These last months I’ve been working on my Diplom Thesis and now it’s slowly coming to an end. The topic of my thesis is Face Detection and Tracking for Computer Games on Mobile Devices. I started out working on the Nintendo DSi, but then had to change to the Nokia N900 because the company I worked at went insolvent.
I’ve implemented two different face detection systems on the Nokia N900 of which one works pretty well. On top of that I’ve created a very simple game – a technology demo – that uses the player’s head position as the input. The game is called BurgerFace and looks like this:
BurgerFace Screenshot
The goal is to pick up the burgers that increase the score and dodge the knives that cost lives. I’ve also created a video that shows the game in action:
Now I need to evaluate how well this input method works and if it’s fun. For that, I need your help. I’ve put the game online. Download it here (764 KB). It’s a .deb package that can easily be installed on your N900 by opening the file after downloading it (it depends on SDL, SDL_mixer and SDL_ttf and yes, it’s optified). It can also be uninstalled easily through the application manager.
Please download the game and play it as much as you like. Afterwards, take the survey that asks you some questions about the game and the input method. You can either take part in the survey on your computer or directly on the N900. If you want to do it on your N900 you can easily open the survey directly from the game.
I’d be very happy if you played the game and took the survey as that would greatly improve my thesis.
I’m currently getting my feet wet in Maemo 5 development as I’ll soon be the proud owner of a Nokia N900 (maybe already tomorrow? Go, Amazon, go!). As an avid user of Arch Linux, I try to keep my installation current by running pacman -Syu every now and then. That sometimes leads to software that is too new…
I was trying to install ESbox, an Eclipse plugin for Maemo development, but it wouldn’t work as my Eclipse version 3.5.1 was too new. I then tried to install an older version of Eclipse, but that wouldn’t run because my version of XULRunner was too new then. The error you then find in workspace/.metadata/.log look like this:
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!ENTRY org.eclipse.osgi 4 0 2009-12-06 19:37:24.648
!MESSAGE Application error
!STACK 1
org.eclipse.swt.SWTError: XPCOM error -2147467262
at org.eclipse.swt.browser.Mozilla.error(Mozilla.java:1597)
at org.eclipse.swt.browser.Mozilla.setText(Mozilla.java:1820)
at org.eclipse.swt.browser.Browser.setText(Browser.java:737)
at org.eclipse.ui.internal.intro.impl.presentations.BrowserIntroPartImplementation.generateContentForPage(BrowserIntroPartImplementation.java:252)
at org.eclipse.ui.internal.intro.impl.presentations.BrowserIntroPartImplementation.dynamicStandbyStateChanged(BrowserIntroPartImplementation.java:451)
at org.eclipse.ui.internal.intro.impl.presentations.BrowserIntroPartImplementation.doStandbyStateChanged(BrowserIntroPartImplementation.java:658)
at org.eclipse.ui.internal.intro.impl.model.AbstractIntroPartImplementation.standbyStateChanged(AbstractIntroPartImplementation.java:249)
at org.eclipse.ui.internal.intro.impl.model.IntroPartPresentation.standbyStateChanged(IntroPartPresentation.java:443)
at org.eclipse.ui.intro.config.CustomizableIntroPart.standbyStateChanged(CustomizableIntroPart.java:266)
at org.eclipse.ui.internal.ViewIntroAdapterPart$2.run(ViewIntroAdapterPart.java:74)
at org.eclipse.swt.custom.BusyIndicator.showWhile(BusyIndicator.java:70)
[...]
By the way, grabbing the complete Eclipse install from the ESbox website doesn’t help when running a 64-bit system.
So here’s my way of getting it running anyway without harming the rest of my system:
Sorry, in German only as Weltensaga is currently also only available in German.
Vor kurzem bin auf einen Test von Weltensaga bei BrowserSpielWelt gestoßen. Auch wenn Weltensaga dort nicht in den höchsten Tönen gelobt wird, gefällt der Test mir sehr gut, da man merkt, dass der Autor sich tatsächlich mit dem Spiel beschäftigt hat. Außerdem werden viele gute Seiten von Weltensaga hervorgehoben.
