Tuesday 26 July 2011

Walking Through A Virtual Gallery

Kevin Curtis


W.A.S.P. Deviations is an online art gallery, it provides a place for fans of the rock group W.A.S.P. to submit fan art and view artwork submitted from around the world. Recently its users had been calling out for the ability to view their artwork in new ways such as a realistic feeling Virtual Environment (VE).
The aim of this dissertation was to produce a VE for W.A.S.P. Deviations that created a sense of realism and to find out how various techniques made the experience of walking through a VE more realistic.
To solve the problem research was made into the techniques that make virtual environments realistic. Based on that research a unique new piece of software has been produced called the 'W.A.S.P. Deviations Virtual Gallery' containing some of the techniques. The VE was created within the ‘Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate Edition’ integrated development environment (IDE) using the C/C++ language and OpenGL/GLUT (OpenGL Utility Toolkit)


The software which was delivered to the user base on April 15th 2011 successfully managed to capture a realistic feel satisfying the main aim of the project. The software allows users to walk through the VE experiencing techniques such as sound, lighting, collision detection and movement and provides a level of interactivity with their artwork that they were not accustomed to before. The project to date has been downloaded over 400 times and is now an on-going project which will be expanded with more and more features as time passes.


The contribution this project brought to the field includes bringing a new rewarding experience to some users who hadn't had hands on experience with a VE before. The project captured their experiences with the different techniques implemented via a questionnaire and compared them with users who have used a VE before giving the possibility of gathering new information. The results showed:


A realistic feeling virtual environment was successfully created with the techniques implemented.



How the techniques used had an effect on the level of realism/immersion experienced within the VE. (For example testing the VE on users when collision detection was not fine-tuned with walls/objects. Then going on to note the differences with the experience had via various graphs compared to when it was fine-tuned. This testing was carried out for various techniques used within the project.)
Various differences of opinion between users who have not used a VE before, those who have and also those who work with them every day professionally.


Keep up with development of the ‘W.A.S.P. Deviations Virtual Gallery’ here:
Official Website/Home Of W.A.S.P. Deviations: http://wasp-deviations.deviantart.com/
Official Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/W.A.S.P.Deviations




Website screen capture:




Computing Courses

BSc and HND Computing Provision (click on the links below for more details of the courses)



    The University of Northampton's, Department of Computing and Immersive Technologies offers five courses within the MSc Computing postgraduate provision (shown below) all available either part-time or full-time. 

    The contents are the opinion of the author(s) and not necessarily the view of the University of Northampton.

    Monday 25 July 2011

    BCS Northampton Business Computing awards

    The BCS Northampton  recognised the achievement of Business Computing students with two awards on 22nd July 2011:
    • Best Student Sam Whitfield BSc Business Computing Systems (Top Up)  Finalist 1st Class Degree
    • Most promising student Leanne Town Business Computing Systems 
    The BCS has also recognised the achievement of other computing students last week in the field of Technical Computing (see http://computingnorthampton.blogspot.com/2011/07/computing-student-achievements.html)

    For more details about the BCS Northampton branch please go to http://northampton.bcs.org/

    Friday 22 July 2011

    NVision improves the student experience

    A project has recently been completed (see http://apslandt.blogspot.com/2010/11/five-out-of-five-bidding-success-for.html and http://www.northampton.ac.uk/info/200284/widening-participation/1132/projects/14 for more details). Originally it was to run a one day workshop for Computing students in Further Education colleges to get a taster of computing in Higher Education, building on the previous events run over the last three years.

    With approval the project developed during it’s lifetime. AimHigher ran a related event (AFactor) during the time of the project which met some of the goals of the project
    •  Engaging FE students,
    • Giving them a positive experience of computing,
    • Providing a positive image of women in computing.

    This enabled some new and exciting opportunities to be pursued.
    1.   The activities

    AFactor and the money from this project gave us an opportunity to use a resource unique in this region, NVision, to give the students (and later groups of students) a chance to ‘play’ in an immersive environment.

