Course

I tossed together a Processing sketch that'll read most GPS devices. I've tested it with a Garmin GPSmap 60cs and a Bluetooth GPS from Socket. It's also pretty much cross platform.

There are two classes. One's the ever present start-up class, called GPS. The other is a class called GPSReader that talks to the GPS device and parses out some of the more useful info. Right now it'll just give you lat/lon, speed (knots) and a UTC timestamp, but there are stubs in there to handled number of satellites in view and other stuff.

You'll need to modify the serial initialization method to set it to read the serial/bluetooth/usb port to which your GPS is connected. The applet will spit out all the available ports, so if you're not sure which one it's connected to, you can just try each in turn.

Problems I've had that you might want to be aware of mostly occured with the Bluetooth GPS. It would sometimes hang Processing for some reason. I had to reboot until I discovered that I could go into Bluetooth preferences and click "disconnect" for the Bluetooth pairing and it would let go and I could stop the applet and figure out what was wrong. Cycling the power on the unit fixed the problem.

Some useful GPS related stuff is to be found at http://del.icio.us/jbleecker/GPS.

Let me know if you have problems!

Download ProcessingGPS_0.0.zip

+ Pollen particles wander on their own.
+ Bee lines can be drawn.
+ Pollen particles can get caught on Bee Line.
+ Pollen particles climb to head of Bee Line.

Summary article regarding AJAX, "which is an acronym for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML. This is not a new technology; rather, it is a combination of older technologies that most browsers now support. "

I worked on a couple objects

3d Balls
Number Puzzle

enjoy :)

ESS libraries
ESS Info

Here's the source code for the Processing exercise we tediously typed in last week. I encourage you to experiment with the various parameters, try to break things, change colors, etc. One good thing to try might be to create a "tail" of some sort to the Blobs. You'll want to think about drawing additional shapes "behind" the main blob, perhaps with a different transparency level. (Check the reference manual for ways of manipulating the alpha level of the stroke.)

You'll need both these files — just add them each to your Processing project, so there'll be two tabs in the IDE.

Blob.pde
BlobEG.pde

I'm not entirely sure what's interactive here, but the idea is cool. Submit your panoramic images to be loaded onto the screens at a close-out party in Amsterdam. Panoramas will be projected onto 12 (pfftt) screens surrounding the party space.

Make sure to include your location, name, logo in some way. Submit a JPG to submit[at]flux[dot]to

For this week's homework, due next week, use Processing to create at least one of the following (all of which will automatically run on a J2ME phone), and more if you're feeling ambitious.

A) Bouncing ball in a box
B) Interactive Pong game
C) Snake-like creature

Please feel free to ask other students for advice if you must, but make sure to type the code yourself.

This might be tough going for some, but if you nail this you can write apps for mobile phones in an object-oriented environment. So..that's cool.

Mark and Julian are available for your questions through the usual means - AIM and email.

Thanks to the Blackpool Community Church Javascript Team and Francois Bar's current fascination with using Google's Map API to visualize his microlocal LA research project, I'm adding another Google Maps API Tutorial/How To.

Probably the more interesting thing here is an example that shows how to consume an external XML data document and use that to draw polylines on a map. This is useful, particularly because it avoids the nasty tendency of hard coding your data within your algorithms. That's generally a no-no. You want to have your algorithms process arbitrary data, and have the data live within a separate "tier", as it's often described. Sometimes that data lives in a SQL database like MySQL, and sometimes it's just more convenient to put it in a structured, human-readable file like an XML document.

http://www.econym.demon.co.uk/googlemaps/

I am trying to wear an audio recording device for much of my days now (an Environmental Audio Recording or Everything Audio Recording or Environment Always Recording Fob, in anycase: EARFob). The original impetus was to see if I could log my day's activities from recorded ambient or persistent audio - detecting what room I am in from its acoustic signature, determining how much of my day is spent in conversation versus driving a car, etc. Some thinking behind this work began at Stanford's MediaX program and is described in this document. Also, Tripp Millican's work . While looking for funding to continue to pursue such signal processing efforts, I have found that wearing the EARPod is addictive. In particular I have found myself feeling naked when I do not have it on. My expreiences include:

a) feeling of security. It sounds silly, but I can speak out a license plate if a car looks suspicious. I like to have it when in meetings if there is ever a question of what I said (not what others said). It turns out that many LAPD police buy their own personal voice recorders (with their own funds) for later use in court to prove what was or was not said.

