GameDev Course (MIEIC) preliminary project presentation

 

The students from the Informatics Masters (MIEIC) have presented their Games' preliminary projects, and created some trailer videos about them. Here's a glimpse of some of them. These game prototypes were developed by the students using Unity, XNA Game Studio or JMonkey, and over a period of four weeks (divided by all their other courses).

Team 1 – FEUP Worms

Edgar Alves
Pedro Barbosa
Anabela Carvalho
Amaro Silva

Team 2 – Wheels of destruction

José Coelho
Tiago Gomes
Pedro Meleiro
Gonçalo Silva

Team 3 – FEUP Battles

Carlos Babo
José Pedro Marques
Hélder Moreira
Felipe Schmitt

Team 4 – Capture the Department

André Dias
Hugo Fernandes
António Pires
Nuno Santos

Team 5 – 9.44

Abel Dantas
Tiago Moreira
Rodolfo Silva
Vasco Torres

Team 6 – FEUP Worms

João Estevinho
Albert Czyewski
Laura Gáspár
Bruno Nova

GameDev Course (DJCO/MIEIC) final project presentation

The students from the Informatics Masters (MIEIC) have presented their Games' final projects (DJCO), and created some trailer videos about them. These game prototypes were developed by the students using XNA Game Studio, and over a period of about ten weeks, partly shared (consumed?) by LGP, among other courses.

 

ConnectWorks

César Duarte
João Pedro Almeida
Ricardo Canastro

Colorfare

António Miguel Ferreira
João António Soares
João Pedro Correia

Robot Trouble

Rafal Gicgier
Aleksandar Lazarov
João Serra

AlgoWars

João Pedro Marques
José Pedro Cardoso
Vítor Oliveira

FactoriesFactory

João Faria
Pedro Pinto
Tiago Almeida

LogicGates

Rui Ferreira
Andrzej Zmyslowski
 

GempGame

Tiago Gonçalves
Ricardo Belchior

 

Multi-Touch as a Natural User Interface for Elders: A Survey

Abstract

The use of traditional input devices such as keyboards and mice can become a huge obstacle for older adults in interacting with computer systems. Using Natural User Interfaces (NUI’s), more specifically using gestures or movements on a multi-touch device, can be a good alternative to overcome these dificulties. This paper analyses the state of the art and identifies a set of criteria relevant to classify the projects in this area. The resulting classification enables us to recognize research opportunities on Natural User Interfaces, and namely multi­‑touch interfaces for elderly.

 

Authors

Bruno Loureiro, Rui Rodrigues

Related Links

 

GraphJudge: a system for submission, validation and assisted assessment of Computer Graphics’ assignments

 

Abstract

 
We describe the core of a system for submission, automated validation and assisted evaluation of Computer Graphics' assignments. This type of assessments has a series of specific challenges associated to it, namely the analysis of graphical output and the variations between implementation in different development platforms and operating systems. When considering a large number of submitted programs (in the order of hundreds), dealing with compilation and execution of these submissions, and performing the evaluation itself quickly becomes a very time-consuming task. The goals of the system are therefore to allow submission and early validation for the students, guaranteeing a working and executable submission, and an assessment environment for the teachers, that eases the burden of compiling and executing, while providing automatically visual information of the submissions. The design and the process to automate the compilation, execution and the capture of their results to be shared by students and teachers is discussed, along with the methodologies used to implement it.
 

Authors

 
Lindomar Rocha, Rui Rodrigues
 

Related links

 

 

Interactive visualizations of automatic debugging reports (presented at SIACG’2011)

Abstract

 
Automated debugging techniques, based on statistical analysis of historical test executions data, have recently received considerable attention due to their diagnostic capabilities. However, current automatic debugging tools suffer from a common shortcoming that may affect their adoption and correct use: the lack of effective visualizations of their output.
This paper explores the use of interactive visualization techniques applied to automatic debugging results, and integrated in a common development environment (Eclipse), to improve the efficiency of the debugging process.
The proposed tool – GZoltar  – is an Eclipse plug-in that includes an automatic debugging algorithm and generates interactive visualizations of the resulting hierarchical data, with direct links to the IDE's source code editor.
 

Authors

 
André Riboira, Rui Rodrigues, Rui Abreu

 

Related Links

 

GameDev Course (MIEIC) preliminary project presentation

The students from the Informatics Masters (MIEIC) have presented their Games' preliminary projects, and created some trailer videos about them. Here's a glimpse of some of them. These game prototypes were developed by the students using XNA Game Studio, and over a period of four weeks (divided by all their other courses).

