The ultimate trial case--my first born

Even though I have not finished my grant report (2 monthss over due now), I've just been blessed with the ultimate test subject for creating a life log of financially anchored transactions with artifacts of geometry that could be documented using X3D and managed in a virtual world/environment. As of 06 May 08, I am the father and a parent of a healthy baby boy.

For the health view I have fetal sonagrams in 2D and 3D that are date and time stamped. I have MPEG4 HD quality video and audio, and megapixel 24-bit color photos too of him. I inventoried his possessions, some 355 items (durable items only; diapers and such aren't counted even though we bought them) and dropped them into Home Inventory of Quicken for Mac for my wife to tag the 13 fields about each picture (a single-sided 2D view). He doesn't own any land yet and he doesn't have a financial account (i.e., 529) just yet either--next year for his first birthday he'll have a college fund established.

Anyway, the best I'm doing is collecting the manufacturers names and products we patronized to provide the lifestyle we choose for him.

One another note, I'm still waiting to start my duties as the Co-chair for the Web3D Consortium 3D CAD Working Group this summer. That should be an exciting time as the working group revitalizes itself with standard making activities.

I've been on the periphery of the recent flurry of activity in the H-Anim working group.

Distracted yet determined

I visited the author's web site for Virtual Reality Technology Second Edition and downloaded the nine chapters of lecture notes. The 894 slides and 33 movies (~40 min) are informative. The X3D Graphics for Web Authors textbook has a narrower scope than the VR Technology text and the X3D Grahpics for Web Authors' web site has 572 lecture slides but hundreds of VRML/X3D files on the SAVAGE CD and the VRML 2.0 Sourcebook web pages for viewing and reuse.

The task before me is specifying detail requirements how to automate the ingestion of X3D scenes via email (for example) into a user's database application so the end user does not have to integrate the file into his/her X3D scene graph.

To architect the data traffic patterns for nHand software (database) development, a year-long study of 112 populations of 1,000 people (half male and female) each of a single age (i.e., 1,000 fetuses, 1K 1 yo, ..., 1K dead people for less than a year) equally distributed over the USA including tribal nations and US territories (e.g., zip codes or counties) is needed. Similiarly, a proporational sample of non-human legal entities (not governments but commercial corporations) need to be studied. And lastly, all government local, state, tribal and federal and the national government needs to be studied for one year from a data traffic perspective.

I'm reading an international bestseller The Dollar Crisis: Causes, Consequences, Cures by Richard Duncan and in Chapter 1, he explains the Balance of Payments figures in the International Finance Statistics he references. I see an analogy between countries monetary systems and the relationship between trading items amongst governments, corporations and citizens. There is a balance of traded items like there is a balance of paper money. Both are created and destroyed at will by humans. So what?!? I don't know the relevance yet.

So enterprises' IT infrastructure is sized based on data volume (stock) and transactions (flow), amongst other items. It would be interesting to know for a single year what the volume of financial transaction-based data flows between governments, corporations and citizens of the USA. Just as important for nHand software development is knowing three other perspectives of data flow and the complete listing is below.

Data volume generated in a year--creating, destroying, and trading items directly correlates to this rate

Data volume shared with others in a year--querying databases other than your own enterprise and proffering data from your enterprise to other enterprises directly correlates to this rate. this really is a push (items or objects) dynamic versus a pull dynamic.

Data volume queried in one year--searching your own database directly correlates to this rate. For example, you scroll through your entire medical history or diet history (i.e., yes, 3 meals/day for 10K days = 30K meals) once a month just because you can.

Data volume data volume planned--identifying traded items (tentative world) you want at specified times, which are either discarded or retained for planning.

Past Due...Pressing On

I didn't have a finished report as planned on the 31st of March 2008. I had 20 pages of notes mostly high level outline content and 50+ references I had read that included a few more than 15 conversations with notworthy individuals about the X3D graphics standards or the concept of nHand software. My work continues in the midst of lockdowns and wearing body armor to work every day in Baghdad, Iraq to manage projects that revitalize the economy of Iraq.

A few interesting events occurred in the last four weeks. Prof Brutzman (co-author of X3D for Web Authors) visited the National Security Space Office at my request to discuss X3D Graphics and what it can offer to the NSSO for architecture development of national space capabilities. I got a free white light 3D body scan in Reston, VA that was exported to VRML1.0. Don Brutzman was scanned to and we talked to the physician who hosted the Novaptus owned scanner about the X3D graphics standards. Dr. Aratow of the Web3D Consortium passed along a contact, Dr. Yasnoff, who he met at medical virtual reality conference in Las Vegas, NV. I made contact with Dr. Yasnoff and being busy with other work at NIIAdvsiors, he said he would get to my questions later. Lastly, I was offered to co-chair the Web3D Consortium CAD Working Group with Yumetech's president, Alan Hudson, who is the Web3D President too.

