Context and Domains (Research)

So I have been doing a lot of research about the data I’m going to need for thesis, and where I should get this. The two main sources of data I am looking at are Retrosheet, which I’ve previously mentioned extensively, and the unofficial MLB xml sources which are used by the official MLB gameday app.

Both of these resources have their advantages/disadvantages, and neither completely suits my needs. I am starting to think that in order to get what I want, I will have to create a hybrid of the two, but the big question is how exactly will I do this? Here are my thoughts on the good and bad about each source:

Retrosheet:
Great resource, a pain to get into a database but once its there its very compete
Data going back to 1951
Self contained, doesn’t rely on resources that may be unavailable in the future
Doesn’t contain any current season data
No great way to get data, have to write custom XML to get data in a usable form

MLB Data:
Completely thorough
Provided in XML format that is really well executed
Updated daily for current games
Not official, no promises that it will be there in the future
Questionable as far as a data source/retrieving data repeatedly.

I have been working on creating an API for Retrosheet games that returns complete data, and I’ve made some headway but its largely a work in progress. After finding the XML based MLB data I can see that they have already tackled this and have the data in a beautiful format that is pretty much exactly what I wanted to make. They do not however have this data stored in a database or any easy way to request a game in a traditional way.

I think that my strategy for this problem will be to combine both resources into a best of both world’s situation that I can make freely available to anyone. I will adapt the MLB XML format and parse all Retrosheet games to this, taking advantage of the format already established by MLB.com as a standard and saving myself some work. I will then write code that does the opposite with the MLB.com data, checking every day of a season and breaking down their XML into data that can be put into the retrosheet database. This will likely be the hardest part of the process but I think I can figure it out. This will provide me with a complete retrosheet database with current game data and an XML format that will provide a full summary of a game in an easy to read way.

Hopefully this works out for me, if I can do this and provide access to it through my web server I think it will be exciting and a great contribution to the baseball data community.

Here is a really interesting study on multi-touch interfaces with tips on how you can create great/usable interaction and limit the amount of user frustration. Really helpful to me as a person who is just getting started with multiple inputs.
Multitouch Maven: Proof that Multitouch Isn’t Intuitive

Here’s a new toolkit for multimedia stuff using a multitouch table. Overall its been done before but just nice to have a good reference video with everything together. Awesome to see methods for using multitouch to my advantage. One thing i’m quickly realizing about multitouch is that unlike print or even a traditional computer screen, there is no real orientation unless you place it against a wall or something. I’m quickly finding out that you have to account for 360 degrees of interaction which is both challenging and awesome at the same time!

So I started buying the things I’m gonna need for my multitouch table after doing a shitload of research…

I have decided upon a Diffused Illumination setup vs a FTIR setup so that I have the option of doing fiducial tracking, which I really want to do. Its also a lot less work as far as soldering/powering/etc although I think its tough to get real good/even lighting.

Its actually pretty cheap to build a table, with the exception of the projector, which even at a heavy discount through an ebay purchase is still a pretty swift kick to my financial groin….

I settled on a BenQ MP522 Short Throw projector for both the ridiculously short throw distance (1.2 feet?!?!?) as well as the 1024×768 native resolution so I don’t get a super pixellated image. Its capable of 1280×1024 but I don’t know how that will looks since its not native. It also has 2500 lumen brightness, so it should be plenty bright for most indoor lighting. The projector goes for $870.00 new on Ebay but I got a unopened refurbished version with 0 hours on the bulb from ebay for $650.00 (plus shipping). Hopefully this will be by far the most expensive thing I purchase for thesis and I can build this table and concentrate on making software!

Here’s the projector’s New Egg page

I also ordered some IR flood lights for the table here. $18 a piece for arrays of 30 powered infrared super brights, not a terrible deal. I found another site with $16 arrays of 48 but the site has bad reviews and the lights didn’t look as nice.

I bought these here

Next things to do/buy:

• I need to get wood and plexi once I decide on dimensions and screen size. I’m thinking something around 50 inches diagonal would be pretty nice, not too big but not too small either.
• Take apart a PS3 eye and install an infrared filter on it. Also probably should get a wide angle lens for it
• Lee 225 lighting film for the projection surface and also diffusing film for the box
• power strips

I think thats it, getting there slowly but surely!

I really love the timeline element present here, this is something I really want to explore with my project. I am very interesting in how the addition of time as a dimension in visualizing data can be used effectively in interactive data projects. I think that this is the big separation between traditional data viz and computer based visualization, and all interaction past basic navigation should affect this in some way.

This thing is amazing, just watch the video!

virtual gravity – the physical weight of data from Sillenet on Vimeo.

This setup, featured in Wired magazine (found online through Engadget), is at the very least really amazing conceptually. It basically takes a live video feed of your living room and combines it with a multi-touch interface coffee table to allow you to control everything from your media (sent to tv), your lights (swipe lights in room to dim and turn off on), and even program a path for your Roomba!

Check it out here

Here is a multi touch application which is basically a tribute to ben fry and casey reas. While the app in general isn’t super amazing, I think that the interface ideas are pretty cool and the way its tilted towards the user is really awesome

http://vimeo.com/5414506

Here is a goldmine of sports visualization stuff that I found by doing some google searches. One thing this has revealed to me is that while I plan on concentrating on baseball because its what interests me the most and has the greatest possibilities as far as numerical data (that may not be true but I’m thinking it is…), its foolish for me to look for inspiration/precedence just within the realm of baseball. There are several awesome visualizations listed here which are for many other sports. One of the most intriguing that I see is the basketball vis showing where all shots from last seasons where taken from on the court. I plan on going through this page a lot more thoroughly in the near future.

http://visualizeit.wordpress.com/2009/05/07/visualization-in-sports/

I am currently reading John Maeda’s “Creative Code” as part of my thesis research, and one project in particular, “The Shape of Song” by Martin Wattenberg has grabbed my attention. In this project Wattenberg creates very interesting visualizations of songs by analyzing patterns within them, which in turn creates visuals that show the emergent patterns.

The project can be viewed Here