Reminder: The labs are grading sessions (you need to already have completed the lab beforehand and you simply bring your work in and get marked in BA3155 and BA3165).
The first lab is due Friday January 12th, and it will be a simple (easy) introduction. You have choices for Lab 1, as with all the labs, choose the default lab, or propose something....
Imaging Lab. Our world is evolving toward a world of (hu)machine learning, AI/HI, etc., as we're surrounded by image sensors. Most machine learning, AI, computer vision, etc., work looks at images as arrays of numbers (pixels) without a deep understanding of what the numbers (pixels) mean.
HDR (High Dynamic Range) imaging arose from an understanding of what each pixel means.
In the first 3 labs, we'll deeply understand what a pixel is, what a camera is, and how cameras work.
Your task is to trace
out a long exposure photograph while moving the light bulb through space. By
doing this, you will learn about how cameras work, i.e. the concept of the
time-integral of exposure (light). All cameras are integrating devices,
including your cellphone camera. For example, Charge Coupled Devices (CDD
cameras) are like capacitors that integrate charge, and so you will learn
about and understand this process of time-integrated exposure. The human eye
is a camera too (See for example the experiment by Exploratorium author Paul
Doherty:
http://www.exo.net/~pauld/CILS/cilsmagliteafterimage.html). For this
option you will bring a long-exposure photograph that shows a light trail from
your light bulb, showing low-integration values and high integration values.
Try to be creative, e.g. spell out your name (or the first letter of your
name) with the light, as you move it along a path. This will help you
understand the spacetime continuum, and later, the principle of Abakographic
Image Processing.
Try to be creative. For example, here's, "Steve" spelled out in light,
running the 24-volt bulb at 12 volts
(using the original Greek spelling of the name in the way, historically,
it was first spelled):
Link to source images
and "name-in-lights.sh" script which uses CEMENT.
You don't need to follow this example directly; feel free to be creative!
For full marks, do the Instructable, Abakography: Long Exposure Photography That Mimics Human Vision, moving a light source through freespace, and also, for bonus points, repeat with the light source constrained along a track or trajectory, i.e. also do the Instructable: Grasping Gravitational Waves..., but you only need to do it in the simplest (most rudimentary) way.
Bonus means you can get more than 100% on this lab which will spill over into other labs....
As with all labs, feel free to propose a lab of your own. To begin with, optionally, do a "Show-and-Tell". Bring and show something that you have built yourself, in your own time, e.g. from your childhood, or as a personal hobby (rather than something you were required to build for a course). The purpose of this is so we can all get to know each other, and learn about your strengths and passions, and things you are good at and interested in. This will help us optimize the course for your needs and interests and match it to your skills.
Alternatively, choose on of the inventions that you think you can master, and write a brief report on how you can master it, and your connections to it.
Return to course website: http://wearcam.org/ece516/