Project

# Title Team Members TA Documents Sponsor
68 Project Ambulare
Branden Youssef
Junran Chen
Linh Tran
Kexin Hui design_document0.pdf
final_paper0.pdf
presentation0.pptx
proposal0.pdf
Members: lhtran2, byousse2, jchen155

Project idea:
In VR, room scale refers to projecting your "play area" within the VR world to re create a sense of presence. However, there's a limit to how big this area can be and you still have to teleport within the VR world. A treadmill is a good solution but it also takes up alot of space and is not very accessible. What I'm seeking is a device to recreate the ability to "walk" in VR world without needing spacious play area, and can be quick to set up and disconnected after a session. When wearing this device, the user can "walk in place" to mimic walking which will translate into real movement in VR world while not interfering (or needing) much desk space.

The device in question should be in a form of a knee soft elastic band or ring that has various sensors on it. At the very least it should have EMG sensors to measure how fast the user is walking and project it appropriately. This is discussed in this paper:
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/1574/b235bfc497045091ea1ca8144e97e16953e4.pdf
Ideally it should also be able to track location, so the user can have independent movement of the head and body just like in real life. The avatar's body of the user should turn with according to the legs' position and not dependent on the head's movement. As of now we are planning to use a camera to track IR reference points on the knee band. Another option would be to have a "slide in" slot for the user's cellphone; as I believe for leg tracking we don't need true 6 DOF. The leg will only rotate in place with 360 degrees and not necessarily "tilt" in space. Further more, there aren't any VR software that support 6 DOF animation for the legs.

Since the device would need to be portable for comfort, it will be powered hopefully via AA battery with variable resistors for different part of the circuits. Optional add ons to improve the walking experience can be a temperature variable mat for the user to walk on depending on the world they are in, and a fan/heater system to blow cool/hot air to the user's feet from the correspond direction. These are not crucial to what we are trying to make, but they would enhance the experience over all.


Linh.

Growing Degree Day Monitor

Anthony De Roo, John Habegger, Jay Zhaoyu Yao

Featured Project

The purpose is to create an inexpensive growing degree day monitor that records temperature and computes growing degree days for a specific farming field during a growing season. This monitor will be placed near a farm field where it will monitor temperature conditions during the growing season. It will record both the ambient air and soil temperatures over the course of day. These temperatures will then be used to calculate the growing degree days. The cumulative number of degree days will then be displayed on either a seven-segment display or this can be downloaded to a computer. This monitor will be powered through a combination of both solar and battery power.