Author: Michelle Annett

Internet, Windows 7, Arduinos, Interns

| Michelle Annett

So last week, I found out that someone hacked into the department’s system and as a result, it was decided that everything should be shut down. This meant that Internet access, webpages, ssh’ing, and basically everything was inaccessible. After finally getting access to my files, I decided to pull everything off of cs.ualber…. and instead move it to some other webspace that I have access to. Both cs.ualberta.ca/~mkannett and ualberta.ca/~mkannett will redirect to here so there should be no problems, except with hyper-linked resources. In the process of moving things over, I tried to update as many links as possible, but it is likely that I missed some. If you can’t access something, please send me an email (if possible) and alert me so that I can fix them and prevent others from encountering the same problem! I would greatly appreciate it.

This week I have also been preparing for the five interns that will be starting next week. Fraser and I have been working very hard to get tutorials, equipment, computers, and projects ready for our new lab mates! After everything gets settled down, I will be updating the blog more frequently with information on what I have been doing for the last few months, as well as what I will be doing in the future.

If you haven’t seen Toy Story 3, do it! Go Pixar!

Happy Eclipse Release day!!

This week in the news….UBC visitors and scholarships!

| Michelle Annett

Hello! It is only Tuesday, but it has already been a very busy week. Yesterday and today, the AMMI lab was fortunately enough to have Dr. Alan Kingstone, and two of his post-docs Tom Foulsham and Evan Risko visit our lab, share their research with us, and have a great dinner at Walter’s house. I had a great time hearing and watching videos of the projects that Dr. Kingstone’s lab has/is undertaking and appreciated all of their comments and ideas about my (potential) work.


Also, I found out that I was awarded an iCORE PhD Graduate Student Scholarship in Information and Communication Technologies (it’s a long title, i know) to help me pursue my rehabilitation-based research. I am really excited about this because this means that people outside of my lab actually believe in the potential of my research projects and ideas. A real motivation booster that’s for sure!!!

Killam Funding

| Michelle Annett

Greetings! I have been on vacation in the United Kingdom for two weeks (I had a stellar time). While in the UK, and more specifically in Lancaster, England, I found out that I am now a Killam Scholar! What this means for me is that I have been fortunate enough to receive funding from the Killam Trusts (University of Alberta Izaak Walton Killam Scholarship) for my PhD research and education. I am very thankful that I received this award / honor!!

New CyberPsychology and CyberTherapy Papers

| Michelle Annett

I just found out that I have two papers (along with Fraser Anderson) that were accepted at CyberTherapy and CyberPsychology 15 to be held in Seoul, Korea in June (during the World Cup of Soccer)! I am very happy that I get to go back to CT & CP again this year, because I had a great time last year when it was held in Italy. As soon as I am able, I will post pictures, videos, and our accepted papers!

AIRWall

| Michelle Annett

Inspired by the success of our AIRTouch project, Fraser and I wanted to adapt the multi-touch activities that I created for the AIRTouch system to a much larger surface. We used our large rear-projected “Disney” screen, a Wiimote, an off-the-shelf NEC projector, an inexpensive Bluetooth dongle (Deal Extreme is awesome), and a custom IR ‘light pen’ to make our AIRWall system. We initially used Johnny Chung Lee’s Wiimote software (he is the nicest guy) to handle the tracking of the IR ‘light pen’, and then later built our own.

Fraser’s IR Light Pen

A few of the activities that we tested on the AIRWall can be seen here: