The Racing Geek

I was recently at the WOM World get-together in SF when we started discussing the some of the ways that Nokia should market the N-series devices, specifically the N95 vs iPhone issue. One of the things we all agreed on was that the camera on the N95 is a huge differentiator that Nokia really hasn’t been pushing as much as it should. People are so used to seeing crappy photos from devices like the Razr and the iPhone that they dont expect phones to have good cameras. I, on the other hand, have been using various variants of the N95 for well over a year and the camera is so good that I can honestly say that I will never buy a point-and-shoot camera again. People who see the shots are blown away by the quality of the images and often wont believe that they are from a cameraphone. Additionally the fact that I can use ZoneTag to upload, tag and geotag photos directly from the phone means that I upload way more photos from my phone than I ever did with my point-and-shoot camera.

So anyway, I had a quick look at some of the photos I’ve taken over the last year and have pulled out a few of the really outstanding shots to demonstrate the quality of the N95 camera - hope you like them.

One of the first really great shots I took with the phone was this shot of the wreck of the Peter Iredale of the coast of Oregon. I took a bunch of photos of the wreck but I particularly like the contrasting colours in this picture. You can also see that the photo has been automatically geotagged using ZoneTag which allowed me to do 2-click upload the photo while on vacation while also suggesting the tags “shipwreck” and “beach”.

In case you have any doubts about the print quality of the images you should check out this photo of mine that was used in a full page advertisement in SportsCar magazine. The photo was taken with an N95 classic after I spun out at the track.

One of the things that people forget is that not only does the N95 take great photos but it also shoots 640×480 video at a full 30 fps. The above video was taken at a BMW club autocross using an N95 8GB (N95-2) on my homebrew track video setup. As you can see the picture is clear and skip free. The loud rustling sound is the wind noise from the air entering the cabin once you go above a certain speed. Also check out this trackday video that I made at Reno-Fernley Raceway using the same camera setup.

The two photos above are part of a set that I took from the front row of an Iron Maiden concert in San Antonio using my N95 classic. The concert environment with its combination low light, moving subjects, backlighting and audience jostling is pretty hostile to cameras and makes it super challenging to take clear photographs.

The biggest issue for me was the time it takes for the N95 camera to both switch on and also focus on its subject. I would often click the button to capture an interesting moment but the moment would be well past by the time the camera actually took its shot. I took about 150 photos on that day and roughly 40 were worth putting on Flickr with another 40-50 worth saving. Not a very good ratio but since people were having worse ratios with high-ish end cameras I certainly cant complain. Also being a cameraphone means that there are zero questions asked when you take it into the venue

The last thing I want to share is some video that I shot from another Iron Maiden Concert (this time in Concord). This was from an N95 8GB NAM and as you can see the video is pretty damn good despite the tough camera conditions. The sound is once again the biggest issue - it just cant handle the loud noise and ends up clipping most of the audio.

All in all I can say that the N95 has a truly spectacular camera (for a phone) and it can easily be a replacement for a point-and-shoot camera. Plus if Nokia can fix the sound/clipping problems on the phone they should seriously market the N95 as a full-on camcorder replacement as well. The addition of easy uploads to Flickr and YouTube (the current Flickr share SUCKS!!!) would make this the perfect point-and-shoot photo and video capture device.

Chris Harris review the new Supercharged Lotus Elise - me wants to upgrade

Harris is one of the best automotive reporters out there - he strikes an excellent balance between the humour of Jeremy Clarkson and the driving ability of Tiff Needell. If you liked that review I highly recommend the Chris on Camera series where he reviews a different car every week.

Update: The Internet Video Call application described in this post has been discontinued by Nokia and does not work any more. To do a video chat on the N800 please read my new tutorial on how to video chat using the Gizmo Project.

