Computer Engineering Commons^™

“State Machines”: A High-Throughput Distributed Game Framework, Brandon Howell Ivy

Computer Engineering

Online multiplayer games allow competition with other opponents using the internet. Their development is difficult as it involves many complex areas of computer science - optimization, security, big data, and thread safety. Many multiplayer game frameworks have been published, but very few are generic.

In this project, we focus on the framework design of a web service which allows users to easily create multiplayer games, and artificial intelligence bots to compete in them. It handles turn-based multiplayer communication, and allows the games and bots to ignore the concepts of multiplayer systems. Multiple game instances can run simultaneously, where each game’s …

Geovisualization: Integration And Visualization Of Multiple Datasets Using Mapbox, Cecilia Cadenas

Computer Engineering

he use of geovisualizations to analyze multiple datasets can ease the research and investigation to find correlations between these datasets. However, making these visualizations with multiple datasets can be challenging due to the lack of standardization within file formats and the software needed to render the visualizations.

This project investigates the making of these visualizations, maps in this case, using an open source platforms like Mapbox. Using Python scripts for the data parsing, CartoCSS for the designing of the maps, JavaScript to make the maps interactive, and HTML to combine all the layers together a set of maps were created. …

Spirit: A Home Automation System, Andrew Choi

Computer Engineering

Spirit is a multi device home automation system. Designed and implemented for California Polytechnic State University’s Senior Project program, this project was worked on during the duration of two school quarters from January 7, 2014 to June 13, 2014. The system consists of monitor/controllers designed to carry out everyday tasks in the average American household and an accompanying mobile application designed to receive information and control the devices. The monitor/controllers, or “Spirits”, are primarily developed using Arduino development tools and Arduino microcontroller boards. The spirits include a thermostat, named Tempus, an electrical outlet, Electrus, and a wall light switch, Luxos.

Autotab - Automatic Guitar Tablature Generation, Shaun Boley, Anthony Cisneros, Eric Kauzlarich

Computer Engineering

Our project consists of two different parts:

The first part contains an analysis of various pitch estimation algorithms. A number of different open-source pitch estimation libraries were tested using guitar recordings in order to gauge how accurately and consistently they outputted the correct frequencies. The results showed that the algorithms did not perform up to expectations, especially when testing with guitars with wound strings and within certain frequency ranges.

The second part details the creation of a tablature generator. It reads in a note sequence as an input, then generates tablature in the form of ASCII text. A modified greedy …

Ultraviolet Led Biofouling Mitigation, Andrew Lam

Computer Engineering

The goal is to determine if low-cost UV LEDs can mitigate marine biofouling on small glass or acrylic camera lenses. A microprocessor-controlled experimental setup to control the illumination of low-cost UV LEDs of various wavelength and packaging was fashioned. The system consists of a programmed microcontroller, a manufactured LED breakout interface, and a submergible UV LED array enclosed in a borosilicate glass tube. A preliminary qualitative assessment of four different UV LEDs was conducted during a three-week deployment of the experimental setup in the raw seawater system at the Cal Poly Center for Costal and Marine Sciences in Avila Beach, …

Growing Grounds Inventory Senior Project Application, Javier Balandran

Computer Engineering

No abstract provided.

Tspoons: Tracking Salience Profiles Of Online News Stories, Kimberly Laurel Paterson

Master's Theses

News space is a relatively nebulous term that describes the general discourse concerning events that affect the populace. Past research has focused on qualitatively analyzing news space in an attempt to answer big questions about how the populace relates to the news and how they respond to it. We want to ask when do stories begin? What stories stand out among the noise? In order to answer the big questions about news space, we need to track the course of individual stories in the news. By analyzing the specific articles that comprise stories, we can synthesize the information gained from …

Future Of Payment Platforms, Salim Benjamin Youssefzadeh

Master's Theses

With the vast increase in smartphones, there have been an increasing number of opportunities growing in the app industry. One in particular is the way we deal with money. There are huge overheads in the current payment systems around the world particularly in the United States, many of which include large transaction fees. Many new businesses have grown to solve these inefficiencies and create a new platform that provides a new user experience, security, and convenience among many other things. However, many of these platforms are still centralized, making them more susceptible to attacks. This thesis goes over the various …