    NVision is a state-of-the-art technology centre designed to help businesses create better value propositions by developing and promoting products and services, using 3D immersive stereo visualisation and computational modelling. Our facilities include a 4m fully tracked ActiveWall, 512 Core High Performance Computational (HPC) Cluster and the UK’s most accessible 5 sided High Definition ActiveCube (CAVE).” NVision (2011)

    Kelly Savage from NVision developed a small teaching / demonstration module that has been used in events for Widening Participation events, WISE (Women into Science and Engineering), Aim Higher, an individual Connexions event with Weston Favell, the post 16 sustainability  Conference on 14th July.

    The module is a hands on experience in groups of 3 – 4 people by creating a 3d presentation using a professional class design tool called Autodesk Showcase. The students are given a short design brief and shown how to import models, select materials, shots and backgrounds then set up an animation. Designs so far have included both a landscape  garden and a high performance sports car. The students then get to present their show back to the rest of the group on one of our excellent visualisation facilities.

    The outcome for each students is that it enables them the opportunity  of working in a business environment, utilising the latest professional software and accessing high-end visualisation equipment. The module encourages them to think about how to promote the best features of a product by choosing, in their opinion, the most appropriate materials, textures, colours and presentation format to suite the design brief. Finally, they benefit from the experience of presenting a 3d show to their peers in a professional setting.

    Around 90 students have been through the module. It has also enabled a widening the range of students that can be engaged.


    5.   Summary
    • A hands-on module has been developed that has lets students get experience with some high-end visualisation equipment that is only usually available in large companies.
    • Combining the project money with money from other projects and sources has enabled a much richer experience for the participants.
    • The range of subjects areas that this is applicable to, is wider than the original projects goals whilst still meeting those goals.
    •  Feedback has been very positive about experience both from the students who took part and the accompanying staff.  “The Computer Day at Northampton University was brilliant.  All students thoroughly enjoyed the event and those who attended are looking in depth at the courses Northampton offer.” Caroline Freeman (IT Tutor, Tresham) as sent to AimHigher.

    NVision was made possible thanks to £2.5m of funding from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF)


    NVision (2011) NVision Northampton [online]. Northampton: NVision. Available from: http://www.nvision-ipt.com/ [22nd July 2011].

    Computing student achievements recognised

    The School of Science and Technology recognised their students with a special award winners celebration. Computing students who have won awards this year include:


    Others students who have also won awards this year include:

    Wednesday 13 July 2011

    BCS: National Museum of Computing (Bletchley Park) - “Acorn/BBC/Doomsday Book

    The BCS Northampton committee is please to announce the next event:

    July 24th 2011
    Visit The National Museum of Computing (Bletchley Park) and Talk on “Acorn/BBC/Doomsday Book”

    Following our last two hugely popular visits, this year’s event will be held on a Sunday, which should cater for any members, and their family members, who were unable to make the previous evening events. The running order for the day is currently:-

    · 10:30 Tea/coffee
    · 10:45 Colossus/Tunny
    · 11:15 Tour of Main Frame Gallery, Analogue computing exhibit, Powers Samas Punched Card kit and PC Gallery
    · 12:30 Lunch
    · 13:30 Presentation of Acorn/BBC/Doomsday Project with Chris Monk
    · 15:30 Tea/coffee
    · 16:00 Depart

    Owing to the number of available guides there has to be a limit of 30 guests only for this event. You will be required to register in order to attend this event. A registration link is available on the branch website. There will be a £5 charge to BCS members, £10 for non members.

    Catering cannot be provided on site, so you will need to bring a packed lunch.

    10.30am for 10.45am
    The National Museum of Computing
    Bletchley Park
    Milton Keynes
    MK3 6EB

    Monday 4 July 2011

    Northamptonshire Android App Launched

    A new Android free app - 'My county council anywhere!' has been launched this week.


    Working in partnership with the University of Northampton, Northampton County Council have developed the app as a companion to the already launched iphone version (see http://computingnorthampton.blogspot.com/2011/05/northamptonshire-county-council-launch.html for more details) incorporating popular services and online information. 





    The app can be found at https://market.android.com/search?q=northamptonshire+NCC+County+council&so=1&c=apps. It is a free app so please feel free to downloaded it.