I recently attended Mobile Mashup 2007 and was thrilled to find that all attendees were being given an N800 Internet Tablet. I have been following the hype on the N800 for a while and while most people have been raving about it being the ultimate rss reader and the perfect coffee table web browser, I have intrigued by the video chat possibilities. Though voice and video chat are now supported by most of the major IM clients, the fact that it requires a computer, webcam and a headset means that you are pretty much anchored to one spot during the call - sure you could theoretically carry a laptop around the house but that’s too cumbersome to be done with any regularity. The N800 however comes with integrated speakers, mike, (VGA?) camera and WiFi which makes it the perfect untethered video chat appliance - in theory.

In practice I found that the N800 has a truly ridiculous user interface that does not adhere to any known UI standards. People will justify it by saying that it is running Linux and has an “expert” user interface (aka whatever the implementer felt was good), but that is no excuse for Nokia releasing it in its current state. If you are marketing a device to end users you have to make the software completely idiot proof. Sure I could download the source and make the modifications myself but the fact is that when I want to make a call all I want to do is talk to the other person - recompling linux is not an acceptable step during the calling process. Anyway, after about 3-4 hours of fiddling with the various options I was finally able to get the video chat to work and was quite impressed with the results. The audio quality is excellent and doesn’t have much lag. The video reception (see picture below) is pretty good though it is fairly low resolution. Remote users said that the camera on the N800 did not deal well with differential lighting/backlit conditions but that’s pretty much par for the course on a webcam. I was able to make video calls to friends in the US as well as to my parents in India (PC software is Windows only, Mac and Linux users are on their own). It’s pretty cool to be able to walk around the house while video chatting without worrying about power, network, camera, headset, etc… The fact that the screen and the camera are so close to each other means that the line of sight problem is minimized as well. The experience is similar to what I expect cellphone video calls to be like - if they were actually cheap enough to make.

Since a bunch of us at the lab have this device we have been playing around with using it almost like the media spaces project. Shane and I sat at different ends of the room during the CHI Sampler and left the video channel open throughout (audio muted). It was quite interesting to be able to see other people reactions to the talks. Since there was no audio we had use an improvised sign language to communicate until Ayman came up with the idea of typing messages on your cellphone and then holding the phone screen up to the webcam. We also tried setting our devices to so both cameras would point to the speaker so we could see different points of view on a single talk. I don’t think this is something you will do often, but I can see it being a useful backchannel when non-colocated people are working together. The fact that it is a separate device makes it feel more like a real communication channel than the webcam window on a PC IM client.

N800 Video call tutorial

Now for the truly useful part of this post - a step by step tutorial on setting up video chat so that future buyers wont end up pulling their hair out. If you are not sure about what buttons I am referring to please click through onto the image above, I have marked out the important icons using Flickr notes.

Update the OS

Download the software update utility from Nokia and update the OS. The newest version of the OS is more stable than the one the N800 ships with. Dont forget to back up any existing data before the update.

Setup the WiFi

To make an internet video call you first need the internet, if you haven’t set it up during your first boot just follow these steps.

1. Open the “Control Panel” from Start Button (the button on the left that has two window icons on it) -> Tools -> Control Panel
2. Open the Connectivity application and click the “Connections” button
3. Click “New” to open the connection setup wizard and then tap “Next” to continue
4. Name the connection, set the connection type to “WLAN” and tap next
5. You will get dialog asking “Scan for available WLAN networks?”. Tap Yes
6. You will now be presented with a list of available networks. Just select the one you want to connect to and tap next. You will be prompted to enter the network WEP key if the network is protected.
7. Tap “Finish” to save you new internet settings

Setup a Google Talk/Jabber account

In order to invite someone to start a video/voice chat with you you need to make them a contact. The easiest way to do this is to sign into an existing Google talk account since all that needs is a Gmail account and password.

