Tuesday, August 4, 2009 9:47 PM CDT
A dose of inspiration with dual controls
By HERB MEEKER, Staff Writer
hmeeker@jg-tc.com
MATTOON — You never know what you might run into in Room 114 of Webb Hall at Lake Land College.
That’s where the computer students brainstorm and tinker with all kinds of projects. Call it an arcade of inspiration.
This week, the computer students showcased their unique projects this summer through the Advanced Animation and Human Computer Interface classes
A soft-spoken Abhay Mane, a student from Pune, India, showed off the “choppers,” a 3-D program for assisting dental training. The program shows the teeth, gums and other features to help provide sensation guides to dental students. The program uses a haptics device to provide guidance and sensations on different dental and gum health scenarios.
“This is one of the most challenging assignments that I have worked on. We only had an idea of what we wanted to do with little more than the Falcon haptics device at our disposal. Everything else was done using open source software which we had no idea if it would ever work,” Mane said.
The program was working fine Monday showing how it could benefit dental teaching.
Brandon Stevens of Charleston was having people make facial movements to activate software for cursor positioning via face-tracking for gesture-based gaming and computing. This could help people eliminate the need for keyboard on repetitive data input or help the disabled.
Across the room, Josh Jennings of Charleston was working on the infrared multi-touch table, which uses infrared light and a camera to track fingers over the table and then convert it into input for programs. Lake Land appears to be ahead of some universities on this project.
“A few weeks ago, I went to SIU-C to visit their open house. When I was there I spoke to [an instructor in] the information system technologies department and mentioned the touchtable. He was very impressed and said they were building one of their own and still needed to work the kinks out,” Jennings said.
What makes the Lake Land classes produce so more inspiration than procrastination? It might have a lot to do with the laid-back environment.
“What I liked about this class was the healthy constructive environment. The open, project-based approach of the class made independent thinking very easy, while at the same time giving people the opportunity to help others,” said Brett Sawyer of Mattoon, who worked on a swordplay, gunfire game with immersive elements like a vest for feeling blows from enemies on the screen.
For those who think this class with its projects like combat games and pinball and music programs is about fun and games the result is very relevant. It makes the students think outside the box.
“What is done in this class uses the age-old-never-fail method of trial and error, just like you would be doing into he real world,” said David Matherly of Greenup, whose Mecwarrior simulator could get addictive with some visitors during the presentations. Other presenters in the first room included Matthew Mentkowski, Daniel Werner Spencer Williams, Wendell Haws, Jeremy Albert and Joshua Bloom.
A door down, Jeremiah Vonderheide of Shumway had visitors spinning wheels as they put the Rovio robot modification remote control system through a miniature obstacle course of ramps and cardboard structures. The driving by remote and computer screen was a challenge even for gray-haired drivers. Like the virtual program of the Lake Land College, a project including many students in Lake Land computer classes, the Rovio modification can help in different ways, from simple pickup tasks to checking on the food bowl for your dog during a vacation.
Vonderheide said the experience in the class this summer was enlightening for his technology education.
“I have learned more about computer input and output devices this summer than I’d ever expected to. I have a new-found confidence in electrical work,” Vonderheide said.
Brandon Barta of Charleston and and Joel Ascenzo of Bethany were concentrating on computer-generated graffiti with a webcam-tracked laser pointer on a projected screen. The mix of color can be used on a small screen or even projected on a 10-story building, depending on the power of the projector device.
If they could laser a message on a tall wall on the computer applications from Lake Land they might sum it up in one word: “Awesome!”
Contact Herb Meeker at hmeeker@jg-tc.com or 238-6869.
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