And I’m Done

I’m officially spent for the night…I can’t physically do anything more project related (and I can’t even really write coherently right now, so I hope the following entry will be readable). After today’s group meeting with the professors and other students, I’ve done nothing but work and eat. Tonight’s main project was very subtle, but took much more work than anticipated: I tackled the user interface system for the options. As of yesterday, everyone could see the vehicle signs I had built. Tonight, I redesigned those images in reverse text (white writing on a black background), and made it so that when the user clicks the vehicle (or sign), the sign will highlight itself. I also decided that these should work like radio buttons (i.e. if you pick one, it deactivates the old one before highlighting itself). Also, I designed the options for type of visualization and put those on the wall. Little did I know the hell those would cause…it took me more than an hour to figure out the reason they wouldn’t work is that they were more than 20m away (and thus out of “speaking” distance with each other).

In case anyone here can’t figure out the way they work, it’s very simple. Stand on the platform, and click on the vehicle/sign of choice, and that sign will now highlight itself. Click on it again, and the highlight will go away, making everything go back to normal. Next, highlight that same vehicle and click a new one. You should now notice that the old one has returned to normal while the new one is now highlighted (thus radio buttons). Now with that one still highlighted, pick one of the visualization options and it will act in the same manner as the vehicles. These two sets work in separately, that is, they don’t affect each other (i.e. clicking “Car Pool” will not change the fact that “See Each Region” is highlighted, and clicking “Compare the Regions” won’t change “Car Pool”).

Though it might’ve taken the entire day to design and code those buttons, I’m really happy with the way they worked out. Also, while I was writing their communication scripts, I couldn’t help but to lay the groundwork for the map display system also. My goal for tomorrow will to be build at least one set of bars and see if I can get them to display on top of the map. However, before I close, I have to mention one problem I’ve come across that I’m not sure how to solve: Because the display map is flat and parallel to the floor, the text for all the top regions is very unreadable. Though Dr. Polack suggested I make the text bigger in a graphics program, I have a feeling that won’t work. What seems to be the problem is the perspective, meaning that no matter how hard we try, the ones at the top will always be blurry (I recreated the map with a higher quality/sharper image, and it didn’t really help). My best solution would be to enlarge the text on the top area for the map on the wall, and enlarge the text on the bottom entires of the flat map. This would mean that all regions could be easily discerned, just on two different maps (though if you walk on the floor map, the text clears up again, so it could also be read from there). Anyway, if anyone can think of anything different to do, I’m more than all ears.

6/13/07

*Changed pants to finalize african mannequin
*Turned the vehicles to make more visible from the platform
*Leveled the main display map
*Moved map and platform closer to the vehicles
*Created and implemented a “selection highlighter” for the vehicles
*Created a sharper, higher quality version of the floor and wall maps
*Added two option signs for the type of visualization
*Created and implemented a “selection highlighter” for the option signs
*Implemented the groundworks of the map-display system

Spending:

*$10 – Upload of another black jeans image
*$10 – Upload of red/black bicycle/walk image
*$10 – Upload of black bicycle/walk image
*$10 – Upload of black motorcycle image
*$10 – upload of black car alone image
*$10 – Upload of black car pool image
*$10 – Upload of black public transportation image
*$10 – Upload of white see region image
*$10 – Upload of black see region image
*$10 – Upload of white compare regions image
*$10 – Upload of black compare regions image

Biding My Time

Second Life has been down all day, so I really haven’t known what to do with myself.  I have a meeting with everyone in about 10 minutes, so I figure I’ll get working after that.  In the mean time, I figured I’d post my activities log over the past couple of days before it becomes too backed up:

6/11/07

*Modified platform so the ramps are as big the standing area
*Added a guardrail to the back of the platform
*Attended the ASL Scripting 201 class
*Textured inner walls of the room
*Created and placed the vehicle “bubbles”

Spending:

