Week 18 @ IHPC

16 Feb 2009   Monday

Working on the presentation slide for Polytechnic Student Research Programme (PSRP). Basically, from the presentation, we want to bring out that Lightdraw was a follow up project which done by our seniors, Lup Peng and Jianle. Our main application was LightBoard which we developed on top of Lightdraw. We would be sharing the problem that we encountered during the development.

After the presentation is done, Wilson and I work on the presentation script as we are the presenters.  We did practice presentation to Kevin.  

17 Feb 2009  Tuesday

After meeting up with Dr Eng last night in Temasek Poly. He give us plenty of encouragement and advise to improve on the presentation. 

In the morning, we update Kevin the feedback that Dr Eng gave to us and discuss on the presentation flow.

In the afternoon, we spend the rest of the day working on the presentation to improve on the point and slide and ensure that points are clear for others to understand. I was very worried that we might not be able win the PSRP award as everything had happened too rush and we did not have much time to prepare the presentation. Kevin advise us to do our best and not to bother about the winning. After all,this would become an experience. 

18 Feb 2009  Wednesday

Away from work.

We did not went to work as we went back to school for Project Show Briefing and Photo-taking session. 

In the noon, we went for PSRP at Engineering School Lecture Hall 28. We presented to 3 judges. They were Dr Eng, a lecturer from Engineering School and a Industry Partner of Temasek Polytechnic. They were the same panel of judges for last year PSRP. Therefore, they were aware about Lightdraw project. In order to get their interest back to this project again, there is some difficulty. We need to explain more about our Lightboard application and elaborate more about our research in this application which is different from the previous year.

19 Feb 2009   Thursday

In the morning, we presented to Kevin, the same way as we presented as yesterday. However, Kevin did not seen to be happy with our presentation. I believe that we did not bring out the points clearly and we stumble for awhile during the presentation. 

After lunch, we received an email from Mr Yeak, congratulating us that we had won the PSRP award. We were shocked to received that piece of news. We never thought that we could win that award. When we told Kevin that we won that PSRP award, he was surprise too and congratulated us for winning that award. 

20 Feb 2009   Friday

In the morning, Kevin assigned some task for Leonard and I. As our internship is going to end soon, we need to reformat our computer to remove unnecessary data to be kept when we are away. Therefore we reformat the computer and install necessary software back to our computer. 

Week 17 @ IHPC

09 Feb 2009 Monday

Continue working on the 3D loading function. I continue my work from last week, which is to set the main menu disappear when 3D model is load. After awhile, I completed with that part and did some testing on it. I notice that some point of time, after I load the 3D model and get back to the main menu. My application was unable to refresh. I went to check on my coding, I believe there must be some part I did not code it properly that why such case occurred. After checking and made necessary changes, everything went fine again. 

10 Feb 2009 Tuesday

After the main menu loading 3D model function was done, I start working on loading 2 3D models in the application. I believe that was one of the most interesting part. Imagine 2 3D models load together and you are able to control it to move, scale and rotate using light source. Isn't it amazing?  First of all, I created a new icon to represent add another 3D model in order to load 2 models, user would need to add one first so I would add the icon beside the 3D model. When that icon is clicked, the main menu would appear again and check on the index click. Then, it would show the 2 3D model together. However, at the end of the day, I could not get it done so I have to continue the next day.

11 Feb 2009 Wednesday

In the morning, I continue with the loading 2 3D models function so that I could integrated with Leonard's new function together. What leonard has done was to display the list of filename in the folder instead of the image and it would not display unnecessary file such as ds_store which is not a 3D model.

After lunch, we integrated together, however we meet some problems after integration which was unable to load the 3D models. After that, we found out that the file path could not pass through that causes the 3D model unable to load. Therefore, we create a javascript patch to filter the path. After that was done, we stopped our work, and went to discuss practice our demo that we want to show our lecturer the next day.

12 Feb 2009 Thursday

In the morning, we did demo to show kevin once and we tested on our application to ensure that it would not crash on demo.

In the afternooon, our lecturer, Mr Yeak came to our office and visit us. We did presentation and demo of the applications that we had developed through out the internship. After that, He had a meeting with Kevin and Ming Hong. Then, we were called into the meeting room to have a dialog session with Mr Yeak. He inform us that our attachment would not be SIP but IP(Industry Project). OMG!! We need to do another Major Project report ?  Besides that, we just talk about our internship and ask if we could submit our report on time. 

