Brian Russell's Blog

Code of Ethics

Code_of_Ethics.pdf

July 30th 2008

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The Final Two Blogs

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It's hard to believe that my time here at Iowa State is almost over. More to come...

July 29th 2008

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The Paper

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I'm beginning to run out of titles to describe my day since the research paper has consumed many of my days. Another draft of the research paper was sent out tonight, although the conclusion still needs help. In other news, Pam Shill gave a luncheon lecture today about getting your master's in HCI at ISU. I have enjoyed working at VRAC this summer and would certainly consider coming back here for graduate school.

TravisChristian - 30 Jul 2008 - 13:45

oh, btw, I just realized who else is from Fayetteville AR

July 28th 2008

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A Long Way to Go and a Short Time to Get There

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Today was spent incessantly working on the research paper along with running a precision test of the robot. The precision test gave us plenty of data but now that data needs to be analyzed. We need to find a way to show our data in some form of a table or chart in our research paper, but that is a work in progress. At least the robot is working again. There is still much work to be done before we can submit our final version.

July 25th 2008

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The Second Draft of the Research Paper

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Today was yet another day spent working on the research paper. There were many things that we needed to add and subtract after having the paper reviewed. The second robot is still not functioning correctly with the addition of the hand. This has been holding up the results section for precision testing the robot. Hopefully, the robot will be functioning correctly by Monday. The only other major events today were the PWSE poster presentations and movie night. The PWSE posters were interesting due to the fact that most of the research was quite different from our REU (mainly chemistry and biology).

July 24th 2008

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A Long Day

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Today was spent primarily on writing our research paper. It was nice to have a luncheon lecture to break up the day. Judy Vance came to talk with us about using Virtual Reality in conjunction with the mechanical design process. She told us about the technologies that are currently being used for research as well as in industry. She also told us about the progression of VR through the past 20 years. It seems that VR hardware development did not increase at the same rate that other technologies have in the same amount of time. Today we also had journal club where we discussed MMORPGs. It was a good discussion since there are plenty of gamers and non-gamers in the REU.

July 23rd 2008

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Research Paper Day

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Today the robot team continues to work on the research paper. We are merging the various sections that we wrote into one complete paper. We still need to implement a program that will precision test the robot for any position at a given time. Still, I think things are beginning to come together.

ThomasNiedzielski - 24 Jul 2008 - 17:43

I've always thought that it's better to have one person take command of the paper writing, while the other members of the group comment on it. That way the errors are fixed while the style remains coherent.

NizarKhalife - 23 Jul 2008 - 19:08

It's difficult but I'm not sure what's faster overall since merging takes a good amount of time. I'd like to test that sometime.

TravisChristian - 23 Jul 2008 - 13:26

I've found it's always difficult to merge sections written by different people into one paper. Good luck with that.

July 22nd 2008

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The Conclusion of Robot Testing

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This morning we completed our robot usability testing after five days of running tests. It's good to have that step of our project completed. I'm sure the rest of the day will be spent primarily on writing our research paper. Today Dr. Jim Oliver came and talked with us about attending graduate school. He reiterated the points that graduate school opens many new doors in the career world and that it can be affordable.

SamanthaLevine - 22 Jul 2008 - 14:36

Good luck with the paper. Stephen Gilbert does a fantastic job of commenting if you need it.

July 21st 2008

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Graduate School Presentation

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Today the robot team continued work on the research paper. Everyone is writing one section of the paper now in order to combine them all later. Today Thelma Harding came and talked to us about applying to graduate school. The packet she handed out appears to be informative and helpful. Iowa State seems to have great opportunities for their students in graduate school although their out-of-state tuition is relatively high compared to some of my in-state schools.

NizarKhalife - 21 Jul 2008 - 22:51

You can change it yourself if you're that obsessive about it.

JennaLanger - 21 Jul 2008 - 16:46

It seems like their out of state tuition is on par if not lower than some other schools that I've seen. I know U of Washington is almost $20,000! Still less than private school though.

MatthewScheinerman - 21 Jul 2008 - 16:42

Today isn't the 19th! (I'm a stickler for dates as well).

SamanthaLevine - 21 Jul 2008 - 14:19

Yeah- I noticed that too. Out of state tuition is ridiculous!! I guess we are just going to have to move to Iowa (PS-check your date, it drives me crazy!)

