ASUS 27" 3D screen to be released soon

http://www.asus.com/Display/LCD_Monitors/VG278H/

Awaiting the release of this monitor. Shame I wasn't able to get the S3D items working in my project, but I'd be curious to try and tackle it either in my Special Interest Topics subject or within another project (possibly PhD).

Installation Instructions for LyX

Not sure if I posted this already, but had to do it again when I got a new laptop.

Instructions below. Thanks to David:

1. Install bibtex
2. Install LyX (which should install MikTeX and other relevant dependencies)
3. Create a working directory
   
4. Download my JCU LyX layout from here: http://davidjb.com/blog/2008/11/jcu-lyx-layout , and follow all relevant instructions regarding its use. Extract this file to the directory.
   
5. Set up a bibtex bibliography file (eg add a record to a new file in bibtex). Save to the same directory as the rest of your files.
6. In LyX, in your new document, add a bibliography, pointing to that bibtex file. I can't remember which menu this was under, but I'm sure you'll find it.
7. Add all relevant attributes to your LyX document at the top (Title, Author, Degree, etc, as per my blog post), and add Acknowledgements, Abstract, etc (from the style class drop down menu in LyX)
8. That should be it..

For my referencing, I'm using JabRef which is a reference manager tool: http://jabref.sourceforge.net/

LyX: http://www.lyx.org/Download

LyX Tips: JabRef Whitepapers and TechReports

Just a little thing that had me confused for a little bit...

Inserting references that are Whitepapers. Not really a common practice in thesis papers - but I had one that was released by Autodesk on Stereoscopic 3D as when I wrote my lit review at the time I found it difficult to find a good 'technical' look at how S3D works.

To reference it in my LyX document, I'm using the application JabRef (available for download here)

So to reference it, add a new entry then select "TechReport"

Once that is selected fill in the fields as required. In my instance, I had left the bibtextkey blank, so make sure that is filled in. Once it is, its easy enough to go Insert > Citation and select the bibtexkey and done!

LyX Tips: Glossary

Fiddling around with thesis paper, for those who want to create a "glossary" in LyX. Played around for a bit trying to figure out how to do it - found out how, so throwing this up as reference.

In my thesis, I have a list of terms that appear occasionally and want an easy find glossary or index for people to check these terms if they are unsure.

GIS	Geographical Information Systems
S3D	Stereoscopic 3D
VE	Virtual Environments
Virtual GIS	Virtual Geographical Information System
VR	Virtual Reality
VRGIS	Virtual Reality Geographical Information System
GIERS	GIS-based Intelligent Emergency Response System

So those are the terms above from MS Word. Now to throw them into LyX.

What we want to create is what is known as Nomenclature. (For our Glossary)

First, go to Insert > List > Nomenclature

You should see a Nomenclature label inserted into your document now.

Now we want to add entries to the list. To do this, go to Insert > Nomenclature Entry. It'll populate the document with tagged labels as "Nom:xyz"

Generate your document, and done! What you see is what you get. Your labels are generated in a nice and pretty nomenclature table for all your glossary goodness.

Hope that helps.

Extra info in Wiki: http://wiki.lyx.org/LyX/ProducingGlossary; http://wiki.lyx.org/Tips/Nomenclature

JCU LyX Thesis Layout

Passing the info on.

For those enrolled at JCU, here's a pretty good layout that David Breitkreutz made and used for his own thesis submission in 2008.

http://davidjb.com/blog/2008/11/jcu-lyx-layout

I'm using it myself and in all honesty, not much has changed really in terms of layout from 2008 until 2010 - the format is pretty much the same. Just grab the files in the post (Layout and JCU New Logo)

All info is in there, and credit goes back fully to David.

Thanks!

CP5607 Paper Review: Approved

Paper was approved. *thumbs up*

HCI: Paper Review assessment item

Been experiencing some difficulties trying to obtain papers I want, however after much searching, where there's a means, there's a way.

