7/31/12

Until the meeting, I finished editing a page or two, but mostly did some brief research on wavelets to learn more about them and how they work. I learned their relationship to Fourier transform and other things. The meeting went very well, since my questions this time were completely genuine and useful. I gained some insight on my project as far as the tasks, and also gained confidence, since not many people questioned what I was doing or how I was doing it. I learned a lot about the other projects as well, which gives me some good background knowledge and an opportunity for crossover. After the meeting, I touched up on a page, blogged, and closed my day in the reading room with our intern challenge.

Mike

7/30/12

The day really began with our meeting about projects at 10 am. I learned more about what direction I could take my project. There is a way to analyze the wavelets of different frequencies to isolate the ICA from lighting affects. This will be difficult, but if I work with people in the lab and develop a good enough experiment, I can get some useful information out of it, as can the lab. So after the meeting, I emailed Sandra Marshall for some assistance, since she has done work in ICA. I also created slides for a pilot experiment, as well as several slides for my actual experiment. The day was very productive and involved a lot of independent work. Tomorrow we will meet about Chapter 3, which I will be prepared for!

Mike

7/27/12

It was a good Friday. We did several several experiments for Sue's experiment. I also was able to make several new pages for my project on Photoshop. As usual, I did more reading out of the Eye Tracking book, and blogged in the Reading Room to close the day. Good week!

Mike

7/25/12

Today, we came in and finished the intern challenge, which was a nice way to begin the day. Following this, we finished creating the textbook pages for the Biology project. This was done fairly fast, and so we worked with Sue in the SMI lab. We ran tests on Bethany, Dong, and Preethi, only experiencing some minor calibration issues. The tests went well, and if anybody would like to help us by participating, stop by the MVRL lab. After this, we watched the Entrepreneur video of the week, which was very interesting, and I plan on watching more videos from TED.com. After lunch, we scrambled the images in one of the groups to create the final group of testing images. To end the day, we read more of Chapter 3 in our book, which I will finish tonight for the meeting that I am anticipating to be tomorrow...

Mike

7/24/12

This was the earliest we had ever started real work... right away. Yesterday we were told to come in and immediately begin eye tracking for the biology project. Once we did so, one time for each of us, we were given a new monitor to hook up to the SMI. This task brought in much difficulty and extra help, but eventually was solved. It turned out that the task was not nearly as hard as we thought. Then, we checked the image quality on the new Apple monitor. It looked much better, so now we must build a holding device for the eye tracker on this monitor. We had to measure the angle that the eye tracker made with the old monitor using trigonometry, so now Jeff can make the new device. Then, after lunch, we were given the intern challenge- a decoding. Everybody, bored as they are, solved it right away while I was being tracked for Sue's project. However, I figured out an element that I believe many others may have missed... and I solved the original task. Hopefully I can do well despite my delay. Tomorrow should be eventful, as we now have three MVRL projects and an intern one.

Mike

7/23/12

At the beginning of the day, we helped Dong create an experiment to test calibration targets for SMI eye tracker. This was a fairly easy task, and it brought us into our lunch break. Then, after our return, we learned some things about Adobe Photoshop. We needed to assemble textbook pages, as well as clean them and straighten them. Then, we put them into an SMI experiment to view them as they would be tested. The dilemma: Is bigger font size worth loosing tracking at the corners? We finished the day looking at resolution and size to try to find an answer and a solution. Today felt the most productive yet, since we had our hands full until 5:30! Tomorrow will continue this issue.

Mike

7/20/12

Today was "Bring a Friend Day" among the interns. I brought my friend, Clint, who is also my business partner for JobManifesto.com. The website is focused on simplicity, so we looked into studying pupil oscillations to see how confusing the process is. I showed Clint what we were working on in the lab, what being in the lab is like, and some of the other buildings as well. We also showed our guests the SMI eye tracker and track them along with ourselves. We made up test experiments to demonstrate the many purposes and uses of eye tracking. The cook out and under grad project display both went well. The entire day was quite successful, and moving along on the project should not prove too difficult. Cheers to the weekend.

