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Research Project and Goals
- Incorporate podcasting in Visual Knowledge Builder. Allowing for easier podcast search and utilization based on user’s preferences.
- Podcasting addition to Visual Knowledge Builders will help users access, collect, search, organize, and add podcasts into their personal information workspace.
- Expect to learn more about computer human interaction. Learn about Visual Knowledge Builder.
Journal
- 06/01/09 - Welcome Breakfast and Orientation
- 06/02/09 - Search for free software to download and listen to podcast
- 06/03/09 - GRE Workshop
- 06/04/09 - REU Brown Bag
- 06/05/09 - Podcast free software installation. Realize video podcast are complicated and found mostly in iTunes and that podcast are .mp3 files.
- 06/08/09 - Research plan redaction, getting the web_home website online.
- 06/09/09 - Receive more information from Dr. Shipman regarding free search engines and their possible utilization for this particular project.
- 06/10/09 - GRE Workshop. Finishing up proposal and website. Getting signatures from Dr. Shipman and Mr. Meintanis for Research Proposal.
- 06/11/09 - Meeting with Mr. Meintanis regarding source code needed for starting application development.
- 06/12/09 - JBuilder software search. Source code given was originally compiled in JBuilder, therefore I will try to install the software and compile code as soon as installation is successful.
- 06/15/09 - All software found was not successfully installed. I lack administrative privileges in the csdl server. I need to get them and find another copy of JBuilder. Nevertheless, I've trying to run application on Eclipse but there seems to be a problem with necessary libraries.
- 06/16/09 - Found an old copy of JBuilder 2005. Installation on personal computer successful. However, there is still a problem with missing libraries. I will contact Mr. Meintanis.
- 06/17/09 - GRE Workshop. Finally able to install JBuilder on csdl server. Still problem with missing libraries.
- 06/18/09 - REU Brown Bag. Meet with Mr. Meintanis and discussed issues with missing libraries and possible solutions to the problem. We decided that work with JBuilder 2005 was the best approach.
- 06/19/09 - JBuilder 2005 has been installed. Problem with missing libraries is solved. However, there seems to be a problem with current jdk version. I will install jdk 1.6.
- 06/22/09 - Problem with jdk has been solved. Program now compiles and run successfully.
- 06/23/09 - I meet with Mr. Meintanis and discussed how to create a webcast/podcast object based on his music object. He mentioned that I should get familiar to how the program is structured.
- 06/24/09 - GRE Workshop
- 06/25/09 - REU Brownbag. I created a method that adds webcast to VKB based on Mr. Meintanis code. However, there is more information that should be included to make distinction between webcast and music, like the description of the file. Also, I am having problems getting the file to play.
- 06/26/09 - I'm working on slightly changing the appearance of the music object. I still have problems with playback of webcasts. I get and "out of memory" error. I will discuss this issue with Dr. Shipman.
- 06/29/09 - I meet with Dr. Shipman and he suggested that the webcast object should only play a preview of the file. Also, it should allow the user to listen to the whole webcast using an external application. I will meet with Mr. Meintanis and discuss possible approaches to this issue.
- 06/30/09 - I've been modifying more elements of the graphical user interface. Also, I've added more comments to the code to make it more readable. Tomorrow I will meet with Mr. Meintanis and discuss the approach to play a preview of the webcast/podcast instead of the whole file.
- 07/01/09 - GRE Workshop
- 07/02/09 - I've been working on getting the mp3 to play only a preview instead of the whole file. I have been unable to make progress, I tried to modify the number of input bytes but it simply gives me a memory error.
- 07/03/09 - University Holiday
- 07/06/09 - I talked to Mr. Meintanis about the issue with the podcast preview. He mentioned that the previous version of Visual Knowledge Builder allowed to extract part of the mp3 file that plays the first 10 secs of music whenever you hover your mouse cursor over an object that is an mp3 file. He suggested I should contact Mr. Soonil Bae since he is more familiar with the previous VKB version.
