CS 7497: Virtual Environments

 
 

Spring 2008

Mondays 2-5pm CCB 53


Announcements


See the announcements area in T-Square!


Course Information


Description

This course is an introduction to virtual environments, including virtual reality, augmented reality and multi-user online virtual worlds. Issues covered will include VR/AR technology, software design, 3D human-computer interaction, and application issues. The course is intended for graduate students from any area of Georgia Tech. The goals of this class are:

  1. •To examine the computer hardware and software technology that is used to build Virtual Reality environments. 

  2. •To learn about 3D human interaction techniques and issues


Prerequisites

There are no specific prerequisites for this class.  As a senior level graduate CS class that crosses between Graphics and HCI, you are expected to

  1. •Have a basic understanding of 3D graphics.  This class focuses on 3D interactive virtual environments.  Your projects will use 3D graphics, and many of the papers and concepts relate to 3D systems.

  2. •Have a basic understanding of HCI and UI design.  You will be implementing projects aimed at people, and reading papers containing user studies.

  3. •Have strong programming skills.  The projects may involve significant programming.  If you are not comfortable programming or picking up new languages and tools, you may have difficulty.

  4. •Read and discuss research papers.  We will read multiple research papers each week, and discuss them in class.  Each student will lead the discussion at least once during the semester. 


Instructor

Blair MacIntyre

blair@cc.gatech.edu

AIM: blairmaci

SecondLife:  Blair Potluck

Office hours:  TBA

NOTE:  Email is by far the easiest way to contact me.


There is no teaching assistant for the class.


Textbook/Readings

Required Textbook: Craig and Sherman, Understanding Virtual Reality: Interface, Application and Design. The Morgan Kaufmann Series in Computer Graphics, 2003. ISBN 1-558-60353-0. This link will take you to the Amazon page for this book.

Required Textbook: Bowman, Kruijff, LaViola, and Poupyrev, 3D User Interfaces: Theory and Practice. Addison-Wesley, 2005. ISBN 0-201-75867-9. This link will take you to the book’s official website. This link will take you to the Amazon page for this book.


Lecture notes and additional readings will be available on the schedule page. Readings should be prepared in advance of the class for which they are listed.


Website/T-Square

The class web site is http://www.cc.gatech.edu/classes/AY2008/cs7497_spring (which is where you are right now).

We will also use the Georgia Tech T-Square site for this class, in particular the wiki, blog and resources parts of the site.  It will be there that you will sign up for presentations, organize your group projects and share files.


Grading

Grading will be based on:

1.     Class Projects (2) (30% + 30% = 60%)

2.     Paper Discussions (10%)

3.     Class Participation (10%)

  1. 4.    Final Exam (20%)


Class Projects (60%)

The main assessment component of this class will be two semester-long projects. The first project will be the creation of an interactive, educational exhibit in the SecondLife virtual world.  The second project will be a more flexible project of your choosing. You are expected to work in groups of two for the projects, but do not have to use the same group for both. For more information on choosing and managing the projects, and how projects will be graded, see this page.


Paper Discussions (10%)

Each student in the class will serve as a discussant once or twice during the semester - he/she will be responsible for leading the discussion of one of the papers assigned to the class. For more information on how to sign up for a paper, how to prepare to lead a discussion, and how discussants will be graded, see this page.


Class Participation (10%)

The participation grade will be based on two components:

·       preparation of a short written summary of each assigned reading

·       participation in the group discussions of the various topics

For more information on how the participation grade will be calculated, see this page.


Final Exam (20%)

The final exam in this class will cover the cumulative information of the entire semester, and will assess both factual knowledge and understanding/insight into the material.


Additional Information


Schedule of In-Class Activities

This course meets for three hours on Mondays. Typically, the instructor will lecture at the beginning and end of the class, with the bulk of the class being focused on discussing that week's readings. However, be alert for changes to the schedule.


Attendance

Attendance at all classes will be necessary for students to succeed in this course. Please show respect for the instructor and the other students by arriving on time and prepared.


Honor Code

All work in this course is to be your own, and the university honor code is in effect. Groups will collaborate on projects, but the other graded aspects of the course are based on individual work.