Ecce Signum – Page 98 – Immanentize the Empathy

Social Responsibility

2006-08-30 John Winkelman

Well, I have been picking away at this project for a couple of weeks now, and I think I am ready to unleash it upon the world at large:

Announcing the Interactive Map of Grand Rapids, Michigan Criminal Incidents.

I first began toying around with this idea last October when someone broke into my car and stole my radio. As the week progressed at least half a dozen other cars on my block were broken into, quite probably by the same person. It got me thinking: If we could get some idea of the general time of the incidents, and find all car break-ins in the surrounding blocks, then the information could be used to catch the bastard.

I let this idea gestate for a while as other things — house, school, tai chi — took precedence.

A couple of months ago I grabbed a user key from Google Maps and started playing around with the API, exploring what could and could not be done, and how. I also started looking online for reports of the various crimes which happen in Grand Rapids every day. I was surprised (and quite disappointed) to see that there was practically no useful information about criminal activity available online. Statistics are out there, but those are cold numbers, with nothing like specific date, time, location and type of crimes.

As I continued to look I discovered that WOOD TV’s website was the only place in the whole of the worldwide web which consistently reported crime and — more importantly — archived the stories. So the WOODTV archives became my data set.

There are currently 47 incidents on the map. They were all I could find reported in 2006. They represent, I suppose, the worst of the crimes committed, but they also represent the least common crimes. News outlets don’t report when someone’s car is robbed, or when someone is mugged with no bloodshed. So assuming that the extremes of antisocial behavior are the result of day-to-day pressures the map gives a fairly accurate view of what is going on in Grand Rapids.

But it is not enough. At a rough guess, this is perhaps 10 percent of the activity in the city. The smaller incidents affect more people, and so ultimately they are the more important data. A friend has promised to connect me with a GRPD officer who may be able to provide me with the data I need. When that happens you will see a sharp jump in the number and variety of incidents pegged on the map.

HOW TO USE THE MAP:
Each colored icon represents a crime as reported at woodtv.com.
Different crimes are represented by different colors.
Click on the icons to see the associated details.
Use the dropdown menus above the map to filter the crimes by type, date, zip code, and city quadrant. Hit the “RESET” button to reset all of the filters.
Use the tool in the upper-left corner of the map to zoom in and out, and to scroll in the four cardinal directions. You can also click-and-drag anywhere on the map to move it around.

And most important — let me know what you think of my efforts. If you would like to see additional features, or if you know of additional sources of information, or anything else, please let me know.

The Soul-Sucking Bliss of Material Possessions

2006-07-31 John Winkelman

Have spent the past few days taking care of things around the house, and preparing for the arrival of a couple of new things. Just this morning I had the pleasure of spending an hour or so with the exceptionally talented Matt Van Heulen of Clear Advantage Mechanical, who got my air conditioner up and running just in time for (apparently) the Earth to plunge into the sun. I kid you not: I saw at least one dog burst into flames while being walked along my street this afternoon. Right now outside: 94 degrees and miserably humid. Right now inside: 78 degrees and dry.

On Wednesday I will receive my new (first,only) washer and dryer, which means no more trips to the laundromat. I think I will miss it, just a bit. Sunday morning is a fine time of day to be alone in a crowd with a notebook and a novel. Before I get those things up and running I get to play in the exciting world of installing a 240v line in my basement, hopefully without making myself smell like cooked bacon.

I just finished re-reading the Baroque Cycle by Neal Stephenson. When the books came out a couple of years ago, they were published at six-month intervals, so I read them at six-month intervals. A lot of the small details — and there were manymanymany small details — were lost. Having just read them (2700 pages!) back to back, I discovered that, taken in total, the Cycle is one of the finest stories I have ever read. If you have a couple of months to spare, I highly recommend putting forth the effort.

Last Sunday I took a break from Stephenson and read the latest installment in the Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind: Phantom. It is a decently good book. Not Goodkind’s best work, but far from his worst. He seemed to reach his nadir a couple of volumes back, using his work as a platform for his political views at the expense of the story he had been telling. With the last two books he is back on track. Definitely worth picking up in paperback, or hardcover if you are a die-hard fan.

The big giant work project wound up today, which means relatively low-stress days for the next couple of weeks until the next big thing lands on me.

Time to go to the beach.

Longhorn

2006-07-25 John Winkelman

A longhorn beetle which I have not yet successfully identified. Photo taken in late May.

Katydid on Lily

2006-07-24 John Winkelman

Immature katydid photographed at Blandford Nature Center this past weekend.

Viceroy

2006-07-02 John Winkelman

A Viceroy butterfly; distinguishable from a Monarch by the curved black stripes on the lower wings. Photo taken at Blandford Nature Center in late May.

My Other Home

2006-06-20 John Winkelman

A little over a week ago I signed up for the yearly GameDev.net Four Elements contest. Over the next five-and-a-half months, in my free time, I will attempt to build a trading simulation game based in the Ukraine in the year 1000AD. Updates here have been sparse because I have been posting in my developer’s journal.

If anything significant happens over there, I will provide a link to it here. Otherwise, if you like deeply technical stuff, are interested in Flash and/or game programming or the medieval Black Sea region, feel free to stop in from time to time.

The Long, Slow Days of Summer

2006-06-19 John Winkelman

The day of our Festival performance, June 3, started out on a less-than-promising note. Waves of hail and rain alternated with beautiful sunshine and 75-degree weather.

While we warmed up for the show we hoped we would get lucky. There was a decent-sized crowd, all told, considering what the weather had been doing all day.

