Bsc Projects 2002/03

Geometric constraints are used to specify relations between geometric objects, e.g. the distance between points, the angle between lines or planes, the radius of a sphere, a position lying on a plane, two lines being equal, etc. They can be used to specify complex geometric models. This project is aimed at a user interface for creating and editing constraint systems and providing feedback to the user about the realizability (solvability) of the described object. One can think of it as creating/editing a graph data-strucutre (e.g. edges describing distances between 2D or 3D point nodes).

Classical archive programs such as tar, ar, cpio, zip are limited with respect to the requirements for distribution pre-compiled and source-level software packages. Various modifications such as rpm and deb exist for Linux distributions to address such problems. It would however be desirable to have a standard, universal archive format for this which is as distribution independent as possible. The aim of the project is to develop a software archive format / archive program able with the following basic features: multiple roots, i.e. the archive does not necessarily unpack into a single sub-directory (consider an archive containing files sorted by functionality, e.g. header files, binaries, libraries, ... which can be installed at rather arbitrary locations); additional information about the package like content description; dependencies, etc.; special files for installation and administration (configuration files, scripts, etc.). Additional information may be required for these things, e.g. a general file-system structure for a multiple root package (traditional unix file system structure, GNU directory structure, special filesystem structures, ...) and specific fields for the additional information. This can be interpreted as configuration options for the archive program. More advanced features relate to verifying package contents, verifying the source of the package, encryption, etc.

Information about the surface of engineering objects can be obtained by a 3D laser scanner. This scanner produces 3D point sets of a particular view of the object. Not all surfaces of the object can be scanned simultaneously. Hence, scanning a 3D object results in multiple, independent 3D point sets representing different views of the object and they have to registered into a single point set to get a first complete description of the object. Algorithms to register such point sets exists (in particular C/C++ implementations for Unix are available). But they all require that the point sets are already in approximately the correct orientation to each other. Aligning the point sets approximately is still left to the user. The main aim of the project is to develop a user interface to approximately align multiple point sets manually.

Develop a web-based datebook with standard functions such as scheduling one-time meetings, regular meetings, events, etc. The online interface should also provide an options for other users (authenticated/known users as well as unauthenticated users) to schedule an appointment semi-automatically. This could be done by the program by agreeing on a time which is not yet occupied by some other event and fits into the general availability/time preference of the owner of the datebook. It would have to be confirmed by the owner by replying to an e-mail or using the online interface directly. In addition TODO lists could be included. Also synchronising events (a meeting, a seminar, etc.) between multiple datebook owners, etc. would be interesting. An option to synchronise the datebook with a PDA may also be added.

The objective of this project would be to create a web-based Linux kernel configuration tool that makes re-compilation quick and easy for both the novice kernel hacker and the expert. It would make decisions based on the hardware of the machine, and would prompt the user if they were to select an option incompatible with the current hardware of the machine. The system would allow kernel .config files to be loaded in to it, so that existing configurations can be edited and/or compiled. The system would also be able to configure lilo and/or GRUB, the Linux boot loaders, automatically after the kernel has been compiled, meaning that the new kernel would be immediately bootable. Another objective of the project would be to allow custom kernels to be copied via a TCP/IP network onto the boot partition of other machines in a local network, configuring their boot loaders via the network. This would allow a local network to be fully configured remotely via the web.

Simple animated 3D models can be created by using a skeleton or stick model. Such a skeleton would consist of a set of lines with specified length and joints between these lines. The lines can be rotated at the joints in one or two principal directions within certain angle limits. There is also one set of parameters which give the location and orientation of the whole model. The first part of the project would be to create a theoretical framework to model such skeletons (esp. the joints) for simple robots. Then with this framework one or more example models should be implemented such that by specifying the angles at the joints a particular pose of the model is created.