Bits Bytes n' 42

Kinect Services for RDS 2008 R3

2011-07-15T23:52:00.001+05:30

Now with the release of Kinect SDK for Windows, Microsoft is putting a lot of bang on the next generation human computer interaction technology to the mainstream PC. This time it’s none other than the Kinect Services for Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio - a Windows-based environment for hobbyist, academic and commercial developers to create robotics applications for a variety of hardware platforms.

Similar to Kinect SDK for Windows 7 Kinect Services for RDS 2008 R3 is available at Microsoft Research site for free download. According to the site, “Kinect Services for RDS provides sample services that use the Kinect for Windows SDK to allow access to the Depth and RGB data from a Kinect sensor. In addition to a service for a real Kinect, there is also a service for a simulated Kinect that works with the RDS simulator.”

Kinect Services for RDS 2008 R3 is vailable for download at:

http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/downloads/f8cda115-e9ec-44d1-abcd-3dfdd09d2e77/

There’s already a tutorial of powering the Kinect using iRobot’s internal battery is available at http://www.ros.org/wiki/kinect/Tutorials/Adding%20a%20Kinect%20to%20an%20iRobot%20Create

Now that’s one more reason to buy a Kinect Sensor.

Reference & Image Courtesy:

http://www.eetimes.com/electronics-news/4217801/Robots-get-Kinect-s--eyes-and-ears-

[Posted using Windows Live Writer 2011 on Windows 7 64bit]

MidpSSH – SSH at your fingertips

2011-06-26T13:30:00.000+05:30

While browsing the web for new J2ME programs for the software collection in my LG KU250 mobile I just happened to come across this little piece of software called MidpSSH, an SSH and Telnet client for MIDP 1.0 / 2.0 (J2ME) devices such as Java(tm)-capable cellphones and other mobile devices. Wow That’s pretty amazing!

Well with this little piece of software enables to control any public server with SSH enabled to be used and controlled from any corner of the world with a GPRS access. It’s true that with my mobile it’s bit difficult to use since the screen real state is very constrained. But with a caliber phone it would be really useful.

Following is a short video demonstration of the software.

MidpSSH Demo

[Posted using Windows Live Writer 2011 on Windows 7 64bit]

Kinect for Windows SDK beta Released

2011-06-24T13:24:00.000+05:30

As it was earlier announced Microsoft Research had released the Kinect for Windows SDK last week. According to the Microsoft Research, “The Kinect for Windows SDK beta is a programming toolkit for application developers. It enables the academic and enthusiast communities easy access to the capabilities offered by the Microsoft Kinect device connected to computers running the Windows 7 operating system.”

“The Kinect for Windows SDK beta includes drivers, rich APIs for raw sensor streams and human motion tracking, installation documents, and resource materials. It provides Kinect capabilities to developers who build applications with C++, C#, or Visual Basic by using Microsoft Visual Studio 2010.”

The most interesting thing is the skeletal tracking API. The demonstrated Shape Game using this API is pretty awesome. Now I just need to get hold of a Kinect sensor.

Shape Game Demo

If you have a Kinect sensor you can download the SDK from http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/redmond/projects/kinectsdk/download.aspx

More information is available at http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/redmond/projects/kinectsdk/

[Posted using Windows Live Writer 2011 on Windows 7 64bit]

My Car PC – Alpha Build

2011-04-21T13:40:00.001+05:30

From the first day I got my I wanted to build up a Car PC. But the problem was finding the parts I want to put in the build. While entry level components like Intel 945GCLF and later 945GCLF2 was available in the local marked I couldn’t convince myself to settle for anything that does not have a ION chipset. And neither I could find an easy way to get that kind of board from offshore.

So I just ordered only an OBD-II cable from eBay for some 17$ and was using with laptop to read out OBD parameters that I noticed it also have Windows CE drivers as well. Well after all while I don’t like to waste my on an Intel board I could certainly try out hooking up eBox 2300 I had on my i-Robot Sumo which I won at Imagine Cup 2009 Finals if I just had a suitable screen.

Well I thought why don’t I try out buying a cheap VGA to AVI converter and a Small screen used for Car reversing cameras. It won’t be a waste since I can certainly use those for either robot itself or for the Car PC it self as a secondary display in a later stage when I got the proper hardware. And anyway total cost for both will be just under 40$

So again off to the eBay and got both ordered. While VGA converter was fast to come the screen got a considerable time to get delivered which almost annoyed me but fortunately it was finally delivered.

So I just wired in everything together and stuffed the CE PC inside the empty DIN slot below the Car Audio/CD player.

But the problem was that I noticed after a while eBox was really hot and worried about it’s long running health. So I just moved it to the slot over the cubby hole and stuffed all wires and the VGA converter in the DIN slot.

For the software part I actually didn’t had much of a requirement at this stage. After all it is just a Windows CE 6 PC with just 200MHz CPU, 128 MB RAM with 256 MB Flash storage.

It even showed that not just adequate to even run a Full screen video at VGA resolutions so no use of trying it as a video player. But after all I was just after the onboard diagnostics so I just wrote out a crude application that collect all those fancy data from the OBD-II protocol and log them.

Car PC–Build 1

Later I wrote a simple program that let me to analyze the captured data on a PC. Following is a sample data set from that tool.

[Posted with Windows Live Writer™ 2011 on Windows 7 64bit]

Academics, Enthusiasts to Get Kinect SDK

2011-02-24T10:46:00.001+05:30

Ever since the Kinect for Xbox 360 was announced I wanted it to have support for PC. But unfortunately at that time Microsoft did not thought in the same line as we computer enthusiasts.

However it was fortunate that community was really keen to get the Kinect to work with PC one way or other . And numerous hacking attempts began to surface. http://www.pcworld.com/article/210494/kinect_hacked_to_work_on_pcs.html

And finally it seems Microsoft has listened to the community and decided to release community release of SDK of Kinect for PC.

And it’s interesting to learn that the mastermind behind AdaFruit Industries' Kinect hacking contest was former core member Johnny Lee from the Kinect team.

