Automatic Entity Recognition Identifying Antennas Locally - AERIAL

Digital Operatives Kicks Off Project To Automatically Detect Antennas Using Computer Vision

Digital Operatives is a boutique cyber technology firm delivering advanced technologies that radically change the status quo in a multi-dimensional world.

Digital Operatives recently kicked off one of its latest projects under the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Cyber Fast Track program called AERIAL (Automatic Entity Recognition Identifying Antennas Locally). 

Existing approaches to conducting communication technology site surveys rely on detecting radio frequency (RF) emissions. This of course is only effective if and when the communications equipment is actively transmitting. Digital Operatives is investigating new approaches to the identification of communications equipment, more specifically antennas, by exploiting one of the few ways that such equipment can be universally detected: by applying state-of-the-art computer vision algorithms to identify antennas. In the AERIAL program, Digital Operatives is developing a prototype entity recognition system for the autonomous detection and classification of antennas. Digital Operatives vision is that this system will be deployed in a very small form factor; work is being done to develop the algorithms as an application on a mobile phone, as well as a sensor payload on a small Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) that could discover a broad range of antennas in a local area. The ability to automatically detect antennas visually and automatically is an exciting capability with multiple use cases.

Digital Operatives has discovered that small, thin objects like antennas provide a challenge to existing computer vision algorithms since traditional digital image features used in object recognition rely on the existence of facets (i.e., planar surfaces) on the object that are within the camera’s field of view. Since antennas usually appear as collections of one-dimensional lines in images, traditional computer vision and machine learning approaches for object detection will perform poorly. Digital Operatives addresses these challenges using a novel technique that exploits specific features of certain types of antennas such as Yagi-Uda and others.

The views expressed are those of Digital Operatives and do not reflect the official policy or position of the Department of Defense or the U.S. Government.

Read More

LifeProof iPhone Case Review

   Today we are reviewing the LifeProof iPhone case, for iPhone 4 and 4S.  Like their slogan says its life-proof, which means waterproof, shock-proof, and dirt-proof.  It's a bit pricey at $79.99 retail, but all things considered its way cheaper then a new phone. There a many colors and to choose from.  Colors include black, pink, purple, white, blue, green, orange, red, and teal. I have the orange and my husband has the blue.

   The best thing about this cover is that it's not to bulky like some of the ones I have had.  It does add some bulk,  about 1/6" when measured from the center of the phone.  This is great,  just that little bit extra gives it such awesome protection. The  iPhone accessories are small enough to reach the ports that cover the headphone and charger location, but if you use something bigger the case comes with a cord that screws in so that the case maintains its waterproof-ness. They also sale an adapter for the charger port along with many other accessories.  The LifeProof items are readily available at your local Best Buy or at their website at LIFEPROOF.

 

   Now on with the reviews. I (Aimee) am much harder on my phone then Cody is on his.  In the past six years i have destroyed four of my phones  and one of Cody's. Three of those were iPhones, that's why I have had insurance on my iPhone since I've had one. A monthly bill that I have now canceled because of the protection of this case.  After a few months I have payed off the case in what I would have spent on the insurance.  This case is very rugged we have both dropped ours  a couple times with no scratches or damage done to the case or phone.  We've gotten dirt on them from yard work and it has not got inside to the phone.  We cant really test the snow part living in Florida, but if its good in water then snow should not be a problem.  Now we have yet to test the water but we will be doing a video on the test, results to come.  The cover is awesome, camera and flash work fine with it although it does muffle the sound a little bit when the bottom clip is closed, but there is going to be somethings you have to give up to have your phone safe.  Another drawback is that the protective screen is something to get used to at first.  Its not a big deal but at first we found it annoying that you have to put a little more pressure to press the buttons on the screen then you do without the case but we got used to it within the week.

    Cody's Rating for this phone cover is 3 1/2 schnauzers. Its a great cover but the price is a bit high and it is a cover that limits what you can do with you phone unless you are willing to pay for the extras but if you are prone to dropping your phone or have a loved one that is or just don't feel like paying for a new phone when you drop it in the rain and or toilet this is the case for you if not than I wouldn't suggest it

    Aimee's Rating is also 3 1/2 stars.  I'm constantly dropping (throwing, that's  what happened to Cody's iPhone) my phone.  I've dropped two iPhones in water, so I love the waterproof feature. And so far this has passed the test.  The only thing that really brings the rating down is the price. But like I said before if your paying phone insurance every month then the case will pay for itself after you cancel that. So if you are accident prone with your phones this is the case for you.

