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The XBOK Kinect at my house
In November 2010, Microsoft brought in to the market the worlds fastest selling consumer electronic device, Kinect. Kinect was developed to be an add-on peripheral for Microsoft XBOX 360 game console. Kinect is a motion sensing input device, consisting of a range camera,infrared depth sensor technology,multi-array microphone,and a software technology that enables full body 3D motion capture,facial recognition and voice recognition. Kinect has the ability to detect and track up to six people.
About a month ago,on Christmas boxing day sale, I bought Kinect for $99 for an XBOX 360 which is already in the house. There were two full games with the deal, and also, I was able to download free trial games on the external hard drive,I formatted for this purpose. For about a week everybody was excited to play the games which require jumping, dodging,punching, and waving hands in front of this amazing device.Then the interest slowly faded away. Nobody wants to get tired, We just want to play games and have fun! After trying Kinect for a day or so you might conclude the stuff is for kids, but the kids also lose interest in gaming when it is on Kinect !, Ya! that’s what happened, every body lost interest.So I started to look for other use of this amazing technology. A little bit Googling revealed the following results:
Microsoft released the SDK, very recently and people are still working on their applications. I also plan to develop one application using this technology. I have installed the SDK on my PC. And I have experimented with some of the features. You can get the SDK from here: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/kinectforwindows/download/ . The SDK comes with a full documentation and programming guides, there will be no trouble setting up.
Here are some links that will help you get started, if you are interested.
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/kinectforwindows/
http://raychambers.wordpress.com/kinect-applications/
http://kinectcontrib.codeplex.com/
Here are my screen shots for the Sample Skeletal Viewer application that comes with the SDK. I have also the screen shot of my visual studio with a project template that will soon be turned in to an app. I will do another post about my progress. Thank You for reading this.
Sample Skeletal Viewer
Visual Studio, template for Kinect Skeletal App with VB
I configured my PC to be a perfect mobile development environment.My previous PC had performance issues that held me back,but now I have started two projects, one on Android and one on Windows Phone. Here are some steps to help you get started if you haven’t already: I know there is a lot of tutorials and how to’s on the internet (they are what got me started first place), but I will try to be brief and concise here,on how to set up a working environment with out no fuss.
Setting up a complete working Android development environment in Windows 7.
Requirements:
* Internet access : It will be almost impossible if you don’t have internet access on your development PC.
*A computer with at least 3GB of memory (2GB will do but there will be some performance issues, especially when you run the Android Virtual Device ).
Procedures:
Step 1: Download and Install the latest Java JDK, from here.
Step 2: Download and Install Eclipse Classic 3.7.1 (Indigo) , from here.
Step 3: Download and Install the Android SDK windows installer, from here.
Step 4: Start Eclipse, then select Help > Install New Software and add the site below to the repository
https://dl-ssl.google.com/android/eclipse/
Step 5: Once the repository is loaded, Install one or more of the Android platforms. (I recommend Android 4.0, and Android 2.3) to start with.
Step 6: You are almost done, but you need to create an Android Virtual Device , if you haven’t done already so, on Step 3. Here is a tip to get the AVD boot up faster: Give the device at least 1GB SD card, enable Snapshot, and Change the built in skin resolution to the less graphic HVGA.
If every thing went alright, then you have created your Android development IDE, integrated with Eclipse on Windows 7. The next step is to get started with coding and here is a famous tutorial that I found very helpful:http://www.vogella.de/articles/Android/article.html
Setting up a complete working Windows Phone development environment in Windows 7.
We all know that Microsoft products are integrated to each other so this one is very simple:
Requirement: I recommend a PC with 3GB or more to get it perform well.
Step 1: If you are a student, then Microsoft has waived the Visual Studio Ultimate IDE for you. So go and claim it from https://www.dreamspark.com/ ,If you are not a student then, just get Visual Studio by whatever means because it is a must here.
Step 2: Once you have install Visual Studio ,make sure it is updated to SP1, then go here and install the Windows Phone SDK, http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=27570
If everything went alright, then you have a complete Windows Phone development environment set up in Visual Studio. You better start building apps, because Microsoft is being generous when the say get apps released and you will be awarded points that will get you say.. an XBOX360.
Here are final screen shots from my PC:
I don’t know how many of you reading this has been to the site, www.cracked.com . Here is a funny article from there click here . But, I should warn you, as I was warned by the blog who first linked me to the web site, you might spend many of you precious time reading other articles,so make sure you have enough time before you click on the link.
It has been about a week since I started using my new Dell XPSL502x customized laptop,and now I decided to write a review about it.
