This post contains amazon affiliate links, but remember to shop around and support local businesses if you can! I recently purchased a new set of earbuds, the Sony WF-1000XM3. This is for personal use (music and podcasts at home and during commute), and potentially as a headset for the multitude of Zoom/Teams/Skype meetings and the... Continue Reading →
Upgrading the arduino photogrammetry to use InfraRed LEDs to trigger the camera
I've detailed my Arduino photogrammetry setup, first here when it just used my phone, then here when I cludged together a physical trigger in the form of a servo motor. That worked really well, and I've made a bunch of models with it that have come out absolutely superb. However, to get the servo motor... Continue Reading →
Moving from Endnote to Zotero
A running theme of this blog (and my work in general) is in using freely available software when I can. There's multiple reasons for this; the main and most obvious being saving money. But there are other reasons too - losing access when changing institutions (or when licensing changes and something becomes unaffordable) is a... Continue Reading →
Extending my Automated Arduino photogrammetry setup to include a DSLR
Extending the arduino photogrammetry setup to turn the turntable by an arbitrary amount, then trigger an android phone and a DSLR, then move the turntable again and repeat.
Use the Xbox Game Bar in Windows 10 to record tutorials
In these days of working from home, you may need to explain how to do something visually on you computer. Windows 10 has a built in screen recorder in the Xbox Game Bar, and I've been using this to record short tutorials for this website, and for students accessing information for the first time online.... Continue Reading →
The best free software for editing and cleaning (decimating and retopologizing) meshes and 3D data [2020]
Working with photogrammetry, laser scanning, and all the other techniques I dabble with/intimately rely on, I generate a lot of 3D data. For the most part that data is usually very high resolution, and often quite noisy and in need of cleaning up. I want to detail here some of the software I've come across... Continue Reading →
Automating photogrammetry – 3D printing, an Arduino, and an Android phone
[edit] - I later built on this post and extended the setup considerably here. Photogrammetry is awesome, and there’s a whole bunch of papers and software out there that mean you can do it for free. But taking 100’s of photos can be a pain. I’ve been eyeing up ways of automating this for a... Continue Reading →
[Academic Tech] Campark mini wildlife Camera Review
After a mysterious trail appeared in my garden, leading from a hole in the ground to the bird feeder, I found myself eager to get a trail cam to find out whatever beastie was making it. I had a search on Amazon and was overwhelmed by the choices available. In the end, I did what... Continue Reading →
[Academic Tech] The Windows nerd [begrudgingly] gets an iMac
…And almost immediately put Windows on it. Then decided to be a bit more open minded and give it a whirl to try out the hardware and software. TLDR: I’m a windows guy, MacOS is smooth and nice, but a few differences give me a learning curve that I simply can't prioritise over my myriad... Continue Reading →
[Academic Tech] Surface Go – A near perfect companion device
I bought myself a Surface Go (8Gb/128Gb) a few weeks ago, and I’ve had it long enough now to pass judgment. As I noted in my ‘hardware I use’ post, I was previously using a Surface Pro 3, until I sadly dropped it on the hard floor after a lecture. To be honest, I’d been... Continue Reading →