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CS
6724: 3D Interaction |
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Projects Students
will work on a semester-long project that will comprise the major part (60%)
of the class grade. Projects will all be based around a common theme, and will
include design, implementation, evaluation, and presentation components. Topic: The theme
of the projects in the class will be 3D interaction with large-screen
displays. Very
large displays, such as the ones developed in the gigapixel project at
Virginia Tech, are becoming more common. But standard desktop/WIMP
interaction techniques are often not usable for basic interaction tasks such
as selection, manipulation, or navigation on such displays. The class
projects will be based on the hypothesis that 3D interaction techniques can
provide high levels of usability/performance for interaction with 2D data on
such large displays. Objective: Each
group will design a 3D interaction technique (or set of techniques) to
address the problem of selection and manipulation of 2D, multi-scale data
(objects) on a large-screen display. Groups will be given two different
testbed environments in which their techniques should work (these
environments will be created in homework 1).
Groups can use any available input devices, as long as the technique(s) have
some 3D interaction component. Techniques will be prototyped, informally
evaluated (in comparison with existing techniques), and iterated. Then, near
the end of the semester, we will hold a "contest" to determine
which of the techniques has the best performance/usability. The two
testbed applications are now available. Here is documentation
on the input system and the real-time strategy game. Here is documentation on the "visual analytics"
application. Groups: Groups
will consist of 2 students (although requests to work individually will be
considered). Students will form their own groups, but the groups should be
designed to be complementary in terms of skills, existing knowledge or
expertise, and interests. Each member of a group is expected to contribute
equally to the project. By default, all members of a project group will
receive the same grade. At the end of the semester you will have the
opportunity to rate your partner(s); the instructor reserves the right to
adjust individual grades based on this feedback. You are encouraged to read
Randy Pausch's "Tips for
working successfully in a group." Equipment
and software: Groups
will have 24/7 access to the CHCI laboratory in VT Knowledgeworks II, room
155/156. Access is based on your Hokie Passport. Information will be
collected from you early in the semester to be loaded into the door locks.
The laboratory houses several visual displays that can be used for this
project: 18 VisBlocks, a 50-screen tiled LCD display, and 2 large VisWalls.
The lab also has tracking devices (Vicon, Intersense IS-900, and Polhemus
Fastrak), and other input devices (5DT data gloves, Fakespace Pinch Gloves,
Twiddler2 chord keyboard, ShapeTape, laser pointers, SpaceBall, wearable
keyboard, mote kit). There is
also a range of development and runtime software available in the laboratory,
including modelers (3D Studio Max and VizX3D), model converters (PolyTrans),
Photoshop, Visual Studio, the SVE library, and DIVERSE. Students may use any development
tools for projects. IRB
approval: Since
each group is required to perform evaluations with human subjects, we must
seek approval from the Institutional Review
Board for these evaluations. All of the class projects will likely fall
under the "exempt" category of review. Application materials will
be available from the instructor. Milestones: To avoid
an end-of-the-semester rush to get projects done, there will be several
intermediate milestones for the overall project. These milestones are:
Final
paper: Each
group will submit a final project report by Dec. 11. More information on the
format and content of these reports will be provided later. One of
the secondary goals for this class is to provide students with an opportunity
to do cutting-edge research and to publish that research. Therefore, one or
more papers describing the results of the projects will be submitted to an
appropriate conference or journal. The instructor will work with project
groups to determine the best course of action as the semester progresses. Grading
(total of 60%): 5% -
Comparison technique 10% -
Initial design and prototype 10% -
Informal evaluation 10% -
Final design and implementation 15% -
Performance in contest 10% -
Final report |