July 18th 2008

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More Testing and the Boone County Fair

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Today was spent completely on running people through robot testing. It was quite interesting to see how people reacted to our battery of tests. I think we'll be able to draw some good conclusions. Tonight a few of us went over to the Boone County Fair to see the demolition derby. I think everyone had a good time being at a true midwestern event.

NizarKhalife - 20 Jul 2008 - 22:03

Derby! Rar! Destruction!

July 17th 2008

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Usability Testing

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Most of today has been spent and will continue to be spent working on having people come and test the robot. Testing has been going alright so far we had a few technical difficulties with one participant. Journal Club was interesting this morning although we often diverted from the subject of creating robots that look like humans. Discussion turned to the subject of how robots could impact citizens of underprivileged countries. I'm sure we may have to answer these questions in the near future.

NizarKhalife - 17 Jul 2008 - 21:16

I can answer those questions now: If robots build themselves they can build enough for everybody! Free robots for all! And then they kill those who resisted change. I'd advise you to change your ways before then.

ThomasNiedzielski - 17 Jul 2008 - 18:34

The question of how to answer the issues of the digital divide are hard to address, because engineers have the power but no idea what to do, while sociologists and economists know what to do but have no way to do it. Maybe more discussion between the groups could help develop more solutions that bridge the gap.

July 16th 2008

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More Prep Work

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Today was mainly spent making final preparations for robot testing. We finished the maze this morning and made a test run this afternoon. I think everything is falling into place. Allison is e-mailing back potential participants with times that they can come in and test the robot. All the deadlines are fast approaching but I think that many of us thrive under pressure. The etiquette lecture that we had today was better than I expected as was the food.

July 15th 2008

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A Day of Preparation

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Most of today was spent gathering things together in order to start testing the robot ASAP. This morning we finished the final part of our program for controlling the robot. We also arranged to have a remote video feed setup. Our luncheon lecture today dealt with the MetaBlast project. Eve Wurtele told us about the challenges of making an interesting and fun education game to teach biology. Hopefully such a game may generate interest in learning biology especially with people who currently don't find it interesting.

July 14th 2008

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The Robot Needs a Helping Hand

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This morning we've been working on getting our robot hand to work with our new program. This has proven to be difficult because we cannot allow anything to cause our real-time thread to stop. Vijay suggested creating another thread to listen to the keyboard so that our real-time thread doesn't have to stop. We'll try to implement that this afternoon. This will be a busy week with cognitive testing and writing our research paper. We still need to build a maze for our research participants and develop a way to test the precision of our robot.

DavidOluwatimi - 15 Jul 2008 - 10:07

I think I understand what you just said...I believe you do not want time lag between one robot arm to another

AllisonWhite - 14 Jul 2008 - 14:08

thumbs up for the title today

CodyGlover - 14 Jul 2008 - 13:44

From the looks of it we may be able to use pthreads for this.

TravisChristian - 14 Jul 2008 - 13:38

Multithreading is good for real-time stuff like that. Just remember to give credit where credit is due.

July 11th 2008

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A Day in Downtown Des Moines and Robot Program Success

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This morning we left VRAC at 9:00 to take a trip to The Principal Financial Group in downtown Des Moines. At Principal we toured their in-house usability lab which consisted of a room for a test participant and another room for evaluation of the tester. It was interesting to hear the people at Principal using the same terms that we heard in our HCI course. After getting back from Des Moines, the robot team continued work on the robot. At around 9:02 p.m. our robot program began to start working the way we wanted it to. A few minutes later the robots were mirroring each others' movements with relative ease. Finally a success.

NizarKhalife - 12 Jul 2008 - 12:14

Oh snap! You got it working! Now you have to let me play with it!

July 10th 2008

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Robot Problems

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This morning for journal club we discussed robot swarms. This is an interesting topic that I believe we'll hear more about in the future. I kept thinking about the robot swarms used in Minority Report and the negative connotations that go along with them. Still I'm sure there are also many positive benefits to working with swarms. On the robot front, it seems that we keep running into problems with our code. This afternoon our second robot returned, allowing us to finally begin testing our program. Unfortunately we couldn't keep the robot from consistently crashing upon start up. Perhaps we'll have some new insights tomorrow.

