Wen Jiun's Blog

Remote Controlled Blimp with Video Surveillance

2011-10-04T14:33:00.000+08:00

The project "Remote Controlled Blimp with Video Surveillance" is a joint project between several Multimedia University academicians as an Interactive Installation for the DA+C Festival 2011 (Digital Art and Cultural Festival) mainly from 15 to 17 July 2011 at Suffolk House, George Town, Penang, Malaysia. The project is named "FRANC" as a tribute to Captain Francis Light (notice that the name Francis Light can be separated into "Franc is Light", hence the name of "Franc" which refers to the Helium-filled blimp which of course is lighter than the air, therefore "is light". The main focus of the project is to continuously provides the birds' eye video feed of the interior of Suffolk House.

From FRANC

The indoor blimp is mainly based on Blimpduino project from DIY Drones. The wireless control is however not done using regular radio-controller gears but via BlinkGear BlinkRC, so that the control signals can be sent directly from a PC via UDP data packet. The EyeCam 2.4GHz wireless video transmitter provides the aerial video which is captured by a USB TV Capture device and eventually streamed in VLC player on the main PC.

FRANC V1 with BlinkRC and EyeCam

During initial testing, there are problems discovered with the first design. The EyeCam wireless video requires line-of-sight and is very susceptible to interference (various 2.4GHz signals from WiFi, Bluetooth etc.). The BlinkRC also sometimes fails to connect but eventually we discover that there is a loose connection on the BlinkRC PCB board and is finally fixed. However FRANC version 2 is still being developed as a backup.

FRANC V2 with Android and IOIO

The version 2 is mainly based on Android, which covers both the control and the video surveillance:

An Android application has been developed to receive the exact same UDP data packets as in Version 1 to drive the blimp. The PWM signals to drive the motors are sent out from an IOIO board which connects to the Android phone via USB using the ADB protocol.
An existing Android application "IP Webcam" is used to stream the video capture.

From FRANC

The major problem with this design is the larger weight of an Android device (HTC Legend) with USB cable which requires more blimp envelopes.

From FRANC

Further improvement is focus mainly on reducing the weight of the payload:

Using the lightest Android phone possible (Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini which weights only 88g)
Redesign the circuit board by integrating the Blimpduino circuit and the IOIO circuit.
Reduce the length of the USB cable

Further advancement is to add interactivity to the blimp for autonomous movement as the remote control is kind of difficult due to the combination of winds, momentum and human reaction. For example the WeBlimp project shown in the video below:

Integration of Android and NFC into Home Entertainment System

2011-10-03T21:53:00.002+08:00

"Integration of Android and NFC into Home Entertainment System" is one of the Multimedia University Faculty of Engineering Final Year Project proposal for session 2011/12. The project is inspired by Google IO 2011 Day 1 keynote about the Android@Home as shown below:

The main feature of the system will be described as the scenario below:

Once a selected music album cover attached with NFC (Near Field Communication) tag is brought near to an embedded NFC reader in a home speaker system or an Android phone with NFC capability (Nexus S), the home entertainment system will start playing the song, and the Android phone will display the information of the album.

The project will be divided into two parts:

The development of the embedded NFC reader in a home speaker system using either a USB NFC reader such as ACR122U NFC Contactless Smart Card Reader connected to a Windows Presentation Foundation application on a PC or an embedded NFC module such as SM130 13.56 MHz RFID Mifare Module connected to a network enabled Arduino or mbed embedded system. The NFC reader will continuously waiting to read an NFC tag brought near to it and immediately send the data read to a home entertainment system to trigger the playing of an album.
The development of the Android application on an Android device that waiting to read from an NFC tag to trigger the playing of an album similar to part 1 and to display the information retrieved from the home entertainment system about the album.

Use of SM130 13.56MHz Mifare Module in my previous project

MMU Cyber in The Freescale Cup Malaysia Race

2011-10-03T17:34:00.000+08:00

The Freescale Cup Malaysia Race is a competition of a team of University students to build a model car that will race for speed around an unknown track with various obstacles. The students have to program a Freescale microcontroller to interface with sensors such as Infrared receiver or camera to intelligently following a black line on the track.

The information of the competition:
Venue: Kuala Lumpur Convention Center (in conjunction with PECIPTA 2011)
Date: 14 - 15 September 2011

From Freescale Cup 2011

Multimedia University, Faculty of Engineering has sent a team of two engineering undergraduate students with a team name of "MMU Cyber" to participate and here is the result:

Qualifying round

No problem in the qualifying round albeit a bit slow.

Night Drifter Challenge

"MMU Cyber" did not complete the Night Drifter Challenger and please check the video for the reason.

Day Dragger Challenge

"MMU Cyber" did not complete the Day Dragger Challenger and please check the video for the reason.

Finally at the end, "MMU Cyber" finally finishes the Day Dragger Challenger track but that's was after the competition has ended. This was just to prove themselves and prepare for the next Freescale Cup!

The official summary video

There are additional awards such as "Best Design" and every car has to be displayed and judged but "MMU Cyber" really has no time to prepare for this.

From Freescale Cup 2011

Even though "MMU Cyber" did not get a good result but this is a good start and I do love the "MMU Cyber" car, don't you?

From Freescale Cup 2011

Development of an Exercise Machine as Android Open Accessory

2011-10-01T22:13:00.004+08:00

"Development of an Exercise Machine as Android Open Accessory" is one of the Multimedia University Faculty of Engineering Final Year Project proposal for session 2011/12. The project is inspired by Google IO 2011 Day 1 keynote about the Android Open Accessory as shown below:

The objective of the project is to develop an Exercise Machine which connects to an Android device via Android Open Accessory Protocol to provide exercise related information on the display of Android device.

Getting the temperature sensor reading on my Nexus One via Android Open Accessory protocol which will be similar how data from the exercise machine is being displayed on an Android device

The project will be divided into two parts:

The development of the exercise machine which may be a treadmill or a exercise bike with an Arduino-based controller to provide the sensors measurement such as speed, duration etc.
The development of the Android application on an Android device that displays the information retrieved from the Arduino-based exercise bike controller via the Android Open Accessory USB connection.