Improved Accuracy In Real-Time Rfid Localization Systems Using Kalman Filtering, Benjamin J. Sanda

Masters Theses

The use of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) has become widespread in industry as a means to quickly and wirelessly identify and track packages and equipment. Now there is a commercial interest in using RFID to provide real-time localization. Efforts to use RFID technology for this purpose experience localization errors due to noise and multipath effects inherent to these environments. This paper presents the use of both linear Kalman filters and non-linear Unscented Kalman filters to reduce error effects inherent to real-time RFID localization systems and provide more accurate localization results in indoor environments. A commercial RFID localization system designed for …

Robotic Book Scanner, Tobias Samuel Elder, Cynthia Marie Wong

Computer Engineering

Digitizing books has been an issue tackled by companies to allow people to read off Kindles and iPads rather than the traditional paperback. Companies like Google have spent more than $1000 on machines to convert books into electronic copies readable on devices. Yet, not much effort has been made into the invention of an automatic book scanner for consumers. This project seeks to determine a cost-effective approach to robotic book scanning to create PDFs from physical books. This project serves as a proof of concept for a reasonably priced automatic book scanner accessible to consumers. Potentially, the device may be …

Chromium Os On Freescale I.Mx6q, Pushpal Sidhu

Computer Engineering

This projects intention is to get Chromium OS running on a Freescale i.MX6q processor, a processor based on the ARM® Cortex™-A9 architecture. The development board I used is the Ventana GW5400 by Gateworks. This project inherently meant using Chromium OS's development system which meant I created a board specific package for the Ventana single board computer. This project is a proof of concept that can mean extending Chromium OS to various implementations of the ARM® Cortex™-A9 architecture.

Migrating To Ipv6 - The Role Of Basic Coordination, Mehdi Nikkhah, Roch Guerin

All Computer Science and Engineering Research

The need for a larger Internet address space was acknowledged early on, and a solution (IPv6) standardized years ago. Its adoption has, however, been anything but easy and still faces significant challenges. The situation begs the questions of "why has it been so difficult?" and "what could have been (or still be) done to facilitate this migration?" There has been significant recent interest in those questions, and the paper builds on a line of work based on technology adoption models to explore them. The results confirm the impact of several known factors, but also provide new insight. In particular, they …

An Enhanced Self-Healing Protection System In Smart Grid: Using Advanced And Intelligent Devices And Applying Hierarchical Routing In Sensor Network Technique, Mohamed Eid Aljahani

Masters Theses

This paper presents a self-healing protection systems were designed using PSCAD software to test and investigate the efficiency of this method. The system was applied on a typical distribution system with loads, buses, and power sources. The availability of advanced and intelligent devices, such as IEDs and PMUs was the trigger to design proficient and accurate self-healing protection systems which are associated with future smart grids. Deploying optimal sensors distributed within the grid could be a suitable method to monitor and control the distribution network. By using a hierarchical clustering communication technique, optimal sensors can work wirelessly and efficiently without …

Battery Management System, Michael Desando, Kyle Woody

Electrical Engineering

Problem Statement:

There have been recent reports of multi-million dollar companies having to recall entire projects due to their BMS’s malfunctioning or operating incorrectly. The purpose of this project is to analyze the future of batteries, the Lithium-Ion cell, and to exercise a BMS to better understand its capabilities and possible cases for errors. Lithium ion batteries are intolerant of overcharge and overdischarge. Abuse of this kind can result in high temperatures, venting of gases, fire, or explosion. Therefore battery management systems have been devised to prevent such abuse. Recent events such as fires on the Boeing Dreamliner and the …

Automated Foosball Table, Jim R. Stefani, Alex J. Herpy, Brett Gordon Jaeger, Kevin S. Haydon, Derek Alan Hamel

Mechanical Engineering

This project is the second iteration of an automated foosball table for Yaskawa America as a trade show display. The table is meant to provide an interactive experience which highlights the speed and precision of the Yaskawa hardware. The first iteration of the project was mainly focused on creating the physical hardware for the system and to begin the basic programming for the system. This phase of the project was focused on finalizing the physical hardware of the system, implementing the vision system and to continue the basic programing of the system AI. A third team will be assigned to …