"Back in the late Summer of 2010, trying to argue for the most basic level of PC support for Kinect from within Microsoft, to my immense disappointment, turned out to be really grinding against the corporate grain at the time (for many reasons I won't enumerate here)," Johnny Lee had said. "When my frustration peaked, I decided to approach AdaFruit to put on the Open Kinect contest. For obvious reasons, I couldn't run the contest myself. Besides, Phil and Limor did a phenomenal job, much better than I could have done. Without a doubt, the contest had a significant impact in raising awareness about the potential for the Kinect outside of Xbox gaming both inside and outside the company."

References:

http://procrastineering.blogspot.com/2011/02/windows-drivers-for-kinect.html

[Posted with Windows Live Writer™ 2011 on Windows 7 64bit]

Windows Live™ Writer 2011

2011-02-23T12:21:00.001+05:30

I had been using the Windows Live™ Writer for blogging ever since it was introduced. Since it did not had emoticon support out of the box in first versions I had been using a 3rd party plugin for the requirement. (Can’t remember which I did used but think it was Insert MSN, Yahoo and Custom Smileys)

But during last months I happened to find that it had broken the compatibility with Live Writer™. Just today I realized why Microsoft had released new versions of Windows Live Writer™ 2011 which of course has the emoticon support out of the box. (It even has the ability to auto format emoticon phrases to relevant emoticon automatically)

Among other features are ability to insert Bing Map locations, Post tags and more Windows 7 like user interface layout.

Only problem I found to be is no longer I can change the size of the emoticons which I can accept for the time being.

[Posted with Windows Live Writer™ 2011 on Windows 7 64bit]

Nao Developer Program

2011-01-19T16:33:00.001+05:30

:-)

Aldebaran Robotics, a start-up headquartered in Paris has released it’s medium-sized humanoid robot for the developer preview. It’s invitation based only accepting 200 developers worldwide.

It seems however there is a price tag for the participation since the package also includes the humanoid robot itself. One-time entry fee is 3,600€ (including taxes). While Nao probably won’t get any cheaper soon even with a public release for which it is not ready yet it is still bit steep price for me without a sponsor. :(

More details and invitation requests at. http://www.aldebaran-robotics.com/en/node/1674

[Posted with Windows Live Writer on Windows 7]

Microsoft KINECT

2010-07-23T17:45:00.003+05:30

:-)

While there is lot of research going on to the way we react with the computers we see very little getting their way into the consumer market.

When it comes to the Kinect for Xbox 360 it is more than a simple gimmick. With this device all the commands carried out by gestures and your whole body can be used for the game.

This is a really good feature and sometimes very intuitive way to play specially considering games like athletic sports. You have to really run and jump! (More fun way to burn few kg of body weight rather than a boring run on a treadmill) All in all you really have to play!

It’s sad that it seems only be for the Xbox and not for the PCs.

More details:http://www.xbox.com/en-US/kinect

[Posted using Windows Live Writer on Windows 7]

Microsoft Announces Windows Embedded Compact 7 and Windows Embedded Handheld 7.

2010-06-18T21:08:00.001+05:30

:-)

Microsoft has announced the Windows Embedded Compact 7 next generation of Windows Embedded CE platform, the Microsoft developed operating system for embedded systems. The new version is expected to add rich User experience functionalities, Connected experience, Dual Core CPU supports as well as many other facilities. A CTP is already available to download from Microsoft.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsembedded/en-us/products/windowsce/compact7.mspx

Windows Embedded Handheld, a new software platform specially catered for ruggedized enterprise handheld devices. According to the roadmap published by Microsoft during the 2010 Q2, Windows Embedded Handheld will be based on Windows Mobile 6.5. It is expected to release the next generation, Windows Embedded Handheld 7 which will be based on Windows Embedded Compact 7 to be release during 2011 Q2.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsembedded/en-us/products/handheld/future-version.mspx

[Published using Windows Live Writer on Windows 7]

Day 4,5 – Visit to pyramids and World festival

2009-07-13T21:05:00.001+05:30

:-)

On day 4 of the Imagine Cup 2009 an excursion to pyramids and Sphincs were arranged. it was a great opportunity to visit and see the giant ancient structures.

On the way we could see the suburban of Cairo. In our terms the houses are really funny shaped. And you may noticed that most of the houses are left uncompleted. We got to learn that if you completely buit the house you have to pay extra tax. Very funny.

Great Pyramids of Giza.

Day 5 was the memorable day. The world festival. The event was organized as a truly amazing way on the panorama of the great pyramids. It was really a memorable day.

For more details on winners please refer to Imagine Cup blog at,

Official Press Release- 2009 Imagine Cup Worldwide Finals Winners

[Posted using Windows Live Writer on Windows Vista]

Day 3 – Fat and Greasy battles…

2009-07-06T15:19:00.000+05:30

:-)

Today is the day 3 of the Imagine Cup 2009 world finals. The Big big battle day.

All the competitors had completed their coding. (And by the we learned that Gauna, the fellow competitor who was sick and had been working from his room had to fly back to his country. Anyway his robot will play on behalf of him)

There were battles organized between each player. (So altogether 15 battles) Each battle would consists of 3 matches which each consists of 3 rounds of 60 seconds in length. If you beat the opponent in more number of rounds you win the match. If you beat the opponent in more number of matches you win the battle. A win in a battle give 3 points, tie is given 1 point for each and loose is 0 points.

Apart from that each participant were given a bonus mark of up to 3 depending on their achievement with the real robots. Byron and Gauna were awarded 3 points each and all the other were given 1 point for this task.

So at the end the leader board was as follows.

Competitor Name	Country	Battles	Wins	Ties	Defeats	Score
Pablo Gauna (Gauna)	Argentina	5	1	0	4	+6
Byron Knoll (Yokozuna)	Caneda	5	4	0	1	+15
Fuming Lin (ZeroLin)	China	5	3	0	2	+10
Imrich Zivcak (Goldie)	Czech Republic	5	1	0	4	+4
Lukas Perutka (Srotbot)	Czech Republic	5	4	0	1	+13
Pramuditha Aravinda (QUT0268)	Sri Lanka	5	2	0	3	+7

We also had a fun session with the robots after the end of the competition.

Hmm so that’s it. But anyway I was presented with the robot that I was playing with considering my achievements so far. Wow… I like you Robbie…

Competition Update:

Our embedded team and Software design team has been ended up in top 12. Here I have been to 4th place. Now we are keeping our faith regarding the Mash Up team to have a big big prize whose results will be released on world festival on 7th.