ThomasNiedzielski - 11 Jul 2008 - 17:44

You guys seem to be having the most issues from a runtime error standpoint. At least until we unseat you from your throne. Good luck, guys. Those are annoying.

July 9th 2008

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Poster Work Day

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Working on a poster was the highest priority for today. The first draft of the poster is due tomorrow and it needs to look good. By the end of this morning we found that our poster had plenty of information but not enough visuals. So, the afternoon was spent primarily on taking pictures, modifying diagrams, and using Maya to model the robot. Luckily someone else had created a Maya model but we still needed to work with it in order to use it on the poster. In the late afternoon, we found out that our posters would be reviewed in the afternoon instead of the morning. We got the poster mostly completed but we still need to put the finishing touches on it tomorrow.

DavidOluwatimi - 10 Jul 2008 - 08:41

Luckily, we have the extra amazing Langer to do our poster. I do not know what would have done without her.

July 8th 2008

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Design Evaluations and the Graduates' Defense

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This morning our day started off by attending Eric Foo's thesis defense. It was quite enlightening to see how a graduate student goes about presenting their final paper. Our luncheon lecture today was presented by Debra Satterfield from the College of Design. The lecture was very thought provoking with regards to product design. The concept that people act before they think was also interesting. The afternoon was spent working on robot code and camera problems. It seems that the robot code has once again been fixed but we'll need to test it tomorrow. Our camera problems still remain at large. It seems that the Ubuntu system we're using is too new for appropriate camera drivers. Hopefully a workaround can be found.

NizarKhalife - 08 Jul 2008 - 22:31

Linux > Drivers since the dawn of time. They really should work harder on that.

July 7th 2008

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Nothing Runs Like a Deere

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After a great three day weekend to celebrate the 4th of July we started the week with a tour of the John Deere plant in Ankeny. The tour of the plant was very interesting and educational. The fusion of new and old technology there was fascinating. It seems that John Deere is consistently looking for new ideas to build a better machine. After getting back to VRAC the robot team worked feverishly to fill out the required material in order to use human testers for the robot. In the end we got our forms in and it looks like we are set for approval.

CodyGlover - 08 Jul 2008 - 14:03

For all the work we had to put in we should be allow to have the robot use people as sparring partners for boxing.

NizarKhalife - 07 Jul 2008 - 21:30

Does the permit allow subjects to arm wrestle the robot?

July 3rd 2008

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C and C++ Problems

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Yesterday Pete fixed the UDP problem, allowing us to test the program's ability to send data between two computers. The protocol now works fine but I'm having difficulties implementing it with our current program. Our team's robot program is written in C and calls many other C libraries and headers. The UDP program is written in C++ and uses object oriented programming to implement the protocol. Eclipse currently isn't allowing the C and C++ files to compile correctly together.

This morning in Journal Club we discussed using computers to aid in the development of new pharmaceuticals. Computers can simulate what will happen when these drugs are consumed by a human. There was a suggestion that the FDA could use these computer results to help make the decision for approval of sale without running tests on live subjects. However, there seemed to be a consensus in our group that computers were fine to help develop these new drugs but the FDA shouldn't overhaul its method of approving these drugs for public use.

JohnMorales - 03 Jul 2008 - 18:20

Hey, why are you talking about drugs in a family blog, ummm just kidding lol, sorry about the article, I know it was messy for someone head.

JennaLanger - 03 Jul 2008 - 15:42

Maybe years from now all we will need to do is insert a new drug in a machine, and then it will print out an analysis and tell us if it's ready for the market. But that's pretty far away.

July 2nd 2008

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More UDP problems

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This morning I trying to get our UDP protocol to work on another 32-bit machine. I was able to make more progress than I made trying to port it to 64-bit however it's still not compiling properly. I think I'll have to wait until our main computer arrives before I spend a bunch of time trying to fix this problem. In the mean time I'll work on packet structure to send the robots' movements to each other.

July 1st 2008

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Ethics and Robotics

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This morning, we had our ethics class with Dr.Gilbert. We discussed a wide range of ethical issues that we are confronted with in the field of engineering. I wish that we had a longer time slot to go more in depth with the ethical issues but the discussion today was still good. After our ethics class, Dr. Stoytchev gave a luncheon lecture on robotics. Even though I've been working with a robot since the beginning of our research here, I learned a lot about the techniques of robot learning. After lunch, we continued work on the robot. Matt Miller, our team's graduate student, learned how to use Barrett's built-in PID controller to smooth out the motions of the robot. The robot's movements looked smoother except for one joint which isn't functioning at all the way we want it to. Tomorrow our team has a lot to do but it should be a day of progress.