Mike

7/19/12

I felt extremely productive today. For most of the day, Jeff helped us realize our projects, and really made mine more sophisticated than I had planned. It went from simple fixations to show interest, to the sine curves of pupil oscillations to measure complication, though the idea still is a little far-fetched. However, I read a lab report on a similar experiment by Sandra Marshall, as well as looked into the Wavelet feature on MatLab, which I still need to fully dive into and learn. Hopefully my overwhelming lack of expertise in coding does not stand as a major adversity... We at the MVRL had a meeting at 2:00 regarding the second chapter of our book. I will admit that I could not come up with a useful question for discussion, but I assuredly read the entire chapter and was able to follow the group discussion and even answer a question correctly. There were other questions that I felt I had more insight in, but they were irrelevant to the topic. All in all, it went fairly well, but next week I will come more prepared. Jeff loves to put us on the hot seat, so I'll be ready. Tomorrow, my business partner, Clint, will be coming in as my permitted guest, and he will be able to see how I am applying my work here to our business, as well as offer insight and suggestion about useful tests and experiments. Today was a great day in the lab.

Mike

7/18/12

We began the day by learning more about the BeGaze program with Preethi, which helped me better realize how to draw useful data from my project. The heat map will definitely help me find key areas in the webpage and help me choose the layout. There are many more features that I have ideas for. I got some sketches of the website today and began looking at possibilities, as well as gathered different shades of orange to test, because that is the main color. A copy of the homepage is attached. The site online is not developed, however there is a Facebook for it under the name JobManifesto.com. I went to the entrepreneur video, which today was only a slideshow. With extra time, many of the interns and I went to Global Village for snacks and bonding. After this, we tested Sue's program numerous times more, and found no crashes. The day wrapped up in the Reading Room, as usual.

Mike

7/17/12

When I wrote in my post yesterday about my anticipation of today's eye tracking, I had forgotten about the symposium! We attended that for most of the day, which was quite interesting. The earlier presentations were not as good as our MVRL ones, likely because of my lack of background. Dong and Preethi both did fantastic, and I could really understand their presentations thanks to my work so far  this summer. The CTO and Co-founder of Pictometry gave a fascinating speech. I am very interested in entrepreneurship and have already begun my entrepreneurial career, so this was something that I could really use as an example and take advice from. For example, he said his main regret was not patenting enough, and when one patents, they must be explicit and detailed. This is just one piece of information that I will hold on to. Tomorrow, not today, will consist of abundant tracking!

Mike

7/16/12

Today, the SMI software needed updating. So, while this took place, we went to use the laptop in the Galisano building. I was able to make an experiment using random images, practicing AOI's, timing, and validation placement. However, the monitor with the eye-tracker sensor was hooked up to another computer. We played around with it a little bit and found no luck. Finally, we decided to read our packets and articles, and returned to the Reading Room for our traditional close. Now the SMI software should be updated so that we can test it to discover the problem with the old program. Tomorrow will likely consist of much tracking!

Mike

7/13/12

Today, we arrived a bit early, so we began the day by reading an article that summed up the experiment, or one similar to the one which was performed on us. After the system crashed, as it has in the past, our task was to test it to find out why it was failing. We timed several trials with the three groups of images and kept track of when the crash occurred. Our final hypothesis was that the system could last for two trials before having any problems. This task made me feel as though I was really contributing to the department, so I enjoyed it. Monday will consist of a similar objective. Our first week taught me far more than I had known about the human eye, as well as prepared us to use the equipment necessary to learn even more. I already have several brainstormed ideas for a final project, and I cannot wait to get started!

Mike

7/12/12

Today, the other MVRL interns and I completed the three day boot camp. Today's lecture was fairly easy, since we heard much about things that we have already used, practiced, and learned about. The eye trackers were all explained, including their evolution, variations, limitations, advantages, and niches. After the lecture, we became guinea pigs in an experiment using the SMI eye tracker, but only until the system crashed twice. So, we were left to read an article, which is a relaxing way to end the day. I hope to keep moving forward and learning more!

Mike

07/10/12

Today was the first day of MVRL Boot Camp. It mainly consisted of lecturing and note taking regarding the human eye. We discussed its structure, the functions of each part, vision problems and their solutions, lenses, and much more. Usually note taking is a tedious task, but the content was so interesting that it mostly flew by. I learned some tricks to find your dominant eye and see how glasses work, which caught my attention. After our lunch break, we were exposed to the mobile eye-trackers. The software is pretty easy to use and user friendly. My group member, Nick and I created our first eye-tracker videos as partners and composed them just prior to leaving. I'm looking forward to putting these to scientific use!

Mike

First Day

The first day of our internship was definitely effective in allowing the interns to get to know each other a bit. The scavenger hunt was fun, though if we hadn't had experienced group members, I don't know that I would have found so many images. However, it was an enjoyable time to start off the program. Also, composing the videos were good for acquainting us with the Macs and iMovie. My group's video won! Not getting to stay all day because the Visual Perception people weren't there was somewhat annoying, but hopefully today we can meet and get working. I am very optimistic about this summer's internship.

Mike