Final Project

CS137 Assignment #6

1. Dates

2. Goals

1.      Posit a knowledgeable, supportable, potentially useful hypothesis on the interaction of force and form in bat flight.
2.      Work towards a truly innovative and effective, interactive visualization strategy for VR with specific criteria for scientific usefulness.

3. Assignment

     In this assignment you are going to design a visualization system for analyzing an aspect of bat flight, with an emphasis on showing something scientifically useful through novel and useful interactive visualization techniques.  In other words, you will be working from a background of knowledge that has formed the basis for previous assignments, but with an added rigor in scientific application and design innovation.

    Your project can be highly speculative in its hypotheses, but you will have to support the thinking behind your choices on the basis of your understanding of bat flight. Hypotheses will be reviewed repeatedly as the project progresses, and adjustments to the hypothesis will be made according to our best scientific knowledge of anatomy, kinematics and aerodynamics.

    Your visualization design can proceed from existing prototypes, but the project goal is to develop novel and particularized methods for clarifying and comparing aspects of the interaction of force and form, making special use of the possibilities of the VR space of the Cave or Fishtank. This aspect of your project will also be critiqued during the milestone reviews. Although legibility and emphasis will continue to be important goals, these qualities will represent base level functionality; innovative thinking leading toward useful techniques is what we are really after.

    Concentrate on a part of the problem that you find particularly interesting, involving both an anatomical feature and an aspect of aerodynamics (at least one of each). You should plan to complete within 2½ weeks a fully developed strategy for an interactive visualization, with an optimally functional interface/toolset and visual variables (icons/gradients/drawn forms) that effectively show the forces and forms under study in isolation and in layered comparison. Consider the various visualization/study options we have talked about in class to date: selection, notation, info probes, animation features, and innovative arrangement within VR space. Using your hypothesis as a design mandate, try to pull up a plan that will have unique features for showing the relationships at the core of your idea.

    Your visualization design can have some familiar components, but should be novel in its overall configuration, selection/comparison strategy or any other aspect of its use or visual character. Or you can really build from scratch, eschewing the parameters of naturalistic wings, flow lines or any of the other elements that we are now familiar with.

    In any case, the particulars of your design should all be tied to actual function. “Mood” or “theme” of the design is fine, as long as it arises from an important aspect of your thinking about your hypothesis.

    Your final roster of components might be fairly simple, but should be a distillation of options from a broader list of possibilities, refined and selected for usability for the particular tasks mandated by the focus of your project. Think about the assignment responses we have seen so far in the class and the lectures on anatomy, visual design and aerodynamics. This project should sum up your understanding of the information and issues you have learned about this semester, but you should also attempt to move past what has been done before. The choices you make this week concerning the focus of your project and the tools you want to include will be a good indicator of the insights you have gained, and the power of your imagination. An encyclopedic compendium is not important. Clarity, cogency and innovation born of sophistication are our goals.

    This is supposed to be a design for a fully working system. Think of it as if you are going to try to “sell” your product to Sharon for her use it in the lab. You must have enough detail in it to convince her of its effectiveness. The final presentation will be a Cave demo supplemented by a written or illustrated “libretto” or brochure detailing all features and their use in handout or poster form that you will distribute to the class. The demo should feature a smoothly choreographed Wizard of Oz approach, with a clear interaction of the imagined user with the interface, and an enacted script tracing a path of exploration and discovery in relation to your hypothesis.

Due Wed, 11/29

3.2 Milestones

Mon, 12/4   Milestone #1

    After the initial review of your project ideas, adjust your hypotheses and strategies, and begin construction of the components in CavePainting. You should have one full frame complete by this milestone, and ready to be reviewed. All visual elements should be assembled in a way that allows Sharon and the class to gauge the validity and interest of the essential design. 

Wed, 12/6   Milestone #2

    Make adjustments to hypothesis and visualization elements based on Monday’s review. In addition, prepare a simple storyboard detailing the frames of your scripted demo. This storyboard should include references to wingbeat cycle steps, freeze-frames, split-frames or other animation particulars, menu/interface location and usage.

Mon, 12/11 Milestone #3

    All frames and layers complete, with adjustments based on previous reviews. Basic scripted sequence in place for review.

3.3 The Presentation and Final hand in

Wednesday Dec 13

    You need to present and try to “sell” your design to Sharon (and the rest of us) during your presentation.  Prepare your brochure/libretto for distribution on the day of the demo, and practice your presentation. We will try to extend the class period on this day, but time will still be tight, and efficiency important. There will be no opportunity for late hand-ins of the project.  Note that the main evaluation criteria will be 1) novelty of the identified aspect of your project, 2) Sharon-evaluated effectiveness of that aspect, 3) effective use of the unique characteristics of a VR design environment.