[Note: This post will be updated with photos and videos once processed)

[Posted using Windows Live writer on Windows 7 RC]

Day 2 – 24 Hours hectic programming…

2009-07-05T17:42:00.000+05:30

:-)

Today is the start of the competition day. Hmm 24 hours of continuous time to compete. Had to rush trough competition check in before repeat competitor briefing since it was really late when we arrived yesterday.

We were given a new version of the Sumo challenger to code. And were explained that the competition will be hosted in simulation environment for the fairness for all the competitors and in addition we were given real physical robots to play with and to create a robot that can do a particular action to a vision stimulus. That would be a mandatory challenge that would give few more bonus points.

Real robots ready to play.

I’m coding and playing with the real robots.

Even this is a 24 ours continuous competition, competitors were allowed to have their time. It was even allowed to go out of the competition hall and have a rest at your hotel room or even work from there.

The most apparent change in the new challenge kit is that it mimics the real robots behavior. now robots do rarely go over other.

So Let’s see back on next day. Big Big battle day!

Imagine Cup 2009. Day 1 - Beginning of a 26 1/2 day

2009-07-04T08:02:00.001+05:30

:-)

Today is the day 1 of Imagine Cup world finals 2009. This time it will be held in the birthplace of the civilization - Cairo, Egypt. Here we are all set to fly to Egypt.

Now since the Cairo is at GMT +3 and we are flying there today will be a 26 1/2 hour day. How many times had we wished that we have more than 24 hours a day? But unfortunately we had to waste about 8 hours in the air (not to forget the additional time spend on damn security clearances etc etc. Ah and of course flights changing the terminal and being delayed)

Ah did I mentioned wasting time in air? Well it's not a total loss since flying with emirates. We really enjoyed few movies while on the sky. And two heartiest meals.

See you again at the big day of the battle. Brrr I need to have a sleep now. :-P

N.B. I’ll update this post again with images later when I collect the photos of our team on the way.

[Posted using windows live writer on Windows 7 RC]

Netflix Challenge enters “last call” for the grand prize.

2009-06-28T20:58:00.001+05:30

:-)

As of the submission by team "BellKor's Pragmatic Chaos" on June 26, 2009 18:42:37 UTC, the Netflix Prize competition entered the "last call" period for the Grand Prize. Netflix is a data mining/Collaborative filtering optimization challenge where participants are challenged to device a recommendation system which can beat the Netflix owned world-class movie recommendation system: Cinematch^SMby an accuracy of 10% improvement.

In accord with the Rules, teams have thirty (30) days, until July 26, 2009 18:42:37 UTC, to make submissions that will be considered for this Prize. After this time period the submissions will be considered for the grand prize and the winning team will be awarded a cash prize of 1,000,000 US$.

References:

http://www.netflixprize.com/

[Posted Using Windows Live Writer on Windows Vista]

MRDS 2008 R2 is released

2009-06-22T23:43:00.001+05:30

:-)

A new version of Robotics Developer Studio (RDS), called the R2 release, has been released for download. RDS 2008 R2 includes the new DSS Log Analyzer, several additional sensors in simulation, Software Quality Metrics, and various other bug fixes and documentation enhancements.

Express version of the product can be downloaded from the product site at http://www.microsoft.com/robotics/#GetIt There is also an upgrade kit for the Standard edition is available. It is also said that the Academic version is also rolled out to the MSDNAA but couldn’t see it to checkout in either Imagine Cup MSDNAA account or ACM MSDNAA account. Neither could be found in the (Admin)page containing full list of .sdc files. Hopes it would be available soon in either of those places.

[Posted Using Windows Live Writer on Windows 7 Beta]

How the things went on Mars…

2009-06-20T12:56:00.001+05:30

:-)

Follow up to the Post:Landed on Mars. Chase for the water begins…

You all know that I have being selected as a world finalist in this year Imagine Cup Robotics and Algorithms and probably would be glad to see my Robot’s working at Endurance Crater, Mars.

Well I have being thinking to post this video a long time but had to always postpone due to various reasons. So Enjoy it now!

[Posted Using Windows Live Writer on Windows Vista]

Imagine Cup Finalists announced. This time 4 teams from LK

2009-06-08T22:35:00.001+05:30

:-)

Well I accept that this news is bit old. But I was on a bit of busy schedule on past few days, had to relocate since our hostel period was over, finalizing and submitting final year project reports etc.

However it’s glad to see that this time we have 4 teams from the island (he he including me-one man team) participating in Imagine cup. The Finalist teams are,

Software Design – Team : Mahee – Project : MISEEFA – Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology

Embedded Development – Team : SAS_EN – University of Moratuwa, Faculty of Information Technology

Robotics & Algorithms – Aravinda DP - University of Moratuwa, Department of Computer Science and Engineering

Mash Up – Team : Sasrutha – Project : Hope for Poor - University of Moratuwa, Faculty of Information Technology.

Hmm sad that we have lost the hold on short film this time.

Good luck for everybody and let’s bring glory to or motherland.

More Info

http://imaginecup.com/Competition/Finalists.aspx

Visual Studio 2010 and .NET 4.0 Unveiled.

2009-05-25T22:08:00.001+05:30

:-)

The next version of .NET framework and the corresponding development environment – namely Visual Studio 2010 has been released for the beta testing.

The newly included features include Enhanced User Experience, more IDE support for Parallel Programming with parallel debugging windows and profiling views. support for design and share multiple diagram types, including use case, activity and sequence diagrams, A high-performance and standards-compliant JavaScript IntelliSense® engine for web development, Out of the box support for Cloud Development with Windows Azure™ Tools for Visual Studio, and in built support for IBM DB2 and Oracle databases in addition to Microsoft SQL Server™ databases and much more.

Hmm… So should I pick the Laptop and go to a wi-fi hotspot in the university in midnight or wait till tomorrow and put it in DSL link at corporate place?

For more details:

Visual Studio 2010 Portal: http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/en-us/products/2010/default.mspx

Visual Studio 2010 Professional Beta ISO Download

[Posted using Windows Live Writer on Windows 7 Beta]

Imagine Cup 2010 to be hosted in Poland.

2009-05-10T19:43:00.001+05:30

:-)

Well this news is bit old. I had read the news article at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2009/apr09/04-24IC09KickoffPR.mspx a quite a while ago but missed out the statement. “Yesterday in Warsaw, Poland, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer announced that the Imagine Cup 2010 Finals will take place in Poland, a country with a track record of producing highly skilled IT students as well as successful Imagine Cup entrants.”

