On Thursday we made a visit to Ken Perlin's lab at NYU. It was a really great opportunity to take a look at all of the projects that he is currently working on.
The first invention that we got to take a look at was called the Un-Mouse. It looked like a piece of paper plugged into the computer, but when it was attached, and the right program was pulled up, it provided a direct connection from the user's hand to the computer screen. There was piano program that would be used to play music. There was also a paint program. The great thing about this program was that the invention understands how hard you are pressing, and therefore, the paint program actually looks like finger-painting. It was really interesting how the strokes of each finger turned out differently depending on how you moved your hand. The most interesting program that this invention works with is that one that starts out with a flat 3D-looking surface, but can be changed through touching your fingers on the pad. It was really fascinating because it was like molding clay on the screen. A similar program involved creating your own planet.
The second invention that we got to look at was an interactive computer game to simulate flying like a bird. There was a huge screen, with the bird and the background projected on it that move as you moved. The way you flew the bird was by holding onto handles hanging from the ceiling and flapping your arms! It was also connected to several fans that sped up and slowed down depending on how quickly you flapped. The point of the game was to fly through hoops, but it looked like it would have been very fun to just fly around.
It was a fascinating trip to Ken Perlin's lab and it was really nice to meet a person who has really changed the virtual world through many of his different projects. Several of the works that we discussed before visiting his lab, the dancer girl, the actor program, and the pad program, were good to see before going to visit Perlin because they gave me a basis on which to understand how his mind works.
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