Tag Archives: repost-blogger

For my CIS 565 ”GPU Programming and Architecture” (University of Pennsylvania, Spring 2012) final project, I had decided to try working an a project that would not only demonstrate a practical application of parallel computing, but also become a useful side-research for my main pet project, Beats. The project I had in mind was to apply GPU acceleration and parallel processing techniques to improve the time spent on the BPM calculation algorithm used in the simfile-pattern-generating MATLAB program, Dancing Monkeys, compatible with DDR simulators such as StepMania and, of course, Beats. Improving the BPM calculation step was of great benefit …

For my Dancing Monkeys Accelerated project, we were required to use Git for version control and host code on GitHub. As a person who has always preferred SVN (for its linear/incremental nature), and have only had experience with Google Code and SourceForge, setting up a new GitHub repo was a new experience. And so, for future reference, I document the process here. In this tutorial, we install msysgit and TortoiseGit and host code on GitHub.

For my ESE 519 ”Real-time Embedded Systems” (University of Pennsylvania, Fall 2011) final project, I worked in a three-person team with Monica Lui and Faqin Zhong on a hardware project dubbed “BomberNome”. The original project requirement was to make use of the ESE lab’s stash of monome boards in a creative and fun way. It turned out, however, there weren’t enough actual monome boards lying around (i.e. boards with each grid unit also connected to a switch and LED) but there were plenty of LED boards, so we instead decided to just hook up a bunch of these LED boards …

For my ESE 350 ”Microcontrollers and Embedded Systems” (University of Pennsylvania, Spring 2011) final project, I worked with my friend Eric Chen on modifying Beats so it would take input from an XBOX Kinect. The result is a Kinect hooked up to a Beagleboard-xM running Android and playing Beats. It was all proof-of-concept of course as everything ran with extreme lag, but it was pretty cool nevertheless and fun! (Direct download) Proof-of-concept gameplay demo of Beats 1.5.5b with Microsoft XBOX Kinect support. The song used in this demo is “Chaoz Impact” by ParagonX9, stepfile by Lisek with permission for distribution …