The Blog of Ian Mercer.

Microsoft's new Image Stitching tool works really well

Cover Image for Microsoft's new Image Stitching tool works really well

Microsoft research released a new photo stitching tool. It was very easy to take a collection of images I took in Paris and turn them into a panorama which it then uploaded to the PhotoSynth site.

You can view the result here:-

Paris Panorama in Photosynth

And you can get the tool that created it here.

Related Stories

Cover Image for Time Series Data Compression

Time Series Data Compression

This new technique to compress the time series data collected by my home automation system seems to be working really well.

Ian Mercer
Ian Mercer
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Photography

My photo collection now has over 150,000 photos taken around the world and close to home. Most recently I've been shooting with a Sony A9. Prior to that most photos were taken with a Canon 5D III

Ian Mercer
Ian Mercer
Cover Image for Digital Twins are never identical

Digital Twins are never identical

Digital Twin are an online representation of a real world object, a copy of its properties in the digital world and a way to send updated and commands to it. In effect I've been making them for years but now they have a trendy name.

Ian Mercer
Ian Mercer
Cover Image for Why smarthomes are hard

Why smarthomes are hard

Why automated learning is hard for a smart home. The perils of over-fitting, under-fitting and how the general unpredictable nature of life makes it hard to build a system that learns your behavior.

Ian Mercer
Ian Mercer
Cover Image for Collinearity test for sensor data compression

Collinearity test for sensor data compression

One way to reduce the volume of sensor data is to remove redundant points. In a system with timestamped data recorded on an irregular interval we can achieve this by removing co-linear points.

Ian Mercer
Ian Mercer
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Iceland photos

Photos from a trip to Iceland pre-pandemic.

Ian Mercer
Ian Mercer
Cover Image for Bird photos

Bird photos

Bird photos mostly taken from home, but maybe some from around the world.

Ian Mercer
Ian Mercer
Cover Image for Logistic function - convert values to probabilities

Logistic function - convert values to probabilities

Another super useful function for handling sensor data and converting to probabilities is the logistic function 1/(1+e^-x). Using this you can easily map values onto a 0.0-1.0 probability range.

Ian Mercer
Ian Mercer
Cover Image for ATAN curve for probabilities

ATAN curve for probabilities

In a home automation system we often want to convert a measurement into a probability. The ATAN curve is one of my favorite curves for this as it's easy to map overything onto a 0.0-1.0 range.

Ian Mercer
Ian Mercer
Cover Image for Home Construction Advice

Home Construction Advice

Several years ago we did a major remodel. I did all of the finish electrical myself and supervised all of the rough-in electrical. I also put in all of the electrical system and water in our barn. I have opinions ...

Ian Mercer
Ian Mercer
Cover Image for T-Mobile home internet

T-Mobile home internet

I'm testing a T-Mobile Home Internet device as a backup to XFinity and a way to offload half our monthly traffic to avoid the XFinity 1.2TB cap

Ian Mercer
Ian Mercer
Cover Image for Home Automation Systems as a Graph

Home Automation Systems as a Graph

Using nodes and links to represent a home and all the devices in it

Ian Mercer
Ian Mercer
Cover Image for Showing home status with just a single RGB LED

Showing home status with just a single RGB LED

Multicolored LEDs can convey a lot of information in a small space

Ian Mercer
Ian Mercer
Cover Image for A wireless sensor network using Moteino boards

A wireless sensor network using Moteino boards

The diminutive Arduino boards include a powerful transmitter/receiver

Ian Mercer
Ian Mercer

JSON Patch - a C# implementation

Ian Mercer
Ian Mercer
Cover Image for Aurora photos

Aurora photos

Some photos from my trip to Iceland in September 2012

Ian Mercer
Ian Mercer
Cover Image for A Quantified House - My Talk to the Seattle Quantified Self Meetup

A Quantified House - My Talk to the Seattle Quantified Self Meetup

My talk to the Seattle Quantified Self meetup

Ian Mercer
Ian Mercer

Integrating an Android phone into my home automation system

Some new features for my home automation using an Android phone

Ian Mercer
Ian Mercer

Before there was the web there was BeebTel

Just thought I should mention that I built a web-like system before the web existed

Ian Mercer
Ian Mercer

My first programme [sic]

At the risk of looking seriously old, here's something found on a paper tape

Ian Mercer
Ian Mercer
Cover Image for The Internet of Dogs

The Internet of Dogs

Connecting our dog into the home automation

Ian Mercer
Ian Mercer
Cover Image for Juvenile Red-Tailed Hawk on the fence today

Juvenile Red-Tailed Hawk on the fence today

Photos from around Sammamish

Ian Mercer
Ian Mercer

Timelapse video using the GoPro HD Hero

Ian Mercer
Ian Mercer

Web site crawler and link checker (free)

Ian Mercer
Ian Mercer

Smart home energy savings - update for 2010

Ian Mercer
Ian Mercer
Cover Image for How to shoot good video

How to shoot good video

Ian Mercer
Ian Mercer
Cover Image for The Hoh Rainforest - Olympic National Park

The Hoh Rainforest - Olympic National Park

A trip to the Hoh rainforest on the Olympic Peninsula, WA

Ian Mercer
Ian Mercer
Cover Image for Canon Powershot D10 Underwater Camera

Canon Powershot D10 Underwater Camera

Ian Mercer
Ian Mercer
Cover Image for A better way to share photos ...

A better way to share photos ...

Ian Mercer
Ian Mercer
Cover Image for Lunar Eclipse June 2010

Lunar Eclipse June 2010

Ian Mercer
Ian Mercer
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Seattle by Night

Ian Mercer
Ian Mercer

Elliott 803 - An Early Computer

Ian Mercer
Ian Mercer

Looking forward to the new year and our new datacenter

Historical note about moving my servers into a datacenter

Ian Mercer
Ian Mercer

Second Drobo Update

At this point things were looking up for my Drobo

Ian Mercer
Ian Mercer

It's all about disk speed

Why disk speed is the most critical aspect for most modern PCs and servers

Ian Mercer
Ian Mercer

Comcast woes and a new monitoring utility

Monitoring a cable modem using its HTML management interface

Ian Mercer
Ian Mercer

Core duo desktop machine runs cool

Ian Mercer
Ian Mercer
Cover Image for New Home Automation Server

New Home Automation Server

Ian Mercer
Ian Mercer
Cover Image for Preparing for death

Preparing for death

A friend died last year, it wasn't unexpected. He left a lot for his friends to cleanup. Maybe these notes can help someone else prepare better.

Ian Mercer
Ian Mercer