MERCED - A year from now, if you’re watching a person in a
motion-capture exoskeleton interacting with a giant high-resolution
screen, you could be watching the special features on the latest
CGI-effects action movie - or you could be watching a research
demonstration in the Cognitive Sensorium and Visualization Facility
at the University of California, Merced.
Professors
Marcelo Kallmannand
Shawn Newsamof UC Merced’s School of Engineering have teamed up
with Professor
Teenie Matlockof the School of Social Sciences, Humanities and
Arts and won a $250,000 grant from the National Science
Foundation’s Major Research Instrumentation program to build the facility.
Inside, the Cognitive Sensorium and Visualization Facility will
house eye tracking equipment, a full-body motion capture system and
data gloves for real-time body and hand motion capture, and 3-D
projection capability with active stereo eye wear, along with a
7’x15’ “Power Wall” screen. Everything will be integrated - the
immersive environment projected on the screen, the eye tracking,
and the motion capture - so that the researchers can use the data
they gather to see how it all fits together.
That integration and the resulting interdisciplinary
collaboration will set this facility apart from other research
universities, Matlock said.
“We are starting with the idea of using interactive full-body
motion capture and eye tracking combined with immersive virtual
reality for doing cognitive science research” she explained.
She is planning collaborative studies in the new facility that
can track eye movements in very large simulated scenarios -
something not possible on the small screens she currently uses in
her research.
In addition to the cognitive science research that Matlock does
- learning where people point and look when they describe an
environment, for example - the facility will be used to gain data
that could later be used in robotics or virtual characters for
computer games.
Kallmann specializes in computer algorithms for generating
complex motions when a person does more than one thing at a time -
like approaching a bookshelf while reaching for an item.
“We’ll use sensors to capture a person’s motion in real-time,
even down to shoulder and knee joint rotations,” he said. “Then we
can analyze and understand that data, and finally apply it,
developing better algorithms that can control robots or virtual characters.”
Kallmann already has an undergraduate student working on
integrating a data glove he will use in the new facility with a
computer model of a skeletal human hand.
“When we get data about how humans view images, that can better
inform the way computers process images,” said Newsam. “For
example, I’m planning to study how we view satellite images like
the ones we see on Google Earth. In the future that may improve our
automatic analysis of those images.”
Other applications may be possible as well, the professors said.
For example, biology researchers could use it for huge,
high-definition visualization of unfolding proteins. Or it could
become part of UC Merced’s distance medicine efforts. The
professors are working with the campus administration to find the
best space to take advantage of all the equipment’s potential.
“I think NSF has recognized the opportunity to make a difference
early on with UC Merced,” Newsam said. “We’re hoping this facility
will become a showpiece for the campus.”
The material collected in the facility will be useful in courses
taught on campus, Kallmann added, like his computer graphics and
motion planning courses.
“Students can complete their class projects in the lab, or even
participate in the studies”, he said.
“Once we have this equipment, it will open up many possibilities
for additional funding,” Matlock added. “The preliminary
experiments we complete will help us justify the need for more
interdisciplinary work in cognitive science and computer science
and engineering.”
Plans for the new facility should progress rapidly once a space
on campus is identified. Matlock, Newsam and Kallmann anticipate
that they will start receiving the equipment in a few months and
start to set it up around the beginning of next academic year.
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