b) recording moments. As my mother ages and shares more of our family history, I can relax and listen more carefully, knowing that the dates and facts are being recorded for posterity. When my children say something amazing, I think about how I would love to be able to go back and listen to moments from my own childhood. These recorded moments are unconcious of the process of being recorded. The results can be as different from overt audio/video recording just as a candid photograph is different from a posed one.

c) I now realize just how misleading an audio-only recording can be. Indeed this has made me realize how misleading *any* recording is - including video with audio.

d) the amount of data is not as overwhelming as it seems. No I have not gone through much of it - but I now realize that there really are only a small number of 'high value' conversations. Intense bursts of conversations and/or insights that need to be captured.

e) the only analysis I now subject the data to is standard voice recognition. It only recognizes a small percentage of my words accurately, but it is enough for me to be able to remember the basic activities of the day (in terms of conversations).

f) I am starting to believe the day has come that it borders on irresponsible to neglect to record one's day - our children will look back on these years and say "oh what a waste that my parents did not record their lives".

This will be held in Ontario - about an hour from USC. This Friday and Saturday. Register Online now and the exhibition is free.

Portable Media Expo & Podcasting Conference is the only industry event that brings together influential podcasters, media, content creators and device makers to cover the complete range of business, marketing and legal issues for portable audio & video.

The ability to take media with you and listen or watch when you want - on whatever device you want - is the focus of this event. It's also about the new trend of individuals as media companies.

Through unique conference sessions, networking functions and an exhibit hall, the entire event is devoted to the industry of creating, delivering, and profiting from unique digital content for portable devices.

I was blogging my stereos & panoramas but I though a gargoyle is always good, just in case.

I was out of class the day we did the steroscopic excercise, so i put this together tonight.
Tanks are neat.

Here we go

The panorama that Paul and I created for 541. Ooooh...... Immersive.....

Diifferent groups of people with different interests could follow the last cultural habits of their friends. Here is a route map of how to travel from USC to Disneyland. Click on the marker & in the Castle to follow the last USC IMD students' visit. This is the narrative way, with pictures & different routes, of sharing with other friends your cultural habits and hobbies in order to experience them when ever you want or you can.
http://interactive.usc.edu/locative/jfernandez.html

I blogged this over on my techkwondo research toaster

Google + Local + Mobile!

Google spreads like warm jam over the application idiolects in which it's almost certain people want to know what they want to know..on the go..so they can flow..

Technorati Tags: cartography, Google, locative media, mapping, maps, mobile, MVNO

Stumbled across this Google Maps..thing. It's not quite collaborative mapping, but it has a draw.

Sightseeing with Google Satellite Maps

I've added it to my Google Maps Mash-Up Bibliography. (I know, I know, other sites catalog Google Maps Map Things. I'm not playing the "been-here-first" game — I just want something that I can taxonomize and hierarchicize and annotate as befits my own brain.)

The Talmudic 'Why do I blog this' — the blog meat, as it were — are on my research blog.

Technorati Tags: collaborative cartography, Google Map Hack, pervasive media

For those who are interested in a book on JavaScript/HTML/XML/Perl/SQL/ASP..., I highly recommend "Internet & The World Wide Web - How To Program" written by Deitel. I have referred to this book numerous times. It's simple and it can answer almost any question someone might have. It has tons of sample code for both complex and easy internet functions. If interested, more information can be found at www.deitel.com

Jullian's library post should be enough for this five week period, but those who want something tactile to refer to might consider this. I have a copy for anyone who wants to check it out.

There is a new version of Yahoo! Maps with draggable maps, and a live traffic overlay (though it doesn't seem to work on my firefox the site uses flash, and i had a flash blocker on). The zoom is also improved when compared to the competition, but I would much rather just draw a box around the area I want to zoom in.

Check out the Yahoo! Local Events Browser for a massive demo of many of the Yahoo! APIs. More info on the event browserhere.