Read More

Python For Android (Py4A)

A better solution for cross-compiling Python for Android is to use the Py4A project which is made to be used together with SL4A (Scripting Layer For Android). If you are only interested in the Python interpreter and the runtime Python library, you can also use it standalone.
Get a local copy of the source code using  the following command:

   $ hg clone https://code.google.com/p/python-for-android/

Just focus on the python-build subdirectory and make sure the  python-build/python-src subdirectory is not present (remove it if it came with the Mercurial repository, or else the compilation will fail).
Set up your environment so that the python-for-android build script can pick up the ndk-build script from the Android NDK:

  $ export ANDROID_NDK_ROOT=/home/<your-directory>/android-ndk-r8
  $ export PATH=$ANDROID_NDK_ROOT:$PATH

Finally build Python for Android by issuing the following command:

  $ cd python-for-android/python-build

  $ rm -rf python-src
  $ bash build.sh

Note that on my Ubuntu 12.04 machine I had initially the following compilation error:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "build.py", line 161, in <module>
    os.path.join(pwd, 'output.temp', 'usr'))
  File "build.py", line 89, in zipup
    zip_file = zipfile.ZipFile(out_path, 'w', compression=zipfile.ZIP_DEFLATED)
  File "/home/danilo/python-for-android/python-build/host/lib/python2.6/zipfile.py", line 660, in __init__
    "Compression requires the (missing) zlib module"
RuntimeError: Compression requires the (missing) zlib module


I identified the problem in having the zlib library in my system installed under /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/ instead of one of the traditional lib directories covered by the Python setup.py script. Also on my system I only had libz.so.1 and not libz.so. So to fix both problems I just created a symlink in the standard /usr/lib directory as follows:

  $ cd /usr/lib

  $ sudo ln -s /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libz.so.1 libz.so

With this fix the build.sh script was able to successfully build the zlib module for the host environment and create the following zipped files:

• python_extras_r14.zip
• python-lib_r16.zip
• python_r16.zip
• python_scripts_r13.zip

Of these I only used the python_r16.zip which contains the stripped python interpreter and the runtime libraries, and the python-lib_r16.zip which contains the include header files such as Python.h that can be used to compile Python bindings at development time.

Read More

Arduino and 7-segment LED counter driven by two tactile switches

I have posted on YouTube a couple of videos about a project I made with the Arduino prototype board. The circuit uses an Arduino mini and has a simple gear counter based on a 7-segment LED and controlled by two switches. It can be mounted on your bike and used for example to visualize which gear you are in at any time.

If you are interested in the schematics I can send you the PCB Artist version by email. The Arduino code is instead available below.

/*
  Blink
 
 Turns on an LED on for one second, then off for one second, repeatedly.
 
 The circuit:
 * LED connected from digital pin 13 to ground.
 
 * Note: On most Arduino boards, there is already an LED on the board
 connected to pin 13, so you don't need any extra components for this example.
 
 
 Created 1 June 2005
 By David Cuartielles
 
 http://arduino.cc/en/Tutorial/Blink
 
 based on an orginal by H. Barragan for the Wiring i/o board
 
 */

#define BUTTON_DOWN 10
#define BUTTON_UP 12

int ledPinA =  6;    // LED connected to digital pin 3
int ledPinB =  9;    // LED connected to digital pin 4
int ledPinC =  4;    // LED connected to digital pin 5
int ledPinD =  3;    // LED connected to digital pin 6
int ledPinE =  2;    // LED connected to digital pin 7
int ledPinF =  7;    // LED connected to digital pin 8
int ledPinG =  8;    // LED connected to digital pin 9
int ledPinDP =  5;   // LED connected to digital pin 10

int val_down = 0;
int old_val_down = 0;
int val_up = 0;
int old_val_up = 0;
int state = 0;
int gear = 1;

// The setup() method runs once, when the sketch starts

void setup()   {             
  pinMode(BUTTON_DOWN, INPUT);
  pinMode(BUTTON_UP, INPUT);
  
  // initialize the digital pin as an output:
  pinMode(ledPinA, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(ledPinB, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(ledPinC, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(ledPinD, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(ledPinE, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(ledPinF, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(ledPinG, OUTPUT);  
  pinMode(ledPinDP, OUTPUT);
  
  // initialize serial communication:
  Serial.begin(9600);
}

void led0()
{
  digitalWrite(ledPinA, LOW);
  digitalWrite(ledPinB, LOW);
  digitalWrite(ledPinC, LOW);
  digitalWrite(ledPinD, LOW);
  digitalWrite(ledPinE, LOW);  
  digitalWrite(ledPinF, LOW);  
  digitalWrite(ledPinG, HIGH); 
  digitalWrite(ledPinDP, HIGH);
}

void led1()
{
  digitalWrite(ledPinA, HIGH);
  digitalWrite(ledPinB, LOW);
  digitalWrite(ledPinC, LOW);
  digitalWrite(ledPinD, HIGH);
  digitalWrite(ledPinE, HIGH);  
  digitalWrite(ledPinF, HIGH);  
  digitalWrite(ledPinG, HIGH); 
  digitalWrite(ledPinDP, HIGH);
}

void led2()
{
  digitalWrite(ledPinA, LOW);
  digitalWrite(ledPinB, LOW);
  digitalWrite(ledPinC, HIGH);
  digitalWrite(ledPinD, LOW);
  digitalWrite(ledPinE, LOW);  
  digitalWrite(ledPinF, HIGH);  
  digitalWrite(ledPinG, LOW); 
  digitalWrite(ledPinDP, HIGH);
}

