i have just completed getElems();. here's what a typical path to an image looks like:

../in/2007_08_20/AG020902/Heptane/100/00.22.39.jpg

and here are some example getElem function calls:

e = getElems({'2007_08_20'},{},{'Heptane'},{'100'})

when this is done, e holds all the pictures matching 2007_08_20/*/Heptane/100/*. and they will be ordered by time taken. sometimes the pictures in a directory will run across midnight, so some filenames will look like "12.59.59.jpg 00.00.01.jpg". this makes ordering by filename wrong. fortunately it's not hard to detect this. i calculate the time difference between the "latest" and "earliest" picture. if this time is too large, i know that the lower numbers (ones like "00.00.01.jpg") are actually 24 hrs later.

i just thought of something. i might be able to fake function pointers using some sort of eval function that converts strings into matlab commands. this would be such a horrible hack. i think first i should try to get some fisherface analysis. right now i don't have any of the ones i worked on weeks ago. since then i have spent no time on this. most of it has gone to my operating systems class instead.