Augmented Reality

     One of the uses of QR-codes mentioned in a previous article was Augmented Reality (AR). Anybody who has played a video game or watched a movie has experienced Virtual Reality (VR), where we get to experience a world that does not exist in reality. AR is the next step by placing virtual objects within the real world.
     AR uses a video camera and display to overlay digital content like videos, 3-D models, images, and text over the real world. It is still under development, and multiple engineers and technology companies are focused on improving the technology; but that does not mean it is not being used today.
     One of the most popular and well-known uses of AR today is for interactive game play. The most popular of these games is “Pokémon Go,” developed and published by Niantic for iOS and Android devices. A close second is the IKEA app that lets you see IKEA furniture in your room.
     Leap, one of the top companies in AR, produced a video of a whale leaping out of the water in the center of a school gymnasium full of high school students. They were showing in the video what a user of their Magic Leap AR glasses would have seen, as the students reacted on cue without seeing a thing. You can see the video on YouTube. 
     The ultimate goal of AR is to allow us to interact in new ways with our world. It may seem that AR is just a toy, but it is being used today for advancing research in medicine, weather forecast, chemistry, biology, archeology, and many other fields. During Hurricane Harvey, the National Weather Service used augmented reality to show the impact of the pending tidal surge by superimposing the simulated water level behind a reporter on the city streets. Sometimes seeing what a seven-foot storm surge looks like in your neighborhood helps convince you to evacuate. 
     AR is heavily used in movie and video production today, but it is not as new as many seem to believe. The first AR device was created by Ivan Sutherland and Bob Sproull in 1968. It was a head-mounted display called “The Sword of Damocles” and displayed primitive computer graphics. It’s hard to believe that AR was invented before the first videogame, “Pong,” in 1969. 

You will need a QR-Code reader application installed on your device to enjoy the example above.  Simply scan the image with your QR-Code reader and allow the website application to access your camera. You will see a 3-D globe floating over the image.    Along with this article is a picture with a QR-code; it will allow you to experience AR. It takes you to a website that runs a local script to overlay a floating 3-D picture over the image. Hold your phone sideways while viewing the image. Although the website does ask for access to your camera, it is not sending any video to the site. It is just using the camera to show the real world behind the virtual object.

 
It will be a long time before AR is widely used in newsprint media, but you may see The Licking News try it from time to time.

What is that strange square?

QR-code link to www.thelickingnews.com

   You may have seen these on products in the store, posters advertising concerts and events, or in magazines and newspapers. They are called a Quick Response Code, or QR code, for short. It was designed in 1994 in Japan for use in the automotive industry. The QR code is an improvement upon the standard bar code, which is typically used for marking p

roducts with a unique identifier often used for pricing and inventory control. The standard bar code can store two sets of 6-digits and is limited to number based information. The QR code takes this a step further.

The internal structure of a version 7 QR code
showing the various functional elements.

     A QR code consists of black squares arranged in a square grid on a white background, which is readable by a camera, like the one in your cell phone, and processed using an error correcting computer algorithm to interpret the image. Data is stored both vertically and horizontally within the image and can be used to store any type of data, not just alphanumeric data like product names and expiration dates, but machine readable data like computer code, and in extreme cases entire documents.
     QR codes are beginning to become a standard in advertising because of the ease of sharing very large amounts of information in a very small space through the use of new smartphone technology. Typically, a smart phone is used as a QR code scanner with one of many QR code scanner applications to display the code and convert it to a human readable form, such as a website URL. The QR code makes it easier for print advertisers to connect with their customers because of the ease of use connecting print media to internet content. You will begin to see QR codes in The Licking News from time to time.
     A QR code can store up to 7,089 characters, which is larger than this article. Anyone can generate their own QR codes with free software available online as well as utilizing website-based QR-code generators. One of my favorites is https://www.qrcode-monkey.com which was used to generator the QR code that links to our website. You can overlay logos, adjust colors and customize the shape of the code as long as you keep the four corner blocks that store the information on how to decode the image, and the logo does not cover more than one fourth of the image.
    QR codes can be designed to send you to un-safe websites and install software on your device. You should never scan a QR code from an unknown source, just like you should never follow a link in an e-mail from a stranger. Risks include linking to dangerous web sites with browser exploits, enabling the microphone, camera, GPS, and then streaming those feeds to a remote server; analysis of sensitive data (passwords, files, contacts, transactions); and sending email/SMS/IM messages or DDOS packets as part of a botnet, corrupting privacy settings, stealing identity, and even containing malicious logic themselves such as JavaScript or a virus. These actions could occur in the background while the user is only seeing the reader open a seemingly harmless web page.
     You should also always use trusted QR code scanner software on your phone or tablet. A couple of options are the “QR Code Reader” by TWMobile for Android and “QR Code Reader and Scanner” by ShopSavy, Inc. for the iPhone. There are several out there to choose from, but be sure to read the reviews before installing one.