While thinking about the 541 assignment, I stumbled across this Google Maps Wiki. It's pretty helpfull, and also has a link to a page that details all the different games people have made out of google maps. Check out the GoogleGolf game.

JavaScript Reference: http://docs.sun.com/source/816-6408-10/contents.htm

VI Editor: http://www.eng.hawaii.edu/Tutor/vi.html (has a PDF guide)

vi editor, PDF of basics: http://www.indiana.edu/~ucspubs/b104/b104.pdf

Basic vi commands: http://www.cs.colostate.edu/helpdocs/vi.html

More basic vi commands: http://www.cs.rit.edu/~cslab/vi.html

Google Maps API Documentation: http://www.google.com/apis/maps/documentation/

Google Maps API Help: http://www.google.com/apis/maps/faq.html

Google Maps API Discussion Group: http://groups.google.com/group/Google-Maps-API

Microsoft's version of Google Maps is dubbed Virtual Earth. The satellite maps are of a higher resolution than Google Maps, but aren't very up to date. Info on building websites with Virtual Earth is available at Via Virtual Earth.

Yahoo! Maps also has itself an API, though you can't embed the map into your own site (you have to use frames).

Google Earth has KML which is just a version of XML that lets you put place markers and 3d objects within Google Earth.

There is some information on open source GIS stuff out there if you are hardcore.

...and then there is ESRI. Their software is what the GIS folks use. I used to have access to a version of ArcView that I had used a few times, or at least tried to make sense of...

oh yeah.. Amazon.com has maps, and street level photos.

Here is another panorama on the way, a work in progress which will be 360 º.

Google Maps Mania is a site that keeps pretty good track of all the Google Maps mash ups that have been done.

UPDATE: Ahh crap, Julian posted this link a few minutes before i did.

From Google Maps Mania

2 new Google Maps mashups: whales and plate tectonics:

Puget Soundscape Map - Here is an interesting Google Map that tracks Brett Becker's journey throughout Puget Sound. He made the map while traveling around following Orca whales for 6 weeks. The map pins allow you to hear the sounds that he recorded. Read more about Brett's adventure here.











Google Map for Teaching Plate Tectonics - Hobart King, a geology professor at Mansfield University has created an interactive map for teaching and learning about plate tectonics. It features twelve plate boundary locations with clearly recognizable features such as volcanoes, linear lakes, faults or mountain ranges. The map will guide students to plate boundary locations and the selected features will help students understand their plate tectonic significance. Other maps from Geology.com include: Meteor Impact Sites and Highest Points in All 50 States.

From Mapping Hacks

GMaps API data quality deteriorating?:

The eagle-eyed crschmidt and drumm spotted, while looking at NYC maps both via mfrumin's flash overlay tool for plotting vectors over GMaps and via the main Google Maps site... the base maps look quite different. Specifically, there are many features and enhancements missing in the maps that come out of the API.

They reasoned out that the basemap data you get via the API is only from TeleAtlas, but if you look at the maps through Google's branded gateway, they are enhanced with NavTech data too. As rich pointed out, there's a long discussion about this on the Google Maps API Google Group, or usenet group as it was once known.

Conspiracy theories fly! Do people really care enough about very high quality base maps to pay for a premium API service? Or are geodata licensing costs driving this decision on the part of GMaps? If quality of service continues to deteriorate, will this provide a boon to collaborative mapping in the land of the free geodata, augmenting the accuracy and currency that Google's maps may be losing? Answers on a postcard to the population of irc.oftc.net#geo ...

USC School of Cinema Television
Interactive Media Division
CTIN 541 — Mobile + Prototyping Module
Professors Mark Bolas & Julian Bleecker

Overview
The proliferation of mobile and location-aware devices with built-in networking capabilities offers a unique opportunity for designing compelling entertainment, productivity and information experiences. Moreover, web-based locative media applications such as Google Maps and Microsoft Virtual Earth represent a convergence of static, non-cartographic data (or “metadata”) captures an impulse harkening back to the Renaissance to capture experiences, chart landscapes and develop a sense of place within the larger world.
The objective of this module is to introduce students to mobile and locative media through a set of hands-on development/prototyping projects. Through these projects, we will develop a sense of the design approaches and technical skills necessary to do fundamental prototyping for, broadly, mobile and locative media experiences.
It is expected that all students will participate individually in developing the design prototype projects. Students should be prepared with the fundamental knowledge necessary to edit web pages, upload and download files, and have the wherewithal to write a little bit of code.

