Brian Thorne

Welcome to the quickly hacked together site of Brian Thorne

Glad you could make it! Here you can learn a small bit about me, see some of my projects and get in contact with me.

Who am I?

I am a robotics student at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand due to finish in 2010. I'm visiting America and Canada for a few months before school goes back. I like to geek hard, dvorak and python would be my trademarks, my last flat had a homemade projector and a MPI cluster.

I am really into the outdoors; I kayak, tramp(hike), climb, and mountain run. I grew up in Te Anau, New Zealand (pictured at the top). You can find some pictures on my picasa web albums page.

I have a "geek" blog where I have written up some of my projects here.

Current Coding Projects

• Scipy-Simulator - Summer research scholarship investigating graphical models using python. Project description.
• Open Allure Dialog System - Computer Vision based navigation system for Python.

Past Coding Projects

• Introduction to Computer Vision in Python talk at Kiwi Pycon (presentation, published paper)
• Comparing the performance of C and Python for Computer Vision (paper submitted to NZCSRSC'10)
• Pycam - a Pygame module for computer vision
• SARBOT - Wrote Java code to operate a Qwerk powered robot in a semester long Search and Rescue project - also wrote Matlab code to carry out the computer vision
• Mailite - a mailing list and mail forwarding program
• Worked on porting OpenEyes library - gaze tracking
• Ported the Matlab Fixed Point Toolbox to Python (while working at Tait Electronics)
• Comparing Matlab and Python for digital signal processing work (while at Tait Electronics)
• Misc embedded systems programming on AtMega8 - school repo
• Created and maintain a few websites: Bev's Tramping Gear Hire, Ana's Place, University of Canterbury Cannoe Club

Other interesting projects or positions

• I was a Java tutor in '09 and am a Python tutor in '10
• Designed and edited a magazine for the kayaking club in Christchurch, New Zealand
• Canterbury University Tramping Club Captain '09, and now the Club President for '10
• While at high school I started a computer building and parts business with an OsCommerce run website (was hardbyte.co.nz)

How should you contact me?

Well if you're from Google, please email me at hardbyte@gmail.com.

If you're from Facebook, I am user brianthorne1.

If you're someone else you will have to use their tools to contact me.

Quotes I like

It should be noted that no ethically-trained software engineer would ever consent to write a DestroyBaghdad procedure. Basic professional ethics would instead require him to write a DestroyCity procedure, to which Baghdad could be given as a parameter. - Nathaniel Borenstein

Excuses are excuses, talk is talk, bygones are bygones because performance is reality.

The more you understand, the less you have to remember.

'Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance.' - Confucius