Optional features:

Implementation of difficulty or speed control on the exercise machine that receives commands from the Android device.
An Android 2D/3D games that based on the input from the exercise machine.

Some of the useful resources:

Circuits@Home http://www.circuitsathome.com/
Arduino Labs Mega ADK Project http://labs.arduino.cc/ADK/Index
Seeeduino ADK Wiki http://www.seeedstudio.com/wiki/index.php?title=Seeeduino_ADK_Main_Board

Head Tracking Glasses-free 3D on Android

2011-04-20T17:39:00.002+08:00

Introducing "Head Tracking 3D" on Android devices, currently only tested on Notion Ink Adam due to the single front facing camera (which can also be rotated to face the rear) and the fast processing speed of Dual Core Cortex A9 processor.

"Head Tracking 3D" is developed in response to the "Head Tracking for iPad: Glasses-Free 3D Display".

"Head Tracking 3D" is mostly based on my previous Android App "3D Depth Cues Demo for Android", which is introduced during a conference MOSC 2010. More descriptions can be obtained here. The App already has all the 3D rendering using OpenGL and the camera preview ready as shown below.

The "3D Depth Cues Demo" itself is inspired by Johnny Lee's Wiimote project "Head Tracking for Desktop VR Displays using the Wiimote" shown below.

The credit also goes to JavaCV, a Google Code project on Java Interface to OpenCV, which brings a much faster face detection to Android using Haar-like features (cvHaarDetectObjects), compared to the Android built-in face detector . The main modification that I have done to the JavaCV demo App is to use the minimum camera preview size as shown below.

The App "Head Tracking 3D" can be obtained from Android market (OK, it does not make sense to have an app mainly for Notion Ink Adam to be in the Android Market despite the fact that NI Adam is not suppose to have the Android Market, I will post it to Notion Ink Hacks).

Enable Apps Side-loading in Dell Streak Froyo AT&T ROM

2011-03-06T08:33:00.002+08:00

I have recently updated my Dell Streak via the official OTA update to Froyo, bad experience though. Of couse, the AT&T ROM will hide the option for side-loading an application.

The previous method to overcome this is to dial "*#*#307#*#*" which will then install the Dell Streak Engineering applications including "EMList". The EMList application has the option to enable the option "Unknown sources".

But the 2.2 update has made the installation of EMList not as easy as before. The installation via "*#*#307#*#*" seems to require a "PASSPORT" in SD card.

However, thanks to various Dell Streak forum (I am not sure who is the original source), the installation of EMList still can be done, but now requires ADW.Launcher. Once ADW.Launcher is installed and started, go to the home screen and add a "Custom shortcut". The reason to use ADW.Launcher is for the "Custom shortcut" option, which is not available in the default launcher.

Add an Activity and look for EMList and choose the EMListInstaller.

Click on the newly created EMList icon and it will briefly show a blank screen indicating the installation of EMList application.

Now look for the EMList application in the launcher and launch it.

Scroll until the end and select "App Security".

Enable the "Update Unknown Resource Property".

Now go to settings and the "Unknown sources" will be available under "Application".

Frustrations with the Dell Streak official OTA 2.2 Update

2011-03-05T00:20:00.005+08:00

I have been long waiting for the official OTA Froyo update for my Dell Streak 1.6. I don't bother to use a custom ROM since I have bought the Dell Streak Home Audio and Video Dock Kit and I worry that the dock kit will not be supported in those custom ROMs. Therefore my Dell Streak always stay at Build 6601.

After waiting for months and I have noticed that the system update page finally points to a real update a few days ago (early Mac 2011).

I followed the instructions and backup my data with the Dell Backup and Restore App available on the Android Market.

After confirmation on two pages with the details of the update including one about "Dell Stage", the update process proceeded to ask for WiFi connection. Then it will proceed to the actual download of the 155MB update package file "Streak_340_14844_31.pkg". The "3" in 340 means Froyo build, 14844 is the build number and 31 means the "AT&T" region.

After about an hour and the download completed, a click on the downloaded file will start the update.

Then the device rebooted and it seems to be installing, so far so good ...

Reboot and continue ... OK, let's call this "Start emergency recovery copy" screen

then this "Android system recovery utility" screen

then finally this "updating" screen.

Here the nightmare has begun, it seems there is nothing to be updated, the device rebooted again and it started from the "Start emergency recovery copy" screen, then proceeded to wait a bit at the "Android system recovery utility" screen and finally went to the "updating" screen. The device has stuck at this cycles. Shutting down the device by pulling the battery and switching on again did not help at all.

I was so frustrated as this should not happen to an official OTA update to a stock ROM. I have checked the microSD card and I did not found any update package in it. I am not sure what did the installation do and what is the current state of the device. Since I have no clue what to do, I switch off the device and asked for help in various Dell Streak forums.

After one full day without a working Dell Streak, I finally got a good answer from the XDA forum, someone which had a similar situation. I proceed to download the "Streak_340_14844_31.pkg" file again from Dell by referring to this XDA Developers Dell Streak wiki. I double-checked the MD5 sum of the downloaded file, renamed to "update.pkg" and copied to the root of the microSD.

After starting the device again, the "Android system recovery utility" has changed to show that there is an update file and I have to press the "camera"button to start the update.

I was so happy to see that there was something to be updated in the "updating" screen.

And finally Dell Streak with Froyo 2.2 and the Dell Stage UI.

HDMI video from the dock kit in Froyo still works exactly the same as in Donut, only for stock video app, no improvement to include support for more apps.

I am sure if updating causing a device to be unusable happens occasionally, it will definitely scare most people away from Android. Up until now I am still not sure why was it happen. If the update file I downloaded over the air is not complete or corrupted, the update should not start at all. I hope this post will help others with the same issue.

Next thing to be solved is the restriction by AT&T for side-loading third-party applications.

Android In-Air Gesture User Interface with Pseudo-Holographic Display

2011-03-03T12:05:00.008+08:00

The "Android In-Air Gesture User Interface with Pseudo-Holographic Display" is a project that comes to my mind after seeing the new OMAP 5 platform demo video shown below. The two features that I am very interested are the in-air gesture user input and the 3D holographic display. My intention would to add an in-air gesture user interface and a pseudo-holographic display to the Android platform running on a Pandaboard, a low-power and low-cost single-board computer based on the Texas Instruments OMAP4430 processor.

