Day 3

It's Day Three!

Today, I trained on Python through the free trials on Code-academy. I already know Java, so the concepts aren't that hard for me to process, but the syntax, and some of the tools are much different than what I'm used to! Some of the biggest differences is Pythons lack of semi-colons at the end of each statement, that the types- such as "String"- don't need to be clarified at the beginning of each clarification, and that "Doubles" are called "Floats," as well as other somewhat-annoying specifics. I figure that in a day or two I will be practically fluent in the basics.

Other than ENVI, we are also going to be working on improving MISHA. MISHA is a small, portable imaging device designed by a RIT student 3 years ago. It is basically duck-taped and zip-tied together, but what it is capable of is quite impressive. Today we played around with it, taking some pictures, and getting more familiar with how to work it. The coding is a mash up of Linux and Python. The Linux portion of the code controls the camera and imaging process, while the Python processed the photos.

As of right now, the machine is rickety, but we are hoping to improve that over these six weeks! Learning Python is going well, and the imaging machine is already up and running in our lab!