Проект Эйнштейна (Project Einstein) – Eyes Only

:-|

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…

:-)

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.

:-)

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.

:-)

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.

:-)

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!

:-)

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)

(c) A method to predict the trajectory and location of the ball in future time. (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…

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]