While both features seems to be futuristic but the possibility is already here, inspired by the many related open source projects. First about the in-air gesture, I was first introduced to it via the project by Johnny Lee using a Wiimote, which acts as the infrared vision sensor to detect the infrared lights reflected by the finger tips.

Then we go to a bit old school to see the use of normal digital camera or webcam to capture finger/hand gestures in the SixthSense project. Obviously this approach will require a lot more computing power for the real-time image processing as compared to the hardware-based tracking in Wiimote.

Finally we have the gesture input in Kinect, which uses a depth camera or time-of-flight camera that not only provides the 2D colour image capture of the scene but the depth information at every pixel via a concept similar to the police speed trap Radar. This has enabled a very precise finger/hand position tracking.

Among the three approaches here, the connection from Pandaboard to Wiimote may be the easiest to be accomplished due to the Bluetooth connection available. Connecting to webcam and especially to Kinect may require a lot more effort to have the Linux/Android device driver ready. Once the data, either points tracked by Wiimote, image capture from webcam or depth information from Kinect, can be received by Pandaboard, the OMAP4430 processor will have the necessary processing power to translate those to a usable Android Input Method (IME).

Now about the 3D holographic display, the actual 3D projection of Prince Leia by R2-D2 we saw in Star Wars movie will not be feasible yet. So I was thinking about a pseudo-holographic that utilizing any existing technology. The first approach would be to use the 360 degree light field display as shown below.

This approach requires a projector modified to an extremely high refresh rate and the effect of a more economic slower refresh rate will be studied. An alternative approach would be just to use the Pepper's ghost effect such as the one in HoloAd.

Either approach also requires the real-time re-rendering of the regular display to suit the 3D display and this would be possible with the high speed symmetric multiprocessing of OMAP4430 processor together with the powerful graphics core and the multimedia accelerator.

The integration of the in-air gesture input and pseudo-holographic 3D display into the now very popular and powerful Android mobile platform will be a glimpse into the future and hopefully the project will bring usefulness and conveniences to everyone, as you can see in the first video.

AT&T Dell Streak working with Celcom and Maxis Prepaid

2010-10-11T20:58:00.002+08:00

I ordered an Unlocked Dell Streak 5 inch Tablet on eBay on 23 August 2010 at a price of $675.99 plus a shipping fees of $69.99 (The total becomes $745.98 = RM2396.33). After a long wait (almost a month), it finally arrived on 28 September.

In the first layer of the box, there are Quick Start Guide, Dell Streak itself, metallic back cover and 1530 mAh Li-Po battery

In the second layer of the box, there are warranty and information cards, USB charging/data cable, AC Plug pins (US Style), AC Plug, pouch and earphone

After putting in my Maxis Hotlink prepaid SIM card, installing the battery and starting the phone, I was shocked with the message "Network Locked: This device is locked to your service provider. Do you want to enter a network unlock code?". Since what I bought should be an Unlocked Dell Streak, I quickly emailed the eBay seller from USA and to my surprise I got his response right way even his time was around midnight. I have to send him the IMEI number of the phone (dial *#06#) and after a few more hours, I obtained the 8 digit unlocked code and I finally saw MY MAXIS on my home screen.

What I like the most:

The 5 inch screen size is really suitable to browse the Internet and to watch videos. Most of the time I changed the user agent to Desktop as it actually gives better experiences compare to user agent as Android.

What I don't like:

1. The default Android version is only 1.6 Donut and therefore there is no multi-touch pinch and zoom in Google Map, there is no Live Wallpaper etc.

2. There is no 3G access for either Maxis or Celcom and the most I can get is EDGE.

3. There is no way to install external application as the option "Unknown sources" is missing from the Settings. This can be easily fixed but it will be elaborated in another post.

4. After the metallic back cover has been slotted in, it has to be pushed with some force so that it becomes tight with the body. If it is uncovered, the phone will be shutdown. I have experienced twice the phone shutdown inside my pocket since I was relatively more gentle in handling the phone initially and it is not being pushed hard enough.

Quadrotors Fiesta in Malaysia

2010-10-11T01:35:00.005+08:00

I attended Real-time Control Design Seminar 2010 on 28 September at Armada Hotel Petaling Jaya as the demonstration of a flying quadrotor is scheduled in the agenda. The seminar was organized by iMath and Quanser to promote their products.

The quadrotor they showcased is the Qball-X4 UAV which is one of the main components of their Quanser Unmanned Vehicle Systems (UVS) Laboratory. The brain of Qball-X4 is an embedded Gumstix computer with an HiQ avionics data acquisition card obtaining motion data from 3-axis gyroscope, 3-axis accelerometer and 3-axis magnetometer. To obtain position data for autonomous flight, Qball-X4 will have to use either an GPS for outdoor operation or rely on the tracking of several synchronized infrared cameras for indoor operation.

As there was some technical problem while transporting the Qball-X4 to Kuala Lumpur, no demonstration can be done in the seminar. However several videos of Qball-X4 were shown

Then on 4 October 2010, I attended the iPhone 4 + iPad Gathering at Uptown Damansara for the demonstration of another quadrotor, the famous Parrot AR Drone. The drone owner brought it into Malaysia at a price of RM2500+ due to the shipping, insurance and custom duties and he suggested that bring it in by hand from Hong Kong may be more economy.

The drone was flown with an WiFi Ad-Hoc connection to an iPhone 4 at a car pack. The augmented reality (AR) games shown in the following video are still not yet available.

I have strong interest in these quadrotors demonstration as we are in the process of building our own. What have been achieved in the first stage is the basic quadrotor hardware including the aluminium frame, 5400mAh battery, 4 electronic speed controls (ESC) and 4 motors which is controlled by an Arduino board plus Futaba RC 6-channel transmitter-receiver set. The next stage will be the selection and integration of motion sensing system for flight stabilization.

