Secret Project (2): First Floor projection

Hehe, that is fun! I just took a projector and manually tried to align it with the kinect field of view. Unfortunately, different focal length->different distortion on the floor->no perfect match, but who cares! Next up: Calibrate the whole setup such that the image matches the kinect depth information and with this my feet-positions, then get rid of the angular distortion, then... GO ME!!!

'Secret Project'

What is it, that a half-computer scientist - half-electrical engineer does in the evening at Strelley Hall, you might ask...
The answer is simple: Playing around with the newest technology to increase the OAL (overall awesomeness level) of this planet by a tiny amount ;-). What I did was rather simple: Take a Kinect camera, some C++ magic including geometrical corrections plane estimations and a simple water effect simulation, and voila: the "interactive pavement". What I intend to do is to project the the water vis onto the floor such that it matches the real foot position... Let's see when I find some time for this last bit of coding :-)

1. Visualizing foot-floor-closeness. The movement of the table also shows you that I expect the background to be static...



2. The water effect on some blue tiles



3. The water effect on a Logo. Here, you can also see that the groundplane estimation and background processing takes quite a while... about 20 seconds. The artifact in the upper lefthand corner is a shiny tile near the fireplace in the living room. The kinect Infrared technology does not work that good on those...

Pictures of the Trip

Was a great Trip to Wales... except that I don't remember any of the names of places... all something with Gwd LLydd...ch..gn..dog or so... But apart from that, I really enjoyed the nature! It is fantastic that so much diversity is reachable within one day, be it valleys, caves, water falls, moors, or even the sea!

Anyway, here's what Wales is famous for: Sheep! Sometimes so many, that they clog the narrow roads ;-)

Maybe an eagle? Sure sounded like one... Edit: Probably a red kite... see here

A typical footpath: I just had to climb over a fence and off I went... One of the great things here in the UK: Even though most of the land is privately owned, it is still allowed -within the nature reserves- to access it via these footpaths. This is an ideal basis for exciting hikes :-)

Waterfalls! So many waterfalls! Within an 2hrs hike, you can easily reach 4 magnificent ones, and many others are nearby...

Going to Wales this weekend!

Let's see how this will be... So far, I know that they speak a strange language and have sheep ;-), what do you think of this:

Anglesey claims the village with the longest name in Britain: Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllandysiliogogogoch (58 letters;0.5mi/0.8km from Menai Bridge). Roughly translated the name means "by the church of St Mary in the hollow of white aspen over a rapid whirlpool and St Tysilio's Church close to the red cave". It is usually known as Llanfair PG.

Pictures of my Last weeks London trip will follow soon...

The Wash and Gibraltar Point

Just a few pics of todays trip to the wash...

The Sea...

Hmmm, nice memories of a fantastic holiday on the Cape Verde islands... We spent most of the time diving :-), therefore, all but one of the pictures below are taken underwater! What'dya think?

Peak District

It's weekend again, and I could finally manage to do the trip I scheduled for last Sunday (when a certain phonecall from a certain colleague made me go to the office instead...). It was a great trip, see for yourself. Castleton seems to be a good starting point for hikes, I parked my car there and went on through Winnats Pass, visited a barrier lake, an old abandoned railway and so on. Really enjoyed the day...

Last but not least: am I the only one who thinks that this road sign a bit ... peculiar?

Will definitely go to Peak District again, I was told they have spectacular caves in which you can do a boat-tour on an underwater lake... Next time!

British food (1)

So far, I have been lucky in the pubs. I have eaten pies, sandwiches, curries,... delicious food! However today I was told that I absolutely need to try the following food 'sacrilege': a "chip butty". "What's that?" you might ask (at least the german readers)... Just have a look: Tadaaaa!

That's right: A few slices of bread, stuffed with chips! Aaaand: BUTTER (hence: "butty")! Waaaah... how can they do that?

Anyway, I think, I will have to take a bite at least, before critisizing too much.

John Brooks

OK, there is this weird phone on my desk at work, that starts to talk to me from time to time. What it sais is always the same "John Brooks, please come to reception"... I'm not John Brooks! Also, there is no John Brooks in my company. Even worse, there is no John Brooks on Strelley Hall grounds!
My interest has been raised, thus I performed some crimminal investigations! NCIS cap on the head, and off we go :-). Sherlock Woods seems to live in Nottingham after all ;-).
Aaaand, my investigations were successful. Turns out, "John Brooks come to reception" is a to secret code! Whenever this password is transmitted, a guy in a van that sells sandwiches has entered Strelley Hall. Btw., his name is NOT John Brooks. The procedure is used to let everyone know that Sandwich-Man is here, while omitting the awkward situation of someone shouting "Sandwichman is here" when companies have customers visiting on site... Frankly, I don't think this is worth the effort, but at least I now know who the famous John Brooks is :-).

First trip donwtown

Yesterday, I decided that I would use this Saturday to go downtown. On the one hand, I wanted to see the city centre, on the other hand, I was hoping to find an electronics shop to buy a WLAN access point, which would allow me to move around a bit more freely with my computer in the house :-).
So, after work yesterday, I checked the weather forecast... Guess what: Rain! But also, a cloudy period around 4pm, so I still had some hope.
So, when I woke up today, as expected: a nice constant dribble on the pavement in front of my window. I already prepared to make alternative plans, and checked the weather forecast again: and hey! Supposedly, there might be a window of about 4hrs without rain around noon! What can I tell you: at 11:30, the rain stopped! I quickly dried my bike and on I went... I made the whole way into city and back without any problems, no rain at all. The way to downtown was rather disappointing: strange neighborhoods and strange people... Downtown wasn't spectacular either, but not bad! A few old buildings, some shops and some nice pubs. Aaaaand: an electronics shop! Guess what: I am writing this entry from my cozy couch in the living room :-D.
Here are two impressions of the city

And something else: In the living room, there is a strange gadget on the shelve, and I just can't figure out what it is! Look for yourself... any idea? Btw., I am not talking about the wooden crane.

Strelley Hall

Strelley Hall is where I live. And where my company has its office: Apparently, the guys made a good choice :-).

It is a beautiful place, with old houses, lots and lots of green and... horses! Here are a few impressions: You can see the fields across the road, the tower of 'our' medieval church and of course: the horses! :-). All pictures taken on Strelley Hall grounds, btw., the area is just huge!

Also, check this out (hint: google streetview ;-) ):


Größere Kartenansicht

Anreise

Coming here by car... this means: 6 hours drive to Calais, 2 hours ferry to Dover, another 4 hours drive to Nottingham...
Here's the ferry terminal:

And here is me, driving on the left side! It's not so hard, really...