Category Archives: Feldman Project

Phil 7.30.13

8:00 – 10:00 SR

  • Backups
  • Tried to do some training, but the servers were undergoing maintenance.

10:00 – FP

  • Brought in my fine collection of jumpers and connectors. Next time I won’t have to build a jumper cable…
  • Built the framework for the new hand test. The basic graphics are running
  • Added cube code to the FltkShaderSupport library
  • Next, I’m going to integrate the Phidget sensor code into the framework, then hook that up to sound code.
  • Had Dong register for Google’s Ingress, just to see what’s going on.
  • Loaded in the Phidgets example code and the library that works is the x86 library. Using the 64bit library results in unresolved externals errors.
  • There are a lot of straight C examples. Just found the C++ class examples simple.h and simple.cpp.

Phil 7.29.13

SR 8:30 – 10:30

  • Backups
  • Found the source of the doubleing and tripling bug. New lines for the same values are being ingested. There needs to be a conflict resolution screen that is part of the ingest process.
  • Need to escape reserverd characters from query builder
  • Need to ensure that reserved words aren’t used in export to viztool.

FP 10:30 –

  • Prepping for demo
  • Fixing cable that broke on Friday
  • Got a lot of new parts in over the weekend including probes, cable, and sensors
  • Nice meeting with Dave Coleman. No concrete results (more meeting[s] required), but I think it went well.

Phil 7.26.13

SR 8:00 – 10:00

  • Found some query builder bugs
    • “GROUP BY” is getting stripped out
    • Two requisition ID’s is confiusing
    • If you select new items after an modifier, incorrect SQL is generated
    • Need to be able to group similar rows (i.e. roll up all rows with the same req id)
  • There seems to be a math error on the “Budget Information” panel. Lenny found that on project 236, there are three EA lines (and nothing else). One line is correct, one line is doubled, and one line is tripled.
  • Backups
  • Installed Eclipse 4.2 and Mikes old workspace on the server.

FP 10:00- 4:00

  • Today, the goal is to build a circuit with three channels that connects to the Phidgets voltage sensor. The only thing I’m wondering is if I’ll get the resolution with the voltage range I’m getting – Zero to about 2.5 volts. I’m estimating that I should get about 1500 – 3000 steps out of that, assuming -30v to +30v is resolved to a (unsigned?) 16-bit int.
  • Done!

ratsnest

Phil 7.25.13

8:00 – 10:00 SR

  • Backups
  • Deploying new swfs

10:00 – 5:00 FP

  • Got the sensor resistance converted to voltage. A 1k ohm resistor seems to work best, since I want most of the sensitivity to be light pressure. Next, build a circuit with three channels that connects to the Phidgets voltage sensor. The only thing I’m wondering is if I’ll get the resolution with the voltage range I’m getting – Zero to about 2.5 volts. I’m estimating that I should get about 1500 – 3000 steps out of that, assuming -30v to +30v is resolved to a (unsigned?) 16-bit int.

Phil 7.24.13

8:00 – 10:00SR

  • Backups
  • Ran the query_logs to Viz query with the column names changed. It works like a charm
  • Added the new jars to VSS for better logging

10:00 – 4:00 FP

  • Organized the lab. Or at least a good start.
  • Hooked up one of the pressure sensors. The question is should I use a Wheatstone bridge or a pullup resistor? Sparkfun suggests a pullup resistor.
  • Picked up the power supply, crimping tool and wire

Phil 7.10.13

8:00 – 10:00 SR

  • Backups
  • RA is not populating the FT number, which is the Req ID. Lenny asked one of his users to update their financial data in RA and they were unable because they have multiple MIPRs for the same amount but there is no distinguishing feature among them other than Req ID

10:00 – 3:00 Leave

  • The gas people have to get into my house
  • Did verify that the release builds work with the end-user DirectX install

3:00 – 4:30FP

  • Added text to emitter position on the graphics screen
  • change the timer to to std::chrono::high_resolution_clock (check the bottom of this post for an example)
  • It looks like MSVC 2010 doesn’t have <chrono>. Made do with clock_t and clock() instead.
  • Added xml output for test setup. Why does ctime() return a string with a line feed!?