*$10 – Tip for ASL 201 scripting class
*$10 – Upload of black jeans image
*$10 – Upload of another black jeans image

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6/12/07

*Attended the ASL Scripting 202 class
*Discussed many ideas with Dr. Polack
*Built, positioned, and linked the vehicle signs

Spending:

*$20 – Tip for ASL 202 scripting class
*$10 – Upload of Car-Alone Sign
*$10 – Upload of modified car alone sign
*$10 – Upload of public transportation sign
*$10 – Upload of motorcycle sign
*$10 – Upload of bicycle/walk sign
*$10 – Upload of car group sign
*$10 – Upload of another motorcycle sign
*$10 – Upload of carpool sign
*$1000 – Payment for black mannequin

Moving Farther Along

Today felt very “off” for me, and I’m not really sure why. Usually I’m pretty good at being self-motivated for this project (I’m having a lot of fun!), but I wasn’t really feeling right today. Sure, my itemized list of activities is full enough (and in reading the list it sounds likes a bit of work), but it doesn’t really feel like I accomplished what I want to do.

After thinking about it for a while, I have a suspected reason for why I’m so “meh” right now: everything I did for the project was a loose end of some sort. I built a guardrail for/modified the platform, textured the walls, put on the “bubbles”, and messed around the with African-American mannequin. Essentially, these are all things I had to do at one point but just hadn’t gotten to yet. I know the project won’t always feel like this, but it’s still a disheartening to do so much but have it feel like so little.

Anyway, if I’m to do this right, I can’t spend much time moping. I’m not really sure what tomorrow will bring though. Part of me wants to work on some more odds and ends (figuring out what do about signs for the vehicles, cleaning up the display map, edit the mannequins), and I’ve finally realized why: for some reason, I’m actually scared of moving farther ahead. I know I don’t have too much longer to go before I reach the true meat of this project, the 3-d visualization. It’s not even that I think it will be really hard (not saying it’s easy either), but this is where a lot of my ideas are going to hit the battlefield. Hopefully most will survive, but you never know…

Beyond the few odds and ends I listed before, here are the major questions I need to answer soon: Where am I going to store the data and how am I going to handle the object communication? How exactly am I going to handle creating and displaying my own bar chart? With the two choices for data and one for vehicle, how am I going to do the interface for picking in the first place? Where should I put the signs so that they will be convenient AND readable? Should there be some sort of constant identifier as to which vehicles/type are being visualized (i.e. glowing, an arrow, etc.)? Where will I put the choices for type of visualization?

My tentative outline on the object communication: The vehicles will do nothing but send an object identifier (probably a number 1-5 rather than name) to the map, which will be listening to vehicle-specific channel and change it’s global vehicle variable accordingly. At the same time, the map will also have another listener event going on. This one will instead listen to the two potential styles of visualization choosers, which will probably only send some sort of number 1 or 2. I think the map object itself will probably house all the data for now, lest I think of some snappy way to have the vehicles/style objects send that information over (which would be preferable for robust programming practices, but not really essential). After giving it some thought, there will probably need to be some sort of “Visualize” button at the bottom of the map that the user will click to clear the map and see the data. I used to think the map would be dynamic to where every choice would change it immediately, but that’s probably too cumbersome and confusing.

I could continue on this for a while, but it’s starting to get a bit fuzzy at this point; I really need to start implementing things before those ideas will become any more concrete. Though I don’t know what tomorrow will bring, I know the future of this will be far greater.

Falling Into Place

It’s been a while since my last post.  I don’t have especially much to report on, other than my official posted goals weren’t achieved haha.  Though this might sound bad, it was actually a pretty good thing:  Dr. Polack and I spent more time collaborating on ideas in Second Life than we ever had before.  We’ve thought through a lot of stuff, and the actual room I’m using for the transportation visualization is starting to pick up.  This week should be a good one!