Week 1: Making Maps — Introduction

Discussion Session
The power of maps?
Possibilities for web-based mapping tools and
Individually authored maps of “unconventional” data
Brainstorming, Ideation and Need finding

Prototype Laboratory Session
Set-up rudimentary development environments.
Edit JavaScript files, transfer files to and from your computer, and get a basic understanding as to the syntax and semantics of JavaScript.
Set up your web accounts under the IMD web server.
Steps to making maps.
Sources for GIS data; sources for maps; rudiments of geographic data (coordinate pairs, latitude/longitude, map datums; projections)
Prepare data for building a Google Map-Hack.
Goal for following week will be to plot these locales on a Google-style map. Data can be obtained from an existing online source, or empirically with the use of a GPS.

Week 2: Google Maps API

Discussion Session
API description and discussion.
Focus on Google Map API.
The design of intimate objects and its relationship to personal and portable media.

Prototype Laboratory Session
Working with the Google Maps API.
Taking the data sourced or created during Week 1, a Google Map API-based web-accessible map will be created.

Week 3: Processing Mobile Environment

Discussion Session
Types of programming languages (procedural, object oriented, script-based).
Deployment of languages including layers of abstraction to hardware implementations.
Prototyping and Iteration
Define Project Teams

Prototype Laboratory Session
Install Processing development environment on your computer and familiarize with IDE.
Hello World exercise

Goal for next week will be to design and implement a personally defined project in teams of two using team-chosen development environment approved by the instructors.

Week 4: Extreme Programming Session

Discussion Session
Software development planning and management and introduction of extreme programming techniques
Examples of Mobile applications and devices

Prototype Laboratory Session
Extreme-Team project implementation and realization

Week 5: Technology Wrap-up and Presentations

Prototype Laboratory Session
Finalize Projects & Presentations

Discussion Session
Final presentations, analysis and critique.

Here are some photoshop files and illustrated instructions for setting up an image of a basic flat wall with a steeply foreshortened 3D floor plane at the bottom. Everyone should use this as a basic template for the images for the stereo panorama, adding their own windows, doors, portals, etc.

floorWallMask.psd
floorWallDepthMap.psd

This beautiful scenery is actually a machima production, courtesy of WoW. The first is a 270 degree panorama. The second is a stereoscopic image.

Ideas for 541 demos by Scott, Anthony and Matt…

GUI with eye control
Driving/groves in freeway-make music when your car drives over them
VR beer goggles – change to appearance of girl/boy friend to more pleasant
Cell Phone/Voices in the head
Car to Car communication, Knight Rider Style
Car camera mounted on hood, skip ahead to another car to see how traffic is
AR cars - Every car is the same but, appears different to everyone through AR cartridges, Dinali cartridge = expensive, Pinto cartridge = cheap
Self-peeling vegetables and fruit
Crap meal – like in the matrix all the nutrients you need
Sleeping helmet – instantly knocks you out and provides more efficient sleep
Translator / filter for speech, worn on neck instantly translates what is being said to your own language or filters out swear words or annoying people
Aug cog, porn – Hey it drives the industry
Smart Fridge – hey one day it will happen
AR-your on fire, it would just be fun to see certain people enflamed
Gun that makes you instantly poop your pants – Scott’s Idea no comment
Instant sickness pill- gets you out of work/school
AR Movies – everyone in theater could be watching a different movie
Self Forming toilet seats
Still Suits
Nano Toilet Paper – Another one of Scott’s
Nano Containers – they just form and go away
Anti-Gravity boots – Lionel Ritchie Dancin on the Ceiling
Foldable LCD screens
AD Space on your body

These are from pictures I took at Disneyland. I hope they turned out okay :)

Video Prototype Ideas

Team 1- Jorge, Paul and Mike B.

