Friday, October 12, 2007

Gesture's Hard Coded

The gesture's have been hard coded in Finally.

Each gesture cariable (x, y, z, Roll, Pitch, Orientaiton) split in to 5 values. Each value is the average of a the rasw data. First 4 each the quartiles of the data values that are over/under the breakpoint. The 5th value isn't dependant on the breakpoint, but it's size is set at the same as the of quartiles. It's most useful for working out final orientation when the remote is held still (since the pitch and roll values aren't accurate while in motion. Turns out the easiest gestures to recognise are the mode gesture such as the picture and video mode since their orientation is really different from anything else.

The hard coded values are based on two things 1 experience (Doing the gesture over and over and over...) and looking for the recurrent relationships between the vaules. And 2 an excel spreadsheet with a whole bunch of pretty graphs. Excel used as a vidual aid for the gestures. Through not entirely useful because of the amount of data being compared. Data works out to be 5 values per 6 variables for 15 gestures. 450 values.


The gestures still need to classified further to determine the decision order and/or stringer or weaker restraints. So glad I added the buttons to it just in case I fall face first during the demo because a lot of the gesture rely on smooth fluid motion not "oh crap it's not working and I'm standing in front of a room full of people" type motion. Can already say that the system is going to break down because of the nature of recognition technology and that more feedback is required.

Planning to Start using around the house this weekend. Finally I'll have a remote back. All it's taken is 9 months, lots of stress and WAY to much redbull.

Tuesday, October 9, 2007

Fully functioning

It's early but all functionality is in Wiida. Well almost. I implemented the buttons for testing purposes and the program runs with full capabilities using them.

Control of Winamp, Window's Media Player, and Windows Picture and Fax viewer all run smoothly. Task list restricted to basically iPod controls (Play, Pause, ff, rewnd, skip, Vol, Zoom, Rnd, Repeat). I;'m pretty sure I'll implement tv control but probly not for the thesis since it doesn't add anything and theirs no way to demo it.

The Mode is controled 2 ways. A charades version to select a specific mode and a mode control switch to define either 1 mode or two. If running video the mode is considered to be singular.

Work that needs to be done:
1. Get the gesture breakpoints and settings
This will take a while but so thought should solve it. I think I'll try doing it the opposite way I've been doing it. Start with all gestures and remove gestures that don't work. While testing I've been playing around with the simple math (ie try using x, try using x *10, try using x * x) for the values. Show some interesting things about some of the gestures. For example Stop is quick and sharp whereas go is a lot more flowing.

2. Get some "randomly selected users" round for drinks and work out the best ways to implement the mode and discuss how it would be represented on the Wiimote. (got the lights to represent mode)


On Document Side of things:
Sat down for couple hour last night and went through acm and itee for papers again. Rippied a bunch but need to go through them. In Regard to Modality. The Wiidia is a "multidevice" system not a multimodal system.


Stephen pretty sure I'll forget but do I include the building experience into the Thesis? Certain programs where invaluable while making this. Not just media play application but programs like Spy++.

Monday, October 1, 2007

Abstract Version I

Getting really stressed about the actual build (the gesture recognizer is killing me) and limiting the scope. Not implementing the menu display unless I have time. Need to have a chat about this tomorrow.

Here a version of the abstract below. Blue bits just some guidelines for me.
Question relating to it:
  1. Not sure about the tense needed. Written this if future because I assume it's based on the reader reading it BEFORE the document
  2. Conclusion before the document is written. ?

------------------8<-----------------8<------------------

Wiidia – A Gestural Media Interface

Abstract:

Purpose:
To develop a 3 dimensional control interface for systems that are controlled either by 1 or 2 dimensional devices. The aim is control of multiple media system which can run concurrently using a ‘Nintendo Wii Remote Control’.

Scope
The control device is restricted to the device’s gestural control abilities. The single dimensional capacities of the remote are implemented for control device comparison.

The systems included are media player applications. Functional control for the interface is limited to tasks considered common and popular to the media systems.

The interface includes the ability to control multiple media systems concurrently. The interface itself is multimodal, whicl the systems it controls are to be considered as single mode. The interface provides a solution to the problems associated with mode error whi9ch arises from this.

Method

The control method is reached through analysis of current input devices related to the systems, the capabilities of the selected controller and the issues related to gestural interfaces.

The gestures are developed and explained through examination of gestural notations, movement analysis of proposed gestures and a gestural review with users.

Reviews of current and popular media player interfaces are performed and include examination of their menu structures and the functionality provided. Furthermore, important functionality related to media player is examined through user interviews. The results of these reviews and interviews are developed into the working functionality provided by the system.

Results

Recommendation

Conclusions

The interface provides a unique control method for media player control. The interface provides a fun and intuitive way of controlling media devices, expert users will find the interface only useful in specific contexts.