Updates - Weekend Tasks

So, first weekend after being back at uni now.

I'm starting to think that maybe it's a good idea I'm not going to be working four days at work, considering I didn't get as much as I would hope done over the weekend. Worked both Saturday and Sunday, so I think for future, I'll have to pick either Monday or Wednesday (days I have nothing on at uni) to be my Work-on-Honours-Project-Day. Still need to do work on one of the other days though. Three days of work isn't so bad.

Anyway, tasks that were set to be completed over the weekend:

1. Update this blog every single day <-- Done, sorta, some backlogged entries in there
2. Throw up entries with notes from meeting and from class <-- Meeting notes done, class notes not done
3. Read through the report/thesis that Ian gave me <-- got up to page 4 or 5...
4. Understand it, pay attention to detail, style - completely different style, not narrative, is informative <-- see above
5. Prepare papers to read for literature review (remember to mention this on Tuesday supervisor meeting) <-- To do on Tuesday
6. Research Proposal - Why is this being done? What do I hope to achieve? <-- ...

Didn't get as much as I hoped I would. It's so damn distracting at home, I think I may head out to the uni early on either Thursday or Friday and just sit in the labs to do work on my project and start on the project proposal.

I ended up getting in contact with Bruce to let him know that I'll be in Brisbane over April, so I'm missing two presentations I think. Ideally, I want to get the presentations finished early, so (hopefully) I can present before I go. Otherwise, Bruce has agreed to do them when I get back. Still, I'd prefer to be ahead rather then behind.

The wiki on the project home page I've been neglecting. I started doing some work on it Saturday night (technically, Sunday, early, early morning) and fell asleep part way through. Currently, I can only seem to work during night when most of the family is asleep.

New To-Do-List:

1. Update this blog every single day
2. Throw up entries with notes from class
3. Continue reading through the report/thesis that Ian gave me
4. Understand it, pay attention to detail, style - completely different style, not narrative, is informative
5. Prepare papers to read for literature review (remember to mention this on Tuesday supervisor meeting)
6. Research Proposal - Why is this being done? What do I hope to achieve?
7. Look at modelling approaches
8. Update project Wiki, fill with relevant information
9. Update project sources, particularly sites mentioned in posts here

See how that goes anyway.

Meeting Notes: 25th Feb 2010

Please note that this is a record of notes that have been electronically recorded for backup purposes. These entries may not be reproduced without the express permission of the author.

Future Objectives:

• 2010 Honours Guidebook
• # Look at Research Questions (important)
• Organise regular meetings
• Office Space, computer to be used for project to stay on campus
• Read through previous Honours paper
• Sound for the Rainforest - look at getting recordings

Thesis Overview:

Ch1 - ~5 Pages - Covers Introduction

Ch2 - 20-30 Pages - Critical Literature Review

Ch3 - 20+ Pages - Methodologies

-> IT/Visualisation

Ch4 - 20 Pages - Results and Discussion

Ch5 - ~20 Pages - Future Work * - Optional

Conclusion

Ch6 - As Required - Appendices

> Code

> Surveys

> Footnotes

Subjects have been selected as follows: Timetable. Getting Diana to enroll into subjects

There is a hard date for the thesis being due. Check out when other assessment pieces are due as well.

Levels/Class of Honours: http://www.jcu.edu.au/student/assessment/JCUDEV_007196.html

• I Class I (split into A, B, C, D - A-C is allocation of scholarships, A/B main aim)
• IIA Class II, Division A
• IIB Class II, Division B
• III Class III

Will be given opportunity to read previous honours papers. The result given will be a combination of thesis work, project work and project grades.

Over next few weeks, will be working on the project proposal.

• Understanding the project
• Background Information
• Tools Used
• Approaches
• Research Questions

New Subject, BU4061 good opportunity to learn about tourism. Next week, will have a meeting with Gianna.

