Crash test dummy abuse for SCIENCE!
December 5th, 2011
Smart Home covered by WINK-TV
October 1st, 2011
My Smart Home project was covered by Fort Myers’ WINK-TV. An m4v of the clip can be seen here: WINK-TV Smart Home Story
Several New Articles
September 14th, 2011
Several new articles on which I am author or coauthor are now in press. These articles deal with our experience with the Ubisense RTLS system in the JAH VA Hospital. Check the Publications section for details.
Wireless telesurveillance system for detecting dementia
June 9th, 2011
A new article on my work with Drs. Kearns, Fozard, and Nams on using RFID and fractal dimension to monitor patients in assisted living facilities is now online and due to be published in Gerontechnology, the journal of the International Society for Gerontechnology, shortly. You can also find a pre-print copy of the article in the Publications section of this website. In this article we show that fractal dimension generated using my RTFPA algorithm was superior to the MMSE (Mini Mental State Exam) as a classifier for discriminating between patients with and without (a diagnosed case of) dementia.
Android
March 10th, 2011
So, we finally broke down and purchased a cheap Android device at work for development work. I figured I don’t need anything too expensive, I just want to test and make sure my Unity apps run on Android as well as iOS. We picked an Archos 32 “tablet”. It arrived today and I start tinkering.
The first thing I found out is that the Android SDK doesn’t detect Archos devices without intervention. You have to add the manufacturer ID (0×0e79) to the adb_usb.ini. Fine I did that and was able to deploy my app to the device. Yay!
Then I tried to install Unity Remote. I try to go get it on the Android Market…. Oh, I need an account. Fine. I go and try to set up my GMail account as my Market account…. Argh, how do I do this?!? Ah, on the device, fine…. Setup Failed!!!! Argh!!! WTF. Right, my iPhone connected to my iTunes and Gmail accounts without so much as a peep. This experience with Android isn’t impressing me.
So I do some hunting, I find out that Google, even though Android is “open”, doesn’t allow all devices to access the Market. Manufacturers must officially license Android for that feature. WTF. No one from Google ever mentions this publicly, and no one from Archos says, “Oh, BTW, we haven’t licensed Android, so you’re not going to have access to Market or any Google apps, or half of what Android can do.”
Also the device looks kind of crappy, the screen sucks, and the responsiveness is quite lacking (you get what you pay for). Perhaps that’s why Archos isn’t on Google’s approved devices list, however my apps run just fine.
Summary: I bought these things because everyone (other researchers and hospital staff) keep whining about my insistence on iOS and claim I should support Android because it’s more open and they love theirs. So I go to do this and find that all Androids are not equal. Google has way, way, way, way more catch up to do than I originally thought. My first day with Android is quite disappointing and any time someone waves an Android device at me when I use my iPhone4, I’m just going to laugh until Google fixes this crap. Maybe I’ll try a more expensive device later and compare to this one. In any case, stay away from Archos devices.
New Article In Press
January 2nd, 2011
An updated version of “Using Fractal Dimension to Assess Robot Operator Search Skill” will appear in a forthcoming issue of Intelligent and Robotic Systems. This lengthier article has a very thorough discussion of my RTFPA algorithm and a preliminary comparison of RTFPA to other fractal path analysis algorithms.
Finished painting my new Radian foamie
November 16th, 2010
Finally getting back into R/C. Decided to fix the heli at work and picked up this Radian too. I’ll be adding lights soon.
Alex likes his chocolate ice cream
September 5th, 2010
This was taken the other after Alex had his favorite ice cream (chocolate coconut) in his favorite chair (swing).
New Visualization Project
July 6th, 2010
I’ve started working on a new project to identify hotspots in some of data from one of the projects I’m working on. (Specific details to come later). In any case, I was inspired by the “Earth at Night” photos and some network traffic visualizations (I like the “hot spots” look) and whipped up a Java app this weekend to do something similar.
