It has been a while ago, since we posted something on our blog. The final part of our project has been succesfully completed. For our followers we still want to share this awesome demo of the DaRen application. Also, under the documentation tab you can find the final report.
Enjoy! :-)
It has been while since we have posted something. Last time, we were still in China, so it is definitely time for a new post :) The trip back to the Netherlands went very well and since last Friday we are again working very hard on the project. This time on the final report that we have to submit next Monday, but also on the preperation of our presentations. These presentations will take place on Tuesday and Thursday next week. Tuesday, the presentation will be for the geomatics section and will be quite technical. Thursday, on the other hand, is much more suitable for you as a reader, because then we will organize a symposium where we will present our work to the big audience! :) Anyway, there will be also other speakers at the symposium: Dr. Ir. Stefan van der Spek, Dr. Ir. Roel Schiphorst and a mystery speaker. They will talk about subjects related to our project and together with them we think it will be a very interesting and successful syposium next Thursday!Hopefully, we will see you then at the Theaterzaal which is located in the Sport&Cultural center of the TU Delft. More information about the symposium can be found at our facebook event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/581731071900131/See you next week! ;) | |
| Last weekend, as mentioned we went to visit the Zhangjiajie National Forest Park to free up our minds after all the hard work we did last weeks. The trip lasted from Saturday until Monday, so let's start our story at the first day. This day was basically travelling to our destination. The travelling started at the train station of Wuhan and there we had to take the train around 13:00 for one and a half hours with an average speed of 300 km/h. We arrived way too early at this new and very large station, because we took the taxi at around 11:00 based on advice of Weilin who said that it would take quite some time to get to the station. Though, in the end it was only a 15 minutes drive :) But, we are still very happy with Weilin, because she guided and helped us a lot during the our stay in Wuhan. Probably, without her we would not even manage to get food on the table. Also, she arranged this whole trip to the Zhangjiajie National Forest Park which as you will read was really great and beautiful.
So, because we arrived a little earlier we had enough time to get pass the security which felt a bit like when you travel by plane, and to buy and eat some lunch. When we arrived in ChangShaNan which was our end station, we still had to travel some time. This was done by using the bus. First, in a mini-bus which took us to a gas station where we got picked up by a tour bus with our tour guide and the rest of the group that would follow this tour. This happened around 17:00, but still we had to travel for like another 4-5 hours to reach our destination. We arrived around 21:30 hours and during this last part of travel, we noticed that elderly Chinese people don't eat as slow as they might look and walk. Our diner lasted precisely 9 minutes and 34 seconds. Before we were able to drink our tea, the other people were already back in the bus and the driver was honking to get us in too. So we shoved everything inside and were off for the final part of the trip.
The next day we finally went to the Park to see the mountains there! We had to went up very early (06:30) to be able to leave at 07:30, but it was totally worth it as you can see on the picture. The only downside of these mountains is that you have to get off it somehow... We think it says enough that we still feel our legs. You might wonder now, how did we get up the mountain, but that was a simple task by using a special elevator. This elevator could not be used to get off the mountains.
The next morning we went again to the Park, but this time to see the valley between the mountains and that was a big relief in comparison with all the going up and down the day before. During this walk we came across many monkeys who were really interested in all the people walking there :)
After the lunch, we did not go back to the Park, but we went to the "House of the local people" and this showed how the local people there lived in the past. During the tour we were called by our driver who took us to the bus that would get us back to ChagShaNan. From there we took the train again that would bring us back to Wuhan. Around 23:00 we finally arrived in our hotel after an exhausting, but very nice weekend.
Now, we are at Hong Kong waiting for our airplane to Amsterdam that will finally bring us back home!
| |
As you can read from the title the DaRen project has been successfully completed and that is great news, we think! But, how did it get so far the last few days? Wednesday, as mentioned in the previous blog post, would be testing day to look at the performance of our application. This was planned for the afternoon... As you can guess, we did not make this deadline, because that day there was a complete electronic shutdown at the campus of the Wuhan university. So, that was it for our planning so far. We went to the museum right away instead of going there only in the afternoon, because in the museum we had access to electricity and internet. So, there we were, sitting on different benches spread throughout the museum in the corridors because there were only a few electricity sockets. Also, the internet connection was very unstable. Summing this up, you can say that this were not the ideal working circumstances. Therefore, we could not test the whole application that afternoon, but we were able to test the localization part of our application. That day we decided to continue our work on the application Thursday morning at the campus (electricity was back up) and we would go to the museum at 14:30 latest to test our application. So, the application had to be finished before that time. The next morning, we worked really hard to let all the different components of our system work together and at 14:15 it worked! Just before the deadline :). The test at the museum went great and we made a really nice video of our application in action. We hope to provide you these videos when we are back in the Netherlands.