My activities as of late:

6/7/07

*Reset up the orientation of the transportation room
*Adding a ceiling to the room
*Created the huge floor map and wall map
*Finished customizing the city bus
*Created “bubbles” fir the bike, motorcycle, and car

Spending:

*$10 – Upload of bus text
*$10 – Upload of census map

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6/8/07

*Modified and finalized the Hawaiian mannequin
*Rearranged the the transportation visualization room
*Added floor and ceiling textures to the room
*Modified and moved a platform for the user to stand on

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6/09/07

*Received and displayed first copy of black mannequin
*Searched for black jean textures

An Unexpected Diversion

Wow, so today did not go as planned at all.  I had a chance “meeting” with Dr. Polack, and she expressed her disdain for the monorail as a symbol for public transportation (which I agreed with).  Apparently, a good marker for public transportation in Second Life doesn’t exist…I probably spent a good 2-3 hours today searching for one (and that doesn’t count yesterday at all).  I can’t believe no one has a made a city bus or metro looking train before, it seem so obvious (especially when people waste time making tractors and scooters!!).

While we were talking, however, I got an idea:  what if modified my existing school bus to look sort of like a city bus?  After doing a quick demo for Dr. Polack on the capabilities of modification, I realized it was probably possible.  Anyway, I spent countless hours on the thing, but it’s finally done.  Ever seen an episode of “Pimp My Ride”?  That’s basically what happened here since I had to completely change the way everything looked for the conversion (I left both out in the UMW common area that way the comparison can be made).  The end result looks really good, and will be an excellent representation of public transportation in my opinion (I hope you like it Dr. Polack, because after 3-4 hours of texturing at least, I’m 99% sure I’ll never want to touch the edit button on it again haha).

Since the bus took so long, I didn’t do much else.  I did, however, meet with Shiv to check on the status of my people objects.  He showed me a couple different versions of the Hawaiian, so I made a few suggestions for him to create the final version.  Luckily, he had a bit of time right then, so he finished it off for me right on the spot.  It looks good (and definitely serves for our purposes), so I bought it off of him right there…hopefully I can get around to playing with it soon (I’ll leave a copy next to the buses so everyone can see it).  I reiterated the specs for the black man, so he’ll probably have that ready by Friday or so.  I’m definitely glad things are on a much more definite track than before.

I think I’ve decided on a new way to close these blogs (before any activities logs, that is)…I think I’m going to post my goal for the next day.  I think this will be beneficial, since it will not only keep me looking ahead, but also help me better realize how much I can do in one day.  And without any further ado…My next goal:  create the “bubbles” to go around each vehicle and set up the basics behind object-communication system for the transportation visualization.

My significant activity for the day:

6/6/07

*Searched for a city bus and/or metro train car
*Completely retextured a school bus into a city bus
*Bought Hawaiian mannequin

Spending:

*$10 – Upload of bus side
*$10 – Upload of bus front/back
*$10 – Upload of bus lights
*$10 – Upload of bus grille
*$10 – Upload of bus logo
*$10 – Upload of bus sign
*$1000 – Hawaiian mannequin

Starting the Attack

I had another meeting with Dr. Polack today; the main topic of discussion was the transportation data set and how to model it.  We’ve tentatively decided that my 3-d visualization should have dual functionality:  first, click on the type of transportation, and then the “bar chart” type data will appear over the regions on the US map.   The new addition?   Clicking on a region will break down the data by state and display each the percentages for each state.  I’m not entirely sure how I want to do that, however.   Individual bars will clutter the map far too much, and just saying it in “chat” it not very visual or long-lasting on the screen.  I guess I’ll just have to muse on that while I’m out doing bigger and better things.

