5/9/11

Today Bill announced the dates and requirements for our final project. The alpha draft is due tonight. The beta version is due next class on Wednesday. And the final version is due friday. After friday we will be done with green tech for this school year. :(

So here is my alpha version of the project.

Who am I? I am Bo Bleckel. I am in the ninth grade and soon moving on to tenth grade. I was born here is Hawaii and have lived here more than half my life. For the other part of my life I lived in Switzerland. I am very interested in learning about the energy lab and solutions for the future.

What is my project? My project that I have been working on most recently is to make a virtual tour of the energy lab. I chose this project because I think that it is very fun to make a virtual tour of a building. The purpose of this project is to make it easy for people that want to visit the energy lab without having to actually go all the way here. To do this we use two programs. One is called panoweaver which creates panoramic images of rooms. Then once we have all the rooms "panoweaver-ed" we use tourweaver to put the tour together. At first we only had a program called VR Worx. VR Worx is a very old program where almost everything has to be stitched together manually and it can only handle small quality pictures or it will crash. So we spent some money and bought the two new programs which stich everything together automatically and have yet to crash.

Why is my project important? My project can be applied to houses and buildings world wide. It would be great for real-estate agents who want to show off houses without having to schedule an appointment and go to the house. It would also be great to show off schools like HPA for boarding students without them actually having to fly all the way over here.

The future. This project could make me some money if I did virtual tours for real estate agencies. They would probably pay a lot for this to be done because they wouldn't have to buy the software and they wouldn't have to learn how to do it. It would also reduce energy use for people that live far away from places but want to see those places.

0 comments

5/5/11

Today we went over more projects. We started with christian who talked about his short wave radio and how he was trying to find which time of day was best to transmit and receive. Then Robbie talked about his infrared VR which could be used to find where heat is being lost. Brock talked about his mindstorms which he is using to learn how to use graphical user interfaces and labview which are used to program this building. then matt and willie went and drew a very complex diagram of how their power supply converts ac electricity into dc electricity.

0 comments

5/3/11

Today we had to present each others projects to each other. We took notes and that's all we had to do all class.

Next class we are going to finish taking notes on presentations and then work on the VR.

0 comments

4/29/11

Today we worked on the VR. We figured out how to make a full spherical panorama. Using the new software, it was very easy to make the sphere and it stitched it all together by itself.

Mariko also talked about how she wanted to make a internet connection to the engineering shed through GPAC.

Next class we will take all the pictures that we need and then we can stitch them all together.

0 comments

4/27/11

Today we started class by walking down to the cottage where we checked on some of the water heating systems. We also looked at Mr. Kamrow's cottage which has a Hobo attached to the water heater. Then we went on to look at the golf carts, then the power supply, and then our VR stuff.

Today we got the codes for both panoweaver and tourweaver. We didn't really have much time in class to work on making a tour because we need to retake all the pictures. Once we do that we can get to putting them together and making it work. If we don't have enough class time to finish it, we might come up during x-block, over the weekends and maybe during summer break to finish the VR.

0 comments

4/25/11

Today we tried to find a new software for the VR stuff. We found a program called panoweaver which is the part of the VR that creates the panoramas. Then we also found a program called tourweaver which is the tour part of the VR. The tourweaver can also be integrated with google maps so that you can see what you are looking at when you look around. Each of these cost $100. Bill said that he is trying to get a registration from the company at a education price. So maybe we will have that next class. If not we can retake pictures because we are going to get pictures up and down not just in front.

Here is a link to a panorama made with panoweaver: http://www.easypano.com/Gallery/panoweaver700/panmen-gate/panorama.html

Here is a link to a virtual tour made with tourweaver: http://www.easypano.com/gallery/tourweaver600/sample-std-edition/sample.html

0 comments

4/21/11

Today I worked on VRs. I made one successful one but then all the other ones I tried to make didn't workout. I don't know what was wrong but it looked like the pictures were maybe taken zoomed in a bit. So maybe we will have to retake the pictures. Rukin and Ryan are also working on fixing our wireless golf cart. We might be able to make it totally off the grid by putting solar panels on the roof. Then we could be able to use it anywhere and it would have wireless anywhere on campus. It's a pretty cool idea and could be a prototype for future wireless golf carts all around the world.

0 comments

4/19/11

Today we had a test on our project and other people's projects. I think I did pretty well.

Then me and Mariko actually made a VR that worked but the quality had to be really low so that the program wouldn't crash.

0 comments

4/15/11

Today me and Mariko worked on a VR (virtual reality) of the energy lab. We took panoramic pictures of almost every room in the building; The main room, main hall, conference room, electrical room, downstairs workshop, upstairs workshop, outdoor classroom, courtyard in the back, courtyard at the entrance, and the meeting room (room where we meet at the beginning of class). For now all we have is the pictures of the rooms. And we have a couple more to take. But after we finish taking the pictures, we will use VR Worx, which is a virtual reality program that lets you stitch together pictures, to make a scene. Once we are done, I will upload some pictures if I can.

Next class we have a quiz on everyone's blog. Then on wednesday, I will be missing A period to go for a film shoot for something that I don't know what it is.

0 comments

4/13/11

I wasn't here today. I was giving tours to eighth graders. We showed them around the whole campus. Once we got to the energy lab, I gave them a short tour of it but most of them already knew about it so there wasn't much to show them but they got a kick out of playing on the iPads.

It looks like most people worked on their individual projects. Mariko told me that I wasn't going to miss anything because she was going to work on the VR stuff. I don't know exactly what she did because I can't get on her page from my house for some reason. Next class I want to work more on the Kismac stuff and the security cameras maybe.