void led3()
{
  digitalWrite(ledPinA, LOW);
  digitalWrite(ledPinB, LOW);
  digitalWrite(ledPinC, LOW);
  digitalWrite(ledPinD, LOW);
  digitalWrite(ledPinE, HIGH);  
  digitalWrite(ledPinF, HIGH);  
  digitalWrite(ledPinG, LOW); 
  digitalWrite(ledPinDP, HIGH);
}

void led4()
{
  digitalWrite(ledPinA, HIGH);
  digitalWrite(ledPinB, LOW);
  digitalWrite(ledPinC, LOW);
  digitalWrite(ledPinD, HIGH);
  digitalWrite(ledPinE, HIGH);  
  digitalWrite(ledPinF, LOW);  
  digitalWrite(ledPinG, LOW); 
  digitalWrite(ledPinDP, HIGH);
} 

void led5()
{
  digitalWrite(ledPinA, LOW);
  digitalWrite(ledPinB, HIGH);
  digitalWrite(ledPinC, LOW);
  digitalWrite(ledPinD, LOW);
  digitalWrite(ledPinE, HIGH);  
  digitalWrite(ledPinF, LOW);  
  digitalWrite(ledPinG, LOW); 
  digitalWrite(ledPinDP, HIGH);
} 

void led6()
{
  digitalWrite(ledPinA, LOW);
  digitalWrite(ledPinB, HIGH);
  digitalWrite(ledPinC, LOW);
  digitalWrite(ledPinD, LOW);
  digitalWrite(ledPinE, LOW);  
  digitalWrite(ledPinF, LOW);  
  digitalWrite(ledPinG, LOW); 
  digitalWrite(ledPinDP, HIGH);
} 

void led7()
{
  digitalWrite(ledPinA, LOW);
  digitalWrite(ledPinB, LOW);
  digitalWrite(ledPinC, LOW);
  digitalWrite(ledPinD, HIGH);
  digitalWrite(ledPinE, HIGH);  
  digitalWrite(ledPinF, HIGH);  
  digitalWrite(ledPinG, HIGH); 
  digitalWrite(ledPinDP, HIGH);
} 

void led8()
{
  digitalWrite(ledPinA, LOW);
  digitalWrite(ledPinB, LOW);
  digitalWrite(ledPinC, LOW);
  digitalWrite(ledPinD, LOW);
  digitalWrite(ledPinE, LOW);  
  digitalWrite(ledPinF, LOW);  
  digitalWrite(ledPinG, LOW); 
  digitalWrite(ledPinDP, HIGH);
} 

void led9()
{
  digitalWrite(ledPinA, LOW);
  digitalWrite(ledPinB, LOW);
  digitalWrite(ledPinC, LOW);
  digitalWrite(ledPinD, LOW);
  digitalWrite(ledPinE, HIGH);  
  digitalWrite(ledPinF, LOW);  
  digitalWrite(ledPinG, LOW); 
  digitalWrite(ledPinDP, HIGH);
} 

void ledDP()
{
  digitalWrite(ledPinA, HIGH);
  digitalWrite(ledPinB, HIGH);
  digitalWrite(ledPinC, HIGH);
  digitalWrite(ledPinD, HIGH);
  digitalWrite(ledPinE, HIGH);  
  digitalWrite(ledPinF, HIGH);  
  digitalWrite(ledPinG, HIGH); 
  digitalWrite(ledPinDP, LOW);
} 

void setLed(int number)
{
  switch (number) {
    case 0:  
      ledDP();
      break;
    case 1:  
      led1();
      break;
    case 2:  
      led2();
      break;
    case 3:  
      led3();
      break;
    case 4:  
      led4();
      break;
    case 5:  
      led5();
      break;
    case 6:  
      led6();
      break;
    case 7:  
      led7();
      break;
    case 8:  
      led8();
      break;
    case 9:  
      led9();
      break;
  }
}
              
// the loop() method runs over and over again,
// as long as the Arduino has power

void oldloop()                     
{
  ledDP();
  delay(1000);                  // wait for a second
  led0();
  delay(1000);                  // wait for a second
  led1();
  delay(1000);                  // wait for a second
  led2();
  delay(1000);                  // wait for a second
  led3();
  delay(1000);                  // wait for a second
  led4();
  delay(1000);                  // wait for a second
  led5();
  delay(1000);                  // wait for a second
  led6();
  delay(1000);                  // wait for a second
  led7();
  delay(1000);                  // wait for a second
  led8();
  delay(1000);                  // wait for a second
  led9();
  delay(1000);                  // wait for a second
}

void loop()
{
    val_up = digitalRead(BUTTON_UP);
    if ((val_up == HIGH) && (old_val_up == LOW)) {
      gear += 1;
      Serial.print("gear number:  ");
      Serial.println(gear, DEC);
      delay(100);
    }
    old_val_up = val_up;
 
    val_down = digitalRead(BUTTON_DOWN);
    if ((val_down == HIGH) && (old_val_down == LOW)) {
      gear -= 1;
      Serial.print("gear number:  ");
      Serial.println(gear, DEC);
      delay(100);
    }
    old_val_down = val_down;
    
    if (gear >= 6) {
      gear = 6;
    }
    if (gear <= 1) {
      gear = 1;
    }
    
    setLed(gear);
}

Read More