Graduating Engineer & Computer Careers

Tag Archive: video games

1. Wii Bit of Fun at Rice University

   February 11, 2009 4:44 PM Comments Off on Wii Bit of Fun at Rice University

   Why are some people fast learners? Can we teach everybody to be like them? Yes, Wii can! A Rice University research project recently funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) is making use of Nintendo’s popular video game technology to codify learning systems in ways that can be used in a range of human endeavors, from sports to surgery.

   Two Rice professors, Marcia O’Malley and Michael Byrne, are following up on O’Malley’s pioneering work using robots to treat stroke victims with a study to map out how people learn physical tasks, with the ultimate goal of programming robots to teach in new ways. With the new NSF grant, O’Malley and Byrne will spend the next three years measuring the motions involved in tasks as mundane as playing paddleball and as complex as flying a fighter jet.

   To do that, having a motion-capture device at hand will be invaluable, says O’Malley. The device is called an accelerometer, but video game fans know it as a Wiimote, the handheld wand that serves as a wireless interface between player and screen. “It’s the only part of the system we really need,” says O’Malley, director of Rice’s Mechatronics and Haptic Interfaces Laboratory. Byrne says they’ll compare data from the Wiimote to that from a more expensive Vicon motion capture system to “see how good the Wii really is.”

   “We’re already grabbing motion data from the Wiimote,” states O’Malley, “so soon we’ll be able to measure a range of motion and then turn it into a mathematical model.” For the researchers, here’s where the games really begin. Their ultimate plan is to bring together robotics and virtual reality in a way that lets people absorb information through repetition of the motor pathways. Think of hitting a tennis ball. Learning by trial-and-error is fine, but it would be much easier if a robotic sleeve could tell you exactly where that hitch in your swing is and gently prod you to hit the ball correctly.

   “Using the Wii will be a great way to recruit subjects,” says O’Malley. “We can say, ‘Hey, kids, come play some games!’”

   Their research into what they term the “cognitive modeling of human motor skill acquisition” will focus on three types of learners. “There are experts who learn at a slow, steady pace, but they get there,” she says. “There are novices, who learn at a slow, steady pace, but sometimes they never get there. And then there are those who start off awful, but somewhere in the middle of training they suddenly ‘get it.’

   “What will be interesting is, can we get this last group to ‘get it’ and become people who learn very quickly by honing in on the right cues? And can we get these people who learn very quickly to improve even faster? We’re interested in how these groups of performers differentiate, and if there are inherent characteristics of movement and control policies that lead to expertise.”

   Read more about robotics at www.GraduatingEngineer.com.

2. Contact Lenses Platform for Superhuman Vision

   March 18, 2008 8:48 PM Comments Off on Contact Lenses Platform for Superhuman Vision

   

   Movie characters from the “Terminator” to the “Bionic Woman” use bionic eyes to zoom in on far-off scenes, have useful facts pop into their field of view, or create virtual crosshairs. Off the screen, virtual displays have been proposed for more practical purposes-visual aids to help vision-impaired people, holographic driving control panels and even as a way to surf the Web on the go.

   Engineers at the University of Washington have for the first time used manufacturing techniques at microscopic scales to combine a flexible, biologically safe contact lens with an imprinted electronic circuit and lights.

   “Looking through a completed lens, you would see what the display is generating superimposed on the world outside,” says Babak Parviz, a UW assistant professor of electrical engineering. “This is a very small step toward that goal, but I think it’s extremely promising.” The results were recently presented at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers’ international conference on Micro Electro Mechanical Systems by Harvey Ho, a former graduate student of Parviz’s now working at Sandia National Laboratories in Livermore, Calif.

   There are many possible uses for virtual displays. Drivers or pilots could see a vehicle’s speed projected onto the windshield. Video-game companies could use the contact lenses to completely immerse players in a virtual world without restricting their range of motion. And for communications, people on the go could surf the Internet on a midair virtual display screen that only they would be able to see.“People may find all sorts of applications for it that we have not thought about. Our goal is to demonstrate the basic technology and make sure it works and that it’s safe,” states Parviz, who heads a multi-disciplinary UW group that is developing electronics for contact lenses.

   Ideally, installing or removing the bionic eye would be as easy as popping a contact lens in or out, and once installed the wearer would barely know the gadget was there, Parviz explains.

   The prototype contact lens does not correct the wearer’s vision, but the technique could be used on a corrective lens, Parviz says. And all the gadgetry won’t obstruct a person’s view.“There is a large area outside of the transparent part of the eye that we can use for placing instrumentation,” Parviz states. Future improvements will add wireless communication to and from the lens. The researchers hope to power the whole system using a combination of radio-frequency power and solar cells placed on the lens.