When a Pig Started to Learn OpenCV... and Ended Up Moving a Robot Arm
BackgroundI have a goal of stacking Jenga blocks with a robot arm. Not in simulation — withreal hardware that can actually knock things over. The setup ended up being an IntelRealSense depth camera bolted to the wrist of a UFactory xArm (an eye-in-handrig), OpenCV finding the best block in the frame, and the arm picking it up andplacing it on a growing stack.
But before any of that fancy motion, I needed to stop being scared of images.
Short GoalSo I started with this static photo of Jenga block ...
Hedge Fund Day 3
Hedge Fund Day 3: A Hidden Layer In Optical InfrastructureToday I looked at an early-stage hard-tech company in high-speed optical communications.
The simple version is this: as AI data centers grow, machines need to move more data, faster, with less power and lower latency. That pressure pushes optical modules to upgrade. Inside those modules are the parts that quietly decide speed, distance, power, yield, and cost.
This company is working near that hidden layer.
I do not think of it as a stabl ...
Hedge Fund Day 2
Hedge Fund Day 2: The Operating Layer For Fragmented ComputeI went in expecting to see a compute marketplace.
That was the wrong frame.
The better question is not whether a company can find cheaper GPUs and resell them at a higher price. That story is too thin. The more interesting question is whether scattered compute can be made to feel like a product.
The product is not the GPU. The product is trust in the dispatch.
That sounds obvious until you ask what “trust” requires.
The Problem Is Not ...
Hedge Fund Day 1
Hedge Fund Day 1: Compute Scheduling Is Not GPU RentalToday I looked at an AI infrastructure company.
The easy description would be: it rents out GPUs.
That description is not exactly wrong, but it misses the point. It is like calling a ride-hailing network a car-rental business. The physical asset matters, but the deeper value is coordination: matching uneven supply with uneven demand, then hiding the mess from the user.
The more interesting version of the company is this:
It is trying to turn ...
Post-CV: When the Pig Gets Overconfident (AKA Bloated)
I Am BloatedAfter finishing the Jenga stacking project, I became bloated.
Not physically. Mentally. The dangerous kind.
Jenga stacking semi-automated with OpenCV, returning best results with human authorization for grabbing.
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The Origins of an Entrepreneurship Column and the Shifting Tides of the Semiconductor Industry
DaTong ChenA few years back (2012), I was invited to write a yearlong entrepreneurship column for the Tsinghua alumni magazine Shuimu Tsinghua. Several installments recounted my experiences founding OmniVision Technologies in Silicon Valley and SpreadTrum Communications in Shanghai — a sort of summary of the first half of my life. But who could have guessed that in recent years, both companies would be acquired, delisted from the U.S. markets, and brought back to the motherland to embark on enti ...
Edelweiss with Frequencies
Click to see powerpointSin Frequencies Precal
Open notebook in Google Colab
123456789101112131415161718192021222324252627282930313233343536373839404142434445464748495051525354555657585960616263646566676869707172import numpy as npimport matplotlib.pyplot as pltfrom IPython.display import AudioSAMPLE_RATE = 44100def make_note(frequency, duration, volume=1.0): t = np.linspace(0, duration, int(SAMPLE_RATE * duration), endpoint=False) wave = volume * np.sin(2 * np.pi * frequency * t) fa ...
Robotic Arm Dos
One year later…Last year was my first encounter with the robotic arm. I managed to understand what it is and how to set it up. Sounds superficial? Indeed!
This spring semester I decided to face the robotic arm again, with a bit more patience and a bit more courage. I felt confident that at least I could learn a bit more on the software side.
Goals:The GRAND goal was to stack Jenga blocks with closed-loop visual control rather than scripted coordinates.
To achieve this, I gave myself some Sub-Goa ...
What should I do?
My Exploration of Tech:I started exploring tech at the beginning of the summer before freshman year. Before that, most of what I cared about was economics, politics, food, and tennis. So honestly, it was a pretty late start.
My real, almost logarithmic boost into technology came in the fall of my sophomore year. Through Tech and Innovation I, I found a class that gave me much more freedom to access and experiment with different areas of technology.
A lot of times, I would watch YouTube videos an ...
Post-The Great Gatsby
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