BareHandCALI

In the last couple of days, I have been, with Ricardo Jota, developing a prototype to test the behaviour of CALI library in hand pose detection. We had just finished the preliminary version of BareHandCALI. This version uses a standard web cam and simple computer vision algorithms to detect hand contour. This contour is analysed by CALI and extracted features are presented on screen.

BareHandCALI analysing a hand gesture.

Reading XML with TinyXml

The next version of EditION tool should support template-based entities. These templates would be specified in XML files. To implement this feature, I need to integrate a XML parser into my VC++ code. After comparing a few libraries, I chose TinyXml. This simple, small, C++ XML parser is powerfull enough for my need and very easy to learn. It took me only a couple of hours to learn how to use this parser and it was very easy to integrate in my code. I strongly recommend TinyXML to anyone who wants to manipulate XML data in C++.

C++ versus MatLab

After a discussion with the MultimodalPainter senior students regarding performance of RGB to HSV conversion algorithm in MatLab, I decided to compare the time needed in MatLab and C++ compiled files to run a very simple algorithm. To that end, I wrote the following pseudo-code in both programming languages:

Function SimpleCycle(Matrix M) {
  ACC is a dummy variable
  ACC = 0

  for each line L in M 
    for each column C in M 
      ACC = ACC + value stored in M(L,C)

  return ACC
}

Using as input an integer matrix M with size 350x350 , this simple algorithm proved to be a good choice to show the performance differences in MatLab and C++. Below are the results obtained in informal tests:



Based on these results I made no comments. I just want to point out that the test programs took less than five minutes to write and run from scratch in MatLab, but more than twenty minutes in C++ (including the matrix creation and time measuring routines incorporation).

Freeing space in server

I've spent a couple of hours "helping" our server administrator. To that end, I backed-up of my files in the group server and then I made a selective clean up. This way I freed more than 200MB from the "/home" volume. Unfortunately, I am not the major responsible for the lack of disk space and this 200MB means less than 1% of total volume size.

BibTeX in resources page

I added a field for the BibTeX reference in my PhD resources page. Using JavaScript, XML and XSL I inserted a small button in each entry to open a pop-up window with the complete BibTeX reference, when it exists for that entry. One example of this new feature can be viewed in entries of "3D Models Retrieval" resources page.

Camera-ready version submitted to WSCG

The camera-ready version of our paper titled "A Calligraphic Interface for Managing Agents" was submitted to 14th. International Conferences in Central Europe on Computer Graphics, Visualization and Computer Vision (WSCG 2006).

My PhD resources page

To organize the resources I use in my PhD research, I created a web page to list relevant references. The first version of this page, xml-based, is now available here. I hope it will help me in the future.

New MSc webpage

I created a page for my MSc work at the CG&M website. Currently, it is a preliminary version, submitted for appreciation to my advisor, but the revised final version could be used to define the template for MsC's web pages. This page is available here. Any comments or suggestions will be appreciated.

First phase of DecoSketch II user testing

Today, I've helped our students at the first phase of user testing within their "DecoSketch II" senior year project.

A testing session.

Released blog for my weekly reports

Finally I found a solution for the weekly reports publishing problem. This solution was a compromise between sending these reports by e-mail to my advisor and publishing them in this blog. I created a new blog just for my weekly reports (in Portuguese).

Last weekend for Christmas shopping

... for lots of people. Not for me! I'd rather prefer to paddle in the Tagus river. A few photos of this trip are published in a fotos.sapo album.

Kayak trip on Tagus river, this weekend.

Final version of abstract for WSCG 2006

We have just submited the final version of the abstract for our paper accepted at WSCG 2006.

Second version of IR project proposal

A second version of the project proposal for the Information Retrieval course is ready. Now, it will be submitted for approval.

Correct abstract for WSCG 2006

We have corrected the abstract of our paper accepted at the 14th International Conferences in Central Europe on Computer Graphics, Visualization and Computer Vision (WSCG 2006). After all authors agree with its content, it can be submitted to the conference web site as a final version.

Paper acepted at WSCG 2006

Our paper titled "A Calligraphic Interface for Managing Agents" was accepted to be presented as as short communication at the 14th International Conferences in Central Europe on Computer Graphics, Visualization and Computer Vision (WSCG 2006). Now, we need to correct the abstract, according to reviewer's comments, until December 16th. Then, we need to produce a camera-ready version of the paper by January 3rd.

Out of Office

For several reasons, last week I have been out of office. Thus, no real work were done in this period of time.

Converting editION to VC++7.1

After a couple of months on the hold I restarted my work in the editION prototype. However, during this period of time I had updated the C++ compiler from VC++6.0 to VC++7.1. Thus, I needed to make a few changes in the prototype. The more mind-boggling task was related with socket communication. I could not understand, but exactly the same code that before works well, now doesn't. It only started to work well when I forced the system to wait for connection, blocking the GUI. Before it could go on normally and if after a given timeout, the connection could not be established, a error message was displayed.

Short Survey on Tablet PC's

We need to buy a new Tablet PC for our research group. Therefore, I made a short survey in leading brands: Toshiba, Acer and HP. In my humble opinion I think the best offer is the Acer Travelmate C200, but the final decision is not mine...

PhD 2005 yearly report submitted

My PhD 2005 yearly report was submitted to the department server. Next monday I will deliver a printed version of it, signed by my advisor, in the department.

First draft of IR project proposal

The first draft of the project proposal for the Information Retrieval course is ready. Now it will be reviewed in order to produce a more elaborate version of it.