FRIENDS INNOVATE
There's a course at
Bilkent called Innovative Product Design and Development. Most of you
have probably heard of it. But in case you haven't, the course can
basically be described as an imitation of real life. You form a group,
and this becomes your firm. You then develop a product and try to sell
it on the market. This very imaginative and highly creative course is
supervised by five instructors: Prof. Mehmet Baray, Assoc. Prof. Fatma
Taşkın, Tarık Reyhan, Prof. Bülent Özgüç and Prof. Erdal Erel.
One of the products that
has been developed in this course is 3RdEye, the project of the firm
Integrated Reality Solutions (IRS). IRS was founded by six students:
Cihangir Büyükataman (EE), Anıl Bayer (EE), Cihan Bilir (EE), Barış
Korkut (CS), Hilal Zitouni (CS), Serdar Bozkurt (MAN) and Gülsün
Hoşcanoglu (MAN).
Their project is a
technological solution that is intended to enable users to view and
interact with 3-D geometries in a real environment in a more tangible
way. It sounds quite complicated, doesn’t it? I'll try to describe so it
can be more easily understood.
These days, in order to
model geometries in three dimensions, people are using computer programs.
Those who model geometries want to "play" with those geometries as if
they were real. The programs help you to rotate and revolve an object,
and to zoom in and out to see every single detail.
3RdEye improves this
process by enabling you to “hold” a geometry modeled on the computer in
such a way that you can observe the geometry of a given object by simply
changing your position. For example, imagine that you can hold an object
on a marker platform (this platform is like a tray) and see it through a
face-mounted visor (which is like eyeglasses through which you see the
object). By moving the platform, you can approach the object and change
its position, as if you were playing with a 3-D model in your hands.
The key concept in the
3RdEye project is augmented reality. This is a branch of computer
graphics and image processing, and is similar to virtual reality.
Although virtual reality was invented first, the concept of augmented
reality has become more popular and applicable. One of its applications
is Playstation’s iToy, in which a camera senses your motion and pastes
you in a graphical environment.
What did I experience
using 3RdEye? Well, when I first tried out the 3RdEye demo, I was very
surprised. I put on the visor and held the platform. There were two
geometries I could observe: the “Statue of Liberty” and “race car”
models. First, I
tried the race car. I could see it on the platform through the visor. I
was able to approach it, look at it from the top and even try to hold
it. The sensation is quite complicated. You see an object on the
platform, but actually, there is nothing there. This makes you question
reality. It's very strange to see something but not be able to touch it.
Next, I tried the second geometry--and there I was, holding the Statue
of Liberty in my hand. I enjoyed this experience a lot.
If you want to have a
similar experience, I suggest you go and take a look at IRS's project on
May 15-16 in front of Mithat Çoruh Auditorium in the Engineering
Building.
Have a nice week, and
good luck to 3RdEye!
Sıla Türkü Kural (EE/IV)
turku@ug.bilkent.edu.tr
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