- 07/07/09 - I have been unable to get a response from Mr. Bae. Fortunately, Mr. Meintanis provided me with a copy of VKB2. I will go over the code and find out how is was the .mp3 preview done.
- 07/08/09 - After carefully examining the code, I realized that using the code from VKB2 might cause more problems. It is a relatively different implementation. Therefore, it was decided to use the existing capabilities of VKB3 and the music object. There is a method that will allow the .mp3 files to play as a stream while the mouse cursor linger on top of the .mp3 object. This can work as a preview of the file.
- 07/09/09 - I'm currently working on making the .mp3 preview play correctly.
- 07/10/10 - I was able to finally allow for a preview for the .mp3 file. To use it, the user simply needs to hover the mouse cursor over the podcast object.
- 07/13/09 - Studying for the Graduate Record Examination (GRE)
- 07/14/09 - Studying for the Graduate Record Examination (GRE)
- 07/14/09 - Taking the Graduate Record Examination (GRE)
- 07/15/09 - Currently, the podcast can be previewed. However, previews do not allow user to fast forward. I'm working on a way to allow for this capability.
- 07/16/09 - Podcast are very large files and cannot be played using the playlist capabilities in Mr. Meintanis music object. The best way is to allow an external application to play this file. I talked to Mr. Meintanis and he mentioned that this was possible in VKB2. I will look at VKB2 code and see what I can find.
- 07/17/09 - I'm still unable to figure out how an external application was used with VKB. I was able to meet with Mr. Bae, since he is more knowledgeable in VKB2. Unfortunately, he was unable to help me. I will continue examining the code.
- 07/20/09 - I talked to Dr. Shipman and he explained how VKB uses external application. It uses the Windows Registry. I found a method in VKB2 code which deal with registry issues. However, I've been unable to find any similar methods in the VKB3 code. It is probable that this has not yet been implemented. I will ask Mr. Bae.
- 07/21/09 - I met with Mr. Bae, he mentioned that VKB3 does not have a way to communicate with the registry yet. Therefore, the code from VKB2 is not useful in this particular problem. There has to be another way.
- 07/22/09 - I had a meeting with Mr. Meintanis and we discovered that the VKB3 code allows for a double-click option. It currently works with HTML files which will a browser if they are double-clicked. This is great news, we can modify this method and allow it to execute the podcast file using an external application. The only problem now is finding where is this double-click method.
- 07/23/09 - I asked Mr. Bae about this double-click method and he has help me find it. I will do some research and find a way to play files using external application.
- 07/24/09 - I have successfully allowed for an external application to play .mp3 files when double-clicked. This will help users play podcast files since they are too large to be added to the VKB's playlist.
- 07/27/09 - Working on Abstract for research paper.
- 07/28/09 - I need to find a way to make a distinction between podcast and regular music files. They are both the same file extension. Maybe there is a way to separate them based on their length since podcasts are larger. I will contact Mr. Meintanis and see if he has any suggestions.
- 07/29/09 - Dr. Shipman suggested that due to the lack of time, I should start working on Poster presentation and research paper. He asked me submit an early draft to him by the end of this week.
- 07/30/09 - Working on Poster and research paper draft.
- 07/31/09 - I showed poster and draft to Dr. Shipman, he approved them.
- 08/03/09 - Finishing up details with poster. I started writing research paper.
- 08/04/09 - REU Poster presentation
- 08/05/09 - Working on research paper.
- 08/06/07 - Turn in research paper.
- 08/07/07 - Poster Presentation. Closing Ceremony.
Final Report
- PodcastWiz is the first stepping stone towards efficient podcast management. Its current capabilities allow for metada extraction, previewing, and proper playback. In PodcastWiz, users can associate podcasts by manipulating their representation in the workspace, can browse and retrieve podcasts based on its metadata values, preview files directly on the workspace environment, and can fully playback podcast files.