We had fun today doing the rifleshot test. I was surprised that no one on this side of the Atlantic knew what 'rifleshot testing' meant. Apparently they thought I was going to do a William Tell with a rifle :-)
So anyways, we got a bunch of PhDs and to-be PhDs to become teenagers again and try break the apps. First off it started bad. Cam recording software turned out to be a memory hog. So we took it outside, behind the shed and shot it. Then the 'kids' had fun running stuff and trying to break it.
The quick inputs were that we didn't want the images to grow too big and the debug text from Touchlib needed to go away.
Much to Izzy's dislike we removed the pink blobs and replaced them with blue ones. Yippie!
Hope the customs issues are resolved and we have the PCs to run the app in India.
Wednesday, 28 April 2010
Package still in Customs awaiting penalty
Finally spoke to someone in DHL who seemed to know what's going on. The good news is he knows what's happening.
The bad news is that the package is marked for penalty and it can take upto 1 week to clear it.
It is frustrating that DHL have sat on this package for more than 1 week without sending it or customs clearance even though we made it clear that we don't mind paying the potentially 300% customs charge. We really need this machine by Apr 29 for us to be able to move forward with our project.
Looks like we will have to shop for some pcs in India :(
The bad news is that the package is marked for penalty and it can take upto 1 week to clear it.
It is frustrating that DHL have sat on this package for more than 1 week without sending it or customs clearance even though we made it clear that we don't mind paying the potentially 300% customs charge. We really need this machine by Apr 29 for us to be able to move forward with our project.
Looks like we will have to shop for some pcs in India :(
Tuesday, 27 April 2010
T-23:00 to Take-off
It's almost time to get going. Looking forward to 10 interesting days in the nation's capital. Last few days have been really hectic. The development of the app brought back old memories. I was dreaming code again after a long time. For a change it works. Hope that it behaves on the field. I was Tom Swayer-ed into doing the painting job on the compliant surfaces and they are looking fine now.
Things I am looking forward to:
2 weeks of holidays@home after the visit.
Meeting up with friends whom I haven't seen for more than 6 months (and upto nearly 5 years!)
Alu-parathas and G-Jams! :-)
Staying in a 5-star hotel in India for the first time.
Flying Virgin Atlantic for the first time.
Things I am not looking forward to:
Hidden bugs in the code that decide to surface when the experiments are running.
40C heat that Delhi is currently experiencing.
Customs at the airport, I am carrying too many things (which are arguably research equipment, but try telling that to them)
7 am school time. I hated it as a kid, hate it now and probably definitely even in the future.
Things I am queasy about:
Being back in India again. It changes too much everytime I pay a visit. Has been getting more alien each time.
Going to schools and interacting with kids. Haven't been to a school for over a decade now. Do remember that it was a jungle out there back then. Don't expect it to have changed much now.
Lets see how the things turn out....
Things I am looking forward to:
2 weeks of holidays@home after the visit.
Meeting up with friends whom I haven't seen for more than 6 months (and upto nearly 5 years!)
Alu-parathas and G-Jams! :-)
Staying in a 5-star hotel in India for the first time.
Flying Virgin Atlantic for the first time.
Things I am not looking forward to:
Hidden bugs in the code that decide to surface when the experiments are running.
40C heat that Delhi is currently experiencing.
Customs at the airport, I am carrying too many things (which are arguably research equipment, but try telling that to them)
7 am school time. I hated it as a kid, hate it now and probably definitely even in the future.
Things I am queasy about:
Being back in India again. It changes too much everytime I pay a visit. Has been getting more alien each time.
Going to schools and interacting with kids. Haven't been to a school for over a decade now. Do remember that it was a jungle out there back then. Don't expect it to have changed much now.
Lets see how the things turn out....
Package still stuck in customs
The pcs we sent to Delhi on Apr 17 via DHL are still stuck in Indian customs. Its not clear what is causing the delay - DHL are authorized to charge us any import duty & we've sent them the customs invoice. Its been in this situation for 4 days now.
I hope the package arrives in NIIT before we reach delhi.
I hope the package arrives in NIIT before we reach delhi.
Saturday, 24 April 2010
Recent volcanic activity affects us
We were initially a team of 6 visiting Delhi from Bristol but today I received news that Kenton O'Hara a member of our initial team will not be able to join us as he is still trying to make his way back to the UK from a recent trip to the US to attend CHI 2010.
We are still hoping Azita Ghassemi will be able to join us. She too has been affected by the recent travel disruptions.
Welcome to the Blog
The purpose this blog is to document the process of building a multi-touch table and evaluating its use in schools in India.
This project is an initiative of the University of Bristol (U.K) in collaboration with the NIIT University and Hole-in-the-Wall Education.
The aim of the project is to investigate how the interactive table helps widen student participation and improves outreach. We will be carrying out field studies in two different locations in Delhi to compare and contrast student participation and communication styles within various locations in India and between India and UK.
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