I emailed 3 or 4 more companies that (I think) manufacture DOEs but none of them responded :-\ I need to start calling but of course I'm always in class / at work or asleep during regular business hours.
I also came up with 1 and half new ideas for games to develop. I think they will work pretty well for this research. I'll wait and describe them in more detail on my games page later this week. I'm pretty settled on 2 out of 3 of my game ideas. I'll need to do some more mulling and discussing on them before I can finalize my decisions.
Prior Work
Wednesday October 29, 2008
Not a lot to report this week other than I've basically finished the first four sections of my thesis proposal. The remainder of the proposal is downhill I feel. Although I need to really clarify my vision for my thesis to finish I think I am well on my way to being at that point. Although the prior work section is almost five pages long I think it has a lot of good and relevant information. I can probablly trim it down by simply omitting a few quotes that only serve to reinforce my point.
Reading, Writing, Rolling
Wednesday October 22, 2008
I haven't updated the blog in a while. My work recently has been lots of reading to help give me a good research foundation to write a prior work section of my thesis proposal. The book I've mostly been reading is called Handbook of Computer Game Studies. The book has several sections that explore everything from the history of video games to their cultural and social significance. Each chapter is written by a different author and thus maintains a fresh style from page to page that keeps it from feeling like you're reading a text book.
I've got a good start on my prior work section but it still has a ways to go. I'm constantly reorganizing my writing trying to find a good way to express my content. It is still a bit liquid at present. I'll primarily be working this weekend on finishing up the prior work section and hopefully starting on the Relevance section.
I've also recently been doing some shopping. Stuff like, you know, bows... dresses... and emergent technologies for computer vision applications. I've picked up a digital camera - the Logitech QuickCam Pro 9000 - a fancy name for a well reviewed camera. I'm a bit concerned it might be too good. If the video stream resolution is fixed to it's maximum HD resolution then it might not be possible to process it in real time. I may end up creating a dedicated system that just processes video and dumps the output to the main application running on another computer. I also bought one red laser pointer for testing. I'm looking into Diffractive Optical Elements (DOEs) which seem rather hard to get. The company I contacted about it requires a minimum purchase of $315. I also can't find a single site with pricing information.
Last but not least I'm looking at video stream processing software. Included on the list are Max/MSP/Jitter (which has been used by other memebers of the Viz Lab) and a plugin for Visual Studio called Video Cog. I'm not sure if I can use plug-ins with my free student version of Visual Studio. I've learned I can buy a permanent authorized copy of Max/MSP/Jitter for $250 which isn't too bad. I can also get a $50 student trial version that lasts for 9 months and has no restrictions. I will first be giving the Video Cog plug-in a try before I make any purchases. Programming the video processing in C# will be a big advantage I think for two reasons: 1) I already know it and 2) it will gurantee the greatest flexibility. My main concern right in this regard however is performance. Again, the dedicated system is the most attractive solution but will most likely introduce some other issues of lag, callibration, etc.
Searching again... No wait, I mean researching.
Sunday October 5, 2008
I've been reading through the majority of the research papers I rooted out last week. They each had some interesting perspectives and ideas that I can use either in writing my research paper or else implementing my system. Most of the papers I read gave insight into how one might go about implementing a laser pointer input system.
They all generally had the same approach of pointing one or more cameras at a projected computer screen and then locating the laser dot position and interpreting that back into the screen space of the computer GUI to act as a cursor or tool position. There were several good ideas on how to optimize this process. One paper suggest using an IR (infrared) laser which is invisible to the naked eye but can be more easily separated from the image created by the projector using an infrared camera. I like the idea but think it will convulte my process too much.
Another idea suggested was to use a DOE (diffractive optic element) in front of the camera that will blur the projected image but diffract the laser pointer position into a regular pattern such as a cross hair. This is a neat solution because it is done with optics rather than more processing which makes it a very effecient trick. Still another systems called Lumapoint suggested placing the camera behind a translucent screen instead of in front of the screen. This system was paticularly relevant to me because its purpose was scalability for any number of input users. I think ultimately I will need to just get the tools for the system and start playing around to see what I can get it to do. My tools in this case are:
- a camera (most likely the Logitech QuickCam 9000)
- Max/MSP/Jitter to process the video feed
- a decently priced laser pointer purchased online
- and a projector which I can hopefully borrow from the lab
- a diffractive optical element?
Yeah for the web!
Sunday September 28, 2008
This week has had me trudging through the endless wealth of data that is waiting restlessly on the 10 million databases of the internet. Thanks to A&M's new and improved library website I was able to find a myriad of articles, books and patents that are relevant to my research topic. Now I just have to go read them all 8-\ I didn't find very much material on collaborative gaming specifically but I did manage to find several articles, papers, implementations, and patents for using a laser pointer as a computer input device.
I'm fairly settled on the idea of using laser pointers as my input device. I think it will be easier to implement, more absolute as a research tool, and is clearly a well documented method. I also like that it allows the users/ players/participants to all be together in one place where they can easily interact, talk and most importantly see what the other players are providing for input to the game.
This all of course means I need to buy some laser pointers as well as a camera. I know a few people who will be able to help me in selecting the right camera. I am considering the Logitech QuickCam Pro 9000, which boasts a very impressive resolution for a web cam. There were some articles I have found that suggest using an infra-red laser pointer. I need to double check that I do not need a special camera to utilize some of these implementations.
The Inagrual Blog
Tuesday September 24, 2008
I've still got a little ways to go on my site, but I've decided to go ahead and put it live. I'm pretty far behind on getting a proposal written. In spite of this I've decided to write a concept page first. I'm hoping that the process of writing it will stir and guide my thoughts toward the true goals of my research. As it stands I've still have a lot of choices to make about what direction to take it in. Some of the possibilities seem a little bit too intimidating for me to pursue. Revelations at this point would be most welcome.
Once again this week my primary delay can be blamed on my proclivity to develop my Space Station Sim game. I think I've been justifying it through the fact that my work on the game will help in the future work on my thesis. Anyway, they say that the 10th year of college is the best one.
Contrary to the mood of the previous two paragraph, I feel as though I'm on the cusp of something most spectacular. I'm very excited about the topic I'm pursuing and If I can have my way - and a whole lot of time - I'm pretty confident I can make something truly great; if not for academia, at least for indie game developers everywhere, not to mention for the gaming community. We'll have to wait and see what back alleys my mind will decide to wander down during my musing. Hopefully we won't end up on the wrong side of town where we get brain stabbed. Ouch... brain stabbed...