VDI November 9, 2006

We visited VDI (Visualization Design Institute) located right in Sheridan College Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning. VDI is an institution that has devoted most of its researches in computer visualization and simulation.

The speaker first presented the Justice Knowledge Network, an e-learning program for police to learn how to measure skid distance under different simulated circumstances. The animated movie was used to demonstrate the method of measuring and polices can practice how to measure the skid distance by selecting different situations. At the end, they will get to answer questions about the test to solidify the knowledge. The speaker told us that xml was imported into this Flash project, which we will be learning next semester.

The speaker displayed skeleton and 3D frog anatomy model. The skeleton model allowed users to get precise visualization of different parts of body. Users have the control to different composition of viewing method. Same principle applies to the 3D frog anatomy. We can rotate the frog and remove body tissues to have the model displaying just the skeleton of the frog. This is very useful for educational purpose even to users with primitive computer skill.

The GTAA driving simulation was shown to us with a gaming steering wheel and the program simulated the route from a point A to the airport. The user drives the car to get to the airport within the time frame. This simulation has the advantage of not having to worry about property loss in the case of an accident, yet they still provide a realistic experience for users to practice one such route.

Our teacher also led us to the room where body motion capturing for animation took place. A suit with motion sensor would be worn by a person. The person’s body motion will then be captured for the body motion of characters in an animation movie. Because the information being stored for motion capturing was huge, a lot of storage media were in the room for such purpose. Comparing to the way animation was done in Flash, motion capturing would be much faster and realistic for animation.

At the end, we visited the Immersion Studio. This one particular studio room has 3 screens combined for watching the movie. The special feature of the studio is that at some points in time, the movie will display options for viewers to choose the path of the story in the movie. Viewers will have a wireless touch-screen for them to make a decision on what the people in the movie should do. A global decision will then be analyzed and the movie will continue based on what the decision was made. This is kind of like video branching in our Flash lesson.

Related Links:
Computer Visualization Puts Cars Back on Buffalo’s Main Street
http://www.buffalo.edu/news/fast-execute.cgi/article-page.html?article=81050009

Computer Visualization as a Tool for Critical Analysis
http://www.architectureweek.com/2000/0614/tools_6-1.html

I-MMERSION social software for modern minds – What we do is unique – Innovation & Creativity
http://www.i-mmersion.com/innovation.shtml

Immersion Corporation Introduces Next-Generation Vibration Technology for Video Console Gaming Systems
http://www.playfeed.com/index.php/playfeed/article/immersion-announces-next-generation-force-feedback-06191615/

Real-Time 3D Kiosk Environment
http://www.lowenberg.com/multimedia/cdwork/immersion.htm

GestureTek November 3, 2006

I am very grateful that I had the opportunity to visit GestureTek, one of the leading companies in developing gesture recognition systems, and all of its currently available technologies.

The first thing that captured my attention was Illuminate Display, which is a glass panel that acts as a touch screen with the image projected from the projector that is hidden from users. Not only the stylish look of one such system made it attractive, but the simplicity of using a person’s hand gesture as an interactive method made the design intuitive and simple. This system has enriched kiosks with more interactivity. Therefore, more and more exhibitions have started to make use of this technology to attract visitors.

We also had the chance to experience gestxtreme games. A game system that is similar to the existing EyeToy where a player plays games using body motion as input. Player’s motion was tracked by a webcam to control and decide game actions and options. A more developed 3D environment was introduced in this system. One of the games was a flight simulator. A player controls the direction of the airplane in the game by shifting his/her body to the desired direction. The airplane would then avoid buildings and go through the directed route to complete the stage. Obviously, this way of game-playing is much more interactive and gives players a more realistic experience.

IREX system is a similar idea to gestxtreme, but for a different purpose. The speaker presented us this game system on the same screen where the gestxtreme was shown. Players also use their body movements to control game actions, but what’s different from gestxtreme was that more actions were involved. Games like soccer and volleyball were integrated into the experience. Players sometimes need to jump up or bend down to respond to the game. Therefore, it was mentioned by the speaker that IREX are being used not only for entertainment, but also for therapeutic treatment protocols.

GroundFX is a floor projection mainly for advertising. The system can display advertisements on almost any kind of surface. It responds to users’ body motion with animation and sound. When the tracking camera detects any motion, it triggers the system to generate animation that corresponds to the direction of the motion and the location of the moving object. Recently, we have seen more and more of these systems being applied in shopping centers. They are usually projected on the floor to create interaction with the crowd. The speaker told us that although it was first projected on the floor. Most countries in Asia do not like the idea of having their branding logos being stepped on by people. Due to this cultural difference, it was introduced to Asian countries with projection on the wall instead of on the floor.

Holopoint is yet another ground-breaking technology that can replace mouse control or touch screen in exhibitions and conference rooms. More than one tracking camera was used to track users’ gesture and position in space. Users move their hands inside a U-shaped panel to control content on the screen that is at a distance from the panel and the users. No actual physical contact with any surface was the advantage of this gesture-controlled system. It leaves the problem of unsanitary surface of traditional touch screens behind and gives users a more futuristic control that they enjoy in the process of using one such system.

Related links:
Wii Sports
http://wii.nintendo.com/software_wii_sports.html

Computer Vision Based Human-Computer Interaction
http://www.nada.kth.se/cvap/gvmdi/

Gesture Technology – technology from Minority Report in real life
http://www.videosift.com/story.php?id=7517&where=index

Gesture Recognition in Flash
http://www.gskinner.com/blog/archives/2005/03/gesture_recogni.html

Gesture Recognition
http://research.microsoft.com/~rcutler/gesture/gesture_recognition.htm