My "You Call It" blog 10-21-10

For this particular blog, I've used a combination of what I've used in the fear experiment and of the technology in the Virtual Reality Cave in the Advanced Visualization Lab to create a Virtual Reality Haunted House tour.

The haunted house would contain the following:

+3D glasses for the tour
+Virtual Reality Cave technology
+4-D technology(wind effects, water effects, etc)
+Random Monster/Ghost Appearances
+Randomly Generated Maps
+Treadmill

The reason I use random generation for this project is to play on people's fears of the unexpected and unknown, just like in Kyle's project and in my Bugaboo chair project.

Here is a "quick and dirty" mockup of what the front of the house would look like:



And this is what the inside of the house would look like:

I used "quick and dirty" sketches for the mock-ups of my creation, because I might go to Kings Island this Saturday and might spend the night at Ohio.

Response to today's class 9-13-10

So what can I say about today?

Well, today, we discussed our walking backwards, egg ideas, and AVL application blogs. When I discussed my egg idea, Beth saw what I didn't see: that I made a metaphor out of freezing my egg. The metaphor was freezing something in time, at that moment. She also discussed the phrase "I meant to do that." I was pretty surprised.

Also, we discussed limitations and that it's OK to have limitations, but not to let them limit our ideas. I have my own limitations. In fact, here's a partial list:

• Impatience
• Indecisiveness
• General Laziness
• Worrywartedness
• Jumping To Conclusions
• Impulsiveness
• Introvertedness

We also discussed the concepts of "why?" and "because..." in class. We also made up our own "why"s and "because"s on the writing boards.

We also discussed senses and were encouraged to come up with our own "sense" and create a device that appeals to that sense. Either that, or to combine answers to "Why?" and explanations under "because...".

That's all I have for now. Ta-ta!

Virtual Reality Mall 9-8-10

On Saturday of Labor Day Weekend, I went to the Castleton Square Mall. There are a lot of stores and restaurants inside and outside the mall. Newcomers to this mall could end up lost in the mall. Castleton Square may have maps inside, but sometimes maps may not be as intuitive as they should. So I thought, "Why not use the Virtual Reality Cave technology as a tour of the mall for newcomers? That way they could plan a trip to their store(s) of choice." There would be this special room in which new mall-goers enter and then use the wireless controller to move about the virtual mall modeled after the actual mall. The room would be periodically updated to include new stores.

Speaking of new stores, there can sometimes be a space in the mall with a sign that says "Coming Soon" with the name of the upcoming store. What might work even better would be a "coming attractions" style sneak-preview of the upcoming store or restaurant. That would be where the V.R. Cave from the previous technology example comes in. Mall-goers would be able to "tour" the new store/restaurant to see what it looks like in the same way new mall-goers would tour the mall. Chauncey's capstone project, the Smellevision project, would be incorporated into tours of perfume stores or restaurants to smell the perfume and food respectively.

Visiting the AVL...in 3D! 8-30-10

Today I visited the Advanced Visualization Lab in the Information Technology(IT) building. The AVL is usually closed to the public, but Chauncey Frend, a grad student in the AVL, gave us permission to enter, and what we found inside was very interesting.

First, we went into the main room of the AVL, which contained a giant computer monitor, which was a 6400 x 2400 pixel resolution. That's the largest computer monitor I ever saw. There was also this software called Timeline Express. It is used mainly by lawyers for demonstrative evidence in certain cases. We then saw a 3D scanner camera that creates a polygonal replica of a face. I think that it was pretty dead-on. We learned that the camera could be used as research for Fetal Alcohol Spectrum disorder(FAS).

Then we looked at 3D TVs through stereoscopic glasses and looked at old Viewmasters to study the origins of 3D vision. I had no idea that 3D vision had existed since the 1800s. I always thought it was primarily a 20th century thing. We discussed 3D technology for a bit, and then I brought up the Nintendo 3DS. I then learned that the 3DS uses Lenticular 3D, which involves a y-shaped view of the object.

We also saw Flash Augmented Reality in action, and we saw Chauncey's capstone, Smellevision. I had doubts about the invention and then brought Prof. Richard Edwards' lectures into the discussion about how it's not as effective as audio or video.

Finally, we went into "The Cave"(formally known as the Virtual Reality Theater) and then demonstrated the large semi-closed room in which there was a combination of wireless tracking control(much like the Wii) and 3D visual technology. We learned that the Cave is sometimes used for architecture projects and product placement proposals. We also learned that Ford Motors uses 9 units of the same technology.

We then learned about Haptics technology, which involves force feedback, similar to that of the Rumble technology in controller pads. Haptics is also used to train nursing students to properly immunize infants. We got to demonstrate the haptics technology, and I have to say, that I'm somewhat impressed. I could actually "feel" the weight of the object on the screen. I have a feeling that Haptics, Virtual Reality, and 3D can be combined to make an ultra-immersive gaming experience in the future. How soon until then is uncertain.