FEUP Hazard

António Miguel Ferreira
João António Soares 
João Pedro Correia

Lights out

João Faria
Pedro Pinto
Tiago Almeida

Projecto FEUP

César Duarte
João Almeida
Ricardo Canastro

Blocky

João Pedro Marques
José Pedro Cardoso
Vítor Oliveira

Labrex

João Coelho
José Macedo
Manuel Soares

Printer Dude

Tiago Gonçalves
Ricardo Belchior
André Rosa

DJCO FEUP Game

Rui Ferreira

 

FEUP Hazard (zombie)

Rafal Gicgier
Aleksandar Lazarov
João Serra

InterHACKt I – Explorations on Kinect – Friday, May 20th, 17h-20h

The GIG group organized last friday, May 20th an experimental session of interHACKt, an event meant to be a meeting point for people interested in exploring and experimenting together interesting topics, with a focus on interaction, but not limited to it.
 
Being still at an experimental stage, we only invited a small group of people that we believed to be among those who have the hacking spirit we think it should be in the core of these sessions. The idea was to assess if the concept is interesting enough to consider repeating and expanding the audience.
 
In this first session, preparation started two weeks before, where a poll ran during a week for people to choose the topic of the session. After the first week, the topic was closed on Kinect (other topics considered that will probably make it to other sessions were Arduíno, Android, HTML 5 and GPGPU).

 
During the second week, an online document was shared among the participants, where everyone could add information and ideas for projects they would like to try out.
 

When the event finally started, everyone shared what they knew about the topic, and discussed the proposals that were in the shared document. Three groups were created, and each group explored one of the topics. In the process, the online document served as a "shared board" and was enriched with inputs from everyone.
 
In the end, everyone knew how to install Kinect software and testing samples, and the groups explored a 3D reconstruction demo, and started developing two simple concepts from scratch using OSCeleton and Processing: a Kinect-controlled Pong, and a virtual drumset
 
We will now be evaluating what can be improved, but the overall feedback is positive, so we will definitely consider a second session.
 
If you think you have the spirit and would like to be informed of the next session, e-mail us at gig at fe dot up dot pt, with the subject "Interested in interHACKting", and let us know why you would like, and propose one or two topics of your liking.
 

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank DEI for sponsoring our coffee and cookies 🙂
 

Invited talks by GIG members at BEST DoT 2011

Profs. António Coelho and Rui Rodrigues from GIG were invited to give a talk at the BEST Days on technology event held at FEUP, on April 13th.

António Coelho's talk was entitled "Aprender a jogar… a sério!" (Learning to play… seriously!) and focused on the concept of serious games, the role of emotion in learning, and possible application areas.

Rui Rodrigues talk was entitled "Natural User Interfaces: Enabling Technologies" and presented an overview of current trends in terms of HCI using commodity devices such as homemade multitouch devices and game console devices such as Wiimotes and Microsoft Kinect.

GIG would like to thank once again the invitation addressed by the organization of BEST DoT'2011.

GIG and NeCG demos at BEST Days on Technology 2011

The GIG group organized with NeCG and some students some demos to be present at the BEST Days on Technology 2011 fair at FEUP, held between the 11th and 13th of April.

The demos presented were prepared by a group of MIEIC students, and were based on a series of easily available tools, that can serve as the building blocks for new ways of interacting with computers, be it for work, profit or fun.

These included the display of some multitouch demos based on PyMT and MaxMSP, as well as the possibility to play games developed at the GameDev courses of DEI using a Microsoft Kinect controller, using the available PrimeSense's OpenNI drivers and FAAST as the basis for acessing Kinect data.

Below is the list of those that we wish to thank for their help and support, and some pictures of the event (more can be found at BEST DoT's facebook).

  

Students:

– Rui Campos
– Rui Teixeira
– Paulo Sousa
– Luis Cruz
– João Prudêncio
– Pedro Machado
– Valter Pinho
– João Marques
– José Pedro Cardoso
– Fernando Moreira

 

Acknowledgments

– Prof. Luís Paulo Reis, DEI/FEUP
– CICA

Bolsas de investigação para Design de Interacção e programação Multi-Toque no DEI/FEUP (ACTUALIZAÇÃO)

(ACTUALIZAÇÃO: o prazo de candidatura foi estendido até dia 6 de Abril, quarta-feira. Pede-se no entanto que submetam a candidatura o mais cedo possível, mesmo que possam posteriormente adicionar informação até ao dia 6)

O GIG abriu concurso para duas bolsas de investigação de 6 meses (3+3) na área do Design de Interacção e programação para licenciados/mestrados nas áreas de Design e Informática, respectivamente.

O objectivo é explorar novas formas de interacção multi-utilizador em superfícies multi-toque em dois contextos: manipulação de media e jogos.

Os editais podem ser consultados no EraCareers (Design e Informática), estando o período de submissão de candidaturas a decorrer até ao dia 1 de Abril 6 de Abril.