After Mr Yeak left, awhile later, You Hock received a call from Ms Lim. She informed us that we  have been sent to represent IIT school for the PSRP award which would be held next wednesday. Hope that we could get ready for that.  After received two surprising news, we discussed to make a decision due to we are still having attachment, we might not have the time to do report and prepare for PSRP award. So, we had decided to drop Major Project report and take part in the PSRP award. As all of us, we had a Major project already.

13 Feb 2009

Preparation for PSRP award.

In the morning, we discussed with Kevin and Ming hong about our current situation. Due to the time is too rush. We decided to make a video of Whiteboard Application and 3D loader application for the demo. 

For the day, we spilt our work load to get the work done. Kevin, Cheng Ting, You Hock and Leonard would be making video for the demo. As the 3D loader application was not ready yet. Wilson and I would have to integrated Wilson's part together and make it run smoothly. Both of us would have to work on the presentation slides too. Ming Hong have to work on the Lightdraw.  

A photo of our 3D loader complete integration.

Week 16 @ IHPC

02 Feb 2009 Monday

Had meeting with Kevin. He briefed us on the function that each of us going to develop.

As for my part, I am working on the refresh of the application. So that each time a new file in add into the designated folder.

Refresh part able to reload 3D objects into the main menu of the 3D loader application. There is a few possibility to do it.

1. do it in real time refresh( which is the best way)

2. use interval refresh

3. on demand refresh

Also, I tested out different type of 3D file format to load in Quartz composer. I notice that obj format and some 3ds formate load quite long . Sometimes it even crashes will loading. I guess its due to the file is too big, therefore it took a longer time to load. This might be a problem in the later development as we might want to load large 3D engine into this application.

03 Feb 2009 Tuesday

Working on the refresh part.

I referred on the Fusion world application, trying to get some idea how to do the refresh part. In the application, it was too complicated. I was unable to understand how did the refresh worked. I decided to try it on my own and come out with my own logic.

What I did to make it works, was to add a stop watch and javascript. Within a time frame, it would stop and restart. However, initially when I applied this logic, it did not seem to be working. Due to the checking was not handle properly. Once, this is done, the refresh part completed.

04 Feb 2009 Wednesday

Kineme3D trial version expired.

Omg!! All of us had our Kineme3D expired. Initially, Wilson was unable to open is his applicarion. Then, it prompt a message out stated that it had expired. We were like lucky you, no need to work. But all of us recalled that we download on the same date. How come Leonard and I were still able to use. So we restart the application, same problem occurred. We could not get our work done. We look for Kevin and told him our Kineme3D expired. He promised that he would get it for us by that afternoon or the next day.

In that afternoon, he told us he bought the license key. That was fast! We installed in the Mac Pro first. As we were afraid that one license key issue to one computer. However, that is not the case, we could used it for all our computers. After that, I continue testing on my refresh part to ensure that everything was fine. Then, I move on to the loading 3D from file.

05 Feb 2009 Thursday

I integrated my part together with Leonard's. So that I could try loading any 3D models from designated folder rather that loading a fixed 3D model.

Now that my main menu was completed, I would have to try load 3D model according the user selected. How could I know which is the model that the user selected and load it. So I have to set an index for each image in the menu and the positioning of the image.

06 Feb 2009 Friday

Continue working on the 3D loading.

In order to test out whether it loads the correct model. I set an image to print out the index in Quartz Composer. Once, it is correct. I would set the index to send it to imagelist to load the model. Finally, it could load the model. So what I need to do next was to code the application to set the menu disappear when the model is load.

During our lunch time, we went down to join the company new year lunch.

Week 15 @ IHPC

Monday 26 Jan 2009

Happy Chinese New Year

Tuesday 27 Jan 2009

Happy Chinese New Year

Wednesday 28 Jan 2009

Back to work from a long weekend . Kind of lost due to away for too long. Over the weekend and Chinese New Year, I did not went for any visiting  due to my grandfather passed away just a month ago. So I stayed at home to do my work which need to be completed over the long weekend. 

In the morning, we had a discussion meeting. We discussed about 3D loader application , drawing board application. After that we talked about the podcast we learnt and explain why it's good. However, Kevin was not very pleased with our research and gave us one more day to research more. Also, submitted the draft of our article.

Leonard and I start researching on the quartz composer to do 3D loader application as later in the afternoon we had to demo the rest about our research.