SamanthaLevine - 02 Jul 2008 - 09:03

Yeah- more time would have been much much better. I think it's pretty sweet that your team is teaching the robot in a little bit of the same way.

June 30th 2008

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Improving the Robot Code

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Most of today was spent working with the robot to smooth out its motions. The robot is currently taking in its previous and current positions in order to find a midpoint between them. The robot then moves toward this midpoint just as it will once we have two robots. When two robots are used, the previous position will be replaced by the second robot's position and then a midpoint will be found between the two robots. A short teaching program for the robot was also written today but it has some jerkiness in its playback. Dr. Stoytchev recommended implementing a PID to help smooth out the motions.

June 27th 2008

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The Robot Moves!

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This morning, our group worked on taking input from the keyboard and translating that into a motion for the robot to carry out. After an hour, the robot was moving under the direction of the user. The time after that was spent trying to devise ways in which the robot would not move with such great force. I think things are beginning to fall in place for our project. This afternoon, we had our last HCI course. We spent the time looking at new technologies that people had found on the internet. It was interesting to see what's out there and how it could impact the world.

June 26th 2008

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Journal Club and UDP

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Today Cody and I moderated this morning's journal club. It was a good discussion on video game use in the classroom. I prefer traditional classroom instruction but I think that video games may be a way to get people interested in education when they otherwise would not be. After journal club I continued to work on the implementation of the UDP protocol. I think yesterday's problem of compiling stems from the fact that one machine is 64 bit while the other is 32 bit. Anyway I think I've got a workaround for the problem.

June 25th 2008

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UDP and HCI

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Today was a day of disappointment with regards to the UDP protocol. Currently a UDP program that runs well on one Linux machine doesn't run at all on another. I'm sure it'll be a relatively easy fix once I discover what's wrong. In HCI today we completed and video-taped our paper prototypes. It will be interesting to see videos on Friday showing how other groups' prototypes looked.

NizarKhalife - 25 Jun 2008 - 22:51

Oh no! Could it have something to do with the compilers?

June 24th 2008

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The Effects of Video Games

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This morning Cody and I spent time browsing through articles for Journal Club. There are many interesting articles but so far none that would make for an interesting journal club. The luncheon lecture speaker that we had this morning gave an interesting presentation. He showed us how different abilities that humans have can be affected by video games. By studies that were shown, visuospacial abilities are improved over time by playing violent video games. However, other abilities such as executive control and emotional response can be negatively affected by violent video game play. At this point there haven't been significant real world studies in this subject matter but there is concern over what results we may find.

NizarKhalife - 25 Jun 2008 - 01:12

Personally, I think that executive control and emotional response are overrated.

ThomasNiedzielski - 24 Jun 2008 - 14:52

Journal Club is on Thursday, guys! I realize that we want something good, but we also need to be able to read it before the club meeting. I'm sure you'll find something, though. As long as it's not the sort of thing that forces discussions to degenerate into debates, I'm happy.

June 23rd 2008

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Craft of Research and HCI

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This morning was relatively quiet in the VRAC lab. Our Craft of Research class was postponed until 2:00, so we didn't have any morning classes. I continued the process of reading and analyzing the Barrett source code for the robot. The code isn't well documented which leaves our group on our own for the most part. Tomorrow we are going to try to write a simple program for the robot to execute.

This afternoon Catherine used our Craft of Research time to talk to each group about their sources for the upcoming research paper. She told us not to let our paper get pushed aside until the last minute. I think our group is already on the right track. After Craft of Research, our HCI class made paper prototypes of different websites in order to test user interfaces. We are going to test our designs on Wednesday.

NizarKhalife - 23 Jun 2008 - 23:35

I kind of see why the paper is so important. Only so many people will look at our posters or our demos but the paper we write may well outlive us.

MatthewScheinerman - 23 Jun 2008 - 21:37

Cool, robot code. I wish we had source code to look at.