1. First go back to the control panel and open the “Accounts” application.
2. Hit “New” to create a new account. Hit next once the Account Setup wizard opens.
3. Select “Google Talk” as the service and tap Next. You should theoretically be able to do the same with any Jabber account but I have not tried this and YMMV.
4. If you have an existing Google Talk account select that option or else select “create new account”. Tap Next to continue.
5. Enter your username and passowrd before tapping Next.
6. Hit “Finish” to complete account setup.
7. If your account was setup correctly you should see a green ball icon to the right of the bluetooth icon on the status bar (top right of the screen).

Send call invitation

This is the step where you actually invite someone (on either a Windows PC or another N800) to join you in an internet call

1. Start by opening the camera on the tablet. It is the little circle on the left edge of the tablet when you are looking at the screen. Push the circle with your finger and the camera should pop out. The internet call application will also open but you can close it for now.
2. Click on the “Communication” icon on the left taskbar. It looks similar to the tray icon for MSN messenger and looks like two figures in pink and purple.
3. Select “Send call invitation” from the menu.
4. A dialog box will pop up asking you what name you want to use for you internet calls. Type in whatever screen name you would like to use.
5. This will open a window asking how you want to send the invite. Select the “Send invitation via chat” option and tap “Ok”
6. This will open the Instant Messaging application and will display a window asking you to “Select contact for invitation”. Select the contact you want to invite and tap “Ok”
7. The IM application will open a chat window and send the other person a message saying “XXXX is inviting you to star an Internet video call (voice-only calling also supported). Click the following link for further instructions”.
8. If the person you are calling has an N800 then they will get directly get an incoming call dialog which they can answer to start the call.
9. If the remote person is on a Windows PC they should click on the which will take them to a page that looks like this. If the initial link was valid (it should have some url parameters) the “Install Software” button on the page will be in colour.
10. When the remote user clicks on that button the user will be prompted to install the Nokia Internet call software. It is a 11 MB download and have the usual install screens, the user can just keept hitting next
11. Once the software is installed, the remote user should go back to the initial install page and click the “Add contact” button at the bottom of the second column. This button only appears on valid pages (it will not appear on the link on step 9) and only if the downloaded software is correctly installed.
12. Once the remote user had clicked the “Add contact” button you should get an authorization request on the tablet. There will be an audio notification and the “Communication” button in the left taskbar will change colour to red and green. You can authorize the request by tapping the button and then selecting “Authorize XXX” option. You can also add the remote user as a contact by selecting the “Add XXX” option.
13. Once the authorization is done you should get an “Incoming call” notification. Once you select the green telephone icon it will open an internet call between the you and the remote contact. If both users have a webcam it will have a video channel or else it will be a voice only call.

Once you have actually set up you first call everything else should go pretty smoothly. If you want to call someone you have spoken to before just open the Internet call application and pick them out of the recent calls list. The software does not show if a person currently has video call capability so you may occasionally find that someone who has switched to another PC may have to go through another invite/install process. The call application is a bit buggy and sometimes will not make outgoing call (you get an error message saying “unable to connect”), in this try asking the remote user to call you - that seems to always work for me. One last point is that because the internet call and IM clients are different applications you cannot see both screen at the same time making this a either a pure audio/video chat or a pure text chat - it isn’t too much of a loss because the text entry using the stylus is soooooo slow that you very quickly give up on the text chat.
If this has gotten you interested and you want to buy an N800 just head on over to the Nokia site.

I’ve been playing with the Nokia N95 for the last few days and have posted a review on the YRB blog. The basic gist is that its a fantastic device with crappy battery life - click through to read more.

For the Nokia fanboys I have pictures from my unboxing below

[tags]Nokia, N95, review, unboxing[/tags]

I am a great fan of in-car video during HPDEs. It is a great tool to analyze your performance and see how different lines have affected you laptimes - works even better when you have a DL1 or some other data logger. In-car video is also a great way to give people an idea of what its like to track a car and maybe even understand you keep grinning from ear to ear after each event.