What we found after research

Kineme 3D(cost USD$25) is able to support 3D object to be load in Quartz Composer 

Example files like .3ds, obj, md2 and many more. (those were our main format)

It required OpenGLTools plugin too. 

If you downloaded it, it come with a 7 Day free trial and some example of 3D applications.

After lunch, Kevin gather us in the lightdraw lab to discuss on the IHPC article and gave us feedback on it. He also mention our English is pretty bad so from now on we had to speak English in the company. After the discussion on the article, Leonard and I presented our research result to Kevin and Cheng Ting. From there, they made some decision on the application plan. 

 

Thurday 29 Jan 2009

In the morning , we had a discussion meeting together with Kevin, Cheng Ting and Ming Hong. We discussed on the progress after yesterday's discussion meeting. After that, we talked about the podcast we listened and elaborate more about the podcast. 

We tested out with the Kineme patch in Quartz Composer and those examples in the patch. After that, we tried to create a new application using those patch to load 3D objects, rotates, scale, translate and etc... 

Friday 30 Jan 2009

Continued working with Kineme 3D in Quartz Composer. We were trying out to do load image from a folder and display in mosaic. 

Week 14 @ IHPC

Monday 19 Jan 2009

We left with the last part for whiteboard application  and you hock is working on it. so to make full use of the time, I start to research on 3D modeling in quartz composer. and found this kineme 3D 1.1 which can help to do 3D modeling in quartz composer. So we downloaded the software and tried on the examples given. he examples is not exactly wad I looking for. However it does give some help to my research. 

Tuesday 20 Jan 2009

Continue working on the 3D modeling and explore on other software that can do 3D modeling. We also did the article about our internship at IHPC for newsletter.  We also did helped in testing of the whiteboard application. There are still some errors have not been handle properly. Due to the multi-user mode which required more handler so that the application would be able to detect user dragging the marker.  

Wednesday 21 Jan 2009

Leonard and I found out that Adobe Flex could also do 3D modeling, provide we need to have a 3rd party developer, a software that can load 3D models into flex applications.  However, we  still not very sure that would this software able to load 3D models properly and the network connection is stable. Therefore, we are still finding out more about this software.

Thursday 22 Jan 2009

Continue working on the research on 3D modeling and Adobe Flex.

Friday 23 Jan 2009

Wilson is away for medical check up

We got back the article due to the article was badly done and we had to redo it. After lunch, Kevin gave some feedback and told you to redo another one. Each of us has to draft out a short article about our experience. Also, we did some spring cleaning in our office.  Kevin also changed our sitting position as we spilt ourselves into two groups to develop two different applications. Kevin taught us about podcast and told us to search for podcast station that we are interested and explain why? 

Week 13 @ IHPC

Monday 12 Jan 2009

This week is our whiteboard application deadline!!!

Of course we are prepare for that. We just started on the integration of our individual part and testing of the application to make sure that all the parts are working functionally. 

Tuesday 13 Jan 2009

Once we are done with our integration, we demo the application to Kevin. 

After seeing the demo, Kevin gave us some valuable feedback on the application in which the area for improvement. 

The image of the palette is too big 

Pen image area for dragging and drawing is too small

Use a fade in and out for the palette.

Also, we discussed on the multi-user part as we meet some difficulty on development for multi user. Time line for the project is running tight as we have another application to be complete before our internship end. 

After the discussion meeting, we start working on the changes .

Wednesday 14 Jan 2009

In the morning, we continue working on the changes. for my part, I am doing on the fade in and out of the palette. I used the previous application " 4 player pong" which was done by wilson and i. in that application, we use LFO to make the ball move. However, this time round we would be also using LFO but we will need to set the positioning for the palette to stop. Due to I was unfamiliar with the LFO , wilson help me to do

After lunch, i went back to school for NAPFA test. I got 24 points and silver award. I almost got a GOLD award due to my 2.4km run i am 16 sec more than the Gold timing. 

Thursday 15 Jan 2009

Integration and testing of the new changes to the application.

As for my part, during the integration met some difficulty due the the change of image. From a long rectangle to a square image.  Therefore, the coordinates for the drawing point is different.

How did I overcome that?

I check the size of the image and gave an estimation of the length between the centre of the image to the "dragging point". After a number of testing, I finally got the coordinates. Then, set the dragging area to activate  the drawing when laser detect within the area.

