On Friday, our class went down to Toronto to visit the office of a company known as GestureTek. A rather interesting company, given what they've made, though I do feel their office is kind of poor. Then again, it's not their main office so I suppose that makes it acceptable.
For starters, we were guided around by one of the higher-ups of GestureTek (One of the founders of GestureTek, actually), Vincent John Vincent. Of course, we weren't really told much we didn't already know from research, but oh well.
He spoke to us on each of their various products; some were rather interesting as we couldn't find too much on them or they didn't look to work so well (Though seeing them in person they looked a lot better), while others were as dull as I originally found.
One thing Vincent brought up to us was how their technology is mostly used in museums, despite some of the other applications it has. One such place is the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto, according to the GestureTek website (Link).
Another thing Vincent saw to bringing up, something many of us were aware of, was that they had hardware and software designed specifically for rehab and that using it excelled a person's rate of regeneration. I don't know if this is true, and probably won't unless I could speak to people who have used it, but it sounds to be of great benefit. A number of places make use of the technology, too (Link)
One thing I learned that I was not aware of was that some of what GestureTek has designed is actually used by several weather stations across the USA. This surprised me to learn, and I'm rather upset I can't find any links regarding it. Hopefully something will come along.
Along with this, we were told that some of their technology was used in games for a japanese show! This is another thing I wish I could find a link to, just so I can watch. Finding more entertainment applications is cool, I believe. It's a shame they seem to only have these videos at their office.
Some of their other technologies were cool, and I kinda wish I could learn more. What caught my interest when seeing it was the GroundFX, because it reminded me of something shown at E3 in 2006, I believe, by Nintendo. I had to wonder if perhaps what Nintendo used then was, in fact, GestureTek technology (Link)
That's really all for now, though. Missing two links and that annoys me, mostly because I can't the links I'd want on the GestureTek website or anywhere else.
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Thursday, October 4, 2007
Blog Assignment #1
So here's the first blog I need to write for my Multimedia Pioneering class.
Today our speaker was Song Ho Ahn, a former employee of the now defunct Immersion Studios. He spoke to us on new technologies that allow mass numbers of people to control and influence what they are shown.
To begin with, we were shown a number of web applications done for learning purposes; one was how to park at a terminal at Pearson International Airport, another was a simulation of what life was like at a viking colony located on the coast of Newfoundland, while a third was a police tutorial on measuring skid mark distance. These quick programs were not much, for they were really only on an individual basis. However, as an edutainment tool, the simulation of a viking colony somewhat succeeded at this (Link to Viking Simulation Info) After that, we were shown a program that allowed a user with a webcam to move the head of a 3D-drawn image. The future intent of this program was to allow facial recognition, so mouth movement and expressions could be detected (Link to Facial Recognition Info). At this time, the program looked rather promising. It could eventually have affects on online gaming, particularly in games like World of Warcraft, where players currently do not have control of facial models (Link to WoW.com).
A lot of the work now being done in the Visualization Design Institute is done using a program called Ogre, an open source 3D graphics engine. The engine can provide some rather decent 3D effects, and being open source it does not really cost anything (Link to Ogre).
After this, we were brought into a studio where we were brain washed... ok, no, we weren't. We were given a much more solid example of a mass of people affecting something through technology. We used tablets to affect an immersive video as we attempted to remove some life-threatening object from within a person. This was one of Immersion Studios museum exhibits and may still exist in some locations. However, one client of this game, the Montréal Science Centre, appears to have dropped this for a new exhibit (Link to Montréal Science Centre's current immersive exhibit).
Today our speaker was Song Ho Ahn, a former employee of the now defunct Immersion Studios. He spoke to us on new technologies that allow mass numbers of people to control and influence what they are shown.
To begin with, we were shown a number of web applications done for learning purposes; one was how to park at a terminal at Pearson International Airport, another was a simulation of what life was like at a viking colony located on the coast of Newfoundland, while a third was a police tutorial on measuring skid mark distance. These quick programs were not much, for they were really only on an individual basis. However, as an edutainment tool, the simulation of a viking colony somewhat succeeded at this (Link to Viking Simulation Info) After that, we were shown a program that allowed a user with a webcam to move the head of a 3D-drawn image. The future intent of this program was to allow facial recognition, so mouth movement and expressions could be detected (Link to Facial Recognition Info). At this time, the program looked rather promising. It could eventually have affects on online gaming, particularly in games like World of Warcraft, where players currently do not have control of facial models (Link to WoW.com).
A lot of the work now being done in the Visualization Design Institute is done using a program called Ogre, an open source 3D graphics engine. The engine can provide some rather decent 3D effects, and being open source it does not really cost anything (Link to Ogre).
After this, we were brought into a studio where we were brain washed... ok, no, we weren't. We were given a much more solid example of a mass of people affecting something through technology. We used tablets to affect an immersive video as we attempted to remove some life-threatening object from within a person. This was one of Immersion Studios museum exhibits and may still exist in some locations. However, one client of this game, the Montréal Science Centre, appears to have dropped this for a new exhibit (Link to Montréal Science Centre's current immersive exhibit).
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