Selected Paper: http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1610849.1610871

Evaluation of Non-photorealistic 3D Urban Models for Mobile Device Navigation

Christos Gatzidis, Vesna Brujic-Okretic and Maria Mastroyanni

Abstract

This research presents a user evaluation study examining the effect different rendering styles of 3D virtual city models, as intended for navigational purposes, could potentially have on users with emphasis on non-photorealistically rendered (NPR) stylizations. The purpose of this experiment is to establish whether, particularly for the application area mentioned above, non-photorealistic, expressive rendering could provide alternative, more effective visual styles than the photorealistic representations of urban areas usually opted for by developers today. 50 participants were exposed to a predominably questionnaire-based study assessing various parameters by observation of the models on a UMPC (Ultra Mobile PC). The results of this research could potentially have significant implications on how future pedestrian navigational software should be visualized in the future.

ACM: http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1610849.1610871

Google Books: http://books.google.com.au/books?id=Fp8-CgjgsM4C&pg=PA169&lpg=PA169&dq=Evaluation+of+Non-photorealistic+3D+Urban+Models+for+Mobile+Device+Navigation&source=bl&ots=1RhqfaUb79&sig=EX135W49Dyr8WULI79xlhqCOBbI&hl=en&ei=uTOFTM7UKtDJcaCjqNAL&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CB8Q6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=Evaluation%20of%20Non-photorealistic%203D%20Urban%20Models%20for%20Mobile%20Device%20Navigation&f=false

Full Text: (Available for JCU download)http://www.springerlink.com/content/f460734248124871/

Now just to get approval from Bruce then will be able to start on the Paper Review.

Article I want to read

Can't access it using JCU's subscriptions...

For the time being..

So I don't lose track of it later/forget about it:

http://www.computer.org/portal/web/csdl/doi?doc=doi/10.1109/AMS.2009.34

A Low Cost Approach to Pediatric Pedestrian Safety in Virtual Reality

Bandung, Bali, Indonesia

May 25-May 29

ISBN: 978-0-7695-3648-4

Kuldeep Pandey

Gary J. Grimes

David C. Schwebel

Abstract

Virtual reality (VR) technology has shown tremendous advancements in recent times. Several VR tools have been developed which depict advanced virtual environments that allow user interaction and manipulation. These tools have found many applications in training and learning. A VR tool is proposed in this paper to study the behavior of children when they are faced with real-world situations of road safety. The driver for this study is the fact that pedestrian injuries are a major cause of death among children ages 5-9 in the United States. The proposed VR tool includes VR software and hardware to simulate a virtual environment faced by a typical pedestrian while crossing the street(s). The VR tool represents a street with simulated traffic patterns and an avatar to represent the pedestrian. It is aimed at training children on safely crossing the roads in order to avoid accidents. The virtual environment will allow users to engage in (and investigators to measure)street-crossing behavior in a controlled environment.

Literature Review - Draft-Draft!

Been working on my lit review all day long. Then remembered I actually haven't sat down and updated my blog in a while. Really have to get into the habit of doing that.

The lit review I'm writing up though is a draft of a draft. As in, the one that gets handed in next week is a 10 page draft to lead up to our final one (25 pages) in the thesis. Currently I have.. not enough pages. 6 I think.

Updated some stuff in my wiki earlier as I was going through and referencing documents. http://code.google.com/p/honours-3d-paluma/wiki/Papers

I'm honestly not sure if I can get everything from my lit review complete in a cohesive manner in by 5 though... Just trying to figure out how to explain everything with referencing is rather troublesome. I still have to had in my proposal to Ian after this as well, but I need to change/update some aspects of it to reflect my current project though as it has changed since I last looked at it. Then to forward it onto Philip.

Gonna get back to working on the lit review now. May/may not come back later to write about it all, but shall see.

Last Presentation for CP5080!

http://code.google.com/p/honours-3d-paluma/wiki/DownloadsDirectory

I updated that earlier today with the presentations and the papers that I worked on.

Today I presented the following:

Paper Presentation: Virtual Reality - IEEE: Computer Society - Virtual Reality: How Much Immersion is Enough?

Paper Presentation: What are Virtual Environments? - ACM Portal - What are Virtual Environments?

Presentation of Literature Review

Not sure how I've gone, but was a bit... weird presenting three different items at once, and trying to remember everything. The presentation of my lit review was by far the easiest though.

... I have to mention, presentations do feel a bit weird when questions aren't asked at the end. Though I guess it comes down to if a, the audience is interested in the topic, b, were they paying attention, or c, did you explain it enough that they understood everything anyway (and aren't curious for more info)

Ah well. Good learning/presentation experience none-the-less