And it seems Microsoft might have tightened the Agenda for the world final from 3rd-9th to 3rd-7th of July. (Financial crisis?). Brrr That leaves out my opportunity have few extra leaves from the working place.

[Posted Using Windows Live Writer on Windows 7 Beta]

Windows 7 RC goes public.

2009-05-05T21:57:00.001+05:30

Follow up to the post [Drum Roll…] Here Comes Windows 7…

:-)

Microsoft has released the RC of Windows 7 which is the next version of Windows OS family to the public today. Furthermore Microsoft have removed the limitation of number of available copies under the RC program and downloads will be available trough June.

For more details,

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/download.aspx

[Posted using Windows Live Writer on Windows 7 Beta]

Google Similar Images. Since a picture worth 1000+ words.

2009-04-26T18:48:00.001+05:30

:-)

Google has recently launched the Google Similar Images feature which is an experimental service from Google Labs that lets you find images that are similar with an image you select. For example if you do a Image search for “Jaguar” You might receive something like below.

Now If you meant about the ‘cat’ You could click On Similar Images. (Notice the similar features of the images. Background color etc..)

Or more pictures of the brand of car. (Notice the similar features of the images. Background color Car orientation, Color etc… In fact all are different versions of same image…)

Well That’s the example of Google themselves. Now I’m going to do few of my own searches.

Hmm well what does I search? Since I was fond of flowers recently let’s try some flowers.

Search for Water Lily.

Now If I wanted to see Pink Water Lily (නෙළුම් මල්). (In fact single pink water lily on mostly dark back ground.)

or White water Lily (ඕලු මල්) (In fact single white water lily on mostly dark back ground.)

It’s very easy.

Now If I was looking for pictures with only one Pink water Lily it would be really difficult with just Image search.

Now Let’s try about Cherry blossom flower

Hmm I think I like to have similar Images to 1st results. (Single cherry blossom flower on white back ground.)

Oops.

Well 1st 2 pictures are OK. but rest? Well in fact it seems there are no any similar pictures of my cherry blossom flower and considering the image features we may consider the rest is similar to cherry blossom flowers. After all Google bots are just poor bots.

Hmm So what next? Well I do really like to have a feature that would let us to upload our own Image to Google and do a Similar Image search.

References/Links:

Hard at play in Google Labs with Similar Images and Google News Timeline

Google Similar Images

[Posted using Windows Live Writer on Windows 7 Beta]

Landed on Mars. Chase for the water begins…

2009-04-20T23:27:00.000+05:30

:-)

Today the list of competitors advanced for the Imagine Cup Robotics and algorithms were published. Hmm It seems 237 are on chase for the water on Mars.

Top 20 Countries are as follows…

TW : 39
CN : 31
FR : 23
HU : 19
US : 16
KR : 10
BR : 9
DE : 8
IN : 8
RU : 6
PH : 5
PL : 5
EG : 5
CZ : 4
AU : 4
JP : 3
DZ : 3
CH : 3
LK : 3
AR : 3

So… Now It’s a matter of water or death.

[Posted using Windows Live Writer on Windows 7 Beta]

Проект Эйнштейна (Project Einstein) – Eyes Only

2009-04-01T01:47:00.000+05:30

:-|

Every time I do some silly mistake I would normally wish that I could go back in time and compensate the mistake. Well can we really go back in time?

There are lot of really complex theories regarding this matter. However the most prominent idea has been (IMO) has been the dimensional physics. And today I’m here with results of my latest experiments at Loss Molpes Laboratory for Advanced Technologies.

I’ll explain the theory behind this as simple as possible. First Consider about what we can identify. In 3 dimension we can change the position along the 4th dimension or time axis when we apply a force. Now how can we travel along the 4 dimensional space time curve? Really simple. What you need to do is applying the same theory. But this wont do with normal force. What you need is the higher order counter part of the force we will call it a meta force.

But you should understand that even though you travelled along the time but at the same space you can’t materialize in that previous space time point. I’m not yet completely clear about why it’s so. May be that’s because of consequences of space time continuum or effect of parallel universe. However you can use the normal force fields of that past time space points. For example electromagnetic fields etc…

Hmm pretty much boring right? Well here I’ll show you some solid proof. (Well It’s not rock solid as I cannot materialize in the past) Go here and see my post on Feb 7th. Well what’s the catch? it just contains few questions from a exam paper. Except that it is from a paper which actually held few days later. I had travelled back in time and posted it using wi-fi. Bad that nobody read my posts. Otherwise you all guys could have obtain A+. Now wanna know something from future?

[Posted using Windows Live Writer on Windows 7 Beta]

Imagine Cup Robotics Round 2 mission released… Wild goose chasing at Endurance crater, Mars…

2009-03-31T15:53:00.001+05:30

:-)

Follow up to the post In to the Mars – Neck breaking Opportunity.

On last Friday (27th) challenge kit for the Robotics and algorithms round 2 was released. As it was expected this is re-launch of Mars challenge that was held as part of Robochamps league. But this time the simulation environment is more responsive and the task is bit more spiced up with collecting the data from rocks using a spectrometer.

The sensors we have access includes color Navigation camera, Panoramic camera installed on the ‘head’ of the rover and two B&W hazard avoidance cameras on front and rear of the rover. Spectrometer which is in fact physically a touch sensor and a comlink which can be used to obtain the Pan, roll and pitch of the Rover as well as GPS location and some mission details (Positions of navigation areas)

The drives available includes Horizontal and vertical rotation of head, A Six wheel differential drive, articulated arm on which the spectrometer is attached on the end.

The objective is to navigate trough the given 6 points. Analyze a rock from each area and reach the heat shield. The navigation includes descending into the crater as well similar to the real Opportunity mission at Endurance crater.

The navigation points are obtainable from the comlink interface however the position that the heat shield dropped is bit of random and cannot be known for certain. So it ultimately becomes a wild goose chase to find out the heat shield. Even though it is said to be near the last selected point in practice it appeared to be near means almost half across the map.

With few days of experiments and coding I was able to come up with a solution that could navigate all the points successfully and analyze the required data. However I would certainly have to improve this solution with better algorithms and more reliability and or adaptability over the time. But no problem I have plenty of time left even till the challenge officially start on 20th of April.

