This is simple Mars Rover model using two LEGO Mindstorms EV3 and a total of eight motors. The two EV3 are daisy chained and the model can be controlled using the EV3 IR Remote Control. The model uses the rocker-bogie suspension system including a differential in the middle axis. The two EV3s are suspended and remain horizontal in any position. There are much more complex Mars Rover models already available using many more Mindstorm bricks. My design goal was to keep it simple and experiment with the rocker-bogie suspension system. The principles works, but there is a bit too much flexibility in the model.
The 3D model and the building instructions are available for LEGO Digital Designer. The parts list and instructions are also available at Rebrickable.
We launched our Fonthill Abbey website on which we document our efforts to bring this amazing building and the story of its owner back to life. We created an interactive Virtual Reality Game that allows you to experience a forgotten piece of history as you become Lord Horatio Nelson or Lady Emma Hamilton, guests of mysterious Lord Beckford. You will have the rare privilege of entering secluded Fonthill Abbey and meet its extravagant owner, but will you make it out alive?
Review of the measurement accuracy of the ColorMunki Design and the FRU WR-10.
I am working on a colour project and had purchased the WR10 colorimeter to complement my long serving work horse, the X-Rite Color Munki Design. My ColorMunki is already several years old and I was concerned that its accuracy might have declined. When I measured several hundreds of samples, I noticed that both colorimeters gave me considerably different LAB values.
To determine which device was closer to the truth I measured the 48 defined colours of Datacolor’s SpyderCHECKR 48. I calculated the absolute error both devices made. The results of a paired-sample t-test showed that the ColorMunki is producing significantly less measurement errors on L (t(47)=-9.229, p<0.001), L (t(47)=-4.590, p<0.001) and L (t(47)=-4.871, p<0.001). However, both devices measure colours that are significantly different from the target colour of the SpyderCheckr card on all three measurements. Figure 1 shows the means and standard deviation for all measurement errors.
There does seem to be some structure in the errors that WR-10 is producing. Have a look at the heat map (Figure 2). The data for my little experiment is available at the Open Science Framework (DOI: 10.17605/OSF.IO/UWEFD).
Although both devices show some significant deviation from the original, it is not far off from what can be expected of devices in this price range. The ColorMunki Design produces significantly better results than the FRU’s WR-10QC.
Below you find the Datacolor SpyderCheckr 48 definition of patches in different color spaces, such as LAB, sRBG and AdobeRGB. Datacolor offers a lousy bitmap of the values which are difficult to read and impossible to use in a structured way. So there you go, a table of all the values that this color chart is suppose to represent:
I recently recorded a lecture I gave in Stuttgart using the latest Insta360 One camera. Since it is very difficult to stop an academic from talking the whole presentation took nearly one hour. The camera divided the recoding into several files, each around 4 GB. This is probably because they wanted to be compatible with the old FAT32 file system.
Their 360 Editing Software allows you to convert their proprietary INSV files into MP4 files and they even have a batch processing option. But the software cannot merge multiple videos into one, which I desperately needed.
Insta360 is also offering a plugin for Adobe Premiere and After Effects. After installing the plugin I was able to import the INSV files into Premiere, but the image of one of the cameras was upside down. I contacted their technical support and they explained to me that the plugin is currently not working.
I ended up having to convert all the INSV files to MP4 first and then editing them into one movie in Premiere. I have to admit that this workflow is rather inconvenient and I hope that Insta360 will either enable their editing software to merge movies or that they get their Adobe plugin working again. This seems another example of Banana Technology, it ripens at the user.