[Episode 8x02]

Hey Darren before you get too far in your motorcycle project you may wish to know that an accelerometer probably will not be able to measure your angle in while cornering on a motorcycle.

Let me explain why I think this may not work:

An accelerometer measures forces in the X Y and Z access. There is a little bubble floating around inside it that is heated. When a force is applied the bubble moves and its position is measured. When you are at rest (or moving a constant speed there is a 1G force pulling toward the center of the planet. The angle of your device is determined by calculating the vector of the three applied forces (X,Y,Z). Thus when you are standing in a room you can tell what angle relative to earth your accelerometer is at.

When you turn (while driving) you begin accelerating perpendicular to the direction you are facing. This change in acceleration is a force on the horizontal axis. From the prospective of your software when you turn right it will think you are leaning left.

In the of your bike the road is pushing the bike to the right. Your inertia is trying to stay on the left side of the bike. You should fall off the bike. But you don't because you lean right so that the force applied to you by the turn and gravity is the same angle as the angle you lean. Thus you are pulled strait down into your seat (okay technically the bike is pushed strait up into your butt but lets not split hairs err cheeks...;)

Soooooo.. Back to your accelerometer. When you turn the angle you lean will be the same as the the angle of the force and your accelerometer should read the same as when you are not leaning and traveling straight. You probably will not achieve a perfect balance and the accelerometer may even read the opposite of the direction you are leaning.

You can still however capture some meaningful informtiaon. The accelerometer is measuring forces. Therefore you can measure the intensity of the drive by looking at the raw data from the accelerometer. When you are at rest you should measure 1G. When you turn you can measure higher forces and determine how "exciting" the turn is by measuring the G force of the turn. (This will likely be more a reflection on your driving than the road).

If you want to measure the angle of a turn you will need to look into Pizo(?) Gyros. They measure the rate of your turn (not the angle so you have to measure a lot and calculate the new angle based on the rate of roll. They drift and need calibration ant regular intervals.

[H. 264 Recording/mixing]

I was recently concated by my local school district looking for a software soltion to their video needs. The just of it is they have 3 HD IP cameras outputing H.264. They are looking for a solltion to capture all this video, the audio from a serperate system, possible some form of video feed from a presentation computer. They want a tool to capture all these sources and bring them togeter. If possible they would like to also mix this in real time to be sent out streamed.

I would appreciate any suggestions you may have. I've worked with the their director of Technology in the past and they are very willing to explore open source options if they exist.

I'm also curious, in the touch screen segment with Jasson, Darren mentioned using the touch screen with some software in your production. I'm currious what sofware you guys are using. I don't remember you ever saying.

Anyway thanks in advance.