Yesterday: Met with Faramarz and a Mitacs representative to discuss how funding options work within the organization. Reminder email to Kathreen about biological motivation/applications. Emailed researcher at U of A about possible discussions and looked at a few other options (such as the Road Ecology group in Montana, ). Emailed researcher at U of A about thesis access. Stumbled across the ScareCrow Sprinkler from Contech to deter animals from gardens.
Looked again at ISIS quadcopter and currently available 3D capture cameras for custom rig. Contacted ISIS about ballpark costs.
Started developing a list of possible funding options, skillsets that I need to develop and how to go about doing that in a financially viable way (eg. contract/internship at a related company).
Sorted out license keys and re-installed Matlab with the fancy toolboxes. (And then re-installed after getting the wrong version of 2014a rather than 2014b). Tried out Matlab kinect and image processing toolkit. Today: Wrap up thesis review. Group meeting for defense dry-run of colleague.
Document last Wednesday's discussion in latex for possible future writing/papers. Visualize graph representation of the point clouds within this process. Tweak/implement transformation-based validation (ie. step 2 of process). Generate a file-loading for test cases so there is consistency in process validation.
Apply new toolkits to current work on dynamic 3D (ie. rigid motion segmentation, precursor to articulated motion identification).
Build a list of what I need (resources: financial, technical, human), and how to get them, including how to motivate others.
Decide whether to apply for TA-ship next January or not.
Possibly communicate with:
- ranchers in Alberta to see what the issue is for livestock loss due to wildlife,
- conservation officers in Alberta to see what directions they're taking and if there would be an opportunity there for assisting,
- CP rail and what their financial obligations are for wildlife and livestock re-imbursement.
Roadblocks: Not being overwhelmed, being realistic, and taking it baby-step by baby-step.
Where Does this Fit In: Having 3D synthetic examples to work with is important in validating the developed reconstruction process. Developing good visualizations - as well as a mathematical discussion of the process - along the way helps demonstrate proof-of-concepts, provides affirmation of skill sets for resource/backing requests, and justifies the direction to be taken. Determining a path to follow.