Week 38 - transitioning from interest to investment

I never got an answer or contact from the DHHS CTO on the medical question I asked. My company's CMO did get three replies back to the same question and all three were vague--not much storage will be required for non-imaging data over a century. A doctor who attend a conference a couple weeks ago in Las Vegas did ask a pointed question of a speaker who present a health informatics brief and this guy answered without hestitation--~1 GB for non-imaging data. But he gave no range for imaging data over the same period for any type of patient.

After a recent conversation with my Grant Directorl, I will be writing the X3D report for an audience that wants to know more about what the industry has done with the standard and were the investment is in various sectors. Along those lines, I will summarize the Web3D Consortium posture and plans. The future of X3D is driven by the members of the numerous working groups in the Web3D Consortium. I will report on the inter-working group exchange and how the groups help and hinder one another. The Consortium has workfing groups that focuses on Earth (X3D Earth), which is collaborating with the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity; a WG focusing on anthropomorphic modeling (H-Anim), which should work with the WG focusing on 3D imaging of the human body (MedX3D); a WG focusing on CAD Distillation, (CAD Distillation Format), which should not be call distillation because it implies a loss of information and that does not have to be the case when formatting a close data format into the X3D format. There are other WGs that you will be able to read about in the report.

Week 34 - Lots of talking and reading about EHR...

I've had to explain my grant to a few more officials like the Chief Technology Officer of the Dept. of Health and Human Services and CSC Chief Medical Officer when asking for what I thought would be readily available data. What is the digital data footprint of human health maintenance from conception through post-mortem? Really a pre-natal to post grave question that no one seems to have asked or answered. Amazing! Granted, I am talking about 100+ years of data, half of which would not be natively captured or created in a digital format if one uses the records of the recently perished centenarians opposed to estimates of recently born humans who will become centenarians. Moreover, the term "health maintenance" is suppose to imply the fees for services and goods when you are sick or ill thru the time you are declared well or healthly. Ideally, I would include the fees for services and goods that comprise the choices humans make to reach optimal health and fitness too! I am waiting for an answer from the DHHS CTO and CSC CMO. My guess is the 100 years of data volume is between 100 - 500 GB, depending on the type of illnesses and treatments received. The enumerated list of data generating events should total no more than 500 and there should be no more than 1,000 instances for any given data generating event (500,000 = 500 x 1000 or 1 MB/event on average).

Week 30 International Zone and X3D Strategy

I'm in the IZ of Iraq now and my routine has formed. A couple things about my grant report writing progress. It's going slower than expected but I'm still confident I'll have a decent product by 31 Mar 08.

The key to making my idea a reality is choosing to architect a database system to handle the random influx of X3D files from an individual's service provider and manufacturer as he/she acquires services and goods. While I am coming across 3D applications that may or may not be using X3D for the presentation layer but are using large knowledgebases like in IBM's recent 3D medical application for doctors, no one has initiated the standardization of goods and services' digital representation into X3D. Doing so will stimulate B2B and B2C markets for powerful database applications that use artifical intelligence and extensible user input controllers to spatially browse, search and reconfigure X3D worlds that are life logs for perusing and planning events. The convergence of X3D Earth, MedX3D with vanilla X3D has yet to emerge but is needed to get at creating an application that manages the equivalent diversity of human life in the modern world of land & water rights/usage, other real property rights/ownership/usage and medical/fitness treatment/coaching. All three of these categories circumscribes an individuals' basis of wealth, income, and expenses, which are so easily to loss track of if one is not disciplined to use a system of bookkeeping and accounting that adapts with oness lifestyle. The same can be said for small to large enterprises.

It will be interesting to hear the reactions to these concepts when I introduce them to the Iraqis while I improve business and stability operations with five other project managers over 30 industrial revitalization candidates throughgout this country.

Week 27 Headed to Camp Victory, Iraq

I depart for Iraq via Kuwait this week. With only 90 days until I turn my report, I'll renew my part-time efforts and post progress almost daily. Even though I will not have worked on this grant as expected, I will continue to deepen my knowledge of X3D for usage with North American Public Sector clients open to 3D graphics for their web presence.

I have come across two X3D browsers for mobile devices. One from Italian company that emerged out of the Udine and one from a German company, BitManagement.

I've been learning Enterprise Architect slower than I planned but I've have more time to draft all 10 or so application UML/SysML diagrams in Jan 08.

As I talk to individuals about the concept of human, nature, manufactured goods and services rendered for all three, I get positive responses for the ideas. I haven't had any luck with cold emails to researchers about their thoughts on the topic. I should expect a low reply/response rate so I will turn to the Web3D consortium member priviledges I have to solicit feedback on my work.