Monday, October 27th

Today I worked on college applications. Specifically, I worked on completing the Common Application and, if I finished that, my Apply Texas application.

Tuesday, Oct. 23, 2014

Tuesday was Picture Day. I spent most of it getting ready for and having pictures taken, as well as doing research for college applications. Mr. Correa gave the class a folio full of the contact information (business cards) of previous TAG mentors. I have found a handful of candidates, most of whom are in architecture, who may suit me, so I will be trying to contact them in the near future.

Presentation Day!

The dreaded day finally came. My presentation was a little intimidating, I think, and also too lofty and ambitious. I will need to work on balancing it so that it has enough technical detail to convince the judges and others who are very familiar with virtual reality that my idea will work and that it is original, but so that it is also down-to-earth enough that no one who is not as well-informed will see it as witchcraft (that is, more focused on the idea of VR/AR than my ideas), which I think may have been a little of happened today (and may have been my fault, since I did focus a lot more on introducing the technologies I am working with and from which I am drawing inspiration and code rather than talking about my own ideas, why they matter, and what I can actually pull off.) In passing my Nexus 5 around in its Cardboard, I think that I may have created a monster: by making this much hype for my project without actually showing any of my own products other than near-surface-level research and compilation of already available information. I have given myself huge shoes to fill. Hopefully the expectations do not devour me later, but on the other hand, it did go a long way towards communicating the ideas of my project in the limited amount of time that I had. Besides, the success of my presentation (or, at least, my Cardboard) did prove was that I have hit on a very promising idea. If I can prove that VR can be more than a novelty to be enjoyed once, a fleeting curiosity, then I will go a long way toward getting real consumers interested in my project. Maybe I can even make a few bucks off of some of the ideas, in the long run.

Wednesday, Oct. 8th

This class, Ms. Marberry visited with registration for the ACT. I worked on registering, researching the ACT. I also started work on my presentation.

Cardboard and Continuation of Learning

My Google Cardboard arrived about a week ago. It wasn't quite what I was expecting, but I'm not sure what I was expecting in the first place, and it wasn't any better or worse than whatever that was. It looks a little like a high-tech ViewMaster toy, and it's clear that it's just a proof of concept and not a consumer device, but it definitely does its job. I've also found some software that may make it compatible with the Unity graphics framework and Durovis Dive (a similar device) SDK. I think I can work with this. Other than that, I worked on the counselor recommendation survey and learning more about Android.

Such a Wide World

I am sure that I have mentioned before in one of my longer posts how wide a world the world of computer science is. Now, I am getting a first-hand look at just how wide it is. I researched the different virtual reality solutions on the consumer and developer markets this weekend, because actually getting my hands on a device would be essential to developing real VR and AR applications. In the end, I ordered a Google Cardboard, a "device" that is intended to work with any appropriately-sized Android smartphone. Essentially, as its name implies, it is a cardboard frame that contains a slot for an Android and some Velcro to hold it shut, an NFC (Near-Field Communications) chip to tell the phone when it is placed inside the Cardboard, a ring magnet to act as input when the touchscreen is inaccessible, and, most importantly, a pair of simple glass lenses. Paired with the Google Cardboard Android app, a Cardboard allows the user to watch YouTube, explore Google Earth and Google Maps Street View, and enjoy a host of small miscellaneous demos in immersive VR. Best of all, Google Cardboard only $20-35 on Amazon, while most more dedicated VR devices, like Oculus Rift, Sony's Project Morpheus (not even released to outside developers yet), and the Durovis Dive (which works on the same principle as Google Cardboard, but is made with higher-quality materials) range anywhere from $150 to $500. Later on in my project, I may upgrade to one of these more professional options, but for now I am entertaining high hopes for my budget solution.

Lastly, applications for Google Cardboard (much like Android applications) are developed primarily in Java, a programming language with which I am already familiar, and the Java-based SDK used to develop for Cardboard is publicly available. I suddenly find myself needing to finish learning how to develop Android applications, and that is what I worked on today.

Counselor Visit

Ms. Marberry, our school counselor, visited today to give a long talk on college applications and college decisions that lasted most of the period. As usual, it was both edifying and reassuring. Thanks, Ms. Marberry! I worked the short remainder of the period to learn to write JavaScript, which will complete my knowledge of the Holy Trinity of Web Programming (HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.)