June 20th 2008

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Library Orientation, Journal Club, and Research Presentations

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This morning we had library orientation at the Parks Library on campus. The library system here closely mirrors all the previous academic libraries that I have dealt with. Still it was good to hear what journals are available to us at Iowa State. After going to the library we had journal club where we discussed reading and using brain waves to manipulate electronic systems. I can see how such systems would benefit people who are incapacitated in way that they would not be able to communicate easily with the outside world. However, I don't believe that this technology should be used in healthy people. We discussed many positive and negative applications for this technology when it is used with healthy individuals and I'm not convinced that the positives outweigh the negatives. Nevertheless it will be interesting to see were things go in the future.

NizarKhalife - 22 Jun 2008 - 23:22

It really is convenient to have so many journals available. Depending on where you look, you can find very interesting articles. I was browsing through IEEE's journal and found plenty of food for thought.

CodyGlover - 20 Jun 2008 - 13:11

I have to agree that common place use of this technology would be a danger and misused greatly.

TravisChristian - 20 Jun 2008 - 13:05

The library at my school uses the same numbering system, I didn't realize it was unusual. I think I could have figured out the catalog system on my own.

June 19th 2008

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OpenGL and Practice Presentation

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Today was the day of our OpenGL project presentations. It was exciting to see what other groups created and what problems they encountered. The rest of the day we had a break until 2:00. At 2:00 we presented our research proposal to our professor and graduate students. They gave us some ideas of what we should include and what we should delete. Currently we're still a little over our time limit so we'll have to scale back some of our slides. On another note, the Iowa Cubs game was a lot of fun tonight. The atmosphere of a ballpark is something that can't be replicated on any HD television.

NizarKhalife - 21 Jun 2008 - 13:49

The game really was fun! I really liked the ski game, Brian. I can't imagine a mobster on a ski trip. =)

ThomasNiedzielski - 19 Jun 2008 - 23:30

Yeah, we all have a lot of changes to make to our presentations. I hope they turn out great!

June 18th 2008

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Finishing Up OpenGL

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Today was a long day spent in the lab although it pales in comparison with the time I've seen some of the graduate students put in. This morning and afternoon were mainly spent of finishing our OpenGL program. Tonight it is functioning with some minor bugs in it. Hopefully they will be fixed tomorrow. The rest of the afternoon was spent at our HCI class and listening to Jivko give a presentation. Jivko's presentation on acoustics and robotics was quite interesting. It also provided some insight into what a good research presentation looks like. Tonight I still need to look through some Robot source code and practice for Friday's research presentation.

NizarKhalife - 21 Jun 2008 - 02:25

That robot source code sounds pretty nasty to go through. =(

June 17th 2008

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OpenGL projects and Cognitive Tutoring

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Today in lieu of an OpenGL lecture, we were given time to work on our projects. I was glad for the break and used the time to create a virtual snowscape. Our project is beginning to take some shape but still has a long way to go. I doubt that it we will easy to simulate the movement of downhill skiing.

This morning, our luncheon lecture dealt with the topic of virtual cognitive tutors. It was interesting to see how different schools are trying to tailor their curriculum to each individual student by using a computer program. Personally I prefer the traditional method of education that is widely used but I recognize that this approach cannot serve every student's needs. It will be interesting to see if this type of learning will become widespread and mainstream or if it will be relegated to a niche market.

NizarKhalife - 18 Jun 2008 - 13:31

My computer is already my teacher.

VijayKalivarapu - 17 Jun 2008 - 18:30

Brian, Does your Clocktest.obj file come with a texture named 'clock 001.jpg' ? If so, please upload it on the submissions page.

JennaLanger - 17 Jun 2008 - 16:06

having a teacher is nice, but you know the way of the world. soon the computer will be our teacher and we will only have a technician going around to make sure it's all working right. but hopefully not anytime soon

PaulClay - 17 Jun 2008 - 15:00

Yeah, keep it oldschool. None, of this fancy automatic grading thingers!

ThomasNiedzielski - 17 Jun 2008 - 14:05

I saw your snow texture. I have to say I was really wondering how anything realistic could be made without a lot of work, but the snow texture is actually really good. It really looks like there are drifts. Very nice.

MatthewScheinerman - 17 Jun 2008 - 13:27

I bet the way to create the illusion of downhill skiing has to do with camera angles.