In the evening we went to dinner with Edward, because the next day he would leave and return to the Netherlands. We would also like to thank Edward here for his guidance, support and presence throughout the project! So now you think, that had to be a great and never-ending party after such a successful day. Well...not quite. The diner was really good, Chinese hotpot, but after diner we still had to work on our presentations for the next day. And I think it says enough that we were kicked out of the building in the evening, because they wanted to close...
On Friday, we gave our final presentation to the Liesmars staff and people involved in the DaRen project from the Wuhan University. This presentation was basically the final thing we had to do for our project in Wuhan. Now we only have to write and finish our report when we are back in the Netherlands and prepare for the symposium for which an official announcement will be made the next weeks. After the presentation we organized a lunch with the staff of Liesmars to close our project in Wuhan. We thanked the people of Wuhan University for their cooperation and their willingness to help us with this project and as a token of our appreciation we had some presents for them (stroopwafels, Dutch peppermint, "kruidnoten", Delft blue "klompjes" etc.).
The next days (Saturday, Sunday and Monday), we have a trip planned to Zhangjiajie were we can free our minds a little bit after this hardworking couple of weeks. I would suggest you all Google Zhangjiajie and see for yourselves why we are going there. I think it is enough when I say that the creators of the movie Avatar used this environment for their movie. After this trip we will spend one more night in Wuhan before we go back to the Netherlands on Tuesday 21:00 hours local time. We will arrive in Amsterdam at 06:50 local time where we can rest a little bit from our exhausting trip before going back to work at the end of the week to finish our report! Perhaps we will still have some spare time on Tuesday to tell you about our small trip and otherwise you will hear from us again from the cold and wet Netherlands! For now, we will still enjoy the 30 degrees Celsius here :).
| As we've said already, Friday afternoon (16:00 hours) we were picked up by the company for a night out. Because we are with 9 people, the company thought it was better to send a bus to pick us up that fits 30 people. When everyone found his 3 favorite seats, we were on our way to the Yantze River for a boat trip and diner. The company was afraid of the rush hour, so we were quite on time (read: 1,5 hours in advance). This time was spent on buying some presents for the people at home and eating some of the 'stroopwafels' that were meant as a gift. The translator of the company joined us during the boat trip with his family. The view during the night on Wuhan was really amazing! At the end, one of the little daughters of the translator performed a Chinese Opera-act for us which was really good. After this beautiful boat trip we were taken to Club Soho where we could turn Sisi's birthday into a real party! We were appointed a VIP table, so food and drinks were flying over the table. The very good live music, Chinese games and a lot of fun made this evening to a worthy end of Sisi's birthday.
The next morning there was already a project meeting planned, before Sisi would go back to the Netherlands. Thank you Sisi, for all the help and fun during these 2 weeks in Wuhan. After this meeting everybody knew what should be done to finalize our application before the final presentation coming Friday. Therefore, we worked all weekend and the coming days we will also work hard to make sure that all the pieces come together on Wednesday to test our application. You will hear from us then how that went and hopefully we can show you some images of a working application.
| |
This week we have started working really hard on the project again. In comparison with last week, we have worked full days including some evenings. This is because we had no presentations, meetings, seminars, and excursions planned the last few days. For us, this is a good thing, since we have made some serious progress and made some important decisions regarding the project. Hopefully, this will lead to a satisfactory result by the end of next week.
So, you might wonder after this general talk if we had experienced any highlights the last few days that are worth mentioning? Well, we have! Yesterday, October 2nd, some of us went to the museum again to test the Meshliums and to start making a fingerprint map. For the people who wonder what we mean with a fingerprint map in combination with localization, we would like to point out that Google is your friend (or any other search engine that you prefer). Anyway, that didn't go as planned so to say. When we arrived we found out that there was a "small" queue before the entrance as you can see on the picture below. This is because this week is a national holiday week in China and therefore, obviously, half of China had to visit "our" museum ;). We tried to convince the guard at the exit with gestures and showing the Meshlium devices to let us in right away, but that attempt was unsuccessful. Even Weilin was called to convince him, but that didn't help either. Therefore we went back to the university with unfinished business.
| Today, after a group meeting in the morning, we went back to the museum to try to pass the guard again. This time not only the Chinese professors warned the museum staff again that we were coming, but we also brought a written Chinese letter by Weilin to explain that we are students from Wuhan University that will do some measurements in the museum with the approval of the director. The guard at the exit read the letter and within 10 seconds we were inside, passing at least hundreds of Chinese visitors who were waiting in line. The museum was really crowded, a huge difference with the first time we visited. Normally, foreigners are already stared at a lot, but imagine when these foreigners are installing WiFi scanners in the middle of a museum. Exactly, we were quite the attraction. And if that wasn't enough, Edward also had to be the superstar by going on the photograph with two girls who asked him. Fortunately we also managed to take a photo of this as well :). After installing everything and the photo shoot, we performed a few measurements.