Phil 7.9.13

8:00 – 11:00 SR

  • Backups
  • Installing software on my new machine.

11:00 – 6:00 FP

C++ is like being in a candy store, full of a huge variety of bright, shiny treats that can blow your hand off if you don’t pay attention.

  • Finishing up adding multiple sound capability per test attempt. Because I’ve been away from C++ for a while and I like to try new things, I poked around with tuples for a while, which are kind of neat. Then I decided to put them into a vector and access them. That lead to code like this: 
    • vector<FOURF_SAMPLE_TUPLE>::iterator it = myVector.begin();
while(it != myVector.end()){
	float sourceX = get<EMITTER_X>(*it);
	float sourceY = get<EMITTER_Y>(*it);
}
    • That is *not* the most intuitive code I’ve seen. I mean, it makes sense, and given the limited set of overloadable characters, ok. But I think “[” and “]” would have been a better choice than “<” and “>”.
  • Got the multi sound playing and the results output to .csv. Next is to get the xml setup files running.

Phil 7.8.13

8:30 – 12:00

  • Backed up
  • Moved to my new temporary desk. Remarkably, I was able to login and get to the servers.
  • Adminsitrivia.

12:00 – 5:30 FP

  • Adding multiple sound playback
    • Rework the output to handle multiple sounds. This means one TestResult per sound. However, the result cannon be associated with a sound, so for each release, all the emitter sources will have to be included. Later analysis can be used to determine the best fit. Note also that the number of attempts may be greater or lesser than the number of emitters.
  • Need to use the XML to write out and read in just the configuration values
  • Need to save multiple source positions in TestResult. Added bad code at the point to continue.
  • Looks like there is going to be a meeting to show what I’ve been working on Friday at 1:00.

Phil 7.3.13

8:00 – 11:00 SR

  • PIT crew meeting
    • Everytime Cognos data is uploaded, it seems to be adding the amount to claimed items
    • GUI defaults to COFUND even if an existing req is PRIME
    • Add a button to copy the contents of a req to a new req
  • Deployed new FA
    • Numerous bugs in query builder
      • Column width appears to be fixed, so that a one column query results in a narrow column at the left of the screen
      • Adding “where” clause in Advanced seems to delete the column being “where’d” from the query
      • No way to search through the extensive list of columns
      • If the query is going to be shown on the main screen, then it should probably be editable. I’d just hide the thing and have the query builder come up with the current query.

11:00 – 5:30 FP

  • Meeting with Rd. Kuber.
    • Add a “distance” component to the test and a multiple emitter test
    • Got a bunch of items to add actuators to: Hardhat, noise-blocking headphones, and a push-to-talk mic.
  • Added name and gender fields to the GUI and cleaned up the menus
  • Working on adding multiple sounds
    • Added a ‘next’ button
    • I think the test should have options for how the sounds are added
      • Permutations (A, then B, then C, then AB, AC, BC, ABC)
      • All (Going to start with this)
      • Random?
  • Added variable distance

Phil 6.28.13

Dentist this morning. I appear to still have all my teeth.

Much running around to pick up the car.

FP 10:00 – 2:00

  • Continuing with saving test data. Classes are up and printing correct text to the console. The last step is to add file write and navigation for saving output. Each test should probably write out an XML and CSV file with the same name. A default name could be calculated from teh researcher, subject, sound and timestamp.

Phil 6.25.13

8:00 – 11:30 SR

  • Backups,
  • Deployed Dong’s latest FA. The ingest works. Yay!
  • More soul sucking training
  • There are some SA issues that are coming up that I’m getting concerned about. I wonder if it’s possible to get a real SA (part time?) to take up some of the load and to do the tasks I’m pretty much guessing at.
  • Got on the wait list for two computer security seminars that might help with the above.

