I'm on a new project at work, right now doing preliminary investigation, but it's playing with machine vision. I have a camera at my desk right now that is capable of 200 frames per second, and interfaces via the gigabit ethernet port. I have to make the computer see something and garner information from its motion, and I have to write the low-level drivers to do it too. It's pretty cool, and all brainy. And I will bet that I will be frustrated before too long as well, because the non-technical folk who want it to work don't have a concept of the amount of work involved, and I'll get short-shifted. My figuring is a minimum of 8 weeks if all goes perfectly, probably closer to 12, and that's assuming that I get to work on it full-time without having to support anything else in the meantime.
I've also been playing with some ideas for robotics, particularly oriented around Darthcam. I found a really nifty microcontroller online that has a bunch of built-in peripherals onboard (USB 2.0, ethernet, four servos, and a bunch of I/O lines) that makes me really happy, and following the lead of
chebutykin, I'm sort of using it as a carrot for cleaning out the basement enough to set up my Evil Mad Scientist Laboratory.Another bit of weirdness: Food is a drug, and I've been going through withdrawal. I've been cranky and irritable and a general PITA, enough that I've shunned a few social occasions knowing that I wouldn't want me around in those conditions. So if I don't seem affable lately, understand that I'm really having a difficult time and though eventually I'll be able to come around, for now I'm likely to either hide or be really down if I'm around.
More later.