Interactive Computer Graphics, Human Computer Interaction, Virtual Reality and Digital Arts and Sciences

1. Interactive Computer Graphics,Human Computer Interaction,Virtual RealityandDigital Arts and Sciences Benjamin Lok September 20th, 2004

2. Outline • Topics • Interactive Computer Graphics • Human Computer Interaction • Virtual Reality • Jobs • Research • Skills

3. Interactive Computer Graphics

4. Motivation • We want to understand how to do:

5. Motivation

6. Why should I take this course? • An excuse to build that program/game/project you always wanted • A Computer Science course that involves a variety of skills (other than coding!) • Art • Psychology • Sound • Creativity • To play with fun toys • To show off your projects!

7. Human Computer Interaction • What is a user interface? • Why do we care about design? • We see this all the time. • What’s good about the design of this error box? • The user knows there is an error • What’s poor about the design of this error box? • Discouraging • Not enough information • No way to resolve the problem (instructions or contact info)

8. My Choice • iPod by Apple Computers • Pros: • portable • power • ease of use • # of controls • Cons: • scratches easily • no speech for car use • proprietary

9. HCI Community • Academics/Industry Research • Taxonomies • Theories • Predictive models • Experimenters • Empirical data • Product design • Other areas (Sociologists, anthropologists, managers) • Motor • Perceptual • Cognitive • Social, economic, ethics

10. HCI Tools • Sound • 3D • Animation • Video • Devices • Size (small->very large) • Portable (PDA, phone) • Plasticity • Context sensitive/aware • Personalizable • Ubiquitous

11. Usability Requirements • Goals: • Usability • Universality • Usefulness • Achieved by: • Planning • Sensitivity to user needs • Devotion to requirements analysis • Testing

12. Bad Interfaces • Encumbering • Confusing • Slow • Trust (ex. windows crashing) • What makes it hard? • Varies by culture • Multiple platforms • Variety of users • Think of a game you’ve played with a bad interface • UNIX

13. Example • Five fastest places to click on for a right-handed user?

14. Example • What affects time?

15. Virtual Reality Definition • What is virtual reality? • Virtual – • Being in essence or effect, but not in fact • Example VRAM • Reality – • The state or quality of being real. Something that exists independently of ideas concerning it. Something that constitutes a real or actual thing as distinguished from something that is merely apparent.” • What was the first VR?

16. What was the first VR?

17. Ivan Sutherland’s The Ultimate Display “Don’t think of that thing as a screen, think of it as a window, a window through which one looks into a virtual world. The challenge to computer graphics is to make that virtual world look real, sound real, move and respond to interaction in real time, and even feel real.”

18. Key Elements of Virtual Reality Experience • Virtual World - content of a given medium • screen play, script, etc. • actors performing the play allows us to experience the virtual world • Immersion – sensation of being in an environment • mental immersion – suspension of disbelief • physical immersion – bodily entering the medium • Related to presence – (mentally immersed) the participant’s sensation of being in the virtual environment (Slater) Walking Experiment at UNC – Chapel Hill

19. Augmented Reality • A combination of a real scene viewed by a user and a virtual scene generated by a computer that augments the scene with additional information. Ultrasound Visualization Research at UNC – Chapel Hill All Virtual Objects All Real Objects

20. Immersive Technology • Head-mounted Display • Optical System • Image Source (CRT or LCD) • Mounting Apparatus • Earphones • Position Tracker

21. Immersive Technology • Multi-screen Projection of stereoscopic images (CAVE)

22. Immersive Technology • Single large stereoscopic display • Projection-based • Head-tracked • Possible tracking of hands and arms. • Brings virtual objects into the physical world

23. User’s perspective • Setting • Objects in world • Other participants • Active/Passive • Factory Simulation • Architectural Walkthrough

24. Research • Virtual Characters • Diana Video • Virtual Reality • NASA

25. Skill Set • “Oh I don’t want to program, I just want to create stuff” • Architect or Car analogy • Programming -> tool to create what is in your imagination • Programming proficiency goal: be able to code anything that you imagine • To do what you saw before we use: • C/C++, OpenGL, many different libraries • Math, math, and yet more math!!! • Differential equations (simulations, physics engines), linear algebra (transforms, 3D manipulations), statistics

26. Graduate School • Programming Team Lead at RockStar Games • Worked on Midnight Club 2 • Renderman Developer at Pixar • Worked on the Jellyfish of Nemo and Incredibles • Software Engineer for Interactive Media for Disney • Worked on Toon Town, online capable titles • Worked at 989 Sports, EA Sports, Freedom Force, etc. • What did they all have in common? • Published scientific journals in computer science • Graduate school in computer science • Worked on efficient collision detection, particle systems, curved surfaces, virtual reality, etc. • All had • GRE scores in the top 10% • Went to a top graduate school (admission is tough) • Strong math and science and coding • Why would a CS professor want to work with you?

27. Interested? Take the following… • Computational Structures in Computer Graphics • Design and Creation of Virtual Environments • Human-Computer Interaction • Computational Geometry • Computer Simulation Concepts