However when I see the average setup (for an Elise) at an HPDE it looks to go one of two ways

1) The full on treatment: This is a full on video system that gives you the best quality video and audio and will usually record several hours without any issues. Some of the equipment that this requires is

• Harness bar: $229 for the Sector 111 4Tress Harness Bar
• Camera Mount: $35 for the Sector 111 CRD mount
• Solid state recorder: $565 for a ChaseCam PDR100
• Solid state memory: ~$100 for a 4 GB CF card
• Shock proof camera(s): $175-275 for a bulletcam

This kind of a setup will give you close to pro level AV and is the next best thing to actually sitting in the car. However the total price tag of around $1200 bucks (not including harness installation) is usually out of the price range of all but the most avid track junkies.
2) Track video lite: This setup tries to replicate the quality of the track video but uses consumer grade electronics and usually does not leave any permanent alterations to the car. The parts list includes

• Suction cup mount: $40-100 at Chasecam
• Solid state Camera: $300-$500 for either commercial point and shoot camera or a consumer camcorder
• Solid state memory: ~$100 for a 4 GB CF card
• Portable storage: Since these cameras fill up memory very quickly you will have to download the video between sessions to either a laptop or a storage solution like the Wolverine ($150)

This system is considerably cheaper (~$550 excluding storage) and is probably the most popular HPDE setup. The quality is pretty decent (800 x 600 or 640 x 480) though people say that the vibration affects the image stabilization systems on these cameras and track life is only about 2 years. Additionally you have to use some sort of storage system to suck the video out between lap sessions and that can get tiresome. While you can mix and match components to get a setup for < $500, it's still quite pricey for someone who is still deciding how much to invest in track equipment.

A looking for a cheaper alternative
This got me thinking about possible ways to record video for free to see how useful it is before actually investing in a full on setup. One of the most ubiquitous technologies to emerge in recent years has been the cameraphone which invariably has a video mode as well. Now off course the video quality of the cameraphone is dependant on the device, but newer devices usually have at least 2 megapixels and can use large memory cards to store virtually limitless video. Phones are built to withstand rougher use than a camera (they go through several types of drop tests) and being solid state they are less affected by vibration. I then decided to build my own in-car video setup using a cellphone.

My Setup
The latest device that I have been playing with is the Nokia N73 which has a 3.2 megapixel camera and can hold 2GB miniSD card. It records video at a resolution of 320 x 240 and saves it as mp4 files which can be read on any PC. Since an hour of video only takes ~300 MB, I knew that a 2GB would be more than enough to record video for an entire track weekend. I didnt mind spending the money (~$40) on the card because I knew that even if I didn’t use it for video I would definitely use it to store music on my phone.

The mounting device was little trickier, the cameraphone has no mount points on it which meant that I couldn’t use any of the traditional mounting systems (would have been out of my budget anyway). However while looking at the interior of the car I realized that the back window of the Elise is perfectly vertical and if I could attach the phone to the window I would probably be able to get a good view out the front.

When it came to the actual attachment I decided to use painters tape instead since it has relatively high shear strength and leaves no residue which is important since I didn’t want to mess up my phone. Additionally the N73 only weighs a 116 grams which will barely put any shear forces on the tape. This mounting system will of course only work for candybar style phones and not clamshells because you cannot tape an open clamshell to the inside of the window. You begin by taking a 2-3 foot strip of painters tape and cut a small hole in the center for the lens.

You then open the lens cap of the phone if any and place it on the tape such that the lens is right over the hole. If your phone does not have a side accessible button to turn on the camera you will have to turn on the camera and start recording at this point.

Now you just take the strip (with the phone attached) and tape it to the bottom edge of the rear window. You can add some padding material between the glass and the phone though I found that this really wasn’t necessary.

Thats it - just remember to turn on the phone camera at the start of every session.