June 16th 2008

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Monday

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After a good weekend it's back to work with OpenGL . In this morning's OpenGL class, we learned about 2D textures and how to place them onto 3D objects. I had my share of problems with this morning's homework, but everything seems on track now. I looks like there will be plenty to do this week with our OpenGL projects and research presentations. We'll have to plan ahead in order to get everything done on time.

NizarKhalife - 16 Jun 2008 - 22:00

I agree. We have our work cut out for us but we can manage it. It will all be worth it in the end.

DavidOluwatimi - 16 Jun 2008 - 16:51

I totally agree we have alot to do, but the good thing is I like working. Hard work now, rest easy later.

CodyGlover - 16 Jun 2008 - 13:37

I will say the assignments today was tricky and required a lot of guess and check.

June 13th 2008

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OpenGL Friday

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Today we learned about lighting in OpenGL , it seems that all the vector calculus I took may have some use after all. After programming today, I'm began to make more sense out of OpenGL . This morning we also presented our group OpenGL project ideas. Our robot team is going to make a ski program where a user operates a skier and dodges obstacles as they go down the ski slope. I'm looking forward to begin working on this project. This afternoon we had Journal Club where we discussed biometric security. It was a good discussion and many good ideas were presented.

NizarKhalife - 14 Jun 2008 - 20:22

I wish you had presented some more of your ideas! If one were to judge by your participation in Journal Club people would falsely think you were shy! Though now that I think about it, you were a lot more active this time!

June 12th 2008

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OpenGL Day 2

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Today was the second day of our OpenGL class. We went through perspective, camera views, translations, and rotations. I found it interesting that OpenGL represents all locations in 4 x 4 matrices and uses matrix multiplication to manipulate objects. The project for today looks more complicated than yesterdays but it probably won't be too bad once I begin to understand the code better. Our group still needs to come up with a project for OpenGL but I'm sure we'll make something cool. We have another research team meeting today where we hopefully can look at the new robot API.

CodyGlover - 13 Jun 2008 - 13:13

The day two projects were very easy to over complicate.

June 11th 2008

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Beginning OpenGL

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The 3D modeling with Maya continued yesterday afternoon with the start of our projects. Each of us brought in an object which we wished to model and took pictures of it. The pictures were then imported into Maya in order to use them as guides. The alarm clock I'm modeling is beginning to take shape although I'm still trying to figure out how to make the handle on top. I'll work more on that today.

This morning we began a new class in OpenGL programming. OpenGL is a set of graphics libraries that can be used to program graphics in 2D and 3D. I've been looking forward to this course because I've done little with graphics programming and none outside Java. Today's class consisted of introductory material and some example code. We also had an assignment to make our initials using OpenGL which I'm still working on. While this course cannot get too in depth with the subject, I hope that by the end I'll have the basics of OpenGL down.

ThomasNiedzielski - 11 Jun 2008 - 14:52

OpenGL should be pretty cool. I haven't gotten too far yet, but I'm hoping to get better with time.

June 10th 2008

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Maya and 3D Modeling

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Yesterday afternoon we began our 3D modeling class using the computer graphics program Maya. Maya is unlike any other program that I have ever used but I can now see why it was created. At first it was difficult to understand how to use basic materials to create more complex structures. Gradually I began to understand how to use the program's tools and camera views to create a realistic object. This week long course in 3D modeling will mainly consist of making our own 3D object based on something that we bring in. I look forward to learning more about Maya and how its creations can be implemented with other technologies. This morning, Tyler Streeter gave a luncheon lecture on the creation and use of genetic algorithms. I found this lecture to be quite interesting and can see possible applications for my team's robot research. Genetic algorithms input many variables and use them to find a solution by way of natural selection. Such an algorithm may have many applications often coming up with solutions a human may never find. It seems like this field of research has a bright future.

EvaTao - 11 Jun 2008 - 07:07

Show us what you have done on Maya so far.

DavidOluwatimi - 10 Jun 2008 - 22:39

MAYA IS BEAUTIFUL!!!!

DesireeVelazquez - 10 Jun 2008 - 19:12

Yeah, it does. But why don't you upload pictures of how you're doing in Maya?