Mike Brazil likes pizza

1) Ubiquitious Cameras

- Couples in Relationships- Commuter Relationship Cameras
- Stalking through remote activated cameras (embedded in your partner's clothing)

2) In/Out GAme communication devices
- You can communicate with people within a game world from the outside
- Ex. World Of Warcraft- u can send a message to someone's cell phone from in the game
-Ex send them video

3) Two Way Television
- Cameras within TV and the broadcasters can SEE YOU (as well as you see them)
- Video Conferencing on a MAINSTREAM LEVEL

4) Appliances that respond to you

- Bed that makes itself
- Toothpaste that re-caps itself
- Stoves that cook whatever you want (like in Pee Wee's Playhouse)

5) Game systems that track your head movements and adjusts the camera accordingly
- B4 game starts it maps your eye locations (kind of like the Eye Toy)


6) Genetic Data PDAs
- Store data about yourself inside your body's cell
- Special devices (like PDAs) are used to transmit data about urself to banks, credit card companies, people ur interested in dating (like a genetic compatibility list)

Here is the first integration of mobile media, cell, vidoecamera, scaners of real world, telepresence and multiplayers on line videogames by Paul belleza, Mike Brazil & Jorge Mora.
An improved version will come soon...
http://blip.tv/file/2549

Not the best, but my first attempts at using AvP2 to make Red-Blue 3d pics...

I've been kicking it, Perry Hoberman style! What what!

Presenting Tommy Trojan and that Stop Sign by Lucas in rudimentary 3-Dizzle.

Word.

...a deep relationship

Mike Brazil in 3-D...

KEEP SCROLLING


Mike Brazil in 2-D..



Any Questions?

Did some stereo 3d photography for the second half of the immersive module in CTIN541.

Yeah you like that? Save and download to really check it out!

For all those people who surf the web with 3D glasses handy. I know all of you just keep those puppies next to your monitor.

I'm actually pretty proud of this. Minor Photoshoppery but mostly lots of meticulous care when taking the original image.

Jenny's SLR camera rocks my socks.

Mike Stein and I went out to the Track Field for our hand at a Panoram. Here ya go!

For the first day of the immersive section in CTIN 541, we broke up in small groups and took photos around campus. The pictures I took with Matt, and Ken didn't quite line up making for a painful photoshop exercise. Below are photos stitched together with Arcsoft's Panorama Maker 3.5.
including the too large to fit on your screen version.


including the too large to fit on your screen version.

View image">

my first try at making a quilted panorama.

View image">


my second try
View image">


my first (and, so far, only) attempts at 3D

Panorama assignment for in-class 541.

Shot free-hand and assembled using a little photoshop trickery, but nothing that could be construed as cheating.

I woulda finished this all the way around, but uh... Martians. I'll blame Martians. Still, like 290 degrees ain't bad in 20 mins.



EDIT:
Hey, so interestingly, the MT blog won't accomodate pictures that wide, so here's a small-small version so you can get a hint of the grandeur.

http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~kostas/omni.html (cameras)

http://panoramas.dk/ (everything site)

http://www.kaidan.com/ (hardware)

http://www.fullview.com/ (simple flat mirror)

http://www.panoguide.com/howto/panoramas/ (howto)

http://panotools.org/ (wiki)

http://www.kekus.com/ (tools)

http://www.edvec.ed.ac.uk/html/projects/panorama/ (history)

http://www.hidef.com/rigs.html#circlevision (history)

http://www.panoscan.com/ (digital slit)

http://residence.aec.at/wegzeit/index2.htm (cool path networks)

http://www.cliffordross.com/R1/R1-BPSpaper.html (big picture summit)

Google “gigapixel”

Started messing around with Korsakow last week. As a result, the trusty miniDV camera came out of retirement to help me with the project. I couldn't resist posting this, though. Those not in 541 with us won't find this at all amusing, but if you were there when Mike made a deal with Garret to give Garret any move when he rolled a five, this ought to arouse the faintest of chuckles.

Download file

Seamus Blackley of CAA brought Anthony Zuiker and his design team over to the game lab last night to playtest a board game the CSI-creator has developed. We were able to get the usability lab up and running, so that made it all the more interesting.

I think we were all happy to see how effective the lab really is -- but damn do we need a fan in there! What ever happened to that construction note? See all those people + machines in the pix? That = too much heat in little room!