Die Einleitung kommt recht negativ daher:
[es] wird einem ein Konglomerat an Zutaten geboten, die anfangs hoffnungslos überfordern
Im Fazit wird das dann aber relativiert:
Weltensaga ist etwas konfus angelegt, wenn auch spielbar, und kann das Ruder auf den höher gelegenen Ebenen – incl. den Flottenverbandskämpfen – noch herumreißen [...]
Welche Forschung sich auf das Bevölkerungswachstum und -verhalten oder den Gebäudetechtree auswirkt, kann anfangs nur erahnt werden.
Dabei hätte dieser wohl gerade am Anfang weitergeholfen. Zugegebenermaßen ist die Grafik etwas im Wiki versteckt.
Besonders gefällt mit der Absatz über das Flottensystem:
Die Flottenaussendung und -produktion ist mit einigen Voreinstellungen verbunden, zum Beispiel der Menge, die von einem Planeten gefördert und geladen wird, und kann stets über die detaillierte Ansicht aufgerufen und kontrolliert werden. Die Möglichkeiten der Befehlserteilung sind mit 15 Einstellungen äußerst vielfältig; vom “Rückzug” bis hin zum “Wurmloch erschaffen” oder der planetarischen “Invasion” sind einige interessante Ideen umgesetzt worden.
As someone who most people would probably call a nerd, I do like smartphones. About two years ago I got a Windows Mobile phone (the HTC Herald) and now it’s slowly becoming time to make the switch to a new device. The reason for this post is that the smartphone scene has changed significantly in these past two years and here is my take on it (in reverse order of greatness):
Windows Mobile
Slow and clunky interface
Almost no customization
Most available applications (at least the free ones) are either unusable or you don’t really need them
Paying for applications is too difficult as there is no centralized shop
I think if Microsoft doesn’t do a major overhaul here soon Windows Mobile will be dead
Android
The idea of an Open Source system based on Linux is good
There seem to be good applications available and there is an easy way to get them
From what I hear, the interface is alright
For my taste, there is too much Java
Google is slowly becoming too ubiquitous and has a pretty tight hold on the platform1
iPhone
The interface is obviously great, but it’s customizable
There are so many applications available and they are easy to get
It’s a good platform for small developers to earn some money2
I don’t like Apple’s style of locking down the device
It’s starting to feel like everyone has an iPhone
Palm Pre
The interface looks great
There seems to be good support for Open Source applications
It’s pretty new
Come on, writing applications in HTML and Javascript only? And native applications only by trusted third-parties?
There are rumors that the Pre gathers user information and uploads it to Palm
Nokia N900 & Maemo
The idea of running Linux on a smartphone is just awesome
So there’s also very good support for Open Source software
The device is very powerful (real multi-tasking!), it really is a computer
The interface looks good and intuitive
Nokia seems to get the idea that openness is good
To me, the Nokia N900 and Maemo look like the best choice for a smartphone at the moment – if it will ever be released. And no, I won’t wait for the N900 Duke Nukem Forever edition.
There are custom ROMs, but they are not as good as the official ones as they don’t include the closed-source Google applications which add a lot to the platform. ^
Even though you have to stick to Macs and Objective-C. ^
It all started with sporadic random freezes during games like De Blob and Zelda. Then it started happening more regularly. We could sometimes play Zelda for more than an hour, but the Wii would often freeze after 5 or 10 minutes. The freezes were often accompanied by single polygons going crazy all over the screen and always by pretty bad noise from the speakers. In the end, there were also crashes right after a reboot when doing nothing at all in the Wii’s menu.
As the Wii was unusable, we decided to get it repaired under warranty. Fortunately, it’s rather easy to get the Wii back to Nintendo:
Make a copy of your proof of purchase.
Go to Nintendo’s RMA site where you create a new repair request and describe your problem.
Print the shipment documents and wrap up your Wii.
Go to UPS’s pickup site and tell them when you want them to get the Wii from you.
I hope our Wii will be back soon.
Update: UPS fetched the Wii on the September 29th. Today (October 2nd), I got an e-mail that is has been delivered to Nintendo.
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