June 9th 2008

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Programming Project Day

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After a restful weekend and an REU picnic last night it was time to get back to work this morning. Because there was no class scheduled for the morning our group was able to add sound effects to our Battleship game. We used FMOD and drew inspiration from Eric Foo's code to play the sound effects. I'm pleased with how our first team project turned out. This afternoon each team will present their projects to the rest of the group. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone's projects and hearing about how they put it together.

TravisChristian - 09 Jun 2008 - 22:10

Battleship was pretty awesome. I don't think we sank it.

JennaLanger - 09 Jun 2008 - 21:21

ya, your sound effects really made your game! i could pictures someone blind playing the game using a screen reader and they would still get the full effect if they heard the sounds.

JasmineJones - 09 Jun 2008 - 20:50

Ditto what Sam said. nice job on the interface of the game

SamanthaLevine - 09 Jun 2008 - 14:55

The sounds in your project were so cool! Your team is uber-creative.

June 6th 2008

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Last C++ Class

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Today was our last day of Eric's C++ class. We covered some of the basics of object oriented programming along with topics such as inheritance and friendship. Eric also showed a useful application for pointers which I was glad to learn about. We continued to work on our Battleship game after the lecture. The basic game is working fine and we are now working on things to make game play more interesting. This morning we also had our Craft of Research class where we discussed what ideas we had for our research projects and how to formulate a good research topic. Yesterday our robot research team met with the graduate students to discuss narrowing down our research topic to a single summer project. During that time we also modified a robot program to capture the robot's current position and write it to a file. I think our robot team is beginning to make some headway into the field of HRI (Human Robot Interaction).

NizarKhalife - 11 Jun 2008 - 00:21

I like progress in Human Robot Interaction as long as it doesn't get us closer to the Robot Civil War

EvaTao - 07 Jun 2008 - 01:06

Could you post your HCI video on the team blog?

DavidOluwatimi - 06 Jun 2008 - 13:25

Pointers arent that bad, I understand it may get frustrating sometimes when your system crashes....well, never mind pointers are that bad.lol

June 5th 2008

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Haptics and 3D Modeling

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Our programming class today covered some material today that I haven't had to use in a long time, namely pointers. It turns out my dislike of using pointers is shared by several other programmers here including the teacher. We also covered file IO and how to store information in text files. After programming Dr. Chris Harding, a professor of HCI, came to talk to us about about 3D modeling and haptics technology. Dr. Harding's lecture consisted of two parts: a presentation of the topic at hand and a demonstration of using 3D modeling with haptics. I was mazed that with some free 3D modeling software and some code manipulation you could easily model a basic 3D object in a haptic environment. I hope to spend some more time working with this technology in the near future. Apparently we may be getting a haptic device that the REU students can work with. I'll have to make room for some time to try it out.

EvaTao - 06 Jun 2008 - 02:45

Contact with Dr. Harding if you like. He is willing to share since you are here only for 2 months.

JasmineJones - 05 Jun 2008 - 20:12

pointers are great! it would be really cool to have some haptics research going on. are y'all on the roboteam doing anything haptics based with the robot?

ThomasNiedzielski - 05 Jun 2008 - 17:57

Haptics might be my favorite of all of the technologies I've been shown here. It really does a lot to connect the user with the objects onscreen.

June 4th 2008

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Fun with Programming

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So far we have had a relatively easy day. Eric's programming class covered arrays, strings, and functions. We also dabbled in vectors and mappings but do not have enough time to cover them effectively. I knew most of the material but found that strings are handled differently in C++ than in Java. We plan to continue to work on our Battleship game this afternoon. We also have our HCI class this afternoon and plan to shoot our How To video tonight. Perhaps someday I will look back at this video and reminisce about how technology used to be.

June 3rd 2008

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Second Life

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Today we continued our programming class by going over loops and decisions. I've found that the programming languages that I've worked with seem to share a similar syntax in this area. After programming, Dr. Brian Mennecke came from the MIS department to discuss geospatial technology and the computer world of Second Life. The primary focus of this luncheon lecture quickly settled on Second Life. Dr. Mennecke told how he has used Second Life for research purposes as well as to conduct lecture classes. I found it interesting how Second Life has similar economic problems to the real world. When there was a banking scandal in Second Life a recession was triggered and people became more cautious with their investments. Similarly businesses are trying to find ways to effectively market to Second Life users just as they are with many other areas of Web 2.0. Dr. Mennecke predicts a shift to 3-D computing environments possibly within 10 years. Currently it's difficult for me to see this technology being embraced so readily but there were also many skeptics of the internet. So it will be interesting to see what happens.