More details.

http://imaginecup.com/Competition/mycompetitionportal.aspx?competitionId=22

http://www.robochamps.com/rc/info/Downloads/challenges.aspx

[Posted using Windows Live Writer on Windows 7 Beta]

In to the Mars – Neck breaking Opportunity.

2009-03-02T16:34:00.001+05:30

:-)

Since the Imagine Cup Robotics & Algorithm competition Round 1 deadline is extended till April 1st I had decided to go and give a try on the Robochamps previous challenges. So I decided to give a try in the Mars Challenge which seems to be very interesting.

The sample kit is provided only with a VPL solution. However it is not a big deal converting a VPL diagram to C# code I first converted the VPL diagram into a C# solution and started developing an entry.

The environment and the robot recreates a scenario experienced by Opportunity, one of NASA’s real rovers in the Endurance Crater. There are 6 Navigation points that we should visit and finally we must reach the heat shield to complete the mission.

The obstacles are the rocks that are scattered over the terrain and safely maneuvering into the crater. The sensors available are A Navigation camera, Panoramic camera and two hazard avoidance cameras in front and rear. There is also a GPS data from the Communication link. So as an start I designed a solution which uses only the GPS data and travels the navigation points in sequence. The problem with this is the rower may hit a rock or stuck in the crater forever.

Following is the video footage of test run. Well fortunately there wasn’t any rocks on the path and even though the rover rolled into the crater in a neck breaking way finally it landed on correctly.

Hmm I think I should be bit more careful with a multi million dollar scientific robot like this. Well let’s see how we can improve this more later..

[Posted using Windows Live Writer on Windows 7 Beta]

Viewing PowerPoint Presentations on LG KU250.

2009-02-16T13:10:00.000+05:30

:-)

On last Saturday the provincial elections on North Western and Central Province were held. Being it in the middle of a exam season I did not had much of a enthusiasm to cast my vote but anyway my parents suggested me to have a visit if any means. Well I had no objections other than the fact that I will loss almost a whole day on the road in which time I could go trough some lecture slides.

OK there is possibilities to read while travelling. Printing slides, Reading on the laptop or on a ‘Smart’ phone.. I didn't feel like printing it just for a one day use. (Not because of Green IT but I’m not a fan of papers) neither I wished to carry my heavy weight laptop. I’m not wealthy enough to have a ‘Smart’ phone either.

But I figured out that I can save my PowerPoint slides as .jpg images so that I can have a look on the go in my LG KU250. So yet you can read office docs (with some conversions) on your non ‘Smart’ phone if you are smart enough.

And yet I can do multitasking as well. Listening to some music and/or browsing the web… As I always say It’s freaking brilliant. So then I have found one more usage of my beloved mobile phone.. and I could read some slides on the way back and forth home.

[Posted using Windows Live Writer on Windows 7 Beta]

Using the spare laptop as a secondary monitor.

2009-02-11T19:14:00.001+05:30

:-)

Yeah.. I’m all about multiple monitors. Which means more work space, more windows visible and… increased productivity. This comes very handy when doing something like Video editing or in my context MRDS programming.

And today most of us generally have a Desktop as well as a laptop. Now using the monitor of the desktop as a secondary display for the laptop is not a big deal. But suppose you need to do the other way round i.e. need to use the laptop screen as a secondary display device for the desktop PC.

Well there are few tools for this purpose. MaxiVista which is a commercial tool works as a separate monitor driver on your PC and extends the desktop to another PC/Spare laptop over the LAN. ZoneScreen which is a freeware developed by Vasily Tarasov can be also used to mirror or extend the desktop to another PC/Spare laptop over the LAN.

Extending the Desktop to a second monitor

First we need to add a second monitor (Virtually) to the PC. In Windows 7 (Should be similar to Vista) Right click on desktop –> Screen resolution –> Detect

Multiple displays -> Connect anyway-> Apply

Again Multiple displays –> Extend these displays –> Apply

Select the appropriate resolution for the secondary display.

Run the ZoneScreen Configuration wizard and select the display you want to stream over the LAN.

You can run the same wizard in the client mode on the spare desktop/laptop and connect to the server to view it’s display.

And now I can work with more windows at once. Freaking brilliant!

Simultaneously viewing code window and VSE on MRDS

Since the desktop is captured, streamed over the LAN and recreated at the destination end this is generally ideal for the static text windows. But it is quite acceptable for small sized videos as well. Following shows the screen recording of a video on physical monitor. Video Source : http://mindstorms.lego.com/eng/Movies/Movies/FightMovie/QuicktimeHigh.aspx

Following is the same video as displayed on the laptop monitor.

Although there is not much appreciable difference in the videos it should be noted that these are recorded using a mobile video camera under 15fps QCIF resolution. In practice there is a noticeable performance difference but yet acceptable for normal use.

Links

http://www.zoneos.com/zonescreen.htm

[Posted using Windows Live Writer on Windows 7 Beta]

Another Exam Season again… – Good Luck from Future!

2009-02-07T00:51:00.000+05:30

:-)

Hmm there is another exam season again… All we need is just the time. But fortunately this time, time is on our side. Well you may wonder what the hell I’m talking about. OK here it comes guys… I’m here from the distance future (not much far don’t worry) with the first 3 questions from CS4430 which will be held in few days time. So good luck from future!

By the way you may wonder how did I do this right? Well sorry guys, this is definitely not time for a lecture on relativity theory.

[Posted from 5th dimension]

Q1.

(a.) Define the term “optimal threshold” with respect to segmentation of objects from the background in computer vision. (3 Marks)

(b.) Using probability distribution of object and background intensities, explain situations where the optimum threshold cannot be determined. (3 Marks)

(c.) Can optimal threshold be used under non-uniform illumination? Justify your answer (5 Marks)

(d.) Suppose you need to detect a contour defined by the equation y = ax³ + bx² + (x-d) where a, b, d unknown parameters in a binary image. Explain how the Hough transform can be used to detect this contour. (9 Marks)

Q2.

