Neil Mathew - University of Waterloo

If I find myself not surrounded by robots, I dabble in a bunch of random projects that seasonally vary in tone and frequency. Here's a glimpse of a few projects I'm either working on or have worked on in the past.

Mobile

Snap! - The Sound Triggered Camera

This really started as a joke to win a free BB10 phone through Blackberry's developer relations program. I won a pitch competition at a Blackberry conference with an idea for a ROS based robotics api on Blackberry phones using QNX. Unfortunately I later learnt that Blackberry would not allow low level QNX access to apps. So I turned my focus to high speed photography, and built a voice triggered camera for BB10 devices. It started as a quick weekend project but then expanded to rival Blackberry's own camera app. It was released on the app world and quickly became one of the most downloaded apps during the BB10 launch period.

The app was featured on Crackberry and is one of the Editor's choice apps for Blackberry. Subsequently I did get my hands on a sizeable amount of blackberry swag.

Custom Instruments

I get bored with guitars that look the same. So I sometimes experiment with custom mods like rejuvination or artistic paint jobs for electric guitar pick guards and bodies. Here's a few of my latest pieces.

Graph Theoretic Projects

Hamiltonian Music

The picture is a Hamiltonian Path through the 37 unique notes/pitches on a 12 Fret guitar with a standard E A D G B E tuning. I'm exploring the applications of optimal and multi-objective path planning in the composition of music. If music is represented as a set of relationships between notes, intervals and scale variations, feasible melodic paths with time constraints can be planned through the graph, to compose riffs and melodies. A lot of work has been done in algorithmic music composition using genetic algorithms on "nice-sounding" waveforms but a graph based approach to music theory may make for some interesting experiments. While I don't see this revolutionizing the music idustry, I think it could lead to interesting insights into graph problems and optimal routing.

Web Development

A few random web projects.

Where in the Plaza

A Web app to save time when deciding where to eat in the University of Waterloo Plaza. It's a food recommendation engine that instantly suggests a place to eat based on a few preferences. As it turns out there's a significant number of lazy people on campus. WhereInThePlaza

JustFeedMe

An online food delivery service that uses personalized recommendations to send surprise meals to users based on a specified budget. Won third place and crowd favourite award at the Kitchener-Waterloo Startup Weekend 2013.