misc | Stealthcopter

Creating and animating a 3d model by scanning a real world object with a smartphone

Author: matOn: Feb 09Categories: misc No Comments

At Droidcon a couple years back I had a go sitting in a chair while a camera was rotated around me to create a 3d model of myself. The company said they would give everyone a link to download the 3d models following the event, but disappointingly they never did, and they just ignored my attempts to contact them. This left me wanting a way to create a 3d model of myself… myself.

I found an app called ‘123D Catch’. It’s avaliable for Android, iOS and a windows application via Autodesk’s website

The most interesting object I could find in the house to scan was a Unicorn candle I made for my partner.

Unicorn candle that I made for my partner

It’s pretty simple to use, you take photos from several angles around the object (the app keeps track using the gyro) and then you select all the good images (delete blurred photos etc) and upload them. Note that the upload process can take a while as you are uploading 30-50 photos, and on top of that the server takes quite a while to create a 3d model out of all your images.

Downloading the object and importing

You can download the 3d model from Autodesk’s website. Choose .obj and download the object mesh. I then followed this quick youtube tutorial on how to tidy up the model by deleting all the surroundings. The model had a very large number of vertexes (which can take up a lot of memory)

Vertexes before tidying up: ~700,000
Vertexes after tidying up: ~120,000

Screenshot of object in blender

If there is any interest I will make the .obj and .blend available for download.

Blender wiki was invaluable, as it’s seemingly impossible to remember the keyboard shortcuts.

Animating and Exporting

I wanted to use blender to make a simple video rotating the camera around the object. Following this stackoverflow post it was quite simple.

Finished Result

Next step
Creating a model of myself!!!

PortDroid – Portscanner networking tool for android relased

Author: matOn: Nov 14Categories: misc No Comments

Following Google’s announcement of Material Design I released an update to PortDroid with a redesign with lots of improvements.

Download

PortDroid – Portscanner networking tool for android relased

Author: matOn: Feb 17Categories: misc 1 Comment

I’ve always enjoyed playing about with network security tools, so I decided to write an android application that merges a few of the most useful network security tools.

Features

Local Network – Find devices on the same network
Port Scanner – Search for open ports on a device
Ping – Check the response time from a device local or remote
Traceroute – Trace a route between your device and a given host
Settings – tonnes of settings for all the tools
Advanced browsing of /proc and /proc/net for device network information

Download

HTC Desire HD stand and battery charger

Author: matOn: Jan 23Categories: misc No Comments

Just a quick post to mention how much I am enjoying using a dock for my phone. It only cost ~$19 avaliable on dealextreme, it comes with a EU plug (US version avaliable too) but I’m just using it via usb.

HTC Desire HD stand and battery charger

What’s that awesome live wallpaper? It’s the latest beta of nexus revamped! This dock has been really useful for development of this livewallpaper, so handy/convenient.

Fun with LED’s and liquid nitrogen

Author: matOn: Sep 13Categories: Electronics, misc 2 Comments

Working in a physics department has it’s perks. Below shows an orange LED changing colour as it is submerged into liquid nitrogen.

Many thanks to my house-mate for letting me play with liquid nitrogen and try this out.

What happens when you submerge an orange LED in liquid nitrogen

Author: matOn: Sep 13Categories: misc No Comments

Photos with my new usb microscope (20X-400X 1.3MP Digital Microscope)

Author: matOn: Sep 03Categories: Electronics, misc 17 Comments

I have been quite pleased with my previous microscope but I decided to buy a slightly better one from dealextreme as double the magnification was available for only a slightly higher cost.

product link) It only cost $48.20 USD (about £31.27 GBP) only $8 than my previous microscope that could only achieve 200x!

20X-400X 1.3MP Digital Microscope

20X-400X 1.3MP Digital Microscope with nice markings of the magnification

Quick Review
Advantages

Large dynamic zoom range (labelled 20x – 400x)
Easy to setup (plug and play)
Can take some awesome photos, see below
Variable illumination settings (using a wheel at top)
Rubberised casing gives better grip and good overall feel
Much improved build quality over the digimicro
Stand is sturdy and can hold camera still in place

Comparison to the digimicro

Digimicro vs New Microscope

Comparison of microscopes at minimum zoom level

Comparison of microscopes at maximum zoom level

Magnification measurement
The images are taken with the edge of the camera case pressed right up against the ruler. You could probably remove casing to increase zoom slightly, or create a slot to slide a microscope slide into it. The camera has two focuses the first:

First focal point of microscope

And the second (maximum zoom):

Second focal point of microscope (0.5mm spacing between lines)

6mm displayed over 170mm: zoom ~ 30x
0.5mm displayed over 180mm: zoom ~ 360x

This isn’t far off the specified 20x – 400x so I am happy! (Note: Measuring magnification level is rubbish as it depends on screen the image is viewed on, so viewing it on a projector would make the statistics seem more impressive.)

The minimum zoom is less than this as we can move the camera further from the object

Setup in Linux

The beauty of this webcam is that it requires no installation with ubuntu 10.04 you simply need to run the software and the camera works! woo! The output of `lsusb` shows the device as:

Bus 001 Device 004: ID 0ac8:3610 Z-Star Microelectronics Corp.

Software
Most video programs will pick up the device, I am opting to use a program called cheese which is awesome not only because of the name but also because of its simplicity.

sudo apt-get install cheese

Bonus Picture

This is a photo of the pixels on a nexus one phone to show the pentile pixel layout

Nexus One Screen Under the Microscope

As before any requests for microscope images (within reason) will be considered 🙂

Best spam comment ever

Author: matOn: Jul 21Categories: misc, web No Comments

Just noticed this little beauty sitting in my comment spam, found it hilerious so I thought I’d share it:

HELP! I’m currently being held prisoner by the Russian mafia xyzrxyz penis enlargement xyzrxyz and being forced to post spam comments on blogs! If you don’t approve this they will kill me. xyzrxyz penis enlargement xyzrxyz They’re coming back now. Please send help!

Needless to say I’ve purchased several penis enlargement kits to ensure this persons safety.

Information

Author : penis enlargement (IP: 213.5.67.159 , hosted-by.altushost.com)
E-mail : [email protected]
URL : https://www…….. Censored………..com
Whois : https://ws.arin.net/cgi-bin/whois.pl?queryinput=213.5.67.159

IP address lookup

Borderlands hidden QR codes

Author: matOn: Jul 07Categories: misc 2 Comments

I found an easter egg in borderlands:

Borderlands hidden QR codes

zoomed in on the qr code

So I used a barcode reader on my Nexus One

Plaintext:

NICK WILSON

HO OH

However I am not the only person to have spotted this, unsurprisingly really as I’m almost half a year late on starting the game. There are several QR codes hidden as shown in this wiki page and someone else went to the pain-staking task of copying out this QR code pixel-by-pixel rather than using a QR scanner or image software, crazy!