All Purpose Mobile Gps, James C. Smith, Matt Weege, Kevin Peters

Electrical Engineering

The aim of the All Purpose Mobile GPS (The System) is to create a GPS tracking device that can accurately record location and calculate velocity, distance traveled and elevation change even when the satellite signal is lost. This data can later overlay on existing internet-based maps illustrating a trip to oneself or others. The portable tracker consumes very little power achieving several days’ worth of power in a single charge. A solar cell provides a quick battery boost in a pinch. SD Card storage increases compatibility with computers and other forms of data transfer. Data processing, such as viewing the …

Ad-Hoc Hid: Modular Wireless Human Interface Device, Joseph A. Mazzanti

Electrical Engineering

Ad-Hoc HID is a modular, reprogrammable Human Interface Device. This device is intended to function as a keyboard, gamepad, or mouse, according to the user's needs. The final project is intended to be switch agnostic, making the final product adaptable to the user’s needs.

Team Omnimouse, Derek J. Halman, Josh B. Porter, Steven A. Silver, Ian S. Stemper

Computer Engineering

INFORMATION, DATA, FIGURES AND DRAWINGS EMBODIED IN THIS DOCUMENT ARE STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL AND ARE SUPPLIED ON THE UNDERSTANDING THAT THEY WILL NOT BE DISCLOSED TO THIRD PARTIES WITHOUT THE PRIOR WRITTEN CONSENT OF QUALITY OF LIFE PLUS.

Laser Tag - An Application Of Infrared Communication, Michael J. Altschuler, Michael B. Peterson, Elmer Pres Ventura Urbano

Computer Engineering

The purpose of this project is to design, build, and test laser tag system from the ground up. Much of the laser tag equipment that is available on the market right now use infrared technology to track and register “hits” between players. Our goal is to take this system and redesign it to shoot farther, be more energy efficient, and make it cheaper to produce.

Ecs Game Engine Design, Daniel Masamune Hall

Computer Engineering

Game programming design and organization can be difficult and complicated. To simplify the development process, frameworks with an array of tools and utilities known as game engines are used. The main goal of this project is to explore game engine designs and develop a design for a modular and expandable game engine. The designs covered in this paper are Object Oriented Programing (OOP) and two Entity Component System (ECS). OOP designs, commonly used in computer science, use a hierarchy of objects to share functionality. ECS designs are based off of the concepts Composition over inheritance in which objects contain features …

Cnc Torch, Steven Chiu

Computer Engineering

This CNC Torch cuts steel plate. It can cut up to a maximum area of 3x3 feet. The user builds a cut list on the touchscreen from a selection of predefined shapes and enters the parameters need for each shape. When the user is ready, the cut list is sent to an Arduino that will move each motors accordingly to the shapes desired.

Web Based Tactical Role Playing Game In Javascript, David Cilva, Paul Doyle, Stephen Hill, Rachel Judish

Computer Science and Software Engineering

The goal of this senior project was to develop a web­based game that emphasized narrative through gameplay within the context of a tactical RPG gameplay style. As the project developed, emphasis shifted from narrative to refining gameplay and making decisions within gameplay meaningful and satisfying. The project elaborates on the standard tactical RPG combat system, incorporating mechanics and ideas from various other games. This was done in order to make the play feel challenging and rewarding as well as to avoid some of the pitfalls that bog down existing games in this genre. Since work was concentrated on building the …

Toward General Purpose 3d User Interfaces: Extending Windowing Systems To Three Dimensions, Forrest Freiling Reiling

Master's Theses

Recent growth in the commercial availability of consumer grade 3D user interface devices like the Microsoft Kinect and the Oculus Rift, coupled with the broad availability of high performance 3D graphics hardware, has put high quality 3D user interfaces firmly within the reach of consumer markets for the first time ever. However, these devices require custom integration with every application which wishes to use them, seriously limiting application support, and there is no established mechanism for multiple applications to use the same 3D interface hardware simultaneously. This thesis proposes that these problems can be solved in the same way that …