Constantly update journal, keep records of all meetings (as seen here), records also recorded using LiveScribe pen. Any thoughts, be sure to write them down.

Think about the modelling, and what results we want to achieve. Static, or moving? May want to consider having a fly-through. Think of what method would best be appropriate to have the information get across.

Look at the software options. Software planning to use is Maya, 3DS Max - consider student versions. http://south-apac.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?siteID=1157326&id=13229831 Looking at about $250~ for 3Ds Max. Confirm pricing. Alternative is that Autodesk does offer 6 month licences to students.

Office Space: Leaving a computer on campus for study/research. Look at options available to get computing equipment. Scholarship money possibility, though will need to consider textbook fees as well.

For the model, have the environment built then look at getting a track for the camera, (motion path) to follow (see above about camera fly through). Static images, users can view and analyse still images, picking faults, moving scenes, harder to focus on set objects. Mentioned taking advantage of human senses. Will need to look at getting sound recordings for project. Sound recordings of Paluma as is now, and for 'future looks' after tourism being introduced, may want to consider getting audio recordings of O'Reillys when on trip to Brisbane in April. When talking with locals, place was much more quiet, but now tourism taken place. Large carparks, buses travelling up.

[ Additional Notes ]

• Sight - Achievable with 3D Model
• Hearing - Achievable with sound recordings
• Touch
• Smell - Being researched in Japan
• Taste

Set meeting times - email Ian afterwards to confirm.

/end meeting notes

Additional Points:

3D Model of the Paluma Range, Questions to Consider

• Why are we doing this?
• Methodologies?
• What do we already know?
• What do we want to know?

Wiki, Project Licences and Previous Notes

Started doing some work on the wiki today, just throwing up information on the project. Started giving info on the project overview and then also resources.

One other thing I have to do is the licence required for the google code project. I've just picked a general public licence for now, version 3 I think (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/quick-guide-gplv3.html). In a meeting with Ian, I remember him showing Google Sketchup and I do like the concept of having a large map that anyone can go in and edit, add and build off of it, but my main concern is people nicking things and claiming as their own, so I may have to review the licence options at some point.

If all else fails, I can just leave main components of my project offline. I would prefer to have it as something that the public can view though.

Notes on items from class and also meeting notes will be thrown up soon.

Tasks to Accomplish Over Weekend

I believe in making lists where possible of things to achieve and things to do.

I'll also throw up some stuff on google code for status updates with project related stuff.

Below are some of the tasks I wish to cover over the weekend:

1. Update this blog every single day
2. Throw up entries with notes from meeting and from class
3. Read through the report/thesis that Ian gave me
4. Understand it, pay attention to detail, style - completely different style, not narrative, is informative
5. Prepare papers to read for literature review (remember to mention this on Tuesday supervisor meeting)
6. Research Proposal - Why is this being done? What do I hope to achieve?

If I can at least get in points 1, 2, 3 and answer some parts of 6, then I think I can be happy with that.

PS. Remember to throw in labels for the post for easier searching.

Creation!

Hello and welcome to my blog.

Introducing myself, my name is Angela McCarthy and I am a 4th year IT student currently studying honours at James Cook University.

I've created this blog, in addition to my Google Code project, http://code.google.com/p/honours-3d-paluma/ to try and create an online repository, source, general thoughts and backups of my project.

I was originally going to do this last night, but didn't get a chance - but here it is now. Over the course of the next few days, I'll be posting up information on my work progress as well as general notes and info from meetings that I've had. (I still have to figure out how to hide certain posts and allow only particular users to access stuff)

In a nutshell, as apart of my project I will be creating a 3D model of the Paluma range, located about 60 minutes north of Townsville, where the JCU campus is based. Over the course of this project, I'll be looking into various modelling methods, creating mass scenes, animated camera usage, sound as well as learning about tourism and the impact it can have.

I'll leave the entry blog at this for now, but shall add more later.

Bye-bye,

~ Angela