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CPSC 411/611, Special Topics in Computer Science Virtual Reality Systems (Introduction to Immersive Virtual Environments) Monday and Wednesday: 4:40 - 5:55pm McAdams Hall 114 Instructor: Sabarish V. Babu, PhD Office: 306 McAdams Hall, 3:45 – 4:30pm Monday/Wednesday or by appointment (email) |
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General Course
Information:
This is an introductory course in the theory, technology, software, design, application, and human factor issues in Virtual Environments. The course will also cover the design and evaluation of Embodied Conversational Agents/Virtual Human Interfaces in interactive Virtual Environments. The course assumes a general technical background and some type of experience with computer graphics, user interface design, or computer vision. This course is heavily project oriented. You will create your own augmented and virtual environments. The topic can be of your choosing. If you are unsure if the course is appropriate to your skills you should talk with the instructor, Dr. Sabarish V. Babu (sbabu@clemson.edu). You can also find the syllabus here.
Pre-requisites:
Algorithms and Data Structure, C/C++ programming experience (Computer Graphics is a plus) or Consent of Instructor.
Schedule:
Project Groups:
Group No. |
Members. |
1 |
Ellie
Ebrahimi, Blair Shannon |
2 |
Yanxiang Wu, Evan Gaito |
3 |
Karen
Stritzinger, Patrick Ofriel |
4 |
Ethan
McGee, Jordan Gestring |
5 |
Nicholas
Guzzardo, Adam Boyd |
6 |
Kejun Li, David Bauman, David Burch |
List of Papers for Presentation:
· Overview of VR - Brooks,Jr., F.P., 1999: "What's Real About Virtual Reality?" IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications,19, 6:16-27
· Evaluation of Visual Displays - Tan, D.S., Gergle, D., Scupelli, P.G., and Pausch, R., "With Similar Visual Angles, Large Displays Improve Spatial Performance". Proceedings of SIGCHI 2003, 217-224, Ft. Lauderdale, FL, April 2003
· Visual Display Characteristics on User Performance – Polys, N.F, Kim, S., and Bowman D., “Effects of information layout, screen size, and field of view on user performance in information-rich virtual environments”. In Computer Animation and Virtual Worlds, p. 19-38.
· Depth Perception in HMD Virtual Worlds (Wed, Oct 3rd - Ellie Ebrahimi) - Willemsen, P., Gooch, A.A., Thompson W.B., Creem-Regehr, S.H. “Effects of Stereo Viewing Conditions on Distance Perception in Virtual Environments”. Presence Journal, Vol 17, Feb 2008, p. 91-101.
· Augmented Reality (Wed, Oct 29nd - Karen Stritzinger) - S. Feiner, B. MacIntyre, T. Höllerer, and T. Webster, “A touring machine: Prototyping 3D mobile augmented reality systems for exploring the urban environment”. In: Proc. ISWC '97 (First Int. Symp. on Wearable Computers), October 13-14, 1997, Cambridge, MA. Also as: Personal Technologies, 1(4), 1997, pp. 208-217
· Virtual Humans - Cassell, J.: Embodied conversational interface agents. Communications of ACM 43 (2000)70-78
· Responses to Virtual Humans (Wed, Oct 29th - Kejun Li) - Garau, M., Slater, M., Pertaub, D. P. and Razzaque, S. (2005) The responses of people to virtual humans in an immersive virtual environment, Presence-Teleoperators and Virtual Environments 14(1), 104-11
· Interaction Techniques - Slater, M., and Usoh, M. (1994) Body Centred Interaction in Immersive Virtual Environments, in N. Magnenat Thalmann and D. Thalmann (eds.) Artificial Life and Virtual Reality, John Wiley and Sons, 1994, 125-148
· Tracking Systems (Mon, Oct 8th - Yanxiang Wu) - Welch, Greg and Eric Foxlin (2002). .Motion Tracking: No Silver Bullet, but a Respectable Arsenal,. IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications, special issue on .Tracking,. November/December 2002, 22(6): 24.38.
· Travel and Navigation 1 (Dr. Babu) - Zanbaka, C., Lok, B., Babu, S., Ulinski, A., Hodges, L.F. (2005). Comparison of path visualizations and cognitive measures relative to travel technique in a virtual environment. IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics 11. 6. pp. 694-705
· Travel and Navigation 2 (Wed, Nov 14th - Ethan McGee) - Suma, E., Finkelstein, S., Reid, M., Babu, S., Ulinski, A., and Hodges, L.F. (2010). Evaluation of the Cognitive Effects of Travel Technique in Complex Real and Virtual Environments, IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, Vol 16, 690-702.
· Redirected Walking - S. Razzaque, Z. Kohn, and M. C. Whitton. Redirected walking. In Proceedings of EUROGRAPHICS, pages 289–294, 2001.
· Future of 3D User Interfaces (Mon, Nov 19th - Nicholas Guzzardo) - Bowman, D., Coquillart, S., Frohlich, B., Hirose, M., Kitamura, Y., Kiyokawa, K., and Sturzlinger, W. 3D User Interface: New Directions and Perspectives, IEEE Computer Graphics and Application, vol. 28, no. 6, Nov/Dec 2008, p. 20-36.