A New Thing

This week I started something new.  It took a little bit to get the first few posts up on the site, but I have started writing a local newspaper column called TechTalk.  Tech Talk is currently published in The Licking News, a local newspaper in the city of Licking, MO.  The tech articles from this publication will be published here on a regular basis, at least a week behind the print edition of the paper.  I would really like to encourage you to subscribe and help keep the home town paper locally owned and operated.  Your subscription helps more than you realize in keeping your hometown paper alive and well.

A New Life

So much has changed in my life since I last posted to this blog that I am not even sure I am the same person any more.  We are no longer in the children's ministry at Licking Pentecostal Holiness church.  We have not been there for a few years now.  We followed the new path the Lord had for us and began attending a very small community church closer to our home. "Happy Hollow Full Gospel Mission".  In the four years that we have been there, not only have we changed, but so has the little church we came to love. 

We have dropped the Happy Hollow from our name and are now simply "Full Gospel Mission",  we are going through some rough times at the church and hoping to see some new growth.  We just completed an addition to the church for new Sunday school rooms and a fellowship hall and then we began to have members leave, for various reasons.  Some because God called them on to other places, others because of personal reasons.  For now, we are staying and waiting.

I also have a new job, I am no longer at Missouri University of Science and Technology, but I am working from home for a French based International Company where I design High Performance Computing systems and travel to trade shows, conferences, and customer sites all over North America. 

Last summer we purchased a 46 acre plot of woodlands in central Missouri and began build an off-grid A-frame home.  We have been working on it as much as the weather will permit.  We are building it without debt, so it is taking a lot longer than we would like, but when it is done we will own it free and clear.  I should be installing our battery system for the solar panels in the coming weeks, which will give us permanent power instead of living off a generator.

I am planning on post a lot more regularly, not only about my personal life, but about ministry, work, and living off grid.  You might say the site is going to become the ramblings of a man with too much to do, but wants to remember it all and share it with others.

Please let me know if you are following my blog by dropping me a line in the comments.

God Bless,
Scott

Busy Life

I have been really busy lately with ministry, work, and kids. I have not posted anything to my own blog in months and apologies to anyone who was regularly reading. You can check out our ministry blog and http://lphcgeckos.blogspot.com.

Our Ministry has Chosen a New Name

We are now the Geckos (God Exalting Christian Kids Obediently Serving).  "Salvation so easy a kid can have it"  Check out our new blog site at http://lphcgeckos.blogspot.com

Just testing iPhone app

I just downloaded an iPhone app for updating my blog and thought it might be fun to try it out. So far it seems to work okay. I wanted something I could use to update my blog at soccer games for up to the minute stats. I hope this will work.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Banks are Crazy

I have been dealing with banks all day today and have determined that they are crazy.  One bank has my address as General Delivery.  I ask them to change it to my PO Box and was told that they would need to know my physical address to change my mailing address from General Delivery to a PO Box.  I just don't understand,  I have to go the post office to pick up my mail in either case, but I can have a General Delivery Address with no physical address, but a PO Box requires a physical address.

Another bank has been paid the late fees on my payments for several months now, and have not credited any of them to my account.  They have $35 worth of late fees marked as unpaid.  Instead they have been applying the late fees to my principle.  When I ask them why, they said, they cannot mark late fees as paid until the account is current.  Which means simply that if I never pay any payments on time I will wind up owing them over $5000 in late fees at the end of loan even though I paid every single one of them.

Like I said banks are crazy.

My poor Car has seen better days.

I have the latest news from the mechanic now.  After spending 3 days diagnosing the issues with the fuel system we came to find out that the real problem was that the timing chain had slipped a link, which is causing the fuel injectors to fire early, or late, I am not sure which.  This is causing the car to idle too fast when cold and barely idle when it is hot.

We have to play with timing every time in order to get it to start depending on if the engine is hot of cold.  It looks like I will be spending a day or two in the garage replacing a timing chain in hopes that nothing else is wrong once I get that part completed.

Anyone feel like spending a couple days with me under the hood of '84 Vic?

My car broke down again. It has been giving me trouble off and on for about a month now, but who can blame it. I have over 230,000 miles on it. It runs great when it is running. I have a mechanic friend looking at it this time as the automatic choke is causing fuel system problems and I'm not that good with first generation fuel injector technology. Hopefully my old beat up Crown Vic will get fixed over the weekend and I'll have a working car again. If not, does anyone know where I can buy another cheap car to get me through another year?