Mike Oren.com

So, my classes start tomorrow with electronic music synthesis at ten in the morning. I can't say I feel one way or another about classes starting. I like them because I learn new things, but I don't like them because I have to sit through them. However, since I'd probably get caught up in too many things to learn the things I learn in classes, I think overall they're probably a positive thing for me--even if I am stuck in sort of a confined time that I need to show up and all that. I also have a psychology class on Tuesday/Thursday and then a seminar on Friday (my music class meets Mon., Wed., Fri.). So as expected from grad school, my course load is fairly light--most of the work will be done outside of class, which is how I prefer it (because then I do it based on my own scheduling). Sort of surprisingly though, I do not have any computer science courses, but since I'm in the highly interdisciplinary Human Computer Interaction program, I suppose that isn't all that surprising--just a bit of a shift.

And I'll be doing plenty of programming any way, with the research I'm doing for Chris Harding currently looking like it'll be done with H3D (combines OpenHaptics, OpenAL, X3D, and OpenGL in an XML, C++, and Python programming environment to handle stereo graphics, spatial sound, and haptics). Along with that the project Kyle and I started will start going through a much more rigorous user study then he and I were able to conduct thanks to the funding and support of my professor and the help and expertise of Terri Bonebright (a psychology professor from DePauw University, where I received my undergrad). That project page still needs to be updated and I keep putting it off, but I swear I'll get to it sometime before testing officially begins. I did at least change this site's logo (if you're viewing the actual page and not just the link from the RSS feed) as part of my preperations, since that project page is the official page for this project and I didn't think a picture of Danielle and I kissing would be very appropriate for the audiences that would be viewing the page.

As far as other news goes, I also joined a team of other HCI majors that's working on creating a new Virtual Reality demo for the C6 (a 6-sided virtual reality room or CAVE) that is being upgraded to the highest resolution CAVE in the world. I have little interest in working with the graphical side of things, that's just a matter of pushing more polygons and all of that; however, one of the upgrades includes a a dedicated sound server with 8.1 surround sound. So I'm interested in playing with that and seeing how well spatial sound actually works in the CAVE to add another level of immersion to the demo. It also gives me a good chance to interact with some of the other HCI students, learn more about the CAVE, and have another thing to talk about.