Glass!

by ⋅ Leave a Comment

A few months ago, I wrote a proposal to equip three faculty members – myself, and professors Fowler (CIS) and Pittman (Geosciences) with Glass for the purposes of instructional R&D.    After a bunch of budget and purchasing contortions, the units were ordered and arrived just yesterday.

Here’s what we’ve learned so far:

  • Google Wallet is the only way to pay for the devices, and this made purchasing relatively difficult.  With the help of folks in Business Services locally and Purchasing at the DO, we were able to make it happen.
  • Glass won’t work with our college wireless networks.  To use WiFi, glass needs a simple network + passcode, and our networks around here require much more than that.  We’re working to see if IT can get some easier-to-access R&D wireless network going.
  • It seems to be way more difficult for folks who wear glasses to find the visual sweet spot.  Not so for those without glasses, or for those with contacts.  I’m a glasses wearer, so I need to make an appointment to get prescription lenses for my Glass frames.
  • I’m stymied by the network issue, and have only been able to use the device at home.  As such, I’ve only done basic things – “Okay, Glass – Google such and such,” and “Okay Glass – send a message to so and so.”  That sort of thing.
  • People are excited about it, as it’s something many have seen or heard about in the news.

More to follow…

Ok, Glass...

Picavet Bucket Mod

by ⋅ 2 Comments

Bucket Mod

It’s been pretty quiet on the flying front this winter, but we’ve got a field day planned for Cronan Ranch tomorrow, so I took a few minute to mod the picavet.  In the prior incarnation, the bucket was not attached to the picavet cross, but was instead sandwiched between the cross and the camera mount.  As such, every time the camera mount had to be changed, the bucket came with it, making for some annoying alignment issues.

To remedy, I cut away the middle of the top of the bucket (to make camera attachment a little easier, and to make the camera screen visible from outside of the bucket – the camera is always pointed straight down, and without access to the screen it’s sometimes difficult to tell if the camera is firing ), and attached the bucket directly to the picavet cross via two machine screws.  Much better.  Let’s hope the predicted winds arrive tomorrow…

A Pretty Big Kite

by ⋅ Leave a Comment

A pretty big kite.
New kites arrived. Pictured here is a 12′ Riviera Highlighter from Into the Wind, and we received the double lifter sled 30 as well.  We hope to get some images from above Mormon Island, a local historical mining community.  A very dry winter and the resulting low water levels have exposed parts of the town, the remains of which are typically hidden beneath Folsom Lake.

More KAP Experiments – Photomerge

by ⋅ 1 Comment

Nice breeze this afternoon, so I gathered the kite and KAP rig, found a colleague – Kevin Pipkin (Professor, Mathematics and all-around good guy) – and headed down to the wetlands to fly, this time with the GoPro, set to whatever the medium (as opposed to wide) angle setting is called.

Kevin Pipkin at the Helm

Terrific wind, about at what I imagine to be the limit for the 9′ delta, and the kite pulled like a champ.  We gathered quite a few images, and a short video as well.

Kite and KAP Rig

Back at the desk, I thought I’d give Adobe Photoshop’s Photomerge feature a shot, using the “Collage” option.  Here’s the result:

Combined Photos using PShop Photomerge

Though it’s a little sketchy out at the margins, it’s actually not bad for a hands-off process.

iPhone Kite Aerial Photography

by ⋅ 2 Comments

iPhone KAP

The weather was pretty good for KAP yesterday, with variable ground level winds somewhere in the 2-5 mph range, so we took the 9′ delta down to the wetlands north of the college to test out the new iPhone rig.  Gathered two hundred or so shots using Timelapse, a very useful app, and worth every penny of the $4.99 asking price. Unfortunately, I misaligned the iPhone within the protective bucket, such that each image contained a bit of the edge of said bucket.  As a result, I had to run a Photoshop action to crop the images, losing a bit of data in the process.  Nevertheless, I was able to stitch together some of the best photos using both Photoshop and MapKnitter, which I’ve mentioned before:

MapKnitter is a free and open source tool for combining and positioning images in geographic space into a composite image map. Known as “orthorectification” or “georectification” to geographers, this step covers the process of figuring out where images can be placed on an existing map, and how they can be combined, or “stitched” together.

With each successful (and unsuccessful) flying session, we’re learning a great deal.  For instance, we’ve added a can of compressed air to the field kit to deal with the inevitable dust that seems to find its way onto the camera, and before the next flight, I’m going to find some sort of ground cloth to use as a relatively clean surface upon which to set up the picavet and rig the camera.  Progress.

NIR KAP!

by ⋅ 1 Comment

Flew the 9′ delta this afternoon in the wetlands below the college, and sent the NIR camera up for the first time, resulting in photos that look something like this:

IMG_0057
Lessons learned:

1.  Flying solo is more difficult than flying with a partner.  I had to find a stable elevation for the kite, step on the line, and rig the picavet with one hand.  A few times when the camera was dangerously close to the ground, it would have been nice to have a partner to keep it safe from harm.

2.  Given the way that that camera sits inside the bucket, it’s a little difficult to operate it.  I’m going to noodle on a solution…

3.  Always bring a broad-brimmed hat and/or sunglasses.  I had neither.

4.  Always always wear gloves.  I burned through about eight wraps of duct tape in this one flying session.  I like the overall weight of the glove pictured below, I just need to find a way to add a heavy duty sleeve to that finger.

5.  A 1 minute interval is too long.  I’m thinking that 30 seconds will give more overlap, which will enable better knitting.

Untitled

OpenROV Nearly Complete!

by ⋅ 1 Comment

Untitled
Spent a good chunk of time this week trying to get the OpenROV finished up.  After a long day of wiring, fussing, the crimping of many Molex pins, and a harrowing unwinding and untangling session with the tether wire, I was able to finally plug everything in.  It booted on the first power up!  Next week I hope to get the motors wired up and working, and then we’ll throw it in the water and see what we can see.

Success! KAP over Georgetown School

by ⋅ 2 Comments

The weather is changing today, bringing cooler temperatures and, most importantly, steady wind. I took the KAP rig down to the local grade school, and after some fussing, was able to get it up in the air. At about 100′ feet the kite found a steady wind, so I attached the picavet to the line and sent it up.  The kite kept pulling like a champ, so I kept feeding it line until the line ran out.

Kite Aerial Photography - Georgetown School

After a few more practice runs, we’ll send the IR camera up, hopefully at Wakamatsu or over the wetlands below the college.

Bringing the KAP Rig Down

Kite Aerial Photography (Sort of) at Wakamatsu Tea and Silk Colony Farm

by ⋅ Leave a Comment

Untitled
Spent the day Friday touring Wakamatsu Tea and Silk Colony Farm, an historic area above the American River in Gold Hill with one of co-conspirator Jason Pittman’s California Geography classes.  Visited the grave of Okei, the first recorded burial of a Japanese woman in the United States.

P1013164

Jason and his students have done some work for the American River Conservancy in the past, GPSing trails and the like, and we’re working on a plan to do some aerial imaging in support of ARC’s Wakamatsu re-vegetation and de-vegetation efforts – yellow star thistle is a mean invasive weed, and it is everywhere on the Wakamatsu property (and throughout the county).  Following the tour, we assembled and practiced flying the delta. The anemometer was registering inconsistent winds at ground level in the 2-4 mph range, which was enough to get the kite up in the air a few times, but not enough to keep it there, nor to allow it to really lift the camera rig.

Untitled
Though we weren’t able to gather any images, we did learn a lot about flying the kite, rigging the picavet, and what to include in our KAP kit.  All in all a successful day.  Always be prototyping!