MuteTab and Chromium tab-muting API (Fall 2010-February 2013, 2015-2016)

I created a Chrome extension to help users find which tab is making a noise in their browser. I also helped design/build a tab muting extension API in Chromium to support the extension. Extension was featured on the front page of Reddit, TechCrunch, Slashdot, Lifehacker, and Gizmodo; over 500,000 installations.

Extension written in JavaScript using Chrome extension API. API changes written in C++.

BART Backtracker (September 2014)

At TechCrunch SF hackathon (and a little time afterward to fix things up), I built a mobile-friendly HTML5 website that tells you how far you can backtrack within BART to get the best seat while not missing your train.

Uses node.js, BART real-time API, Bootstrap.

hnuser (March-September 2014)

I am making use of Algolia's hnsearch API (which came out this year) to explore all of a user's past comments and stories on Hacker News and to track their karma over time and the breakdown between each kind. Code separated out into small npm modules (hnuserdownload, hnuserstats).

Uses node.js, express, jade, nvd3 (charts)

mute.fm (June 2012 - November 2013)

I built software that automatically mutes or pauses your background music when you play a video on desktop systems.

Featured on Lifehacker.

Written in C# and JavaScript using Awesomium.

MMO Spacewar (April 2012)

When MMO Asteroids was released as a response to an April Fools joke and as a demo project for Firebase, I noted in a Hacker News thread that since the game did not have asteroids, it seemed more like Spacewar. Over the following week, I made a fork of the project to behave more like Spacewar. Through this, I also started forming a general open source library to handle game instances for HTML5/JavaScript games.

Written in JavaScript using Firebase as a database.

Splashback-like game (Summer 2010)

I created an iPhone version of a game I saw on Digg a few years back called Splashback.

Written in Objective C.

Content-Based Routing (Spring 2005)

With Eric Hill and Mindy Preston, I implemented an application-layer framework that efficiently routes streaming XML-like traffic based on its content and user subscriptions. You can find our project writeup here; I wrote most of the value-based forwarder code and the initial version of the subscriber. This project is an implementation of a paper coauthored by our networking professor. (Update: in contemporary terms, this can be thought of as a simple implementation of Storm.) Written with C++, pthreads, Berkeley sockets, and XML on a Linux machine.

Extended Channel Film Plug-in for PBRT (Spring/Summer 2005)

I have written a plug-in for Stanford Graphics' Physically Based Ray Tracer that allows writing depth, surface normals, surface parameterizations, and world coordinates to OpenEXR files. This has been made available to the PBRT community and can be found (with source) here. This started out as a portion of a project for my rendering class in the spring, but I rewrote it (in a cleaner, more extensible way) over the summer. Written in C++ with OpenEXR on both in both Linux and Windows.

Pac-Man-like Game (Spring 2004)

Over the period 2003-04, I built a few 2D games to try my hand at game design and understanding how to make a polished game. I created a Tetris clone, a Pac-Man like game, and a two-player tile puzzle game. My Pac-Man-like game features basic 2D collision detection, finite state machines, and A* path-finding. The game uses AI for not only the ghosts, but for Pac-Man as well. (The reason this is possible is that the game features two Pac-Men racing to get the most coins before time runs out.) Written in C++ with OpenGL on a Windows machine.

More details...

Download It (EXE, 680 KB)

Flocking Simulation (Spring 2002)

For the second project in my animation class, I implemented Craig Reynolds' flocking simulation. The simulation allows a group of objects to travel together without centralized control. I wrote an OpenGL program to fine-tune the algorithm and then created a plug-in for the algorithm in Maya. This software was used to animate fleeing rats in the short animation Gertie, Interrupted. Written in C++ with OpenGL on a Windows machine.

Click on the below link to read the official documentation for this software.

More details...

Download It (EXE, 230 KB)

Gertie, Interrupted (Spring 2002)

This is a three-minute animation that my group (Michael Freytag, Rachel Heck, Thien Tran, and I) created as a final project in my computer animation class. The film features Gertie the Dinosaur, the first character created primarily for the purpose of animation. The goal of this project was for each group member to design a technical piece and to integrate them into the animation pipeline. I wrote a Maya plug-in to animate the rats as they escape the crushed house. I also modeled the mountains and laid out the houses and trees that made up the world.

If you click on the link below, it will take you to the project website. If you have problems watching the movie, you may need to install the DivX codec. (Get it here.)

More details...

Watch It (AVI, 63 MB)

Motion Capture Viewer (Spring 2002)

In my computer animation class, Chris Mizerak and I created a program to view and edit motion capture data. The program allows displaying multiple animations, editing the motion's path, and includes visuals such as shadows, a reflective floor, and a spotlight that follows the motion. Click on the link below for a more thorough list of features, accompanied with screenshots.

Note that to make use of this program, you will need to find one or more BVH files, since the ones that we tested the program with were proprietary. I found one here, although I have not had a chance to see if this particular file parses okay (unfortunately, the program uses a large window and doesn't allow resizing it, so I can't run it on my laptop to test it.) Written in C++ and OpenGL on a Windows machine.

More details...

Download It (EXE, 220 KB)

Rules-Driven Simulation (Spring 2001)

I built this program with Michael Tesch in a Natural Language Processing and Virtual Reality course. The idea is that semantic triples (which originate from a natural language parser, the execution of prior rules, or sensing the scene) can be used to control the movement of 3D meshes. The program supports some general Boolean (and, or, not) and geometric (follow, flee, spin, collides, etc.) relations and includes a collection of OBJ meshes. If the program was extended further, it could potentially be used to create simple rules-driven games where rules can be changed on the fly via natural language expressions. Written in cross-platform Linux/Solaris/Windows C++ with OpenGL mostly on a Linux machine.

Town Simulation (Fall 2000)

This was the final project in my introductory computer graphics class. The goal was to simulate a large town and to bring it to life (kind of like a poor man's Grand Theft Auto III). The professor wrote his own solution to the assignment that we could build off of, but Bob Marinier and I decided to write our own from scratch. I designed a system to manage the location, size, and the display of each object in the world. One of the challenges in this project was that if you draw the entire world, it results in a really low frame rate. We used techniques such as drawing only cars, buildings, and trees that are near the camera, back-face culling, and pre-computing cars' paths to speed up the program. Written in C++ and OpenGL on a Windows machine.