(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2010-12-20)
Ead, Samer Omar
This paper describes the technique formed for the creation of an efficient, simply rigged, customizable mermaid avatar model for the Mermaids massively multiplayer online game (MMOG). Our goal was to improve the in game customization of the player s 3D mermaid model, while maintaining rendering efficiency. We devised a procedure that utilizes the iterative nature of design without sacrificing the scientific and technical aspects of the project. Our procedure begins by a method known as Partitioning where we break down the model s body into distinct sub-models. During development, this partitioning allowed us to focus on smaller concise areas of interest, whereas during game-play this change granted the player greater strands of customization freedom. Since the model relied on a skeleton for its animations, it s partitioning required Skeletal Reformations to reassess the control scheme of the rig over the sub-models. In this method, individual sub-skeletons were designed to provide increased local control over their respective sub-models in contrast to the global control that the previous rig allowed. The sub-skeletons were then joined together forming a combined and complete skeletal rig for the mermaid model. We iterated through the previous methods refining their procedures in efforts of Balancing Customizability with Efficiency , which in turn provided us with the results of our novel technique. Our technique utilizes innovative methods that localize skeletal control over respective sub-models in a novel way, which allows increased customizability with limited costs to efficiency.
(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2010-05-12)
Miller, Daniel Menachem
Current community grid projects, such as IBM's World Community Grid (www.worldcommunitygrid.org), have successfully developed standalone applications to connect thousands of clients to one huge network of users. Each client donates their machine's idle time to compute mathematical operations to help solve multiple humanitarian projects requiring massive amounts of data to be computed (examining tissue microarrays, human proteome folding, ect). These projects have been relatively successful; however, there are multiple design problems that hinder a multitude of users to join the network.
These problems include yet are not limited to:
● Required user registration and email verification
● Once a user registers, a large standalone application to transmit and receive data from a central server is required to be downloaded and installed
● The program runs as a background process and is only active when a user's computer is idle
● The program may not work due to firewall restrictions on the client machine
This research, as shown by prototype, eliminates all of these barriers. No registration, no installation, no required idleness, and no firewall issues.
According to Adobe/Macromedia, roughly 96-98% of all home computers have the Flash Player installed. This figure is greater than any operating system, browser, program, or other virtual machine (including Java).
The purpose of this research project is to determine whether it is possible to create a grid community on the Internet utilizing browser technologies such as Flash and or AJAX technology.
(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2010-05-12)
Sharma, Mansi
Community Mosaic is a system to promote healthy eating amongst low-income African American people. This thesis analyzes a study I conducted that encourages people to talk about what they think are the barriers against as well as the resources for trying to eat healthfully. The results of this study will be useful for the low income African American community as well as the HCI (Human Computer Interaction) community. More specifically, the results will facilitate towards finding ways to eat more healthily due to the correct understanding of the barriers against and available resources for eating healthfully in a community. The African American community is known to have more diet-related health problems than other ethnic communities in the US; by understanding the reasons behind these problems the goal is to help minimize them.