Tomorrow almost all of us will go to the museum to acquire a large part of the fingerprint map. After that we will be picked up again around 16:30 by the company from last time to join them on a 3-hour boat trip on the Yantze River including diner. If that isn't enough, after that we will all go to the pub for a party. And it's not an ordinary party! No, tomorrow it is Sisi's birthday! So we will party for two and make sure that it will be an unforgettable birthday.
| |
| The morning of 27 September we were invited by the company called 'Sanjiang Space'. After we were picked up by the cars of the company and a 40 minute drive, we arrived at the reception centre of the company. We were welcomed by 10 people of the company who were honoured with our presence from the country of windmills. Because the company is working for the military, the meeting was 'confidential' and we were not allowed to take pictures. The company wanted us to explain about Geomatics and the research of our professors and PhD-students, so Sisi presented a general overview on the Joint Research Centre with Wuhan, the Master Geomatics and the research topics. After the presentation there was some room for discussion. Fortunately for the company we have Weilin in our group, who seemed to be a better translator than the one working for the company. They seemed very interesting in the satellite image processing and emergency response research of Geomatics, because the company can send satellites to disaster areas very quickly. They were also interested in a cooperation with TU Delft, so after this meeting there will be some further contact. When the discussion was over we were invited to another room where a beautiful table was set for an even more delicious lunch. We got to know the people of the company a little bit more and some jokes were made. They even mentioned that they wanted to plan a boat trip along the river with us and a party the night before Sisi leaves, which also happens to be the day of her birthday! After the meeting we were brought back to the campus, where we continued our work on the project (yes, we also still work on that).
Today, 28 September, we saw a little bit more of the city. The Chinese people are sometimes even more impressed about us, than we are about the size and looks of this city. We get stared at and are even asked to go on pictures with the local people, which causes sometimes some "superstar-like" moments.
Also, today Edward joined us after a long and tiring flight from the Netherlands. This had to be celebrated in a nice and well-known restaurant in Wuhan. Tomorrow there will be some more sightseeing in Wuhan and after that the focus will be completely back on the project!
| |
| On Wednesday we finally went to see the Museum, we have been curious since the very start of this project. The visit to the Museum was quite successful. We had prepared questionnaires for the visitors of the museum to see what type of indoor navigation system they preferred. But, as you can imagine (maybe you feel the same way), the visitors were not in the mood for filling in questionnaires. They were definitely not waiting for a couple of students waving with papers and pens. Our strategy was to give a paper and pen and in the meantime keep speaking English, hoping that they would just fill it in so we would stop speaking. Luckily, as foreigners, you don't know when people say 'no no, thanks, later maybe' and the Chinese don't want to be impolite so they felt obliged to help us. We felt a little guilty but all with all, more than a hundred questionnaires were obtained and we even had the possibility to do some tests with the tracking devices we have taken with us from the TU Delft. In the next days a floor plan of the Museum will be provided by the PhD-students, which is important for the progress of the project. Tomorrow, we have an appointment at a Chinese company who have invited us for lunch and to talk about the Master Geomatics and everything that this education has to offer.
| |
| We've had a busy week! After arriving and arranging the first things, we were invited to the LIESMARS building and meet the PhD-students and professors from Wuhan University that will share their knowledge and help us with our project. We started by showing the tracking devices we have brought from the Netherlands and they impressed us by showing their localization application they have developed. After this unofficial start of the week, we kicked off the cooperation by presenting our research up to now on Tuesday and in that way officially introducing ourselves.
| |
| After we took the airplane from Hong Kong to Wuhan, we were brought from the airport to our hotel. This is the place where we will stay the next weeks.
Yesterday and today we have explored the campus of the Wuhan University and still we did not see everything, because the campus is very large. Our hotel is also on the campus.
Further, this evening we had dinner in a nice restaurant with members of the Wuhan University who will work with us on the DaRen project. Tuesday we also have a small conference with them to discuss the project. Tomorrow we will start working again on the project and prepare for the presentation that we will give the day after.
We wish you a good night (yes, it's evening here) and we will keep posting updates from China :) | |
|
RSS Feed