Tim's Blog

I put up a quick website describing what I am working on. There are 3 images, all taken from the LIDAR scans and converted into a top down height map. I need to get them to mesh somehow into a large image. I have the compass readings when each picture was taken, but the headings not nearly accurate enough to do the splicing based entirely on them. I am thinking about doing the image processing in Java so that I don’t have to mess around with C. Well, that’s where I am at.

My mentor showed up yesterday back early from his trip and I found out what I am going to be doing this summer. I am working with 3 other interns on improving a robot. I will be working with another intern to make the robot stitch the LIDAR scans together into a map of the area. The LIDAR (LIDAR works by scanning with a laser and measuring the time it takes to reflect back) returns a picture of distances from the robot (each pixel of the picture contains a distance value). The code currently translates that picture into a top down map of heights. It is our job to find unique features on the map and match it to another picture. The idea is that the robot can be let loose in an area to make a map, then it can give the map to other robots who can use it to navigate. It should be interesting…

I arrived at work today. My mentor is out of town for the week (I hear he is in Hawaii) so I don’t have a lot to do. Once I figure out what exactly to do, I will be working on a robot that scans its surroundings with LIDAR. It is running with a 133 mHz AMD 586 processor on a pc104 board (website here). The robot is about 2 feet by 3 feet and about 2 feet tall. It moves around on treads and uses its LIDAR to make a map of its surroudings, making a note of any objects of interest.

I have been having fun hanging out with my friends from last year. It has not been too hot yet, so far it has been a very nice temperature. Once I get my room and computers all set up and configured, I will set up a temperature probe (maybe this time with graphs).

Thank you very much for giving me the opportunity to work at Microvision. I have enjoyed the previous week working here, however I was unexpectedly offered an internship working at NASA. I will be working on an autonomous robot at Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. This new job is more along the lines of what I envision my future career to be. I am sorry that I will not be able to work here this summer. Once again thank you for the job opportunity, my last day at Microvision will be on the 2rd of June, 2006.

Tim Montague

I was sitting at my desk minding my own business when I got a call from an unknown number. It turned out to be Dave Rosage from the NASA Office of Higher Education offering me a job at Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland (the same place I worked last summer) starting June 5th. It would involve modifying the software of an existing robot to add functionality for new motor controllers and making a graphical control application. I said I that I was interested but I would have to think about it. I have until tomorrow to make a decision.

Pros:

• It would be lots of fun
• Looks good on resume
• Great learning opportunity

Cons:

• Have to leave home
• Quit my current job
• Not paid as much

Decisions, decisions, decisions.

I have come to the conclusion that my more productive hours are between 11:30pm and 3:00am. Before that time, there are too many distractions; after that time, I get too tired and my concentration starts to degrade. I have been working on homework for Math 221, Matrix Theory, since about 10:45pm last night. I started to slip around 2am, but some caffeine helped me keep going. I am almost done, then it will be to bed for a couple hours of sleep. Luckily I will be able to catch up on sleep this weekend. Almost done…

Thank you for submitting an error report.

Problem description

The error was caused by an unrecoverable hardware error which forced the operating system to stop functioning.

Although we know the problem is caused by a hardware component, unfortunately the error report does not contain enough information to tell us the specific component. More than likely the problem is being caused by problems with one or more of the following computer components:

• Random Access Memory (RAM)
• System board
• Central Processing Unit (CPU)
• Power supply

It may be time to start thinking about getting a new computer…

Today I signed a 1 year lease for a 3 bedroom apartment with 2 of my friends. After we pay the security deposit, we get to move in on May 1st. Of course I won’t be here this summer, I just accepted a job at Microvision back at home. I start work May 8th. Yay!

I forgot what my main password was a long time ago. I rely on muscle memory to log into my computers. Now I am starting to see the shortcomings of that technique. I accidentally slammed my left pinky finger into a door yesterday and I can’t type with it. That means that I can’t hit the left shift key, which is the one I use when typing. I tried to type in my password today and I could not. One would think that I could just use my ring finger to hit the shift key, but it didn’t work. Apparently doing as little as changing what fingers I type with is enough for me to be unable to type my password. Luckily there are ways around this problem. I imagine if I waited long enough, I could just walk up to my computer and type it in without any problem. But I don’t want to wait that long so I am cracking my password, in about 2 hours I will have it. Maybe I should write it down somewhere…

I am wondering what I am going to do this summer. I applied to the same NASA internship as last summer and didn’t get it. I applied for a trail maintenance worker job in Olympic National Park and haven’t heard back.

So I emailed my Dad and asked if Microvision was hiring interns for this summer. After a couple of emails back and forth, he told me:

“I am almost certain you will be offered a summer internship job here.
Let me know if someone doesn’t contact you by the middle of next week.”

On the other hand I applied to work at a bioinformatics lab on campus. They have viewed my resume 4 times (I check the server logs) and seem really interested:

“We are still in the process of soliciting and reviewing applications. Our current programmer/systems people have looked at your web site and have asked for more information on projects you have worked on and some code samples. We will need experience in java/C++, plus various scripting languages. We are eventually planning to interface various programs with mysql databases and web server interfaces. Could you send some relevant code examples?”

That job would require me to stay in Bozeman all summer. I don’t want to say no to the bioinformatics job until I am sure that I am going to get the Microvision one. I suppose I will send in some code examples and when (hopefully) I get the Microvison job, I will tell them I have another job.

I really want to go home this summer. I want to spend time with my sisters, eating good food and going on hikes with my Dad.