I will start with the specifications:
Processor: Intel Core i7-2640M Quad Core 4x 2.80 GHz ,Turbo boost up to 4x 3.5GHz
Memory: 8GB,DDR3,2 DIMM, 1333MHz Dual Channel
Storage: 750GB 7200 RPM SATA Hard Drive
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GT 540M 2GB dedicated + Intel 3000 integrated
Display and Web-cam: 15.6 Multi Touch HD WLED TL + HD Skype Certified Web-cam
Factory Default OS: Windows 7 Ultimate SP1
Sound System: JBL 2.1 Speakers with Waves Maxx Audio 3
Additional Accessories: Back-lit Keyboard
Wireless Display Cabable
Currently the Laptop is running Ubuntu Linux (11.10 Oneiric) and the Factory default Windows 7 Ultimate with Grub 2 boot loader.Here are my reviews:
General review:
* The HD graphics is very nice.
* The JBL speakers are mind blowing. I have never heard such a sound from any other laptop or tablet.
* The Multi-touch monitor is cool, and I am waiting for Windows 8 to be released.
Performance for Ubuntu 11.10(Oneiric)
The current version of the kernel is Linux 3.0.0-14 generic.I haven’t put the CPU’s under stress so far, so I have no review for high performance.But under normal operations.
* The system reboots very fast.
* Unity 3D runs smooth. I have only had one crash so far, where the touch pad got stuck when I was navigating ,I logged out and logged in, then everything became normal.
* It drains less power.With the regrettable 6-Cell Battery, it ran for four hours straight, when I only used the browser.
* Sadly Nvidia Optimus is not supported in Linux, There are workarounds to this but I haven’t tried them yet.
* Multi Touch feature of the monitor is not functioning. I haven’t tried any thing yet for this problem as well, but I am optimistic about the existence of a solution.
Performance for Windows 7 Ultimate
Well the laptop is targeted for windows so windows is running very smooth. There are some cool dell supported softwares for CD/DVD burning ,Image editing and more included with the factory default OS.
This is just an overview than a review, I will try to write a comprehensive review some other time.Thank you for reading this post.
Here are some you tube videos from my channel demonstrating the sound and touch screen display:
What is it life that we all have? The possible answers I know to date, are all put to be beyond our understanding. Religions, attribute our existence to a super being whom we will never understand fully.Our explorations and researches in science get us closer but show us there is more to be discovered yet.Life has baffled everyone whom ever lived to see it.Of all the 107,602,707,791 people who are estimated to have been born in this world, no one understood every part of life to give it a complete meaning to write or pass it to others. Doesn’t this ring a bell in your mind? It does at least to me and here it is.
Each moment,as each of the newly born babies join this incredible and vast state of being one by one,each one finds it in a different sate than the one before, because It is continuously changing.The state of the world,existence and beyond will never ever be the same after a second,a millisecond or any discernible amount of time. This shows me, giving a meaning to something that is different to each and everyone of us will be like expecting to understand infinity. But one thing is for sure, giving meaning to life or existence is not the same us giving meaning to death or non-existence. From the later no body (At least no one I know) came back ,if at all possible, to explain what it is. But life, we are in it and, it is us,our family, friends, neighbors and everything in our surrounding.I say we should be a able to give it a meaning if we wanted to.Examples are those who are successful in their endeavors.Those who were determined enough to do something with their life.I don’t know about you but,may be you think you are among them or may be you think you are not.Or may be you don’t know this, but you know that you have done something with your life. Which ever group you fell in to, what you were doing every day, starting from the very first moment,is giving your life a meaning. After all It is you and only you who can define your own life, don’t expect to get a definition from somebody else.This is a fact that few understand.As I said, Some people just don’t get it,yet some excel on it.
In my previous post about this topic, I mentioned the fact that people who do magic tricks use the biased expectations of the audience to their advantage to amaze,scare or sometimes fool them. Almost all of the magic tricks I saw have this one character in common,they have extra things on stage that distract the audience from fully understanding what’s going on. This distraction carefully directs the audience in to the ploy and makes them belief that everything the magicians do is normal. By normal I mean the magicians have super powers that makes them different from everybody else.
I remember few years ago, a man appearing on the national television of Ethiopia ( where I grew up), telling the TV audience that he has super powers. He appears to do some cool card tricks and also some other very simple tricks on the studio stage ,baffling the journalists and presenters. It happens as if the journalists bought his words and believed that he has super powers. Not to the surprise, in the community where I grew up almost everyone believed that there are people amongst them known us “Tenkuaye’ ,which are almost like ‘the witchcrafts’ and ‘the wise men’ in the history books and also in some ancient communities. ‘Witches’ and ‘the ‘wise men’ are not some thing more than legends in the developed world,but where I grew up, come on ! they are the building blocks and centers of almost all of the community.People go to them when they are sick by seeking medicine and their super healing power, some go to them to take revenge’s by asking the ‘wise men’ to put a cult on their enemies.There are also the fools who go there in search of treasure and wealth which the ‘wise men’ promise to give them in return of a simple favor they do. What makes all this very complicated is the fact that it is widespread and almost everyone takes it for granted. Of course this all can be attributed to the low literacy level of the society but there is more to it which I will discuss in another post.
