COSC 477/590: Virtual Reality and its Principles
Fall Semester 2016 Course Information
Instructor: Dr. Sharad Sharma
Department of Computer Science
Bowie State University
E-MAIL: ssharma@bowiestate.edu

CLASS HOURS: Monday: 4:55 PM – 7:25 PM, CSB 312
OFFICE HOURS: Monday: 1:55 – 4:55 PM, or by appointment
OFFICE LOCATION: Computer Science Building, Room 317

---

COURSE DESCRIPTION

The goal of this course is to introduce students to Virtual Reality (VR) hardware, software, and provide an opportunity for them to apply this knowledge to applications for education and games. This course applies cutting-edge VR technology currently available in academia and industry. Students will design, model, and script the VR environment by developing a complete VR application as a group project.

---

Text Book

---

News

The NASA Swarmathon

This NASA funded project is seeking HBCUs and other Minority Serving Universities and Colleges to compete in the 2017 Virtual Swarmathon Robotics Competition. The Swarmathon is a NASA challenge to develop cooperative robotics to revolutionize space exploration.  Organizers will host an informational Webinar on Friday, September 23rd at 12pm Eastern time. They will explain how faculty members can earn a $500 stipend, get online training for student teams, and have these teams compete for up to $3,000 in cash prizes in this national competition. Use the link below to sign up for the informational webinar:

September 23, 2016 Webinar for NASA Swarmathon Virtual Competition
Visit http://nasaswarmathon.com/webinar to sign up

Deadline for applications: September 30, 2016
Visit http://nasaswarmathon.com/apply

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Course Related Links

All the lecture slides are at Blackboard

* Syllabus

* Assignments

* Course Topic Details

Approved projects

* Project Proposal Report

* Project Deliverables and Evaluation

* PROJECT REPORT

Vizard helpful links

Vizard 5

---

Weekly Time Schedule

29-Aug	Introduction	Assignment 1: 3D Max Due: 12 Sep
5-Sep	Labor day holiday
12-Sep	Virtual Reality Input Devices/3DsMax
19-Sep	Python Programming (Vizard)	Assignment 2: Vizard Due: 26 Sep
26-Sep	Virtual Reality Output Devices/	Assignment 3: Vizard 2 Due: 3 Oct
3-Oct	Computer Graphics Principles for VR	Assignment 4: Unity3D, Due: 10 Oct
10-Oct	Project Proposal Presentation	Due: Project Proposal Report & Presentation
17-Oct	Mid Term Exam
24-Oct	Project Proposal Presentation	Vizard
31-Oct	Unity 3D tutorial	Project Proposal Presentation
7-Nov	Geometric Modeling Principles for VR
14-Nov	Human Factors in VR
21-Apr	Traditional Applications in VR	Mid Project Demo 1
28-Nov	Emerging Applications in VR/Augmented Reality	Mid Project Demo 2
5-Dec	Open Lab (work on group project)
12-Dec	Group Project Presentations/ Demo, Presentations.	Due date for Report
19-Dec	Final Exam

2015

2014

Final Projects 2013

Final Projects 2012

Final Projects Spring 2011

BSU Final Projects for Spring 2010

* BSU Final Projects for Spring 2009

* BSU Student Projects 2008

* Example Student Projects

* Project Ideas

* Usefull links for 3D models

 

Link to Free Software (3DsMax, Maya) for Students on the Education Community

 

VRML Resources

• Second Life Online Virtual Society
• 3D Game Studio engine
• mr Physical Sky
• mr Physical Sky 2
• 3ds Max 2008 Tutorials
• 3D Studio MAX 3.1 tutorials
• Texture Mapping VRML
• Di Guy Human Simulation Software
• BOOK: 3ds Max 10 Architectural Visualization
• BOOK: 3ds Max 9 Bible 2009
• BOOK: 3ds Max 8 Bible 2008
• Making an ants crowd in 3ds Max
• Crowd Animation User Interface
• Crowd Animation
• Crowd Simulation in 3ds Max
• Crowd simulation (biped) with AI implant video
• How to make sure animated clones get lost in the crowd Video

Reference

• Sherman, William R., and Craig, Alan B., Understanding Virtual Reality: Interface, Application, and Design, Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, 2003
• Introduction to Virtual Reality
• VR: The Medium
• Overview of virtual reality systems
• Overview of hardware used by virtual reality systems (input)
• Overview of hardware used by virtual reality systems (output)

To view our three-dimensional VRML 2.0 models, we recommend the CosmoPlayer plug-in for Internet Explorer, Firefox, Mozilla, and other Web browsers. The CosmoPlayer can be downloaded from this NIST Web site, from karmanaut, or from other places. Please refer to these latest Download and Install Instructions from NIST.