Virtual Reality Applications and Research (MAE - 574) Spring '09

Dept. of Mechanical and Aerospace Eng., University at Buffalo

Instructor: Govindarajan Srimathveeravalli

Home Course Schedule and Materials Source Code Staff Contact Sundry VR Links Best HW Submissions

Date	Topics	Course Notes	Assignments	Assigned Readings and References
1/14 and 1/16	Introduction to OpenGL and GLUT, creating a "hello world" application, drawing primitives, using mouse, keyboard and idle functions, understanding double buffer and basic drawing strategies	Class 1&2	HW 1 (Due: 1/23)
1/21	Definition of polygons, algorithms for polygons (convexity, testing for point and convex hull), state management in OGL and basic animation	Class 3	HW 2 (Due: 2/2)
1/23 and 1/24	Transformation and projection operation, matrices and math. Camera and viewport mapping.	Class 4&5 ppt notes
1/28 and 1/30	Lighting, materials, shading, colors, introduction to ray tracing and depth testing.	Class 6&7 ppt notes	HW 3 (Due: 2/13)	Nate Robin's tutors for lighting and transformations Siggraph notes on ray tracing Another excellent source for ray tracing: hat tip: Forrest Briggs
2/4 and 2/6	Blending, polygon offset, pixel operation, texturing, multi texturing, loading images, light mapping and bump mapping.	Class 8&9		Bump mapping tutor by Michael Gold (ppt alert!)
2/9	Sources for VR models, loading models, vertex arrays, display lists and generation of models through math operations (extrude/revolve/sweep, implicit and parametric functions)	Class 10
2/11 and 2/13	Terrain generation, data sources, processing grayscale images, triangle strip generation, introduction to Delaunay triangulation, introduction to optimal triangulation algorithms (for 2.5D data)	Class 11&12		Survey on modeling and visualization - Fabio Shewchuck Delaunay triangulation notes Triangle strip generation - Kornmann Garland and Heckbert - Greedy insertion Paul Bourke's Delaunay Triangulation tutorial
	Supplement reading: Introduction to Standard template Library (STL), along with sample programs (look up the source code section).	Class 12 Supp
2/16	Use of OpenGL buffers (Color/Depth/Accumalation/Stencil etc.), buffer based operations such as stereoscopy (active and anaglyph), reflection and shadows.	Class 13	Mini project 1 (Due: 2/27)	Mark Kilgard - Shadows Morrowsoft OGL Tutorials Paul Bourke - Stereo Paul Bourke - Anaglyph
2/18 and 2/20	Introduction to parametric modeling, polynomial curves, rational curves, beziers, theory behind splines, construction of NURBS and introduction to patches	Class 14&15
2/23 and 2/25	Introduction to collision detection, ray intersection, point in polygon, bounding spheres and bound boxes. Description of sweep and prune algorithm and construction of trees for spatial elimination.	Class 16&17	HW 4 (Due:3/16)
2/27 and 3/2	Physically based modeling, kinematics, numerical methods, integration, Euler and Runge-Kutta, modeling of systems (gravity, spring and damping), particle physics for simulation of rigid and soft bodies, discussion of code	Class 18&19		David Baraff's course notes on physically based  modeling.   NeHe physics tutorials
3/4 and 3/6	Physics for rigid bodies, derivation of basic laws and equations and schematic implementation.	Class 20&21		Rigid body physics tutorial by Chris Hecker
3/16	Introduction to sensors and input devices for VR, associated research	Class 22		Jeff Han: Multitouch interaction Kim et al.: Fingertip digitizer Mistry et al: Sixth Sense
3/18	Mid term exam review
3/20	Mid term examination	Exam - 09
3/23	Lab visit for sensors and input systems for VR
3/25 and 3/27	Mid term solutions, Introduction to display systems for VR	Class 23&24	Miniproject 2 (Due: 5/7)	Papers for projector based displays and image correction/calibration Varshney et al, Lee et al, Raskar et al(1), Raskar at al (2)
3/30	Introduction scenegraph based API's, OpenInventor based programming	Class 25		Coin3D for Windows and Inventor Mentor
4/1	In class design of a large table top display device for high performance CAD visualization			Design resources: Geowall implementation, MAD boxes, Problems with projector based displays and Homography
4/3 and 4/6	Introduction to haptics, human proprioceptive sense, feedback, devices, history, current technology, tactile input and associated research	Class 26&27		Resources for haptic technology: Insko: Passive haptics, Amemiya: Handheld device for direction, Gillespie: Snaptic paddle (variation), Goethals: Tactile feedback in surgery, Jones: Haptic vest, Stone: History, Robles-de-la-torre: Device survey
4/8 and 4/10	VR and graphics using Matlab	Class 28
4/13, 4/15 and 4/17	Graphics algorithms (from graphics gems and other sources)	Class 29&30
4/20			In class term project presentations and review
4/22	Introduction to AR Toolkit (Guest lecture by Ashirwad Chowriappa)	Class 31
4/24	Introduction to PhysX engine (Guest lecture by Gughan Sathyaseelan)
4/27	VR Applications
5/7			Term project demo in 328 Jarvis hall (by appointment)