EvaTao - 04 Jun 2008 - 04:26

Hey Brian, are you still looking for a bike? Here is another site you might get a cheaper bike. http://www.cheggpost.com/product-listing.aspx?pid=94054

BTW, could you vote the activities you will attend and the movies you like when you get a chance?

TravisChristian - 03 Jun 2008 - 19:19

I can see how 3D content on the Internet would be useful, especially in e-commerce, but a lot of what the internet is used for is information exchange that works just fine in text. I don't think a 3D virtual world is going to replace what we now know as the Internet.

MatthewScheinerman - 03 Jun 2008 - 15:44

I'm impressed you remembered his name. I thought of him only as Gut Noel.

ThomasNiedzielski - 03 Jun 2008 - 14:05

For 3D computing environments to become more mainstream, it needs to be easier to link from place to place. There would certainly have to be an address bar also, so that a user can move to a completely unrelated place on a whim.

June 2nd 2008

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Programming 101

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The day began slightly later than normal today (10:00). It was nice to have the extra hour of sleep. Eric Foo began his programming class today on the C++ language. I have programmed in C and Java but never in C++ and I was glad that we started to go over the syntax of C++. So far it seems that C++ has a syntax that is more closely related to C but has the object oriented capabilities that C lacks. After this introduction to programming, each research team began to develop ideas for a week long programming project. Our team has decided to create a Battleship game that will be played in a text based environment. We are still working out the specifics of how it will function and how the programming tasks will be divided up. Still our group is looking forward to beginning development and ultimately playing a completed game.

EvaTao - 03 Jun 2008 - 00:56

Hey Brian, could you vote the activities you will attend and the movies you like when you get a chance?

TravisChristian - 02 Jun 2008 - 14:35

Battleship sounds cool. I want to see some ASCII art.

SamanthaLevine - 02 Jun 2008 - 14:23

I'm really hoping that y'all have some sick drawings of destroyers, battleships, subs, etc.

MatthewScheinerman - 02 Jun 2008 - 13:40

Checkmate! I sunk your battleship!

May 30th 2008

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The Start of Research

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Today we began to investigate what is actually research and what is not. The day began with journal club and the reading of various articles in order to determine if an article was considered research. Many of the articles weren't peer reviewed and did not constitute valid research. Others reported on actual research but weren't considered research themselves. Reading the first chapter of The Craft of Research and the online article were quite helpful in defining the actual term research. Until yesterday I used the term research erroneously to describe many things. In fact, the word has a focused definition that consists of drawing conclusions from given data.

This afternoon our groups convened for the first time to discuss the desired research goal for the summer. The field of robot learning is a wide open field with excellent potential topics of research. Our group discussed what a good research project would be and what could be accomplished with the given amount of time. Any project in this field appears challenging but ultimately should prove to be rewarding with its completion.

NizarKhalife - 01 Jun 2008 - 23:45

This experience will surely require several late trips to the Library.

SamanthaLevine - 01 Jun 2008 - 14:43

I'm excited to see which direction your project goes.

May 29th 2008

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Introductions Day 2

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Today we began to delve into the core of HCI. We began the day learning how to blog and run the TWiki site. From there we began a discussion on a journal article regarding computer emotions. We discussed and debated if a computer could have emotions and if such emotions would have a positive and negative impact on society. This field appears to have a lot of potential especially in the realm of improved computer usability. While there are fears that such development could have a negative impact on society, it was also stated that there had been fear of many new technologies when they were in their infant stages. I haven't decided whether I like the idea of computers having emotions or not. On this rainy afternoon we'll begin our tour of the virtual reality centers on campus. It should be a fun afternoon.

EvaTao - 30 May 2008 - 03:37

Brian, I could not find the email that I contacted for bike. However, you can try the following URL and contact the persons who is selling $10 bike. http://ames.craigslist.org/bik/

EvaTao - 30 May 2008 - 00:10

Hey Brian, you can bold your topic by adding stars before and after your topic...Thanks for helping Allison moving her box yesterday!

July 31th 2008

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Your topic for the day

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Put your content here.