My Car PC– Beta Build

After the success in the GPS receiver installation I thought, OK now it’s time to get serious and make a proper installation with some real H/W. The only obstacle preventing that was a way to import some decent H/W that was in my mind. Specially a good APU based system with low power consumption, touch screen display, SSD and what not.
Fortunately a couple of colleague from my workplace was returning from US on-site visit and I finally managed to source following H/W.
1. ASRock E350M1/USB3 Motherboard $109.99 from Amazon.com
2. OCZ Agility 3 - SATA III 2.5 60GB SSD $87.99 from Amazon.com
3. VM70 - 7" TFT LCD touchscreen monitor $119 from eBay store.
4. G.Skill DDR3 1333MHz 2GB (From local computer shop) (For around some LKR 2000+ I think)
5. Plastic Mini ITX VESA Mnt HTPC Car Computer Case(Black A) $37.50 from eBay.
6. For the power supply, I ordered a Pico PSU 12V 120W DC-DC MINI ITX ATX PC Power Supply as well from eBay. $24.99
following is the collection of above items along with other peripherals (OBD-II, GPS cables) I have sourced during previous builds.

However unfortunately I found out it hard way (By blowing a voltage regulator IC of motherboard while testing it with a analog variable power supply, which was uncontrollable.) that Pico PSU is not capable of operating in wide input voltage range of the vehicle.
So had to wait yet another few months (Actually almost an year) to get a new Motherboard (This time, $87.55 from Amazon.com warehouse deals). I also got a M1-ATX Automotive DC-DC Power Supply, 90 Watt for $32.99 from eBay this time.
Once all the necessary items are sourced I test benched the entire setup. (This time using a better digital variable power supply. )

For the software setup, I used following setup.
Windows Embedded Standard 7 (Minimalistic setup with Command prompt shell with custom shell support – Approx 1GB image size)
Centrafuse 3.5
Garmin Mobile PC
For mounting the touchscreen I sourced a 1DIN holder for few hundred rupees from local scrapyard (Panchikawaththa) for auto parts, since I did not wanted to drill holes on original 1DIN holder that was in the center console. After bit of dismantling and drilling few holes on 1DIN holder I bought I could mount the screen on it.
Once all the required items are ready, I moved into the vehicle. After pulling the panels on the dashboard I could access the center console for replacing the empty 1DIN holder with the screen.

Once the screen is mounted, got the wires layered below the retrofitted carpeting in the vehicle to the backseat under which I plan to put the PC.

Once all wired up, it’s time to fire up the setup and enjoy the fruits of hard work.

Few weeks later, I ordered a reverse camera as well from eBay (18 AUD) and hooked it up to reverse light power supply and connected to Aux input of the LCD monitor so it switch to reverse camera when I shift into reverse.


So that’s it?
I’m afraid it isn’t. There are much more to do. I already have ordered a Parking distance sensor kit and a USB logic analyzer and couple more front/side view cameras. Ideas are boundless. Only time is what I’m lacking of.
[Posted with Windows Live Writer™ 2012 on Windows 7 64bit]

My Car PC – Alpha Build (GPS Navigation)

After the success in first Car PC build I had, decided to go further with adding a GPS unit to the build. So I went straight to eBay and ordered a GlobalSat BU353 USB GPS Receiver. After a couple of weeks I received a mail from Colombo central mail exchange that the item is on hold at customs. Oh Sh!# .
So I went to the customs office and upon inspection in presence of customs officer, I was directed to TRC (Telecommunication Regulatory Commission) to obtain the approval. I really did not have any option other than that since the damn thing was clearly marked as a GPS. Upon submitting a written request to TRC they said they would forward my request to MoD (Ministry of defense) for approval. Fortunately I did not have to go to MoD as well (They did a brief interview over the phone though )
And after the much of the drama and almost all the government institutions sending letters here and there between each other to consult on the matter, finally I got the approval back from TRC. (At one point I was wondering whether they would even consult CIA, FBI and DoD of USA as well for the matter that I’m about to use their GPS system ) Then after submitting back the TRC approval and paying around thousand rupees got the damn thing back. Following is the bunch of letters I received from various government institutions regarding this matter.

Phew, However fortunately I found out that It’s having a Prolific chip for converting serial data to USB and managed to get a WindowsCE driver and get the GPS receiver to connect to eBox. I also decided to put the mini PC under the drivers seat so the dashboard stays clutter free.

The next task was to put in a navigation app. Unfortunately it was not easy to find a navigation app for the Windows CE x86 processor architecture. Even there was since there is no way to make input to the PC. it was not going to make much help. So I decided to make a homebrew application using static maps tiles I scraped off the Google Maps static map API. (I know it kind of violate the license agreement but do I have any other option? specially since the device is not connected to internet.) Following is the crude UI of the current system. It simply show the current location on the static map tiles so basically it’s better than nothing.

Apart from that it also logs all the information received from OBD-II cable as well as GPS receiver data in case requirement arise for the later analyze.
So I think now it’s time to get serious and buy some real H/W for a decent Car PC.
[Posted with Windows Live Writer™ 2012 on Windows 7 64bit]

Kinect Services for RDS 2008 R3

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]

Kinect for Windows SDK beta Released

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

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

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]

Nao Developer Program

:-)

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

:-)

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.

:-)

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]

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

:-)
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]