3D Depth Cues Demo for Android

2010-07-05T21:38:00.024+08:00

Android Application Title: 3D Depth Cues Demo

Developer: Yap Wen Jiun

Organization: Multimedia University

Community: CodeAndroid Malaysia

Description:

3D Depth Cues Demo shows how various types of perceptions of depth can be generated in an Android application.

These depth cues are present in static 2D scenes:
Perspective: Parallel lines converge at infinity.
Occlusion: Foreground objects block the view of background objects.
Size comparison: Sizes of most objects are familiar and large object that appears to be same size as a small object means it is far away.

These depth cues are present in 2D scenes that have motion:
Depth from motion: Objects coming closer will become larger and vice versa.
Motion parallax: The relative motion of several objects against a background provides hints about their relative distance.

This depth cue is not present in 2D scenes:
Stereopsis/Binocular disparity: The differences of images projected onto the left and right eyes provide hints for very accurate depth calculations.(Red-cyan glass is required for all the stereoscopic view demo).

Change log:

1.2 (current)

Install to SD card is now supported (default setting is "auto").
The setting Toggle Random Solids is added to Solids Head Tracking.
"Change Log" screen is added in the 3D list menu.
The sensor delay setting has changed from fastest to game, hopefully fixing sensor jittery problem.
The Window View (in Targets Head Tracking) not working in G1 bug is fixed by putting Window View into the same activity as Targets View.
The settings Toggle Sensor Tracking and Inspired by this Youtube are added to Window View (in Targets Head Tracking).
The Camera Preview can not be turn off in G1 bug is fixed.

1.1

The number of polygons is reduced to improve performance.
Help screen is added in the 3D list menu.
Balls Head Tracking renamed to Solids Head Tracking.
The lights shifted with perspective in Solids Head Tracking, thanks to @ebernie for the suggestion.

1.0

First version published right before the related presentation in Malaysia Open Source Conference 2010.

Information:

The related presentation "Android Application in 3D":

More discussions at CodeAndroid Malaysia Blog.

Screenshots:

Credits:

Android API Demos for the general OpenGL rendering into a SurfaceView.
nehe-android for the applications of textures on OpenGL surfaces.
akjava-android-project for the generation of 3D solids.
Sony Ericsson Developer Blog for the generation of 3D lists.

ToDo:

Lighting is weird in random solids in Solids Head Tracking
~~Window View (in Targets Head Tracking) does not work in G1~~ (fixed)
~~Camera Preview can not be turn off in G1~~ (fixed)
Jittery on Motorola Droid, believe to be sensor data problem, need more feedbacks

Future:

3D object loader that can load 3D models created in software such as Blender or Google SketchUp.
3D object loader that can load 3D objects scanned with low cost 3D laser scanning.
Face tracking with camera, started with the usual back-facing camera then eventually working on front-facing camera.
Wiimote tracking which is exactly what was done by Johnny Lee. There are already Apps with Bluetooth connection to Wiimote, so it is possible to read infrared position data from Wiimote.

Building a FTIR Multi-touch Tabletop in Multimedia University, Malaysia

2010-03-23T23:34:00.044+08:00

The project was started due to the limitation of a Wiimote-based multi-touch tabletop developed by previous final year project student of Faculty of Engineering, Multimedia University. The Wiimote-based multi-touch tabletop requires the use of infrared pens instead of direct finger touch. After gathering necessary information from the NUI forum, a FTIR multi-touch tabletop is decided to be built. FTIR refers to the Frustrated Total Internal Reflection effect of the infrared lights enclosed in an acrylic surface which is the crucial ingredients of the multi-touch sensing.

The wooden frame of the Wiimote-based Multi-touch Tabletop is being reused for the new FTIR Multi-touch Tabletop after some modifications including structural enhancements and paint spraying.

Firstly, the display/projection layout has to be designed. Based on the Projection Calculator Pro, the projector used in the project, the Dell 1409x projector, requires a throw distance of 1.43m for a projection with a diagonal size of 34 inches. Due to the limited space under the tabletop, there will be not enough distance for the projector. There two mirrors have to be added to virtually increase the throw distance. The design of the projector plus mirrors layout is based on this forum post in the NUI Forum which is mainly just folding papers. Google Sketchup is used to visualize the layout.

Tracing paper shown below is used as the projection screen.

For FTIR, a compliant surface is required. In my opinion, it is mainly to make the dragging of the finger's touch easier as dragging on the bare acrylic is not comfortable and depends on how wet is the finger tip which is highly unpredictable. The compliant surface selected is the textured silicone layer and is created using the Tinkermans Method. The Xylene which can only be found in large ACE Hardware store is used to dilute the silicone so that it can be easily rolled over the tracing paper.

The projection screen/compliant surface will be layered on top of a 8mm thick 22" x 27" acrylic and the acrylic will be surrounded by 60 infrared LEDs (SFH 485) bought from RS Components Malaysia. The LEDs will be held in LED holders in 4 sides of aluminium U-channels. The LED array layout is designed using LED series/parallel array wizard based on the specifications of 12V source voltage (from PC power supply), 1.5V LED forward voltage and 100mA forward current. For the number, the value being keyed in was not 60 directly as the design will not be suitable, 16 was keyed in for the long sides and 14 was keyed in for the short sides.

The infrared camera used to detect the infrared blob is a modified PS3 Eye Camera bought from Peau Productions.

Additional items are the CPU which runs Community Core Vision CCV 1.3 to process the video input from the IR camera, to run the multi-touch applications and to output the display to the projector, as well as to provide the power to LED arrays and a cooling fan for dissipating the heat from the projector.

The final look from above after a wooden frame is placed on top to protect the IR LED circuits.

The FTIR tabletop was showcased in Multimedia University Open Day 2010 and a lot of kids were having fun playing the MT4j demo on it.

