The following conversation with Diya compelled me to make a blog posting ... after a long time!
After work I picked up Diya from her after-school daycare on my way home. During the drive Diya asked:
"Baba, did you have any fun at work today?"
"Not really ... "
"Well, I had lots of fun today at school!" Then after a pause she asked, "Seriously, you didn't have any fun today at work?"
"Well, may be a little ... "
"Was it during lunch time?"
"No, it's related to a math problem I am trying to solve. Two things (two sets of parameters) are supposed to match, one of them is matching and the other is not. So, the fun part was that one of the things matched, but I can't figure out why the other one is not matching ... so it's not fun now".
"So, what is this math problem?"
I started thinking how can I explain Visual Odometry (the research field of estimating camera motion from the video) to her. Here's what I said:
"Say, I am driving on the road and have a camcorder in hand and recording a video of what I see in front. So the question is can I accurately calculate my speed, including turns, by just looking at the pictures which make the video?"
Diya almost immediately came up with the following answer, in a very confident tone:
"Technically speaking ... say if you have a car in front of you which is driving slower than you. Then after some time the car will be behind you. And if you are driving too slow, then the car in front of you will go far and far away. So, yes! You can solve the problem!"
I was speechless.
After a pause Diya asked:
"Did that help? .... I can see that it is a hard problem, but I think I solved it."
[EOF]
After work I picked up Diya from her after-school daycare on my way home. During the drive Diya asked:
"Baba, did you have any fun at work today?"
"Not really ... "
"Well, I had lots of fun today at school!" Then after a pause she asked, "Seriously, you didn't have any fun today at work?"
"Well, may be a little ... "
"Was it during lunch time?"
"No, it's related to a math problem I am trying to solve. Two things (two sets of parameters) are supposed to match, one of them is matching and the other is not. So, the fun part was that one of the things matched, but I can't figure out why the other one is not matching ... so it's not fun now".
"So, what is this math problem?"
I started thinking how can I explain Visual Odometry (the research field of estimating camera motion from the video) to her. Here's what I said:
"Say, I am driving on the road and have a camcorder in hand and recording a video of what I see in front. So the question is can I accurately calculate my speed, including turns, by just looking at the pictures which make the video?"
Diya almost immediately came up with the following answer, in a very confident tone:
"Technically speaking ... say if you have a car in front of you which is driving slower than you. Then after some time the car will be behind you. And if you are driving too slow, then the car in front of you will go far and far away. So, yes! You can solve the problem!"
I was speechless.
After a pause Diya asked:
"Did that help? .... I can see that it is a hard problem, but I think I solved it."
[EOF]