0 comments

4/11/11

Today we went over everyone's weblogs and talked about them. My needs some more pictures and maybe a bit more writing. So I'll work on that. Bill said that we are going to have a quiz on what every one is doing in their projects.

Then me and Mariko tried to work on the kismac stuff, but both of our computers kept on freezing. So we didn't get much done this class.

0 comments

4/7/11

Today we worked the whole class on kismac. It is really powerful stuff and it can do so many things that aren't necessarily good. I personally think that it should be illegal because people could steal a lot of information from you. But it is very cool to see how it works and we only learned probably half of what is potentially possible. Next class maybe we can work more on kismac and more on the security cameras.

0 comments

4/6/11

Just now I tried to realign my antenna to get a better connection to the elab network, but it was already going full speed. I couldn't get it to work any better so maybe the new antenna on the elab is slower because I couldn't get a very good connection.

0 comments

4/5/11

Today we worked on getting the microphone to work. We got it to record Matt's amazing guitar playing skills. Bill also told me to download quismac and try it out. I also have to re align my antenna at my house because the connection is pretty bad. I will try to work on that asap but maybe not tonight because I have to work on something. We were also going to work on something to do with the security cameras but we never got to that.

0 comments

3/30/11

Dates left:
30: Talk about next steps

April
1:

5:

7:

11:

13:

15:

19:

21:

25:

27:

29:

May
3: From here on AP exams so not much time for class all together

5:

9:

11:

13:


Today Bill showed us a new camera that we will be able to put at the guard shack so that when someone comes and they can't get in the gate because they don't have a pass, the security guard can look on his iPad and see what is happening there and he can even have a conversation with the person. Then we were going to go down to the guard shack and replace the antenna there but we didn't have a way to get there so we didn't do much for the rest of class.

0 comments

3/4/11

Today we got our quarter quiz back. Then Bill talked to us individually about what we are going to do this quarter. It looks like Rokus might join our group this quarter. First he showed us a tower by lalamilo (I think that's where it is I may be wrong) and we might put a platform with antennas on it so that we could have a good connection with the village campus. Then we went down and worked on the golf cart. We got four solar panels that we can attach to the roof so that the cart is always charging it self even when driving. We also attached a huge antenna on the front to pick up the EBS which is pretty cool and also looks cool.
Bill asked us to write about what we want to do this quarter.

I would like to work more on the EBS and the war-driving golf cart. We might also be able to add cameras to the network so that we could see what is going on around campus with out the need to actually be there in the case of an emergency.

This might not take the whole quarter to do so if we run out of stuff to do before the end of the quarter, we might be able to work on the AR Drone.

My goal for the quarter is to finish every thing that we need to have a good and functioning Emergency Broadcast System on campus and to other places like the V.C. and maybe even more.

0 comments

3/1/11

Today we did more speed tests from around the campus. Mostly the same places but this time we used the omni antenna and the bullet m2 to do the tests. here are the results from the different places.
This is from the little parking lot in front of anna's dorm. Not very fast but at least there is connection.
This is the speed test from the art building's parking lot. pretty good reception there because it has a very clear view of the security shack.
This is from the Chapel which worked this time because last time we couldn't get it to work. Again not very good connection but this is also from ground level so it might be better.

This is the test form GPAC. As you can see it really sucks here but again; at least there's connection.
This speed test is from Hartwell's. It was from the little driveway in front. Very good connection here.
And last but not least the speed test from the fire hydrant behind Robertson's.

We also tried to test the internet connection from the network, by switching between two websites until they loaded. It was pretty fast in some places but not so much in others. It didn't even work in some places.

0 comments

2/26/11

Yesterday in class we drove around with a golf cart and tested the connection between the guard shack and the art building, the gym, the chapel and the pavilion. Here are just some pictures of us doing the tests.
You can kind of see the antenna on the far side of the golf cart. It didn't really work yesterday but it definitely looked cool and it will work soon.



The above are from the chapel



The above two are from the pavilion.

This is the at the gym.
Above is from the art building parking lot.

This is from the chapel, but we couldn't get a speed test to work.

The above two are from the gym which had very good connection
This is from the pavilion which also was very fast.

Then today Bill came over to my house to work on the antennas that I have. One of them wasn't working at all, but we fixed it and now it's working. But it isn't working to it's full capacity like it was before. Right now it is only going at about 270 mbps whereas before it was at 300 mbps. I tried to align it to make it better but it didn't really work.

This is what it looked like when I tried to align it.
These are all the networks that I could see.


1 comment

2/23/11

I missed another class because I had a baseball game. Hopefully I won't be missing anymore classes. From what I read and what Ian told me, most people just worked on their projects. I read that the RFID people were working on a way to record when people check-in. I don't know much about it but I do know that there is a way to do it because at the school that my parents worked at in Switzerland, we had those things as keys and it recorded when and where people checked-in. I also know that they could remotely deactivate the key. I don't know exactly how they did it, but I do know that it can be done. Sorry, everything I just wrote probably won't help at all but I thought that I would just let you know that there is a way.

0 comments

2/21/11

Today we are going to talk to the fire department about our emergency network. We started out the day by going over what we hope to have done by the end of the quarter.

This is what we are trying to get done by the end of the quarter:
  • aircontrol screenshots
  • test data - speed test
  • map - intermapper
Intermapper map of networkThis is a map of the network that we have going from the elab all over waimea and even down to the maunalani.

Aircontrol of my antennaThis is a screenshot of the status of my antenna which I took from aircontrol.


0 comments