11:30 – 5:00 FP

  • Continuing with the test exec. I’m also going to need a class that records the data associated with each test segment.
  • Ran into a… Well, I don’t want to call it a bug. Let’s say that C++ is showing its age. FLTK uses char*. Most of Windows uses wchar_t. They don’t play well together, so I spent about half of my time working out the best way to convert between them. It’s this:
  • void setSoundFileString(LPCWSTR wps){
	soundFileString = new wstring(wps);
	string str(soundFileString->begin(), soundFileString->end());
	sprintf_s(soundFile, "%s", str.c_str());
}
  • I mean really!? Good grief.
  • Got a lot of the exec built and running. Clicking on the center button fires the sound, and you can drag to where you think the sound is. I am not all that accurate. It could be a frequency thing though. I’m running a low 10-20 HZ signal. The test should definitely try different frequencies.

Phil 6.24.13

8:30 – 12:30 SR

  • Backups
  • Training
  • Other houskeeping
  • Lenny’s having a problem where some subtraction is not accurate to the penny. Rounding error?

12:30 – 4:30

  • Starting to put together the actual test framework. Found a good open source synthesizer (ZynAddSubFX) that I used to create a pure tone that I then cut down to one second with Audacity. It’s important to note that this app only works with MONO sounds.
  • Building up the class that will handle running multiple sessions.
  • Just a quick shout out to FLTK. I have been adding and adjusting the GUI all day long as I figure out how to run the tests. To add fields, adjust positions and just generally futz around, all I have to do is use the FLUID gui IDE, export the layout as C++ code, add in stdafx.h and compile. It all just works. A great piece of code. FLTK_rocks

Phil 6.21.13

8:00 – 1030 SR

  • First day of summer, and it. Is. Gorgeous.
  • Backups
  • Deployed Dong’s Prime/Cofund fix. He’s still working on the ingest bug.
  • Talked to Chris a bit about the kind of demo we want to give to Scott. We are very much on the same sheet.

10:30 – 5:00 FP

  • Put all the projects into SVN, checked them out and did a clean build. Everything still works.
  • Starting on capturing mouse events. Done. Capturing Left, Middle, Right, Wheel and Drag. I think I want to have it so that the user presses (holds down?) a “button” in the middle of the GL window, signifying that he’s ready for the next sound queue. Once the sound plays, he drags toward the source. This is indicated by a line indicating the vector (and a cursor?). Releasing the mouse is the event that marks and records the choice, vector, elapsed time and position (vector?) of the emitter.
  • Making a button class for OGL. Done
  • Making a line segment class so we can point to where the sound is. Done
  • Progress for today:
  • vth

Phil 6.20.13

8:00 – 11:00 SR

  • Backups,
  • Meeting with PIT crew
    • Need to move Prime/Cofund designation to Req’s
    • Loading a new Cognos pull is deleting FA (and other?) relationships
  • Deployed the new VSS. This included:
    • Stopping the server.
    • Deleting the current VSS webapp folder
    • Creating a new war file with the updates
    • Starting the server
  • And that seems to have done the trick. I’ve looked online for a possible reason that an old jar may be maintained between sessions and couldn’t find anything. I did find a useful discussion on how Tomcat handles Jars and classpaths though: http://www.mulesoft.com/tomcat-classpath

11:00 – 4:30 FP

  • Spent a good deal of time trying to figure out the best way for the GUI and the Exec to communicate. Originally, I wanted to be able to pass a pointer to the GUI from teh exec so that user actions in the GUI could be executed in a more reasonable place. Due to header conflicts, I couldn’t manage to get that to work, so I put together a UI_cmd class that is set in the UI and read in the Exec. That seems to be working pretty well, though I may want to put a queue in there and turn it more into a message bus/event pump. That level of sophistication isn’t needed yet though.
  • I integrated the sound library that I wrote. I still have to reference the D3D audio library in the main application which I think is a bit odd, but I think it may be because I’m incorrectly exporting the symbol table from the static library. Again, that’s a refinement for later.
  • At this point, the 3D position of my OGL shape and the 3D postion of my continuous sound (2D actually, Y = 0) are running in an infinite circle. It’s pretty cool to hear the audio track to the image. I’m uploading a video of the running system, and although it won’t be in surround, you can hear the flanging effects from the sound moving around the helmet.