Thanks to generous support from Whitman College and grants from TeachAccess, and the Whitman AITAG Experimental Tech Fund, I have applied my best budget shopping and computer building skills to assemble what is a most unique lab among small liberal arts colleges. The lab welcomes creative, interdisciplinary research, collaborations, and performances. I am happy to share ideas with colleagues from other colleges, especially primarily undergraduate liberal arts colleges, who wish to create similar spaces.
Performance Capture Technologies
Gain hands-on experience with a variety of technologies ranging from consumer-level markerless systems to professional inertial and marker-based systems.
Vicon Shogun performance-capture system including eight-one megapixel cameras, suits, and reflective markers
Shadow inertial full-body system for portable, wireless tracking from Seattle-based Motion Workshop
Microsoft Kinect Azure
Multiple Kinect V2 sensors thanks to a grant from Teach Access
Three Tobii Eye Tracker 3 sensors thanks to a grant from Teach Access
WebCam image-processing via Tracking.js
Immersive Projection and Lighting Effects
Multiple short-throw projectors for immersive wall and floor displays (Casio laser/LED hybrids are lamp-free and more eco-friendly)
Portable rear projection screen (10.5 feet x 6.5 feet)
Fixed 12 x 9 foot front-cast projection screen
Two drop-down side wall projection screens to allow for three wall and one floor projection.
Three DMX-controlled pan/tilt/RGB color changing stage lights and DMX King Pro USB interface
Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) Headsets
HTC Vive 1.0 VR headset system
Multiple Meta 2 AR headsets (from the original Meta startup)
Multiple Magic Leap AR headsets
Multiple Samsung Odyssey+ VR headsets thanks to AITAG
Multiple MSI VR One backpack computers to enable cable free experiences
Music and Sound
49-key MIDI keyboard
Two Sensel Morph pressure-sensitive interface pads
Four ceiling mounted projectors have speaker audio output via HDMI video cables
Virtual Movie Production
Virtual camera rig (7-inch HD monitor, shoulder mount, custom-built joystick controllers)
LG 50-inch 4K UHD LED TV
Canon Camcorder with tripod and dolly wheels
Multiple bi-color LED studio lights, soft colored gel diffusers, and light stands
Green screen backdrop (20 foot wide by 9 foot tall) on a curtain track
Roland V1-HD video switch for live chromakey and video effects
Workstations
HP Z-Station dedicated motion-capture server PC, 64 GB RAM, Xeon 8-core CPU, NVidia GTX 1650 graphics, and 4 TB WD Black hard drive (green PC rescue rebuilt)
Realtime graphics workstation #1, Dell G5 with i9 CPU, 32GB RAM, NVidia RTX 2060 graphics
Realtime graphics workstation #2, NVidia Quadro A4000
Realtime graphics workstation #3, NVidia Quadro A2000
Software
Vicon Shogun, two networked floating licenses (typically one license sits on the lab server and one on Dr. Bares’ research notebook). Floating licenses make it possible to capture data in the lab space, then replay and edit motion data away from the lab on your own Windows computer. Additional floating licenses can be added as demand grows. Dongle-free floating licenses was one of the main reasons our lab went with Vicon for motion capture.
Unreal Game Engine and collection of virtual scenery assets and plugins for virtual production
Unity Game Engine
Reallusion iClone, Character Creator 3 Pipeline, and Virtual human pack (2 seats)
Blender 3D and Maya
Touch Designer
NOTCH Builder Learning Edition (3 seats)
Camtasia Screen Recorder and Video Editor
OBS Video Editor