The video shot this way is obviously not as good as the video from the earlier systems but for its price ($40 for the card and $1 for the tape) it gives more than enough detail to understand what is happening at the track. Additionally if you are going to post the video online on YouTube, Google Video or Yahoo video, these system usually transcode your video down to 320 x 240 anyway so you arent really loosing that much quality. I am looking forward to getting my hands on the new Nokia N95 which shoots video at 640 x 480 - that should really give the other systems a run for their money

You can download a full resolution video from here (9 MB transcoded WMV). I have also made a JumpCut video of my best lap (and a small ‘incident’) with captions and other fun stuff - RSS readers point your browsers here.

UPDATE: I have posted some sample track video from the N95 in a separate post - the video quality is dramatically better and good enough to postpone my PDR100 plans
[tags]trackday, video, HPDE, in-car, onboard, nokia, cellphone, N73, Thunderhill, Thunderhill Raceway Park[/tags]

I had the opportunity to visit Tesla Motors on a tour organized by SFF1 and would like to write up some of my thoughts about the company, its technology and their first car. This is going to be from the point of view of a petrol head engineer who daily drives an Elise – take it how you will :-).

In case you haven’t heard of Tesla, on account of the rock you have been living under for the last 6 months, it is a Bay Area automotive startup that is designing and building the Tesla Roadster which will be the worlds first mass produced electric sports car. I have been especially interested in the Tesla since it based on the Lotus Elise chassis and is in fact assembled by Lotus in Hethel in an arrangement similar to that used on the Opel Speedster/Vauxhall VX200. However unlike the Opel/Vauxhall, which were more like badge engineered Elises, the Tesla uses a substantially modified Elise chassis with an all-electric powertrain and is a whole new beast. I had already had my first look at the car during the Palo Alto British car meet but this tour was a chance to actually look at the car internals and to talk to some of the people behind this revolutionary machine.

The most important piece of new technology in the car is of course its electric powertrain. Unlike established car companies which are have a “not invented here” complex and prefer to develop their cars from scratch, Tesla followed a startup mentality and tried to source as much of the technology as they could. The most obvious example of this is in the way they created the battery pack for the car. Instead of trying to come up with new battery technology, they instead sourced the fastest growing battery technology available today – the Lithium Ion batteries used in notebook computers. They use 6831 off-the shelf Li-Ion cells to form a 50 kW battery pack that provide the power for everything on the car. For those of you who are worried about exploding batteries - Tesla uses a lot more battery management technology including a heating/cooling system that keeps the batteries at their optimum operating temperature irrespective of the outside temperature.

The electric motor spins up to 13,500 rpm and produces 248 bhp and 200 ft/lbs of torque while weighing just 125 lbs. The most startling thing about the torque is that you have maximum torque starting from 0 rpm all the way to 6000 rpm where it starts to slowly reduce. The entire powertrain has only 17 moving parts of which 15 are in the gearbox which is a clutchless 2 speed setup where 1^st will take you to almost 70 while 2^nd tops out at 130 mph. There is no reverse gear – the motor (which has just 1 moving part, the rotor) just spins backwards when you want to reverse.

Following the technology sourcing mindset further, Tesla sourced the entire chassis from Lotus. By doing this they not only got one of the best handling chassis in the world but they also gained instant credibility by partnering with a 7 time F1 world champion constructor. The bonded aluminium chassis is a modified version of the Elise chassis and the front half looks to be identical to that of the Elise. The side sills have been lowered 50 mm to enable (relatively) easy ingress/egress which should make the Tesla more livable than the Elise. The rear subframe has been modified to hold the battery pack (900 lbs) and the motor (125 lbs) in the same position as the Elise engine to get similar handling characteristics. Following the Chapman philosophy of “simplify and add lightness”, Tesla has gone to great lengths to lower the weight and uses an all carbon fiber body to keep the weight down to 2500 lbs. The front suspension is identical to the base Elise except for the use of the AP Racing ‘big brake’ kit to handle the added weight of the Tesla.

