last official status report

[Richard Dale]

Hi James

On Wednesday 21 September 2005 01:40, James Horey wrote:
> Richard,
>
> Sorry to bug you, but I'm trying to clear up some things with Google and I
> was wondering if you'd mind telling me if you approved me for the $4k
> payment. Please don't feel as though I would be angry if you didn't, as I'm
> very happy I got to participate at all. Conflicting information is coming
> out of Google, so it seems easier to just ask you :) Thanks a bunch.
>
> -James

I've just filled out a report for google saying that I thought the project had 
succeeded. I hope it wasn't too late - I'm sorry about that.

-- Richard


> On Thu September 8 2005 12:24 pm, you wrote:
> > Hi James
> >
> > On Thursday 01 September 2005 04:30, James Horey wrote:
> > > Richard,
> > >
> > > I realize that you are busy at Akademy, but I thought this final
> > > summary would be useful for you when you get a chance to read. On an
> > > administrative note, the project is stored on sourceforge
> > > <https://sourceforge.net/projects/sensorinterface/>. I plan on moving
> > > to KDE's svn repository once I feel the program is useful enough, which
> > > I hope is soon. You should be able to check out the source anonymously,
> > > but please email me if you can't.
> > >
> > > My goal at the beginning of summer of code was to implement a useful
> > > interface for programming and managing sensor networks using KDE
> > > technology. As I stated when the project began, it was my intent to get
> > > a substantial useful portion of this project done. To this end I
> > > believe I've succeeded. Below is a breakdown of the organization of the
> > > program and what I've actually written.
> > >
> > > Sensor communication:
> > >
> > > This was one of the more difficult portions of the program. Basically I
> > > have code to communicate with the Mica2 hardware over the serial line.
> > > Basic serial communication is found in the files serialreader.rb,
> > > simplecmdmsg.rb, and crc.rb.
> > >
> > > There is also code to convert the raw data provided by the Mica2
> > > hardware into sensible sensor readings. This raw data is read from the
> > > serial line. This code is found in convert.rb
> > >
> > > TinyOS:
> > >
> > > Contained in the directory tinyos, is a TinyOS program that actually
> > > runs on the Mica2 motes. Currently this program is collects sensor data
> > > at a regular interval and stores them in flash. Right now, I use a
> > > seperate program to read and transmit the data from the flash, although
> > > I plan on integrating said program to this one. I spent quite a bit
> > > time optimizing energy usage in this program, which turned out to be
> > > much more difficult than I initially believed.
> > >
> > > There is still much work to be done in this area, although I believe
> > > this program is pretty solid and useful right now.
> > >
> > > Interface:
> > >
> > > Unfortunately this portion of the program received the least amount of
> > > attention. I have however been able to successfully communicate and use
> > > KSpread's DCOP interface to display data (as an example, try Data->Test
> > > Pivot Table). To that end, I've begun working on the basic pivot table
> > > code to lay out the data coherently in KSpread. This layout code should
> > > be complete quite soon. I've also constructed some wizards to aid in
> > > the creation and configuration of "projects". I also have code to save
> > > and restore project files (they are just several zipped files). To do
> > > that, I've used rubyzip.
> > >
> > > I plan on spending most of my time in the near future working on the
> > > interface. The first concrete goal after the deadline is to get a
> > > working pivot table wizard/interface. Afterwards, the work will mostly
> > > concentrate on completing the code running on the motes (such as Mote
> > > rules).
> > >
> > > Well I hope this summary has been useful. I want to thank you for
> > > helping me through this, and hope that we continue working on this in
> > > the future.
> >
> > Thanks for the report. Maybe I would like to actually help you more in
> > the future, but you seem to have just got on with it very successfully. I
> > think this would make a very good KDE dot news article if you could write
> > up your experiences (especially with pictures of sensor equipped
> > porcupines for instance :) ).
> >
> > -- Richard