(a.) Describe why the variance of the gray level histogram of an image becomes reduced when the image becomes out-of-focus. (6 Marks)

(b.) With relation to biological vision systems, explain why Computer Vision is considered to be a difficult task. (3 Marks)

(c.) Briefly explain the term “Circle of Confusion” how it’s effect on the resolution of an image. (3 Marks)

(d.) A high contrast image is captured using a image sensor with 8 bpp gray level depth. The imaging sensor is known to be introducing normally distributed random noise with zero mean and variance of approximately 4 gray levels. The histogram of the captured image shows a normal distribution with a mean value of 128 and standard deviation of approximately 64 gray levels. If the image to be used for a computer vision application that requires detection of objects, explain how a fast operation like “Bit-slicing can be used to reduce the extent of noise in the image. (8 Marks)

Q3.

Suppose that you are required to develop simple object tracking application for a sport like tennis. Assume that images are from a static background and you have a video stream with two players on two sides and the ball moving one another. Propose and briefly explain suitable algorithms for the following operations.

(a) Segment the background from the object. (5 Marks)

(b) Detect, identify and isolate the moving ball. (5 Marks)

(d) If the images are captured at high-resolution, a scheme to increase processing speed to support real-time operations. (5 Marks)

Fat and Bloody (Greasy) – iRobots playing Sumo…

2009-02-04T01:54:00.001+05:30

Follow up to the post Coaching iRobots to play Sumo. B-)

:-)

On the 31st Jan the submission SDK of the Imagine Cup Robotics & Algorithms challenge was published. And… this time the opponent – RCChallenger is no more a newbie in the game and really offensive. This causes fast battles between the robots and in most cases one goes other or both topples over. So I had to spend about 2 days testing some new methods to take care of my robot toppling over. Even though almost all the methods that I tried out were incapable of handling the speed the things happenes in a battle, I could turn the odds to my side.

So at the end I decided to go for a submission run hoping that the luck will be on my side. Fortunately during 1st round I could recover from a toppling over situation and push the opponent out. The impact caused a bumper in the opponent to malfunction and on 2nd round it goes out itself. With the 3rd round also going well it was a 3-0 win.

Following is the playback of the match from the recorded file. My robot is the blue colored tagged one.

Any sumo masters to take up the challenge???

[Posted using Windows Live Writer on Windows 7 Beta]

Almost Screwed up!… - Upgrading KU250 Firmware.

2009-01-21T08:40:00.002+05:30

While browsing trough the LG site on Monday for the LG KU250 user manual I got to know that they have released a LGMobile Updater Application for downloading Manual documents(PDF), Software and Phone Firmware Software.

Even though it appeared that the manual for KU250 is not available to download and the PC software version is also a bit older than the one I got on the CD came with mobile I noticed that this software supports firmware upgrading of KU250 to newest firmware. So I decided to do a firmware upgrade to my mobile.

In fact wanting to firmware upgrade despite the possibility of loosing user data such as SMS, Configuration data etc. is another story. The original s/w version available in the mobile was KU250_V10d. But as I have pointed in a previous post this has a problem when transferring files with long file names from a PC. At that time I tried to resolve this with local LG agent and failing to resolve, went ahead with a Full flash myself using LGMDP flashing software (Use LGMDP_Open) and v10c firmware (Credit goes to Dengel) found from some GSM community site. Of course at that time I had to try two or three times with a great risk of ending up with a bricked phone before getting the mobile flashed correctly. Even though this freed up blocked memory due to files transferred to phone, J2ME engine in v10c had some issues that prevent normal operation of Opera Mini 4 browser.

That is the story of my previous experience of flashing KU250. This time with new LGMobile Updater Application it seemed that the firmware is an straight forward operation. I removed MicroSD, SIM and connected phone using normal data cable and selected Start Upgrading…

And.. Well It completed all right without any errors. But…

Houston, We have got a problem… Not a single character is displayed now…

I tried again the same procedure but the same result. This time I copied .DZ file from the LGMobile Updater application’s data directory (This file is deleted as soon as upgrade completes) and flashed using the old LGMDP program yet the same result.

So then I tried flashing the old firmware back in order to rectify the problem.

It goes on Backing up NV…

Writing QCBL, AMSS bla bla.. rebooting and restoring NV..

And erasing media…

But there is a problem erasing media files (Since some already open to display Battery charging up/ Battery Full display?) So tried again. This time battery charging is not displayed in mobile and There is a Yellow box over the LG logo saying Refreshing… (Media file missing to boot further?)

However this goes trough all of the above steps and ultimately up to media downloading…

And Module downloading…

If my memory is correct last time everything went well and flashing completed. But this time luck is definitely not on my side… Module download breaks in middle and phone keeps rebooting again and again… Seems no chance of re-flashing as it is now not even detected in the flasher. So now I’m in a situation that until I flash those modules, it is not detected and without it’s being detected I can’t flash it…

However, fortunately I can yet go to Emergency download mode with 2+5+Power key combination.

However this time only subset of files is there and No Media Image/ Module Image selection option. So even though flashing completes the problem is not resolved. Then I did Selected Erase EFS option from the dropdown box (There is nothing else I can try right?.. ) and that time it fixed the problem of rebooting. Then I again flashed in normal mode with Erase EFS option On. That time it went all well. and previous Firmware was restored but there was yet a problem that No Wallpaper files or any default media files. (Possible caused by incomplete NV backup - I noticed one with less number of entries in the NV backup directory)

However now I was pretty much sure that you have to delete the EFS in order to flash correctly and I went ahead with .DZ file with Erase EFS option. Phew.. Thank god everything went OK and I got my good old lovely mobile back again with original firmware… Wow.. now Opera Mini 4 works with no problem..

Guide to upgrade firmware in LG KU250 (Probably other models as well)

Try new LGMobile Updater Application. But this may end up your mobile screwed up if you are an unlucky person like me. Remember to copy .DZ file while the flashing is in progress.

If above step had any issues, try re-flashing using LGMDP program with Erase EFS option in NV backup/restore. This will definitely erase SMS, Contacts, Other configuration settings etc. from the phone.

Files:

KU250-V10d-AUG-13-2007-MLY.dz

LGMDP_1_1_.5_Build_12.10_Release.zip

[Posted using Windows Live Writer on Windows 7 Beta.]

[Drum Roll…] Here Comes Windows 7…

2009-01-18T17:23:00.002+05:30

:-)

On January 9th Microsoft has released Beta version of it’s next version of Windows operating system, Windows 7(formerly codenamed Blackcomb and Vienna). In fact I did received the news a bit later and was lucky to download the ISO within 2~3 hours thanks to the high-speed link in LEARN ;-) and since the rush hour was gone…

Well the installation experience was similar to the Vista installation. (And of course ended up with around 8GB used for base OS installation just like in Vista)

New Features in Windows 7 (Build 7000)

A new feature in the productivity is the jump lists in frequently used programs. In this way it is easy to jump into the most recently open document straight away in a single click from the start menu.

Now it’s much easy to organize the windows by just a mouse gesture. (I suppose it would be much more initiative and fun on a touch sensitive screen as Windows 7 is multi touch enabled) Just drag your window to the top edge of the screen to maximize, drag down to restore, drag to the side corner to fill that half and drag from the bottom to maximize vertically.

The taskbar is also improved. Now it’s height is increased and only the window icon is displayed making it is possible to display more groups/programs opened. The It is also possible to temporally highlight a hidden window by hovering the mouse pointer over a full screen thumbnails in taskbar. This works for the minimized windows as well.

Note: It seems that the screen casts recorded with Windows Media Encoder 9 has poor quality though the recording was really easy.

It also seems the Sinhala Unicode works straight out of the box. (Of course Vista had only minor issues if there was any)

There are more features with the Windows 7. for more information you may read, What's new in Windows 7: Faster & easier

And this is my first experience with the Windows Live Writer it seems lot more easy and fun blogging with it. (In fact I prefer desktop applications to web applications. B-) ) Let’s see whether it works correctly with my blogger account.

Coaching iRobots to play Sumo. B-)

2009-01-08T16:57:00.006+05:30

:-)

Since the Algorithms and Project Hoshimi Invitationals has been removed from Imagine Cup -the world’s premier student technology competition, a new theme, named Robotics & Algorithms which is based on Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio products has been introduced. The task during Round 1 is to program a simulated robot entity simulated based on iRobot Create to successfully defeat an opponent in a Sumo ring.Even though it was not clear at first what to do. A clear step-by step guide has been published on Apps Community for MRDS. After meddling trough the code and changing few parameters and algorithms I was able to successfully modify the sample project provided with challenge kit to compete in a more reliable fashion.

Wow it's a win by 3-0. Well It was just luck in 1st round that my robot win. And during next rounds opponents goes out of the ring by itself :-P Anybody dare for a Sumo round?

Memories of Kerala

2008-12-22T09:25:00.024+05:30

:-)

ACM ICPC Regional at Amritapuri site was held during 5th December - 7th December at Amrita University, Amritapuri Campus, Kerala, India. I got the opportunity participate in this fabulous event for the 1st and last time in my life.
The event was well organized (Compared to the Kanpur regional for which I fortunately did not participated), Hospitality, Acomodation, Food and other facilities were superb. It was a great experience participating in this contest and I wish I'll have another chance in future to participate as a coach as well (Of cource then it becomes all about having fun without the burden of the contest ;-) )

December 4 - Day1

We reached at Amrita University, settled down and had a brief visit around the campus village.

Amrita Vishwa Vidya Peetham

Let's play some TT

December 5 - Day2
Official commencement of the On site regional and Practice Sessions and Visit to 'Asram'.

A Heartiest Welcome!

Practice Session - What?! 1 is prime in India?!!

On the way to the Asram

A Snooker round. Aim it and Pocket the Glory B-)

December 6 - Day 3

The big Day. Battle of Brains, Cultural Program

The Big Battle.

All relaxed after the hefty battle. Well We also scored a balloon B-)

Awards Ceremony

Cultural program. - The legend of Rama.

Cultural program. - Rock'n Roll Sonia. ;-)

All's Well. Ends Well.

December 7 - Day 4
Visit to Tenmala.

On the way to Tenmala.

Shoot 'em Up! - Bang! Bang!!. B-) :-P

Let's have a ride.

December 8 - Day 5
Back to motherland.

Glad to see the motherland again. :-)

Links:
ACM ICPC 2008 Amrita Regional
http://icpc.amrita.ac.in
ACM ICPC Amrita 2008 Blog (Photos)
http://amritaicpc.wordpress.com/icpc-2008-regionals-photo/
Onsite Problem Set.
http://acmicpc-live-archive.uva.es/nuevoportal/region.php?r=as10&year=2008

JBenchmark - Benchmark your J2ME mobile

2008-11-19T17:52:00.001+05:30

:-)

Benchmarking is the act of running a computer program, a set of programs, or other operations, in order to assess the relative performance of an object, normally by running a number of standard tests and trials against it. It's more popular among computer enthusiasts as a method of comparing there workhorse with others. B-) B-) 3DMark and PCMark by Futuremark are popular benchmarking tools for PCs.
So why not have your mobile also benchmarked? Well now you can benchmark J2ME enabled mobiles as well. JBenckmark suite, developed by Kishonti Informatics has few benchmark tools to measure the CPU performance, Graphic performance and Multimedia capabilities of the device.
I have used JBenchmarkACE - ARM CPU Estimator and the result was a ARM9 Family processor running at 105MHz for my LG KU250. So how about yours?

Links,
http://www.jbenchmark.com/index.jsp

Regards,
Aravinda D.P.

Anexure

Test results
MIDP2 Imaging - LQ	173 Frames \| 190 Frames (91%)
XML parsing	17 \| 350 (4%)
Business math	76 \| 556 (13%)
MIDP2 Game - MQ	771 Frames \| 2884 Frames (26%)
Audio - MIDI	833 \| 8333 (9%)
Route planner	165 Frames \| 1783 Frames (9%)
Image Processing	10 \| 122 (8%)
Game Physics	108 \| 859 (12%)
Composite MIDP2 Game - MQ	624 Frames \| 1763 Frames (35%)
JAR reading	120 \| 2083 (5%)
Video - 3GPP	55 \| 1234 (4%)
ZIP compression	13 \| 194 (6%)
MIDP2 Game - LQ	998 Frames \| 4836 Frames (22%)
Composite Business - MQ	173 Frames \| 936 Frames (18%)
RMS read-write	12 \| 400 (3%)
Composite Business - LQ	328 Frames \| 1607 Frames (20%)
MIDP1 Game	504 Frames \| 1522 Frames (33%)
Composite Business - HQ	Failed / Not supported
Composite MIDP2 Game - LQ	807 Frames \| 2619 Frames (30%)
MIDP2 Imaging - MQ	161 Frames \| 179 Frames (89%)
Audio - MP3	88 \| 1724 (5%)
Business Charts	266 Frames \| 1390 Frames (19%)
Image loading (JPG)	9 \| 106 (8%)
Image loading (PNG)	21 \| 265 (7%)
Composite MIDP1 Game	354 Frames \| 1270 Frames (27%)
Chess	11 \| 164 (6%)
Shortest Route Search	21 \| 197 (10%)
Map	261 Frames \| 2137 Frames (12%)