Design and Development of a Cost Effective Wiimote-Based Multi-Touch Teaching Station

2010-02-09T05:56:00.003+08:00

A paper in Information Technology Journal Volume 9, Issue 3

Authors: S.N. Cheong, W.J. Yap and M.L. Chan

Abstracts: With the innovative use of Wiimote controller, this study developed a cost effective universal multi-touch teaching station that is able to run both standard educational collaborative software such as Classroom presenter and the customized Multi-touch teaching module that supports fingers’ gesture controls on teaching materials. The combinational use of advanced modern computer like tablet PC and multi-touch tabletop together with educational collaborative software as teaching tools to enhance the delivery of teaching materials is gaining popularity in universities recently, as it brings positive improvements to the classroom. The advanced hardware allows instructor to electronically hand-write notes easily, while the educational collaborative software fosters an active participatory classroom environment among students and instructor. With customized multi-touch application, instructors can interact with teaching materials more naturally through fingers’ gesture controls on the teaching station. However, to acquire such an advanced teaching tools requires huge amount of investments and therefore most of the universities in developing countries do not have the opportunity to leverage on such effective tool. Hence, in this study, we reported an innovative application of Wiimote to create a cost-effective universal multi-touch teaching station that is able to operate with standard educational collaborative software like Classroom Presenter as well as customized Multi-touch Teaching Module that supports fingers’ gesture controls on teaching material. This multi-touch teaching station can be used as an alternative to the expensive commercially available teaching tools of similar features for instructors and students in a budgeted environment. Therefore, in Multimedia University, the Wiimote-based multi-touch teaching station was designed and developed for instructors and students and it costs only a fraction of the commercially available teaching tools that are of similar features.

Full paper available at Science Alert.

Cost-Effective Wiimote-Based Technology-Enhanced Teaching and Learning Platform

2010-01-23T14:50:00.004+08:00

A paper in 2009 IEEE Pacific-Rim Conference on Multimedia (PCM2009), 15 - 18 December 2009, Bangkok, Thailand.

DOI No.: 10.1007/978-3-642-10467-1_112

Authors: Soon Nyean Cheong, Wen Jiun Yap and Mun Leong Chan

Abstracts: In recent years, the use of technological tools to enhance the delivery of teaching materials has gained popularity in universities and has brought positive improvements in the classroom. With advanced hardware, instructors can hand-write notes onto their computer electronically and shared it with the students. While with advanced educational collaborative software, instructor and students can contribute together in a class. However, to acquire such advanced technological tools requires huge amount of investments and therefore most of the developing countries do not have the opportunity to leverage on such effective tools in university. Hence, in this paper, we report an innovative use of Wiimote to create a cost-effective technology-enhanced teaching and learning platform that that serves as alternative to the advanced technological tools for instructors and students in a budgeted environment. The teaching platform comprises of a Wiimote-based multi-touch teaching station, a Wiimote-based interactive whiteboard and a Wiimote-based stylus input conversion tool.

The Proceeding of PCM2009 is published in a book series of Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS): Advanced in Multimedia Information Processing, by Springer. Full paper available at SpringerLink.

Light Touch - Holographic Laser Projection + Multitouch IR Optical Sensor

2010-01-18T06:54:00.000+08:00

Light Blue Optics unveils Light Touch - an interactive projector that turns any flat surface into a touch screen.

The device runs Windows CE and the applications are developed with Adobe Flash Lite 3.1. There are two major technologies in this device that make it works:

1. Holographic Laser Projection - Light Blue Optics's own display technology is the outcome of their extensive research, check their publications. The projection technology can satisfy the key requirements of small physical size, low cost, low power consumption, a robust implementation, high resolution, high brightness, low speckle, eye safe, large depth of focus and wide projection angle by exploiting the physical process of 2D diffraction to form video images, which no longer block the incident light (amplitude modulate).

2. Multitouch IR Optical Sensor - this touch sensing technology is not new as it reminds me of the old infrared virtual keyboard. The concept should still be the same which an infrared source is illuminated onto a horizontal plane and fingers touching any point on the plane will reflect the infrared light to the IR optical sensor. The algorithms to capture the infrared light, transform the touch location to coordinate, perform the tracking of the touch location and translate the touches to a particular gesture should be similar to the research works found in Natural User Interface (NUI) Group.

Study on SAR Motion Sensing and Compensation Using Low-cost Radio-controlled Plane Modified with Autopilot

2010-01-08T12:28:00.004+08:00

A presentation for Multimedia University Engineering Research Colloquium 2010 (MERC 2010), 11 January 2010, Multimedia University, Cyberjaya, Selangor, Malaysia

Author: Yap Wen Jiun

Abstract: The main condition of a successful Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data collection is the steady straight and level flight of the airborne platform. The deviations of the aircraft from the intended flight path will introduce various forms of phase errors which lead to degradation of the resolution and the contrast of the generated SAR images. One of the approaches to reduce this effect is to measure the motion error with sensors such as inertial measurement units (IMU) and global positioning system (GPS), then correct the phase errors with the appropriate phase multiplications. The motion sensing of the airborne platform, the data fusion of various motion sensors with Kalman Filtering and the selection of the appropriate phase corrections are the key aspects of the motion compensation system but the experimentations of these processes involve real flight data. To lower the cost and complexity of such flight experiments, a low cost radio-controlled plane will be modified with autopilot system to act as the remote sensing airborne platform. Different autopilot systems such as AttoPilot, Paparazzi, ArduPilot and UAV DevBoard will be studied and compared in terms of technologies used such as thermopile and IMU. One or multiple autopilot systems will be selected to be installed in a chosen radio-controlled plane that has sufficient cabin space and carrying capability. The motion sensing system and the determination of the appropriate phase corrections will be tested and verified with the flight tests of the modified radio-controlled plane at the maximum allowable altitude and range to replicate as close as possible a real SAR flight.

Wiimote-Based Multi-Touch Tabletop to Improve Students' Learning Experience

2009-12-24T18:09:00.002+08:00

A paper in 2nd International Conference on Teaching and Learning (ICTL 2009), 16 - 18 November 2009, Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia.

