Virtual Environments

Instructor: Prof. Victoria Interrante

Time and Place: Tues/Thurs 2:30-3:45pm, Amudson 162


Course Outline:
            Through a combination of lectures, discussion, paper presentations and diverse readings from the current literature, this class aims to provide students with insight into the interesting and exciting cross-disciplinary research involving the development and use of virtual environments software and technology. In this class, we will survey a wide range of topic areas, including: virtual environments technologies, such as display technologies (head-mounted displays, immersive projection systems), tracking systems, haptics, and sound; mixed and augmented reality technologies; interaction technologies, including devices and techniques for direct manipulation, gesture recognition, and the use of voice; 3D interaction; methods of locomotion; applications of virtual reality, in: medicine, including treatment of phobias, architecture, design, entertainment, and more; perceptual issues in virtual environments, including space and depth pereption, navigation and wayfinding, cybersickness, and quantifying (and facilitating) "presence" in virtual environments; issues of realism and abstraction in virtual environments; and more.

Course Requirements:
            Students will be responsible, on a weekly basis, for reading approximately 1-3 papers, writing briefly about each, and participating in class discussions.  Over the course of the term, each student will be required to twice make high quality, well-organized presentations to the rest of the class on topics of his or her choice, based on papers from the reading list, and to lead discussion on these topics.  In addition, students will have the option of either implementing a final project related to the material covered in class (I will provide a list of possible suggestions), or composing a literature review.  There will be no midterm or final exam.  Students should anticipate having to expend approximately 1 hour of effort outside of class for each hour in class, per credit hour.

Grading:          Final project/paper......50%
                        Topic presentations.....30%
                        Paper summaries.........10%
                        Class participation......10%

Text:   Readings will be drawn from a variety of sources including books, journals, technical reports and conference proceedings, and will be made available either as physical handouts (for older material) or via the web.

Prerequisites:   The most important prerequisite is interest and motivation.  The official prerequisite is graduate standing or permission of the instructor.