Facilities and Equipment
The Center for Human Modeling and Simulation has created a LiveActor Studio in a room adjoining the Center's core laboratory space. This studio currently includes a rear-projected, dual passive stereo wall consisting of 4 VIZ2 DLP Projectors of 1280x1024 resolution and 3000 lumens, 2 Cyviz xpo, 2 Passive Stereo Converters with built-in edge blending, 4 wide-angle optic lenses, and 1 72"x 192" Stewart Luxus Deluxe Screenwall. Also included is Ascension Technology's active optical motion capture system, the ReActor, and 3 PC systems running Windows 2000 (2 GHz). A GSR biosensing device is also available.
The Center for Human Modeling and Simulation also has 15 PC systems running Windows XP (Dell Precision 670s and 690s), 2 PC systems running Linux, 2 Apple G5's, and a Sony VAIO U50 wearable computer. There is also a DV desk, video monitor, and VCRs connected to computers for video creation and editing to produce output for the web, VHS tapes, DV tapes, or DVDs. Additional equipment includes an HD DV video camera, 2 lighting kits, and a large chroma key green screen. Other peripherals include three different types of head mounted displays, a true augmented reality display (nVision Datavisor), an opaque display (eMagin Z800 3DVisor), a sliver display (MicroOptical SV-9 PC Viewer), 2 Immersion wireless CyberGloves, and an Intersense Fusion Tracker IS-1200. All systems are connected via high-speed Ethernet. Several hardcopy and audio-visual devices are also present.
Courses
- CIS 277: Introduction to Computer Graphics Techniques
- CIS 460/560: Computer Graphics
- CIS 461/561: Computer Modeling & Animation Applications
- CIS 462/562: Computer Animation
- CIS 564: Game Design and Developement
- CIS 660: Advanced Topics in Computer Graphics and Animation
- CIS 665: GPU Programming and Architecture
Reference Material
HMS also has an ever growing library of reference books and journals. Many of these books can be checked out just by signing your name to a card. Please visit the HMS Library Site to see what some of the books available are and stop by Moore 106 to sign them out.
Many HMS publications are available online.
Penn also has an extensive library system including subscriptions to many e-journals.
Other Information
- Information about processing our mocap data in house.
- Supplemental ReActor Users Guide
- Using Maya with our mocap data
Software Resources
Developer's Tools
- Moving from Java to C++
- Java to C++ Transition Tutorial
- C++ Language Tutorial
- Pointers to Functions (fun stuff)
Graphics Libraries
Jack
- Where to get more information about Jack
- C++ PaTNets (parellel transition networks)
Scripting Languages/GUI
- FLTK
- Python
- SWIG: generates wrapper code for scripting language interfaces (python, tcl, etc.) to C/C++ declarations
Imaging and Animation Utilities
- Adobe Creative Suite
- Adobe Premiere
- Adobe Audition
- Adobe Encore
- Autodesk Maya
- Autodesk MotionBuilder
- Macromedia Director
- Jack
- Snagit
- Pixar's Renderman
- EON Studio
- ...
Math Pacakages
- Maple
- MatLab
Utilities
- MySQL
- Microsoft Office Suite
- ViaVoice
- Various network related applications