The performance figures on the Tesla Roadster are pretty amazing:

• 248 bhp
• 0-60 in 4 seconds
• Top speed of 130 mph
• 250 mile range
• CO2 emissions equivalent to 135 mpg
• Zero maintenance (The lack of moving parts means that the only mainteneace needed is a brake fluid change every 3 years)

Tesla as an Elise replacement

As you can see from the pictures, the Tesla looks very similar to the Elise and makes many of the same compromises. The end result is however quite different and while not as focussed as the Elise it can actually be a better alternative for many owners. I see the following pros and cons while comparing the Tesla with the Elise:

Pros

1) General livability: The Tesla beats the Elise hands down when it comes to general livability. Ingress/egress is a lot easier and the car comes with a lot more features like satnav and heated seats. The quietness of the electric motor will make it a lot less tiring to drive.

2) Performance: The massive torque of the Tesla means that you no longer have to wait for the second cam before being able to pass someone. Its handling will probably be not as pure as the Elise but I am confident that Tesla and Lotus will bring out a great handling car.

3) Urethane bumpers: The Tesla has urethane bumpers which should keep the car safer from braille parkers – the Elise owners cracked clamshell nightmare should become a thing of the past.

4) Even more exclusive than the Elise: The Tesla will be even more exclusive than the Elise – while I don’t care about this particular point I will admit that there are people out there who prefer exclusive cars

5) Sticking it to Prius owners: You can tell the “holier than thou” Prius owners to go screw themselves because their car is slow gas guzzling piece of crap. The Tesla is a near supercar that appeals to both car enthusiasts and environmentalists.

Cons

1) Price: ~$90k is a lot of money especially when you can get a Noble for the same money. The initial buyers will be buying the Tesla for electric car bragging rights just as much as its ability as a sports car.

2) Need a second car: The low range of the Tesla means that it can never be your only car – you can daily drive it but you need to have a backup car in case you need to make the round trip. This shouldn’t be too much of a problem since the average Elise owner only puts a few thousand miles a year on his/her car – my 20+k a year are an exception

3) Top speed of 130: The top speed of the Tesla is only a 130 miles an hour which prevents it from entering true performance car territory, but honestly how many people very actually get their car past 130 on the public roads? The better torque and passing ability of the Tesla should make it the more practical car on the street.

4) Looks: Informally talking to the people at the tour most people felt that the Elise looked a lot more exotic than the Elise. I think this was only an issue because the two cars were next to each other, the average lay person will still confuse the Tesla with a Ferrari.

5) No track days for you: The range of the Tesla really prevents you from tracking your car (unless you have your own private track in your back yard). One of the greatest selling points of the Elise/Exige is the ability to drive the car to a track, flog it for a few hours and then drive it back with now problems whatsoever. Since the my nearest track is over a 100 miles away this makes it a real deal breaker for me – there is no way I can justify spending $90k on a performance car that I can never track.

In conclusion I can say that the Tesla is more accessible to the general public and they will be selling them as fast as they can make them. It may not meet my needs in car but I will definitely recommend it to people who are looking for a fun second car with no track aspirations. It is an amazing car and real technological triumph - an electric car that can thrill you with absolute performance while still making you feel good about saving baby seals.

For more pictures from the Tesla tour (including more pics with my Elise) visit my Flickr photo set.

Cross posted on EliseTalk
[tags]Tesla, Roadster, Tesla Roadster, electric, EV, Lotus, Elise, tour, SFF1, green, review, sports car, [/tags]

I’ve always been hesitant to host my own blog because I imagined that it would be a truly painful process. I finally took the plunge last week and decided to set up a blog on my existing GoDaddy account. I followed Mels tutorial on “How to install WordPress on a GoDaddy account” and was quite literally done in 5 minutes. The only thing I had issues with was getting the Date & Name permalinks to work because the install did not create a htacess file. The workaround was to upload a 1 byte htaccess file to the WordPress root directory and CHMOD it to 666 - once that was done my blog was ready to go. The software itself is incredibly easy to use and I was able to quickly copy some of posts over from my old blog.
I hope to post more often now - lets see how it goes