marathon day 18: small steps

FSL video progress

• 90 out of 127 signs (9 out of 13 groups) recorded
• 2 out of 3 signers recorded
• 90 out of 328 recorded samples processed

Proposal/Thesis Paper writing

• configured LaTeX templates
• draft Chapter 1: Introduction
• draft Chapter 2: Related Literature
• draft Chapter 3: Research Problem

marathon day 15: I lost my nose

It is time to re-evaluate our progress. What have we accomplished? What have we learned?

Accomplishments

1. Created a screencast of the prototype of the visualization tool for demonstrations.
2. Incremental improvements in the visualization tool.
3. Standardized the mencoder options for my data files. mencoder is part of the MPlayer project.
4. Scheduled additional recording sessions with the Deaf next week.
5. Edited two groups of FSL video recordings. I am looking into automating this with video segmentation.
6. Started working on the problem of metrics. How do I measure similarities between (recorded) signs?

Non-Accomplishments

1. Re-organized the files under my thesis directory. Includes updates to the back-up scripts.
2. Added to the goals for the marathon: video segmentation module
3. Added to the goals for the marathon: hand shape recognition
4. Added to the goals for the marathon: hand tracking
5. Constantly underestimate the scope of sign language complexity.

marathon day 4: nose to the grindstone

From the recording sessions, I now have 89 unique FSL signs. Each sign was recorded for both Rommel and Mary Jane, making a total of 178 samples. Sometimes there two or more takes per sample, meaning I'll end up with more than 178 samples in all. Right now I am editing and resizing the video files into small 160x120 clips - one clip per sign.

20 out of 178 done

marathon day 1: Procrastination

I have forgotten all about this: Structured Procrastination. Combined with mini-milestones, this approach works very well for me.

Mini-milestones, for those unfamiliar with the term, are very small tasks with only two possible statuses - NOT DONE and DONE. There is no 80% Done, it is either finished or not finished. This means the tasks must be small and straight-forward. We break down projects into smaller and smaller sub-projects, modules, functions and tasks until we have small, easily finished to-do items.

Structured procrastination exploits these small tasks. Large to-do items are broken up into small tasks making it easy to switch projects. If I don't feel like doing Project A, there are several mini-milestones from Project B I can accomplish. Once I get bored, switch back to Project A or yet another Project C.

marathon day 0

This summer, starting April 20, the lab is doing a Research Marathon. Forty-two days of nose-to-the grindstone research grunt work. The goals of the marathon is to (a) produce solid experimental data to back up the thesis; and (b) to produce a paper or report ready for publication. In my case, I will add a third goal: (c) my thesis proposal defense.

I am simultaneously excited and terrified, although I'm long past the stage where fear and excitement are indistinguishable. I have no idea what's going to happen and that's a good thing! You could say I am taking the pessimistic approach: I'll be pleasantly surprised more often.