Authors: Wen Jiun Yap, Soon Nyean Cheong and Mun Leong Chan

Abstracts: Standard computer input/output devices such as keyboard, mouse and monitor have been used for lecturing in universities for many years. However, the generic nature and interaction styles of these traditional devices may not be ideal for students to interact with educational materials. In this paper, the design and evaluation of a multi-touch tabletop using Wiimote technology to create a more natural user interface for students to enhance their learning experience is presented. The multi-touch tabletop breaks away from the standard input/output devices and allows students to seamlessly access educational materials using their fingers with gesture-based interaction on a large horizontal table surface. The multi-touch capability of the tabletop is achieved through the use of Wiimote technology to track multiple users’ touches on the tabletop surface. Each touch triggers the emission of infrared light which is then detected by Wiimote built-in infrared camera. To facilitate lecturers in creating course content that supports multi-touch gesture-based interaction, the multi-touch teaching kit was developed. The detail implementation of such a technology-enhanced learning platform at Multimedia University (MMU) will be presented. The students’ learning experience was assessed by letting a group of undergraduate students learning a mathematics algorithm, the Kruskal's algorithm, using the multi-touch tabletop and then filling up a survey and being interviewed. The results show that the learning experience using multi-touch tabletop to be exciting and absorbing. The findings concluded that the use of natural user interface in the multi-touch tabletop has a great potential to enhance the learning experience of undergraduate students.

Full paper can be downloaded from the official ICTL 2009 site at here

Download Youtube videos in Android phones for free

2009-11-24T08:54:00.015+08:00

The following steps are tested in T-Mobile G1 with Android 1.5, should be working with other Android phones and other versions of Android.

The first few steps are to obtain the direct link of the Youtube video easily.

Open any Youtube video you want to download, let it loads a bit and then press "Menu" and select "Share"

Select "Messaging", ( Other applications will also work, but I choose the simplest)

Long press on the link "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=**"

If you get "Copy all" as the only option, press "Back" and try again to get more options.

Select "Cut all" and press "Back". (Since you have cut all the message, there is no hassle cancel the empty message)

The remaining steps are to download Youtube video on KeepVid.

Open "Browser" and go to http://keepvid.com/ (it is convenient to bookmark it).

Click on the URL bar on the KeepVid site and long press to "Paste".

Click "DOWNLOAD" on the KeepVid site.

If you happen to obtain Error as a result, press "reload the page" and try again.

The best case is to obtain ">> Download << (video.mp4 - High Quality 480x360)", that's the best version for G1. If it is not in the list, press "Menu" and then "Refresh" to try again. Sometimes I have to try more than 10 times to get that particular link.

Press ">> Download <<" and the download should start

After the download completed, remember to move it to a desirable folder and rename it since the default name is "video.mp4"

That's the simple and free way to download Youtube videos in Android phones.

wenjiun from CodeAndroid Malaysia

Testing Windows 7 Multi-touch with Multi-Touch Vista

2009-11-03T22:37:00.015+08:00

Since Windows 7 has been officially released and some of the built-in application already support the multi-touch features, it is a waste if you do not test it out. But how?

If you have an extra mouse, then you are good to go. The idea is to simulate multiple touch points with multiple mice using Multi-Touch Vista.

1. First go to Multi-Touch Vista Download Section and download the Recommended Download. The current file as of 3/11/2009 is "MultiTouchVista - second release - refresh 2.zip".

2. Extract the zip file to a folder easily accessible.

3. Go into the "Driver" folder and then select "x32" if you are using 32 bit Windows like me (don't go into it, just select it).

4. Make sure "x32" is already selected, then press "Shift" while right clicking on the "x32" folder. Select the "Open command window here".

5. In the command prompt, press "tab" a few times until you see "Install driver.cmd" and press "Enter". Answer "Yes" for User Account Control.

6. Now you can close the command window and go to "Control Panel" and then "Device Manager".

7. Expand the Human Interface Devices. Right click on "Universal Software HID device" and select "Disable", answer "Yes" for the prompt. Then "Enable" it again. This actually did a reload and the driver should already start working. To confirm that, go to "Control Panel" and then "System" to check that "Pen and Touch:" is "Touch Input Available with 255 Touch Points".

Then proceed with either one of the following:

8a. To run Multi-touch application created with Multi-Touch Vista Framework, go to the Multi-Touch Vista folder extrated earlier, find "Multitouch.Service.Console.exe" and double click to run it. The default input is already set to MultipleMice, so you can see red dot moving together with the mouse but it will not be at the same location at the mouse cursor. You still have to use the regular mouse cursor to interact with the windows as the red dot will only interact with applications created using Multi-Touch Vista Framework. You can try creating a "Hello World!" by refering to this tutorial. Whenever you are adding mouse or removing mouse, you have to restart "Multitouch.Service.Console.exe".

8b. To test Multi-touch features in Windows 7, first go to the Multi-Touch Vista folder extrated earlier, find "Multitouch.Service.Console.exe" and double click to run it. You should see red dot corresponding to the mouse cursor (probably not at the same location). Now go to the same folder (use the regular mouse cursor, the red dot doesn't interact with Windows yet) and find "Multitouch.Driver.Console.exe", double click and run it.

Now Multitouch driver should be running, but the original mouse cursor still dominating. Now go to the same folder and find "Multitouch.Configuration.WPF.exe", double click and run it. Click on "Configure device", tick on the empty box for "Block native windows mouse input....". and press "Ok". Now the red dot can finally interact with the Windows. Some of the things to try you can refer to the paragraph after 8c.

To stop it (sometimes mouse interaction totally gone after testing for a long time), use "alt-tab" to reach the two command windows and press "Enter" to end them.

8c. To make life easier so that we do not need to run so many executables, we can install the steps in 8b as Windows service. Please make sure you did step 8b and it is working perfectly (this is assuming you have ticked the "Block native window mouse input...". Go to Search and search for "Command Prompt", right click on the "Command Prompt" and select "Run as administrator". Change directory (cd) to the Multi-Touch Vista folder extrated earlier, and run "C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\installutil.exe /i Multitouch.Driver.Service.exe" (try to use tab to avoid typo). If later you want to uninstall, run "C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\installutil.exe /u Multitouch.Driver.Service.exe" instead. Now go to "Control Panel", then "Administative Tools" then "Services" (it is faster just to search for "Services"), you should see "Multitouch driver" listed. The default startup type is "Manual", so to start just right click and select "Start" and you should see the red dot. If you notice the regular mouse cursor is still dominating, run "Multitouch.Configuration.WPF.exe" to tick on the "Block native windows mouse input....". Once again, whenever you are adding mouse or removing mouse, you have to restart the service.a

Some of the Windows 7 multi-touch features to test on is
1. Paint

2. Internet Explorer or Firefox Browser
Zoom in and zoom out.
3. Activate the software keyboard on the left edge of the Windows and type using it.
4. Write your own Multi-touch application refering to Windows Touch: Developer Resources

The above steps to install the driver is actually extracted from the following video but I have to do some minor modification due to newer version.