In other news,  I started the grunt work for the transportation visualization.  After looking around for a while, I decided it would need a lot of room, so I started building on the lower level of the UMW workspace (you can just look down from Greta’s workspace to see where I am).   So far, I’ve built the infrastructure of room (all the floor shields make everything look ugly).  I don’t really know how I’m going to texture the plywood yet, but I figured it would be something along the lines of a rug for the floor and nice wallpaper for the walls.  Also, I started to set the general layout of the room as to how the visualization is going to go.  I think all the vehicles should hug the long, left wall, so I set tentatively set them up in the positions I want them to be in.  Unfortunately, I’m not really sure on my choice of vehicle for public transportation.  The monorail looking train is nice, but a bit small when compared to the other vehicles.  There’s not really much else I can do however, because other passenger trains are basically non-existent, and finding a public bus is nigh impossible.  At one time, I had a school bus in its place, but Brandon recommended against it because of the connotation it carries (and I tend to agree).  I think tomorrow I’m going to start the clickable “bubbles” to house the vehicles to enable the object communication tricks I’ve been working with earlier.

I should be pretty good otherwise.  I tried to get in contact with Shiv, the guy creating my person objects (the mannequins), but it was to no avail.  I message him the specs for the black man I want to represent, so  hopefully he’ll start that one soon.  Also, I have two questions for Dr. Polack while she’s away at the conference:  1) What’s the best way to import and manipulate Excel data into SL?  I’ve got a couple suggestions, but I’d like to hear if there’s an easy/smart way to do it from the pros.  2)  How do we delete the black walls from the UMW area?  I want to expand my room a bit, but those are blocking my way a bit.

Anyway, before I go, here’s the activities log for the day:

6/5/07

*Took a prim reduction/recycling building class
*Searched for more vehicles to use for representation
*Bought a motorcycle
*Bought Monorail
*Bought trainset
*Started building my room for the transportation visualization under the UMW workspace
*Arranged vehicles as needed in room

Spending:

*$10 -  Tip for prim reduction/recycling building class
*$600 – Motorcycle
*$300 – Monorail
*$399 – Train Set

Moving Ahead

Not much to say tonight, other than that it’s really, really late.  My two biggest concerns right now:

a)  I’m not really sure what questions I want to ask yet.  All I can really say is that they should break down into 3 categories:  1. numerical grasp of the data, 2. interpretive comprehension of the data, and 3. opinion and preference on the visualization itself.

b)  How exactly am I going to visualize the transportation data on top of the regional US Map?  Do I want to make this more “traditional” than the educational one, or try and think of something different?  Currently, I was thinking this could turn into a 3-d bar chart of sorts…meaning, more or less transparent bars above each area on the map.  Sure, it wouldn’t be that different, but maybe that’s actually a good thing in the end (merging 3d visuals with 2d style and understanding).  The only other thing I can think of is to have signpost above each, with the texture of the object you picked (which doesn’t make too sense, since you know which you picked anyway).  Certainly trying to stack cars or buses would look too clunky, so right now I think the 3d bar chart idea is the best one I have.

My activity log for the day:

6/4/07

*Attended part of a Prim-Alignment Class
*Took an avatar appearance class
*Searched for and found a regional map of the United States
*Bought a car
*Bought a van
*Bought a bicycle
*Bought a bus
*Bought a train
*Learned how to copy an object

Spending:

*$5 – Notes for prim alignment class
*$400 – Car
*$350 – Van
*$200 – Bike
*$250 – Train
*$500 – School Bus

More Than the Usual Fare

It’s been a long time since I’ve posted a general update on my thoughts toward the project, so I figured I’d spend a little time tonight outlining my ideas since the last one.  My biggest accomplishment so far:  my clickable US map.  From the written details of it, I thought it would much harder to do than it was.  Luckily, last Tuesday I was in a huge programming mood, and worked on it for roughly 5 hours.  The finished project was actually quite beautiful in my opinion (and apparently nothing like it exists in SecondLife to anyone else’s knowledge).  Since then, I made the states even more clear, and plan to tweak it a tiny bit if needed.

