Selected Projects
Virtual Turtle Reality
Ken Lohmann, Biology
KLohmann@email.unc.edu
presentation
Sea
turtles navigate by sensing the
Earth’s magnetic
field. The goal of the sea turtle virtual reality project is to create
a
virtual reality environment in which sea turtles can be trained to
navigate magnetically on a virtual magnetic map, while swimming in an
arena surrounded by a computerized magnetic coil
system. As the turtle
swims, the direction that it swims is fed back to the computer, which
in turn adjusts the output of power supplies and
thus the magnetic field produced by the coil. Turtles receive a
food reward
when they successfully arrive at a location on the virtual magnetic map
that is marked by a particular magnetic field.
The software to be developed will receive input encoding the direction
that the turtle is swimming and then change the magnetic field
accordingly. The software will allow viewers to monitor the progress of
the turtle on a virtual magnetic map and determine when it has arrived
at the goal area and is ready to
receive a food reward.
Additional
Information
Android Application
Mike Reed, Google
reed@google.com
presentation
There are a new set of devices such as the iPhone or Android
that are
becoming our new PCs. The proposed project is to build a
compelling application for these devices. The devices consist of
a phone, internet access, bluetooth, USB, camera, microphone and
speaker. The application should take advantage of these different
capablities. While other platforms are possible, there is the
most support for Google's Android platform. Possible applications
could be anything from games or travel aids to a SET@Home type
distributed application.
Additional Information
Wiimote Exercise
Monitor
Gary Bishop, Computer Science
gb@cs.unc.edu
Jason Cisarano has implemented a proof of concept this summer. The idea
is to use the sensors in the Wiimote to monitor and measure exercise.
Jason has implemented effort measurement based on acceleration. We need
to add range of motion using the angle sensing ability and we need to
detect when the machine is supporting the load versus when the human is
working. Lots of cool opportunities for interfacing here. And our
external client is friends with the folks who do physical therapy for
the UNC men's basketball team so some team contact is a possibility. I
think the Wii Balance board (from WiiFit) could easily be integrated
into this project if the team is looking for a greater challenge.