Mac + iPod Discovery Week

2009-10-12T16:47:00.021+08:00

Date: 9 October 2009 (Friday)

Venue: Pavilion Kuala Lumpur

I went to Mac + iPod Discovery Week mainly for the presentations on iPhone developer and education after receiving an invitation email from one of the presenter, Mr. Ahmad Sahar. He was the presenter in the iPhone Development Workshop I attended not long ago, the details are in this blog post.

Mr. Chris Hong's presentations were on "Resources to help you succeed as an iPhone developer" and "iPhone Developer Tech Talk - Detecting device location and acceleration movement". Most of the information is about Apple Developer Connection.

The one thing that I learned from his presentation is that the full documentations of XCode for the iPhone applications development have to be downloaded by clicking on the subscribe button.

Mr. Ahmad Sahar presentation was about "10 Reasons Why Macs in Education" and "Introduction to Apple Mobile Learning". A few free applications that I found very useful is Grapher, Dictionary and iChat for screen sharing.

It is kind of easy to produce nice graphs with Grapher for lecture notes and examination questions. No problem to draw linear, quadratic, cubic, trigonometric, exponential functions on top of each other, adjust the axis and label the graph.

It is so easy to search for the definition of a word by just typing the word into Spotlight (the search box at the top right corner). Results from Wikipedia also can be obtained easily by clicking on another tab.

The presentation on "Introduction to Apple Mobile Learning" was just the replay of the following video, about the use of iPhone for education in Abilene Christian University. It is about 20 minutes, too long to fit in one Youtube video.

I am a bit worry about the distractions of the always connected iPhone in the classrooms. Students may spend too much time on Facebook, IM, games etc instead of concentrating on the lectures.

Flapping Wing Flying Surveillance Robot

2009-10-05T16:48:00.008+08:00

"Low Cost Flapping-Wing Surveillance Robot" is the title for one of the proposed Final Year Project (FYP) for Faculty of Engineering, Multimedia University Session 2009/2010. The project is inspired by iBird, a remote control flapping-wing flying toy sold in Jusco. The objective is to develop a surveillance robot equipped with infrared camera that can have flapping-wing flying. The infrared camera is selected as it is like giving night vision to the robotic bird.

The iBird has no carrying capability with the polystyrene body, a new design with better material has to be done. A small CCD camera sensitive to infrared (IR) will be used as the sensor on board and a filter will be used to block the visible light. Since artificial intelligence and autopilot will be out of the scope of this final year project, the robot will be remotely controlled via Wiimote indirectly, which has been done by so many people.

Made For 7 Contest

2009-09-28T20:52:00.006+08:00

All students are invited to join the Made For 7 Contest competition. Winners might have a chance to be feature in a Malaysian Tech Magazine.

Free Training is provided at MadeFor7 Workshop on 3 October 2009 (Saturday) from 10am to 5pm. Please go to Made For 7 Contest to register for the competition and join this Facebook event to register yourself for the free training.

Since the application must utilize the Windows Touch feature in Windows 7, students with touch screen tablet PC or know how to utilize two mice for multiple input for Windows 7 will have an advantage.

Low Cost 3D Scanner and Virtual Reality 3D Viewer

2009-09-23T06:11:00.013+08:00

"Low Cost 3D Scanner and Virtual Reality 3D Viewer" is the title for one of the proposed Final Year Project (FYP) for Faculty of Engineering, Multimedia University Session 2009/2010. The project will be the integration of 2 separate parts.

First part is the "Input" part, a low cost 3D scanner based on laser scanning will be developed referred to this video:

A 532nm Green Laser Line Generators Module GLML-2 has already been acquired with USD19.95 (plus USD11.95 shipping fees). The software for the 3D scanning can be downloaded from DAVID 3D Scanner. Real objects such as electronic components will be scanned using the developed 3D laser scanner to produce a 3D object in COLLADA format. A prototype has already been developed.

The second part is the "Display" part, a 3D object browser software that can display the 3D object in COLLADA format in a virtual reality manner based on head tracking using infrared camera. This "Display" part is the enhancement from previous FYP: Virtual Reality Displays for E-learning which uses Wiimote as the infrared camera head tracking device. The main software components of the "Display" part are WiiFlash (for communications between Wiimote and Flash) and PaperVision3D (for 3D in Flash).

Since the prototype of both parts have already been developed, the basic part of the project can be finished in a very short time. Therefore enhancements have to be made to make this a viable Final Year Project. Some suggestions are:
1. Develop additional interaction with the 3D object such as connections between objects.
2. Integrate the program into a multi-touch wall display with Windows 7 Touch.
3. Develop a mobile 3D object viewer for iPhone or Android.
4. Integrate with 3D Stereo Display.

MDeC iPhone Developer Program Workshop

2009-08-28T17:00:00.005+08:00

Date: 28 August 2009 (Friday)

Time: 2:30pm

Speaker: Mr. Ahmad Sahar

Venue: Sapura Digitalifestyle Apple Campus Store, Multimedia University Cyberaya

I have attended the 1-day iPhone Development Workshop of MDeC iPhone Developer Program so that I am eligible for ICONApps Proposal submission, which I have to submit a proposal for my iPhone application.

In the workshop, we have to complete a few examples and one of them is a very simple web browser for iPhone which took only a short time. The tutorial is very similar to the one in dBlog.com.au.

The presentation slides at the beginning of the workshop.
Content Development for iPhone

T-Mobile G1 (HTC Dream) Android Phone working with Celcom Prepaid

2009-07-18T17:32:00.014+08:00

I have followed closely the development of Google Android Phone since it has been announced. I even had two final year students working on their final year projects on mobile applications development with Android for almost a year. I have considered buying the Android Dev Phone 1 but unfortunately it is not being shipped to Malaysia. I continue to wait for any Android phone to be officially released in Malaysia and the day finally came. But when I saw the retail price of RM2699 (about $770) for the HTC Magic, I have decided to get one from eBay.

I decided to get the first generation HTC Dream/T-Mobile G1 instead of the HTC Magic for several reasons:

1. I have big thumbs and really would like to have a full QWERTY keyboard. I have get used to the QWERTY keyboard of my current Glofiish M700 Windows Mobile phone.

2. HTC Dream is a lot more cheaper.

3. It is the first generation phone and the same phone as the unlock Android Dev Phone 1 from Google, therefore the resources such as rooting, custom ROM etc. are more easily available and found.

4. The lack of video capture on G1 has been fixed with the Cupcake update. The lack of 3.5 mm headphone jack is now rectified by the bundling adapter.

This is the first time I seriously bid on something on eBay. At that time, there were several G1 phones available on eBay and I have decided to get a white colour model. The first thing I looked for is a price that is lower than $399, the price of the Android Dev Phone 1. And then I looked for globally unlock phone (which at the end is not really necessary). Finally I checked the seller profile and found someone with 900+ feedback and a score greater than 98%. I checked some of the feedback to see how the seller response to buyers' questions and complains. After I have satisfied with everything including the product descriptions, the return policy and the Paypal payment method, I waited until the last minute to put in my first bid of $340 and finally got it at $345 (about RM1253). The final payment was $384.90 (RM1398) with shipping and insurance. Once the bid was confirmed, I paid right away with Credit Card through Paypal.

The shipping was done through USPS Priority Mail International and it took about 11 days (including holidays) to arrive from US to Malaysia. I unpacked the package and these are my discoveries:

1. Everything is still in plastic cover except the phone. Since I am bidding for an unlocked phone, the seller must have been doing something with the phone.

2. The 1GB SD Card was already inserted into the phone and it was empty.

3. The screen protector was already applied but it was not a perfect job as there are annoying air bubbles found on the screen.

4. If the phone was turned on without SIM card, there is no warning of "no SIM card", obviously a result of the unlocked process.

5. I can start the activation process and a virtual keyboard is present to type, obviously the Android 1.5 Cupcake update was available.

I then took out my Celcom (019) Prepaid SIM card from Glofiish M700 and inserted it into the G1 and turned on the phone again. I then tried to continue the activation process with my Gmail account and password. It failed since there is no data connection with the Internet. Then I discovered that I did not even have a GSM connection, I thought may be I need to add Access point name (APN) settings of Celcom. Beside the activation screen the only other screens I can access were the APN setup screen and the dial pad screen. I tried to add and edit the APN screen but every setting I key in can not be saved. I tried to get IMEI number in the dial pad screen by dialing *#06# and on the screen, only "IMEI" and [OK] button were there, it was like the G1 phone has no IMEI number at all. I became worry and emailed the seller for help and according to him the phone should just work after inserting any GSM SIM card. By the way, the seller has given me a few very fast responses. I have wondered whether or not the way the phone being unlocked causing the IMEI number not to be displayed and therefore the phone not recognized by the cell tower in Malaysia.

I then try to search for a way to activate the phone without SIM card and I found these instructions from xda-developers forum. The only requirement to do that is that the phone has to be already rooted. According to Android-DLS Wiki: Rooting Android, only RC29 can be rooted and since my G1 already has Cupcake update it was definitely no longer stayed at RC29. So the only way I can get my G1 rooted was by downgrading it to RC29. I followed all the instructions of downgrade to RC29 very carefully since there is a possibility the G1 can be bricked (become a useless brick) if something get wrong. The obvious advices I followed is to make sure the phone battery is full before attempting the downgrade and all the files downloaded were complete by checking the md5sum.

After I have successfully downgraded my G1 to RC29, these are the discoveries:

1. There was a warning of SIM is locked, please insert a T-Mobile SIM card.

2. If no SIM card was inserted, the warning of "no SIM card" was present.

3. Pressing *#06# on the dial pad displayed the 15-digit IMEI number exactly the same as the one labeled on the box.

I was actually quite happy with this as it means I have successfully reverted it back to a SIM-locked G1 and I know that G1 unlock code can be bought easily from the Internet as long as I have the IMEI number. That's the reason at the beginning of the post I said getting an unlock phone is really unnecessary since you are not sure whether it will work in your country. I went to this site and bought an unlock code for $23.00 (RM87.89). After I key in the unlock code, the phone automatically connected to Celcom right away without me doing anything. There is no need to edit APN setting for a connection to GSM cell tower as I think APN setting is only for GPRS/3G. Since the Celcom prepaid data rate of RM0.10 per 10 kilobyte is quite expensive I do not even want to add the GPRS/3G setting so that the phone can never connect using GPRS/3G. I have Wi-Fi connection at my office, my home and the usual place I have lunch, so Wi-Fi connection alone is enough for me.

So now I can see that my G1 was connected to Celcom from the GSM connection icon in the top status bar, but I still have not activate my G1. I need to root it first by following these instructions at Android-DLS Wiki: Rooting Android. With the phone rooted, then only I am able to follow the instructions at xda-developers forum to activate the phone with Wi-Fi connection. The crucial step is to type

setprop persist.service.adb.enable 1

at the G1 keyboard (just open the hardware keyboard and type each character exactly, there is no feedback but the command is working at the background). After this step, adb (Android Debug Bridge) will be enabled on the phone. Setup on the PC can be found at Setting up a Device for Development. Follow the rest of the instructions to enable Wi-Fi and the phone was activated after the rest of the steps.

Now the rooted phone was still at RC29, it was unsecured and I have to follow the instructions at Android-DLS Wiki: Keeping Root to update the phone to RC33 while keeping the root access. Once again I carefully make sure the phone battery is full and the files downloaded are complete. The process include using a modified recovery image and the JesusFreke's (JF) modified rom. After these step my G1 was now at RC33 but there was still no virtual keyboard and video capture. To get the Cupcake update, I opened the Android Market and searched for the application "JF Updater [FOR ROOTED PHONES]". I checked for update, downloaded and applied the update. Now I am a happy user of G1 Android phone with Celcom Prepaid SIM card.