Acknowledgements:
Contributions to the lecture notes include Dr. Larry Hodges at Clemson University, Dr. Doug Bowman at Virginia Tech University, and Dr. Benjamin C. Lok at the University of Florida, with their permission. Many many thanks!
Software Libraries and Tools for Class Projects/Assignments:
Link: http://msdn02.e-academy.com/elms/Storefront/Home.aspx?campus=clemson_cs
The ids will be studentid@clemson.edu and you can reset password if necessary.
· ARToolKit VR Demo with Head Tracked Stereo
· OpenSceneGraph - VR Software Development Toolkit
o Delta 3D - Open Source Virtual Environment/Game Design SDK based on OSG rendering system
· Blender - Open Source Modeling Engine
Sample Models for Assignments: Sample Models.zip (Models in Wavefront Object Format *.obj, *.mtl, and *.rgb)
Recommended Textbook: 3D
User Interfaces : Theory and Practice by Bowman Kruiff, LaViola, and Poupvrev (ISBN 0-201-75867-9)
Course Topics:
Grading:
60% Class Project (Proposal - 20%, Preliminary Deliverables 1 – 20%, Preliminary Deliverables 2 – 20%, Final Deliverables/Demo – 40%)
15% Mid-Term Exam
20% Final Exam
5% Undergrads: Participation, Educated Discusssion, Pre-Class Preparation
5% Graduates: Research Paper Presentation
Letter grades will be calculated on a 10-point scale: 90..100 = A, 80..89 = B, etc. The instructor reserves the right to expand the grading scale, if appropriate.
Participation: Attendance is mandatory, and students are required to participate in discussions. Students are required to participate in discussions even when they are not presenting a project. Student attendance + participation is a significant 5% of the grade.
Please be on time, if you are more than 5 minutes late then I will count as 1 tardy. 2 late shows result in an absence. 3 unexcused absences results in loss of a letter grade.
Presentation: Graduate students will be required to present a 30 minute research presentation on a research paper in Virtual Reality. It is advisable to pick a date and time to do your research presentation, and not wait until the last minute to present a research paper. Presentation grade for graduate students is 5%. Presentations are evaluated based on Clarity, Presentation Quality, Background Research/Relevant Literature, Technical Content (Please remember that I have read all these papers thoroughly), and Discussion Efforts.
Class Project: Sixty percent of your grade
in this class will be based on a project that you propose. The project
content should be in the broad area of Interactive Virtual Environments/Virtual
Humans and should be appropriate to your background (including whether you are
an MS, or Ph.D. student), previous experience, and
talents. Example projects from past semesters have included: building
virtual environments, building hardware devices, and developing/implementing
algorithms for some aspect of VR software.
The
project will be given three grades based on the project proposal (20%), the
preliminary deliverables (40%), and the final deliverables (40%).
The most important part of the project is your project proposal, since it determines
everything about your project, including the grading criteria. ALL
PROJECTS WILL RECEIVE A GRADE AT THE END OF THE SEMESTER BASED ON WHAT HAS BEEN
ACCOMPLISHED BY THE DUE DATES. NOT COMPLETING YOUR PROJECT IS NOT A
SUFFICIENT REASON TO GET AN INCOMPLETE.
STUDENTS
WILL SHOWCASE THEIR PROJECTS IN A PUBLIC DEMONSTRATION AT THE END OF THE
SEMESTER TO THE DEPARTMENT, COLLEAGUES, AND VISITORS (REFRESHMENTS WILL BE
PROVIDED)
Website: The website for this course is located at: http://people.clemson.edu/~sbabu/VEcourse2011.html
PowerPoint slides for most lectures will be
available for download from the website.
Links to papers on topics of discussion will be listed on the website
and/or embedded in the PowerPoint slides.
Textbook reading assignments will be listed on the first page of each
set of slides. You are responsible for learning all the materials including
papers, 3DUI book readings, and power point slides.
Academic Integrity: Please see the following link on University
policies regarding, class room expectations, and academic integrity violations:
http://www.clemson.edu/academics/academic-integrity/
Please make sure to give credit to all
sources of information on your projects and presentations. This includes; code, power point slides,
references etc. All small group and large group projects will have to be original
work. If you find and want to use any
code that is not yours in your projects, then you will have to get permission
from the instructor.
Cheating, plagiarism, and all other
academic integrity violations will not be tolerated and you will receive an
‘F’.
Classroom Courtesy: I will not tolerate online chatting, facebook updates, conversing with your buddies about
weekend plans, etc during class hours.
In such cases, students will be asked to leave the classroom. Please raise your hand for questions and
comments.
Makeup Exams: The final exam is the makeup exam. If you miss the mid-term exam for any reason, I will count your final exam grade as that grade. Final exam will be comprehensive and therefore more difficult than the mid-term. The final exam will be given during the time slot scheduled by the Clemson University. The final exam will not be given at any other time. Don't plan to leave town before the final exam is given.