Zuiker said he really appreciated the feedback the IMD students gave on the game and I think the IMD students really enjoyed giving notes on a game instead of getting them! Hopefully we can do more tests like this in the future -- Seamus, hook us up!!!

We've doing this for awhile now!

Name of the Game: Success!

Game Designers: Mike Brazil & Jorge Mora.

The Plot: The object of the game is to become a partner at Milton, Faust and Fink (or at least not get fired) through any means necessary.

Goals: Corporate Ladder is a game of collaborations and betrayals. Through negotiations and backstabbing, each player tries to carve their way up the corporate ladder to become a full partner before his or her coworkers. A player can also attempt to ruin another player’s career by putting them down a rung on the ladder.

Tool or Elements:
- 2 to 4 players
- 2 dice.
- 1 board.



Rules:
1) For an average-length game, each player begins at Middle Management. For an advanced game that could either be very long or extremely short, begin at the Worker level.
2) At the start of a player’s turn, he has two choices. He can either work on an important project, or sabotage another player.
2.A) Project: If the player (the Project Lead) decides work on a project, he rolls 2d6 and consults the Key to Success! chart. This is the indication on how well he did on his project. The number indicated on the chart is the number of rungs the Lead goes up (did well on his project) or down (did poorly on his project). Example: if the Lead rolls an 8, his project was a reasonable success and he has gone up one rung on the ladder. If the Lead rolls a 6, his project did poorly and he has stepped down a rung on the ladder. If the project was a failure, the Lead can attempt to negotiate with another player (the Collaborator) to take another chance at successfully completing the project. If the Collaborator agrees, the Lead takes another roll. Since the Collaborator has devoted his precious time (gives up his next turn) to help the Lead out, his status at Milton, Faust and Fink changes. Thus, the Collaborator goes up one square on the board. Example: Mike (the Lead) wants to land the Anderson account, which could change the course of his career at Milton, Faust & Fink, but his first attempt at completing the project was a disaster and he dropped 2 rungs on the corporate ladder. Desperate to regain some status with M, F & F, he talks Jorge (the Collaborator) into helping him complete the project. Mike tries again and this time regains 1 rung on the ladder, for a total loss of 1 rung. Since Jorge came in at the nick of time to save Mike’s project, his status with M, F & F goes up 1 rung as well.
2.B) Sabotage: If the player decides that another coworker is too high up in M, F & F, he can spread office rumors and actively attempt to desecrate the coworker’s good name. All of that slander takes time (the saboteur gives up their turn) but results in the target coworker to lose one rung on the ladder. Example: after Jorge helped Mike out he ended up being 2 rungs ahead. Feeling jealous and worrying that Jorge might become a full partner ahead of him, Mike decides to spread office rumors about Jorge’s illegal practices and poor work ethic. While it isn’t enough bad press to make Jorge lose his job, Jorge still ends up being demoted.
A player cannot become partner nor be fired simply by collaborating or being sabotaged. Only a player’s own actions can determine their final fate.

Feedbacks:
-It was fun.
- There were always possibilities.
- It is necessary to increase more possibilities of collaboration in order to create more strategies in contrast with the emotional moments. For instance: you can negotiate with a player two steps below you & you promote it if he would give his turn.
- Increasing the possibilities of cooperation, increasing chances of winning with negotiation & punishing sabotage, then it will be more funny & attractive.
- Create a sabotage key which gives less possibilities of advancing.

For those interested in the Powerpoints, here is the one from Wednesday's class:
Week 3

This just in from the TOC (Table of Contents) service through the Association of Computing Machinery's Digital Library (semi-recommended point through which one may access and search published proceedings, articles, etc., from ACM meetings, newsletters, etc.) — Computers In Entertainment, some new articles.
Click here to see the TOC.
Here are two that seem interesting:

Creating entertainment applications for cellular phones
Paul Coulton, Omer Rashid, Reuben Edwards, Robert Thompson

Pervasive games: bringing computer entertainment back to the real world
Carsten Magerkurth, Adrian David Cheok, Regan L. Mandryk, Trond Nilsen

The Drop: pragmatic problems in the design of a compelling, pervasive game
Ian Smith, Sunny Consolvo, Anthony LaMarca