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Oculus Rift — The Nausea Machine

  November 12, 2014 , ,

Hey Guys! Our Oculus Rift SDK2 kits are in! I spent a great deal of time with it over the weekend so I’d like to give a quick overview of what I’ve discovered: 1) It’s pretty difficult to setup. It took about 5 hours of fiddling with settings and looking online through forums to get this thing working properly–that being said–I was using my laptop and the SDK2 is not particularly fond of laptops with dual gpus like my own. Rather than use my Nvidia GPU, it will default to the integrated Intel GPU. This is a problem on their end. Regardless–I found a weird workaround to get this thing going! The downside is that I can’t mirror the goggle’s vision to my desktop–so you can’t see what someone is playing unfortunately until their dual GPU issue is fixed. Beyond that–learning the settings to adjust pupil distance, etc. is not particularly intuitive either, which is problematic because of the nausea that occurs if the settings aren’t tweaked properly. 2) Nausea, Nausea, and more Nausea. No matter how I tweak the goggle’s settings–some demos or games will consistently make me ill every time after about 5 minutes. Half-Life 2 is one of those games. Although it is stunning to explore–I get ill quite quickly and have to put the goggles down. I will continue to feel ill for about 15-20 minutes afterwards. It’s hard to pass it up though–nothing is quite as unnerving as walking up to a person in the … Continue reading

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Digital Champions

  November 12, 2014 ,

I am currently working on the first video of the 2 this semester that is on the Digital Champions. These professors have outstanding teaching strategies where they incorporate technology into their curriculum. They teach Hybrid courses where some instruction is in the classroom while other instruction is over the net or using technology. The first professor (myself and Ryan Cagle) was Dr. Gladis Francis. She has this very exciting way of you social media, such as twitter. Her students have to summarize the essence of a chapter in French on twitter. This limits them to only 140 characters. According to one her students we interviewed, that can be more challenging than someone may assume but she emphasized that she learned so much more French in Dr. Francis’s classroom. Hopefully I will be able to post it within the next week or so. Ameer

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eBooks in Higher Education, especially in Libraries

  November 12, 2014 ,

The history of the codex includes myriad and often convoluted ways of producing and distributing the book to readers.  Current day production and distribution of eBooks is no different in its dizzying variety.  To narrow things down, here I will present a snippet of the information available on how eBooks get to readers within the higher education system.  In particular, I want to mention some ways in which university libraries acquire and distribute eBooks. First of all, universities and colleges are increasing acquiring more eBooks than print books; among all U.S. academic libraries, as of 2012, more than half of their added materials were eBooks.  This is especially true for community colleges, which makes sense given it would be more convenient for their commuter student population to access materials remotely.  But, for all libraries, eBooks make sense; physical books take up a lot of space, which translates into the need for more real estate.  A perpetual problem for libraries continues to be the need for space for their collections. See the table below from the Chronicle of Higher Education, “Almanac of Higher Education, 2014,” extracted from U.S. Department of Education figures, FY 2012 (http://chronicle.com.ezproxy.gsu.edu/article/Percentage-of-E-Books-at/147835/). Table of Percentage of E-Books at Academic Libraries, by Institution Type, FY 2012 click chart to enlarge University or college libraries depend on a variety of means to provide eBooks to users and there are several different kinds of middle-people distributors who provide content to be consumed by readers via different methods.  First, and perhaps most … Continue reading

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SIF: positivity, morale and accomplishments

  November 9, 2014 ,

This week, the SIF overlords contacted me and asked me to collect and catalog SIF accomplishments so far. As someone whose default setting is >excited with bouncy option – I am excited that I get to do this job. And while it may seem a little early to start talking about accomplishments, I know that I’ve already learned enough to fill a whole brain noodle – and I’m hoping that others feel the same way. So I created a Google Forms survey to send out to everyone – and Joe, and Brennan already beta-tested it! That was so fast! I’ve used Google  Forms before, but only as someone filling out the form. This time I got to make, not one, but TWO forms! I made one today for the beta test for the Tools Wiki, which I will send to a few of you in the next week or so, and one for SIF Accomplishments. The forms are really easy to make, and have a variety of options for users to answer – like multiple choice, scale, text, and so on. My favorite part though is that they have lots of themes to choose from that make the forms look a little more fun. By the time you read this, you’ll probably have already filled out my form, and some of you may have already met with me. My hope is that by all of us thinking about the most positive and helpful aspects of SIFdom, we will be able … Continue reading

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Tech for Artists First Project – Egg-Carton Peacock

  November 9, 2014 ,

With the goal of bringing interdisciplinary, data-driven tools to artists, my first step is to learn the tech myself and to create proof-of-concept artworks as demonstration examples, and then lead workshops for interested artist students about how they can use these tools in their own artistic practice. Project 1: Agisoft Photoscan My first tech exploration is the process of 3D photometric scanning using Agisoft Photoscan, and then 3D print a sculpture based on manipulations of that scan. I thought this would be a good transition tech for artists since it is so visual and deals with real-world applications where big-data and similar tech seem abstract and untouchable (at first). My first artwork will conceptually explore how 3D printing and scanning fit into the art/craft dialectic and how gender roles are defined. Traditionally, “craft” has been assigned primarily to the female gender, especially decorative and soft-material crafts like embroidering or floral arranging. Men have engendered hard craft, using materials like wood and metal that have practical uses. With the advent of at-home production using complex and technical 3D printers, men have traditionally dominated the genre for whatever reason. Now, in a role reversal, 3D printers on the consumer level are overwhelmingly known to create either parts for building and engineering, or decorative trinkets and gadgets. Using a craftbook from the 1970s written specifically for “housewives with leisure time,” I’ll recreate one of the projects using new technology. Specifically, I’ll 3D scan a foam egg carton, then in the computer attempt to … Continue reading