The next major event was my meeting with Dr. Polack.  After talking with her, I have a much clearer idea as to what the second dataset should be:  type of commute to work in urban areas.  Though this might not be the most exciting data in the world, it has much more interesting visual implications than income did or obesity did:  the plan we’ve come up with together is to have the types of transportation (i.e. cars, public transport, walking, etc.) as the dynamic choice (similar to the US Map in the education one), and the data would be represented as percentages on top of a huge, regional map of the United States on the floor (what the representation on top of the floor will be, however, is still up for grabs).  This shouldn’t be too hard to do, as vehicles are quite commonplace in SecondLife.

Also, we discussed my primary idea, the racial data in education visualizations.  After thinking it through for a while, I’ve decided I need to pick a certain level of education to choose.  Right now I’m leaning toward Bachelor’s.  Nothing below it would very interesting data (high school is meh data), but I think PhD might be too high to have a large, representative data set.  One flaw in my visualization, however, might be that people objects are extremely hard to come across.  At the time of my meeting with her, I had probably spent 3-4 man hours just in search of possible candidates, with nothing really to show.  However, on Friday, I happened to come across the right person at the right time.  This guy had made some male mannequin objects, and weren’t bad as general displays of the human form.  He was selling two males and a female for L$499, so I offered him L$1000 for each custom mannequin he could produce.  Tonight he showed the first one I had him try, the Hawaiian.  Believe it or not, it actually looked pretty good!  No one would mistake it for a real avatar with person behind it, but I definitely think the mannequin looked good enough for my uses.  I gave him a couple suggestions (adding a face, getting rid of the “mannequin” elbows, etc.), which he said he would have ready by tomorrow.  After he shows me the updated version, I’m going to take a screenshot to Dr. Polack and see what she thinks.  I have a feeling she’ll like it though; if for no other reason, she’s just as attached to my idea for education as I am.  One potential problem though:  I wanted to have the people sitting in prearrange desks, but I don’t think that will work anymore.  The reason?  Well, the guy’s mannequins are standing up, and it might make them look really weird to be sitting down.  Also, in order to show the data together to make sense, I think I’m going to need “clusters” of people…maybe I’ll have the desks all set up, but the people somewhere else in the room, like role is being called?

Other than those specific updates,I’ve continuously been taking classes and reading, and am getting more comfortable with the language all the time (I just made Greta a demo on invisibility and phantom prims haha).  I was talking with a classmate in my object-communication class, and he was giving me ideas on how top copy the objects for my visualization and importing the data.  If things go accordingly, this project should go to plan quite nicely.

Same ol’ Same ol’

As always, I’m posting a tidy round-up of my project activities over the past couple of days:

6/1/07

*Took LSL Scripting Boot Camp Day 4 class
*Commissioned a guy to try and make a Hawaiian mannequin

Spending:

*$20 – Tip for Boot Camp 4 class

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6/3/07 

*Took Object-Communications Course
*Talked with classmate about ideas for excel data upload and cloning objects
*Talked with guy who made mannequin and saw his demo, suggested some tweaks
*Created Invisible/Phantom Prim Demo for Greta

Spending:

*$20 – Tip for Object-Communication Class

A Little More

It’s a bit late, and I’m still not in much of a writing mood. Nevertheless, I spent a lot of time on the background for the project today, so I’ll update my activities log again:

5/31/07

*Continued searching for a human avatar object or person mannequin – contacted possible person
*Read Chapter 9 and finished “The Visual Display of Quantitative Information”
*Read Chapters 1-10 of “A Beginner’s Guide to Second Life”
*Took class: Prims 107 – Fundamentals of Prims – Techniques I
*Attended part of Prims 108 – Fundamentals of Prims – Techniques II class
*Took LSL Scripting Boot Camp Day 3 class

Spending:

*$10 – Tip for Prims 107 class
*$30 – Notes for Prims 107 class
*$30 – Notes for Prims 108 class