Readinig Binary Data Episode

I deemed this week C3D week. I chose this moniker because the motion we analyze is in C3D format. Therefore, I wanted to learn everything about this format representation.

This process led me to the parser problem. I wanted to retrieve joint information from the C3D file and this meant I needed a parser. I did not know if I had to create my own so I focused on how to parse a C3D file. However, it suddenly become daunting. I was accustomed to writing text file parsers and this file was binary. It did not help that everyone had their own way to code binary parser.

This point was evident when perusing online C++ code for reading binary. On top of that, Java and C++ used the term 'char' differently, a term important to understand when writing a binary parser. My mentor advised me to go a different route since my goal was not to reinvent the wheel and create another C3D parser. Instead, find C3D parser code fragments.

I found several C3D parsers. Now that I had the parsers, I needed to focus on research project goal: identifying correctness in motion. 

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I had my weekly Tuesday meeting and afterwards spoke with a labmate Adam. Adam research had an approach that could be used in our resaerch. We talked for several minutes before heading to a presentation by another labmate. It was an interesting conversation. From this conversation, I learned I had a lot of reading to do.


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The rest of the week was spent compiling C3D parser code, reading papers and books, and revising my summary document. This document summarized the different parts of our research project. It is similar to an extremely abbreviated research paper or thesis. (Laugh to myself)