A Comparison Of Image Processing Techniques For Bird Detection, Elsa Reyes

Master's Theses

Orchard fruits and vegetable crops are vulnerable to wild birds and animals. These wild birds and animals can cause critical damage to the produce. Traditional methods of scaring away birds such as scarecrows are not long-term solutions but short-term solutions. This is a huge problem especially near areas like San Luis Obispo where there are vineyards. Bird damage can be as high as 50% for grapes being grown in vineyards. The total estimated revenue lost annually in the 10 counties in California due to bird and rodent damage to 22 selected crops ranged from $168 million to $504 million (in …

Mos Current Mode Logic (Mcml) Analysis For Quiet Digital Circuitry And Creation Of A Standard Cell Library For Reducing The Development Time Of Mixed Signal Chips, David Marusiak

Master's Theses

Many modern digital systems use forms of CMOS logical implementation due to the straight forward design nature of CMOS logic and minimal device area since CMOS uses fewer transistors than other logic families. To achieve high-performance requirements in mixed-signal chip development and quiet, noiseless circuitry, this thesis provides an alternative toCMOSin the form of MOS Current Mode Logic (MCML). MCML dissipates constant current and does not produce noise during value changing in a circuit CMOS circuits do. CMOS logical networks switch during clock ticks and with every device switching, noise is created on the supply and ground to deal with …

Placing Videos On A Semantic Hierarchy For Search Result Navigation, Song Tan, Yu-Gang Jiang, Chong-Wah Ngo

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Organizing video search results in a list view is widely adopted by current commercial search engines, which cannot support efficient browsing for complex search topics that have multiple semantic facets. In this article, we propose to organize video search results in a highly structured way. Specifically, videos are placed on a semantic hierarchy that accurately organizes various facets of a given search topic. To pick the most suitable videos for each node of the hierarchy, we define and utilize three important criteria: relevance, uniqueness, and diversity. Extensive evaluations on a large YouTube video dataset demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach.

Design Of Cpu Simulation Software For Armv7 Instruction Set Architecture, Dillon Tellier

Computer Engineering

Simulations have long been a part of the engineering process in both the professional and academic domain. From a pedagogic standpoint, simulations allow students to explore the dynamics of engineering scenarios by controlling variables, taking measurements, and observing behavior which would be difficult or impossible without simulation. One such tool is a CPU simulator used in Cal Poly’s Computer Architecture classes; this software simulates an instruction accurate operation of a computer processor and reports statistics regarding the execution of the supplied compiled machine code. For the last several years Cal Poly’s computer architecture classes have used a previous version of …

Designing A Modular Dsp Core For Real-Time Audio Performance, Kevin Richard Brewer

Computer Engineering

This project provides an overview for building a Digital Signal Processing (DSP) core on a Digilent Nexys2 FPGA board. The DSP core is designed to give Cal Poly students interested in DSP and its applications to audio engineering a usable platform to perform signal processing and analytics. The processes of the DSP core are modular, allowing students to design their own implementations of various adder and multiplier functions. Infinite impulse response (IIR) filters and finite impulse response (FIR) filters using both cascade and parallel implementations are the primary processing tools in the core, and all output can be visually and …

Opportunistic Service Differentiation And Cloud Resource Management In Support Of Enhanced Vehicular Applications, Mohammad Ali Salahuddin

Dissertations

An integral part of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) are Vehicular Ad hoc Networks (VANETs), which consist of vehicles with on-board units (OBUs) and fixed road-side units (RSUs). Wireless Access in Vehicular Environment (WAVE) offers QoS via service differentiation by using application defined priorities. However, WAVE has unbounded delay and is oblivious to network load and severity of vehicles with respect to their environment. Our context severity metric innovatively enhances WAVE to be sensitive to vehicle and environment interactions. Our novel Opportunistic Service Differentiation (OSD) technique, dynamically readjusts the WAVE packet priorities to improve utilization of lower latency queues, prioritizing packets …

The I: A Client-Based Point-And-Click Puzzle Game, Aldo Lewis

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Given mobile devices’ weak computational power, game programmers must learn to create games with simple graphics that are engaging and easy to play. Though seldom created for phones and tablets, puzzle games are a perfect fit. In recent years, the genre has gained a following and even won some acclaim. Games like Myst, The Seventh Guest and Portal all engage gamers with challenging puzzles and then reward them with story components upon task fulfillment. Few such games have been created for mobile devices, in part due to the difficulty of developing for devices with different operating systems. Android, WebIOS and …