But, our luck did not hold out. we ended up underground in the entrance to the county building, along with a captive audience. So we decided to perform anyway. Unfortunately, after the first tai chi form security closed us down, saying another storm, this one including golfball-sized hail, was on its way in. So we called it a day.

The next morning I wandered down to festival again, and listened to some music, and took some photos. Tom Otterness has sculptures up all over town, all of which are quite nifty.

Blues on the Mall kicked off its 2006 season on Wednesday, with Kenny Neal providing the tunes.

Thursday morning, while I was working from home, the local cottonwoods did their thing.

Summer is no time to spend in front of a computer.

I Am Prime!

2006-06-05 John Winkelman

Today is my birthday. I am 37 years old. To celebrate, I am working from home today.

The martial arts demo on Saturday was rained out. Very disappointing. I guess I can’t complain too loudly, though; I think this is the first time this has happened. We managed to sneak in a single tai chi form down in the underground entrance to the city center, then security shut us down before the golfball-sized hail hit the city.

Well…Whattayagonnado?

Creating a Sensory Input-Based Monster AI, Part I

2006-05-30 John Winkelman

As a thought experiment I am putting together a generic artificial intelligence which I can use for bad guys/NPCs in a variety of different games. There are myriad paths I could follow in creating AI, so for right now I am going to concentrate on two inter-related tasks: awareness and morale. In other words, when does X become aware of another entity, and what does X do in response to that awareness?

For the purposes of this essay there will be two entities: a deer and a wolf. I will discuss the reactions of the deer.

The first step is to create a triggering event. In this case, proximity. Using whatever senses are available to it, somehow, at some point as the wolf approaches, the deer becomes aware of it. This could be something like a twig snapping, or movement in shadows, or wolf-smell on the wind. In any case, the first level of this system is Awareness.

Once the deer is aware that Something is out there, the next step is to determine what that thing is. It could be another deer, or a faun, or a human, or the wolf. Without making that determination the deer cannot react appropriately. It might run in terror from the faun, or stand still while the wolf attacks. So the second level of the system is Recognition.

Once the approaching entity is recognized, the deer can take the appropriate action; in this case, run in terror from the wolf. Or if the deer is protecting a faun, move to attack/distract the wolf while the faun flees. This level of the system is Reaction.

So: Awareness to Recognition to Reaction. Think of them as concentric rings centered on the deer. As the wolf enters these rings its proximity triggers different responses. These distances can be displayed as a sequence of numbers; for instance [20/10/5]. [Awareness/Recognition/Reaction].

Awareness will always be the largest number. Without being aware of something, the deer cannot either recognize or react to it.

Either recognition or reaction may be the next largest number, or they may be equal. In any case, neither of them may be larger than the Awareness number, although they may be equal to it.

So: [10/5/10] would be a “legal” description, but [5/10/5] would not.

Using this system a wide variety of behaviors may be put into place with little effort. The following are some examples:

[10/5/2] — Long-range awareness, medium-range recognition, short-range reaction. A semi-tame, slow-moving, not-too-bright animal. A farm cow, for instance. Knows you are there, knows who you are, doesn’t much care.

[10/5/10] — Long-range awareness and reaction, medium-range recognition. Guards at a gate. Something is out there, so immediately set out after it. Once they are close, it may be recognized and perhaps another action performed.

[10/5/1] — Long-range awareness, medium-range recognition, extremely short-range reaction. A bored, disaffected clerk at a store. Knows you are there, knows who/what you are, doesn’t do anything until you actually poke him in the shoulder.

[10/1/10] — Long-range awareness and reaction threshold, contact-range recognition. A rhinoceros during mating season, which charges anything it detects, and only stops when it recognizes “Ooh! That’s a train!”, or something of the like at extremely short range. Basically this is an unthinking reaction to the presence of another entity.

It occurs to me that this could be made less “broad” and more “deep” by changing to a two-level “awareness/reaction” and “recognition/reaction” system. For the purpose of simple- to medium-complexity games I like the three-level approach. In particular playing around with the distance between “recognition” and “reaction”, allowing for simulating different levels of intelligence or bravery, and startle-reactions, such as an enemy suddenly appearing well within the “reaction” threshold, causing a panic reaction; or a particularly slow-witted (think “drunk”) critter standing around gob-smacked while being charged by a bull.

Note that this AI system is for an “initial contact” situation, where another entity is first entering into awareness range, or has been outside of awareness range long enough that the “deer” has forgotten the entity was there. Reactions when actually interacting with another entity will be discussed in an upcoming essay.

Tumbling Down the Walls

2006-05-21 John Winkelman

This afternoon I took a trip back to the farm to enjoy a picnic and watch our barn get knocked down. After many years of entropy the thing had finally decayed past the point of usefulness, and into the realm of being a danger to those around it.

Many years ago adjustments had been made to its structure to allow more storage space, and these adjustments had ultimately weakened the frame.

Notice that the whole end of the barn is hanging in space, with nothing but the roof beams preventing it from tumbling down.

This is the view from inside, showing how cock-eyed and beat-up the structure is.

This beam, and the one it butts into on the left, are the only things holding the barn up at this point.

Local demolisher-of-large-buildings Herbie Van Aiken provided the bulldozer and told us it wouldn’t take more than fifteen minutes to bring the thing down.

Herbie lined up on the beam he said was the keystone of the structure and, after digging up some sod, gave it a push.

I was looking for a position to take some good shots when I heard CRACK and got my camera up just in time to see the barn come down in a huge cloud of dust.