So I was just browsing Hack-A-Day and came across several different QuadCopter projects, which got me thinking. Why don't we take the best features of all of them, combine them together, and add a swarm mentality? They'd be able to map out an area in second by relaying information back to "home base" or your computer and they'd be able to lift and transport pretty much anything back to a specified location. Yes these crazy jumps is how my brain works and for a Robotics student it means alot of crazy projects. Now that I had an idea and jumping off point I needed to pick a name and a team for the project so I chose the name MetalMen in honor of the 1962 American comic of the same name [Metal Men], a team of robot superheroes that DC published. I thought the name was appropriate considering the idea of each QuadCopter working together as a whole for a goal.
Arachne
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So I've been working on alot of projects since I've started college at UAT, in only a year and a half I feel like I've expanded my skills and hope that continues. But I've also met some really amazing people who I'm glad I had a chance to get to know, and though some terrible things have happened this past year and a half like that loss of my Uncle John to cancer, I have also had a chance to find things to help me get through it. One of those being Tania Katan's book "My One Night Stand With Cancer" the other being an awesome net of friends who are just as geeky and crazy as me. We might not be normal by any standard set by society but you'll probably never find a closer group of college students who generally look out and care about what is going on with each other, who came from all over the US to this one college because they love something totally beyond geeky and who end up making and sharing amazing bonds because of it. So this post is for a few reason: To honor a man who effected me more then I can ever explain, my Uncle John. To thank a woman who wrote something that touched me during my period of mourning, Tania Katan. And to all of my crazy UAT friends who keep me just sane enough to not go completely insane but that also encourage letting me go for all the crazy ideas that pop into my head. Thank you, all of you I really don't know what I would do without you guys.
Eventually we settled on a design, and started the manufacturing ourselves. Yes we measured, cut, and built everything in lab for the new design.
The display category can further be broken down into different areas of AR; each has its own benefits for different circumstances. Head-mounted display allows the user to interact and augmented the world around them while being fully immersed in it and still maintaining full mobility.
Handheld displays allow the user to still retain full mobility without having to immerse themselves into the AR; this is also the most likely candidate for mass production for consumers. Lastly spatial AR allows for use in the home, full interaction, limited mobility, and little to no immersion. For the most part this is using a webcam or some kind of camera and projector set-up. You'll find this type most commonly used now with online stores allowing you to print off a tag to "try" on their clothes to see how you like it.
For the most part all mobile computing power is referring to is the GPU or graphical processing unit. It seems kind of far strung and super high gadgetry but really for the most part it is a graphics card. Since the only computing needed is the coding and graphics being streamed to it, it is easier and smoother to use a GPU rather than a full computer system which breaks the work into two different chunks to send to the CPU and the graphics card, which then has to be put back together later down the road and cause a lag in the system between seeing a tag, recognizing it, and displaying the corresponding image.
Tracking is a matter entirely in and of itself. For the whole AR system to work it needs to be able to tell where it is in space and any movement deviation made from that point. This particular area is also where the greatest lag in AR systems is typically produced since most tracking systems being used at this point aren’t as sensitive as the systems need them to be. The best options right now would be one of the following: multiple GPS signals, differential GPS, real-time kinematic GPS, and the HiBall tracking system. As a personal suggestion, the HiBall tracking system seems to be the best bet at the moment for groups looking into experimenting with AR as its systems resolves linear motion of less than .2 millimeters, angular motion of less than .03 degrees, and an update rate of more than 1500 Hz with a latency of about 1 millisecond. Making it the best solution to the lagging problem commonly found in AR systems at this point in time.
I go to a whole University of like minded individuals in that aspect and we all have different areas of expertise [Game Design, Programming, Robotics, 3D Art and Animation, NetSec, Open Source] we decided to get together in a project group soon to turn business called ARinsanity. Got the punny haha part there?
Now at UAT to graduate we, among other requirements, we have to have a Senior Innovations Project. Something no one has done before that improves something or that is just really freaking cool. I myself prefer the SIPs that are both like the one I'm about to talk about.