Getting back to the magic tricks, I stumbled up on this TV show called ‘ Magics Biggest Secrets Finally Revealed’. The show explains most of the tricks that are performed by magicians. Here is one episode from Youtube, enjoy it and make sure that you have a look at the other similar episodes of the show
After watching the show I felt pity for the magicians who go through a lot of thing to make their tricks work, but who cares after all, they have their audience who provide them with means of living.
When I finished preparatory school education in 2009,what I expected my self was to obtain a full study abroad scholarship and attend my postsecondary education in Europe or the United States. I was at the peak of my motivation ( at least I thought I was at that time but I now know there is more) to the pursuit of knowledge and wisdom. I read books, and did a lot of mathematics, honestly deep down I thought I would become a mathematician. While putting efforts in understanding scholarship and financial aid applications for foreign universities, I joined Addis Ababa University,Institute of Technology. I did a Pre-engineering semester with five courses and joined the Electrical and Computer Engineering department.
I did not enjoy most of the courses except for few which by chance I took from very clever professors.One of the things that kept me interested during my two years stay in the university was the broadband Internet connection. I was lucky to get my first laptop just before I started university.So I was on the Internet in almost all the time I spent in the campus.I learned more stuff from the Internet than in any of the courses I took. I watched many of MIT open course ware video lectures, Physics 801,Physics 802, Introduction to Programming,Differential Equations and many more. I also started having fun with Linux. I once loaded my computer with 5 types of operating systems just for fun. I installed Ubuntu on my laptop and started to use it as a major operating system. I read many Wikipedia pages about almost any topic that I encountered. I learned computer programming fundamentals with python and c++ .I also learned web developing fundamentals ,HTML,JavaScript and PHP. I enjoyed the Internet more than the university.
The other thing that kept my interest was the library, It was full of books compared to any of the libraries I encountered in my life at that time. I browsed for books on the shelves and read those who took my interest. Among the books I read were ‘Where wizards stay up late: The Origins Of The Internet’ by Katie Hafner and Matthew Lyon ,’The Supermen: The Story of Seymour Cray and the Technical Wizards Behind the Supercomputer‘ by Charles J Murray and ‘Applied Cryptography’ by Bruce Schneier. I also worked on many of the advanced mathematics and physics books. I was also able to have a look at technical publication magazines from Bell Labs. The library was an infinite source of knowledge,but by the end of first year I started volunteering on some projects at the university and visited the library less and less.
During the summer break of first year I met Mr. May, a respected Scottish Electrical Engineer and Radio Amateur, and started to be involved in maintenance tasks around the university and setting up the amateur radio station ET3AA.During the time I spent with him,I learned how to use various tools and techniques to do electrical and mechanical work. I learned some wood work, welding, roof water proofing etc.Most of all, I learned about radio communications and technology and became a radio ham. I was baptized with the engineering spirit. There was no way I could have got these skills other than learning them from Mr.May. By the end of the second term of my second year, we inaugurated ET3AA by inviting the local television,professors and various ministers. We also invited the president of the international amateur radio union region one,to cut the ribbon. Following the inauguration, I reformed and organized the Ethiopian Amateur Radio Society and got the chance to represent it in the IARU Region I conference in Sun city, South Africa.
By the end of my second year, I got the sponsorship of my aunt who lives in Canada, to become a Canadian permanent resident. That was a great leap in my life,and following that I planned for my education and got accepted at Carleton University ( Where I am studying Computer Systems Engineering now). I filled in withdrawal at Addis Abeba University, payed my cost-sharing payments and got my transcript. Finally I moved to Canada and joined a new campus.
2011 was an incredible year in my life. I turned out 19 in March.I finished a 2nd year Electrical and Computer Engineering education at Addis Abeba University,Institute of Technology in June,I represented Ethiopian Amateur Radio Society on the IARU region I conferences in Sun City, South Africa, in August.I moved to Canada by the end of August and started B.Eng,Computer Systems Engineering in September. I became a licensed radio amateur with call sign VA3AXB by October.I finished a term education with A+’s by December.
Today I made my first snow structure, a chair,with my brothers and sisters.The idea was to make a snow man named ‘Blizzard’, which we planned a day before. But,the snow was not sticky enough to roll a ball to make Blizzard’s body. So, instead of making ‘Blizzard’ we made just a snow chair,Poor ‘Blizzard’! . Playing with a frozen snow is not that fun,your hands get really cold, but for a person like me who has never done this before, it was worth it.
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