Friday 16 Jan 2009

Got a day off for medical check up. However, still woke up the same timing as usual to go for check up. Headed to CMBP with my girlfriend where her internship company is there too. Its was my first time to CMBP. That was quite a bad experience there, people there is unfriendly and instructions given were "very clear" because instructions is everywhere on the wall. What they did were to say " Read the instruction". Short and sweet!!! :>

They tested my urine, blood, eye, hearing , body and even my teeth. For all the stations, I was great and got PES A which mean that I am very healthy and might be even go for Office Cadet School(OCS) which I always look forward to. However, at the last second station which I need to declare my history of medical. I just told the Medical Officer that after running my foot hurts due to my flat foot. He took a look at it and said " your left foot very serious, I will now down pes you." And from an A to a C, at that moment i was quite sad, i wanted to get into OCS and become an officer and get the sword crafted with my name on. Cool right?

Head to last station which was the IQ test, that was a boring test which can take up to an hour. Initially, was quite okay and the question is quite direct. After a few tests, questions became more indirect so I answer it quickly without any second thought. 

After whole session of testing, I went for lunch with my girlfriend and headed back to office after that. I told them my medical check up result and I was quite sad about that. All of them said that I am crazy , so many people looking forward to getting my pes and yet I am so fortunate to get it. They explain to me the pros and cons about being an officer and from that I started to feel better and accept the fact.

After that, we help you hock to do some testing on the multi user. But there are still some errors which we are unable to handle. Therefore, You hock continue to debug the applications.

Week 12 @ IHPC

5 January 2009    Monday

1 more week to deadline of our whiteboard application.

Most of our main functions were completed. According to last Friday's discussion meeting, we came out with 2 more new task. 

• Drag and draw within the drawing point of the image
  
• Drag image out from palette
  

Since I had completed with my part, therefore I would be working on the drag and draw within drawing point of the image. You hock would be in charge of the dragging images from the palette. I actually come out with some algothrim to do the calculation of the image which will allow the user to do drag and draw. 

Basically, I would need to get the coordinates of the bottom left corner where the drawing area is located. And of course the coordinates of the center of the image. So that I could calculate the distance between the two coordinates, from that I could tell which is the drag and draw part and the dragging part. Using the laser coordinates to check on the laser location and make the coordinates center and the bottom left corner of image to follow the laser.

However, there is still some part I did not handle properly. Therefore, the dragging is not very accurate. Luckily, Ming Hong came over to help me with that which shorten my progress timing so that I can continue with my other stuff.

6 January 2009    Tuesday

I start working on multi control of images so that one laser could drag and draw more than one image. Also, an image could be drag and draw by one or more laser .

We went for early lunch at Sim Lim Square because Wilson want to build a new PC. So we went there to buy the PC's parts. Headed back to the office and build the PC. 

7 January 2009    Wednesday

In the morning, I continue working on the multi control of the images. Initially, I create another new image and 2 more Math to store the second image coordinates. While the display seen to be alright but when dragging came in. Only one image was working properly and another seems to be a display image. So, I made changes to the codes and did plenty of testing. The problem was still there. Then, I notice that the second image coordinates were not recorded at the first place. At that moment, I found out that the positioning of the second image was set by me and no changes were made after that. 

Therefore, I set if else case to check on the Math.

if(inputNumber[5] == 0 && inputNumber[6] == 0)

{

//there is no previous coordinates

//image = laser's coordinates

}

else

{

//there is previous coordinates

// image  = previous coordinates

}

With that, the part is solved.

After lunch, we went for shooting of the Lightdraw's video at level 15. Wilson, Leonard and You Hock join me for the shooting. While they were there to give me support as audience and I am the only one who is the "actor", Cheng Ting is the "Director" and camera man and Ming Hong helping out to set up the Lightdraw application using iGlasses. The shooting was fun although there is alot of NG due to my mistake. So I had to retake again and again till I am so familiar with that. 

8 January 2009    Thursday

We start integrating our parts together so that we can do an Alpha version to show Kevin. At the beginning, we find it quite hard to integrate together, as all of us have our unique way of coding it. Well, and most of them find my coding the most unique. They would always ask me what is this part doing and that part doing. But the integration was fine after all.

After lunch, shooting part 2. Cheng Ting had all of us to involve in the shooting to show that lightdraw can be multi-user. We demo on our applications which were the 4 player pong and puzzle game. 

9 January 2009 Friday

Integration & Testing 

Still working on the integration of our application and testing of the application each time one part was added. So that we could ensure that the part that was integrated could work.