* Data Shown as, Score obtained | Best Score (Percentage)

T-Mobile HTC G1 - 1st Android phone

2008-09-30T22:17:00.000+05:30

After almost a year from the introducing of Android platform, T-Mobile has launched HTC G1 as the first Android phone to the market. It’s a touchscreen-enabled mobile phone with a full QWERTY keypad hidden underneath its decently-sized screen. While it has indeed been launched, it only go on sale starting October 22 and will be exclusively available on T-Mobile only. :-(

Prices are tagged as 179 US$ and the device is equipped with a 400 Mhz Qualcomm processor, 3.17" HVGA 480x320 display, 3.1Mpixel camera, WiFi, A-GPS, 3G/HSDPA. However the features lack are a desktop Sync Application, Video recording and a 3.5mm headphone jack.

More Details: http://www.t-mobileg1.com/

Google Code Jam 2008 Online Rounds are over.

2008-08-12T11:17:00.000+05:30

Prev: Google Code Jam 2008 Starts

:-)

The online Round 1-3 of this year Google Code Jam, a coding competition hosted by Google continued during 16th June to 9th August. Online Rounds were 2 hours long and consisting 3-4 questions in each round.
There were 2520 advancers from Round 1 (4 from Sri Lanka), 1000 advancers from Round 2 (2 from Sri Lanka), and finally top 500 advancers from Round 3 (1 from Sri Lanka). This top 500 contestants will compete compete against those in their region (Asia Pacific; Europe, Middle East and Africa; and the Americas) on a local Google Office to advance for Onsite finals at the Google Headquarters in Mountain View, California on Friday, November 14.

Stats:
http://acm.csci.unt.edu/~eleusive/round2Stats.txt
http://groups.google.com/group/google-code/browse_thread/thread/09d1230cd6e68121#

#132# - MobileCert

2008-07-23T15:26:00.000+05:30

:-)

Few Weeks agoThe Sri Lanka Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (TRC) has issued a new set of guidelines in using mobile and CDMA phones. This step was taken to avert irregularities and illegal activities while minimizing threats to national security created by the irresponsible use of telephones. Under this the mobile operators in Sri Lanka was requested to implement a method to issue a certificate so that it can be validated that whether the registered owner is using the particular connection.
http://www.news.lk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=6426&Itemid=44

Few days ago Dialog has implemented this and with effect from today Mobitel is also activated this feature. Now issuing code #132# in a mobile phone provids a message with the registerd user name, ID and mobile number. So it is expected that the armed forces and other security institutions will start to inspect this in near future. So the user's are adviced to make sure that they use the connections with regulations set forth to avoid unwanted troubles.

Google Code Jam 2008 Starts

2008-07-18T14:30:00.000+05:30

:-)

Google code jam is a coding competition in which professional and student programmers are asked to solve complex algorithmic challenges in a limited amount of time. The qualification contest of this year started at 16th 23:00 in UTC time and ended at 17th 23:00 in UTC time. 7154 contestants attempted 3 problems and 6773 were qualified to participate in this years competition.
The Online Round 1 will be held during the week starting on 25th Friday to select 2520 advancers for the Online Round 2.

More details : http://code.google.com/codejam/

Happy coding!

No more Project Hoshimi Invitationals in Future :-(

2008-07-08T00:19:00.000+05:30

:-)

Microsoft has decided to discontinue Project Hoshimi invitational which is a great strategic programming competition, from future Imagine Cup competitions - the world’s premier student technology competition. It is not known officially what was the reason to remove one of the most popular invitational from the competition. But there was rumors that the reason is there is not direct connection with the theme of the competitions in later years than it was first introduced where the theme was about health and eventually media was no longer interested in this invitational.

However the Project Hoshimi Lead Manager desides to continue support the project personally for the educational benificial of the student community.
Project Hoshimi website : http://www.project-hoshimi.com

ODF plugin for MS Office

2008-06-27T18:42:00.000+05:30

:-)

The OpenDocument format (ODF) is a free and open file format for electronic office documents, such as spreadsheets, presentations and word processing documents. ODF if primarily implemented by OpenOffice.org office suite and the main file format of the respective product.

This file format was popular among linux (Primarily open source developers as well) fans but the pain was using these documents under a Windows PC having MS Office. MS Office does not natively support OpenDocument currently. However you can download ODF add in for Microsoft Office at http://sourceforge.net/projects/odf-converter. And the MS Office will natively support the ODF format from SP2 of Office 2007 onwards.

Enjoy!

Few cool things in about URI scheme in Firefox 3

2008-06-25T09:39:00.000+05:30

:-)

Firefox version 3 was released about a week ago. While I was browsing with Firefox 3 I came to find out few cool things as well. In fact the guys at Mozilla has really a sense of humor than last time. B-)

The changed places I noticed were about: config and addition of about: robots

In about: config there is a kidding warning message as follows.
There is an about: robots Easter egg as well.As usually they have included a new phrase from Book of Mozilla at about:mozilla

Try these with your copy of Firefox as well.

Enjoy!

More bout about URI scheme can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/About:_URI_scheme

Long Filename Problem in LG KU250

2008-06-12T16:03:00.000+05:30

:-)

There is a bug in the LG KU250 firmware (at least as of software version 10d) that if you transfer a file with a long file name which is longer than that the phone supports the file simply disappears but the space is occupied from the common memory of the phone. (This problem may not occur if you used external MicroSD card.)

The only option appear to be to restore the firmware into default state. The reset function as well as clear all memory function doesn't solve the problem. A factory reset code wasn't available to be known at the time of writing.

Note: LG KU250 is The winning handset in the GSMA's "3G for All" program 2007.
http://ae.lge.com/products/model/detail/ku250.jhtml