Faculty of Engineering and Design » information technology

Team Awarded National Public History Prize

amandacouch — Thu, 06 Jun 2013 14:53:56 +0000

The Canadian Committee on Public History awarded its third annual Public History Prize to a Carleton University team for the development of the free Rideau Timescapes App at the annual meeting of the Canadian Historical Association in Victoria, B.C.

The prize went to James Opp, co-director of the Centre for Public History; Anthony Whitehead, director, School of Information Technology; and Will Knight, project manager and PhD candidate, Department of History

“The Rideau Timescapes App is a truly collaborative project involving students from Information Technology and graduate researchers with the Centre for Public History,” said Opp. “It is a tremendous honour to be acknowledged on a national level for our efforts.”

The award recognizes work that achieves high standards of original research, scholarship and presentation; brings an innovative public history contribution to its audience; and serves as a model for future work, advancing the field of public history in Canada.

The Carleton team has given the public a new way to delve into the history of the Rideau waterway. The free app enables visitors to interact with the visual heritage of 26 lock stations along the canal. It is available for download at the Apple App Store for the iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad.

App users have access to more than 700 historic photographs through a map interface. Short histories of the canal and its lock stations are available at the tap of a button. Users can also slide through time to see the changing landscape in the unique Timescape view. The app will even detect the user’s current position and jump to the nearest site.

The zoomable images can also be overlaid with contemporary scenes in real time through the phone camera, allowing users to position the historical image within the landscape and adjust the amount of transparency.

Funded in part by the Department of Canadian Heritage, the app is available in both French and English. Click here to read more about the Rideau Timescapes App. To download the app, click here.

HCI research on character control

amandacouch — Wed, 15 May 2013 16:24:08 +0000

Ali Etemad’s human-computer interaction research uses machine learning, pattern recognition, artificial intelligence and computer vision, along with perceptual and psychological methods to model and analyze human motion focusing on stylistic and affective behaviour. The goal is to examine whether gesture-based computer games can use the information embedded in our movements to figure out when and how to adjust the game’s level of difficulty, the course of the game or even lighting and music.

Etemad is working onhis doctorate in electrical and computer engineering under the supervision of Ali Arya.

“Our research is intended for character control in animated movies and video games as well as extraction of information from motion patterns,” says Etemad. “So in addition to multimedia applications, it could also have an impact on surveillance systems to help recognize and track suspects.”

Etemad says he enjoys the freedom of his program: “The Department of Systems and Computer Engineering and the School of Information Technology aren’t confined to classical definitions of computer engineering. The school is very multidisciplinary and is involved with different fields such as human-computer interaction, networks, photonics and laser.”

Students launch video-sharing app

charlottebradley — Thu, 06 Sep 2012 19:43:47 +0000

A group of young entrepreneurs is preparing to launch a new app that allows users to share videos using their smartphones. The founders of Crewcam Inc. are Carleton information technology students Ryan Brink and Desmond McNamee and Gregory Flatt, BEng/11. Read the full story here.

Ottawa Citizen: Ottawa’s game development industry

charlottebradley — Tue, 07 Aug 2012 14:55:08 +0000

People “underestimate” Ottawa’s game development industry, insiders say

BY BRIAN PLATT, AUGUST 1, 2012

Two years ago, Graeme Barlow was deciding where to locate a new video game company, RocketOwl Inc. He and his four partners had all been living in Ottawa, and soon realized that there might not be a better place to access the resources they needed as a start-up.

“A lot of people underestimate Ottawa as a gaming centre,” says Barlow, RocketOwl’s CEO. But with plenty of government support and a base of local talent, it didn’t make much sense to go elsewhere. RocketOwl went on to raise $600,000 from local angel investors, and is going strong with 21 employees.

The general consensus these days is that Ottawa’s game development industry is booming. Last May, the first Ottawa Games Conference attracted over 420 attendees, exceeding its organizers’ expectations and boosting the hopes of those trying to market the city as a gaming centre.To a certain extent, the success of Ottawa’s industry is mirroring Canada’s as a whole.

In 2010, Canada passed the United Kingdom to become the third-largest employer of game developers in the world, behind only Japan and the United States. The Entertainment Software Association of Canada estimates there are 16,000 game development jobs across the country and predicts 17 percent growth over the next two years. Although the vast majority of these jobs are located in Montreal, Vancouver and Toronto, the cluster of a few dozen smaller companies in Ottawa is growing steadily.

Much of that growth can be attributed to determined efforts by provincial and federal governments to attract game companies through tax incentives. The Ontario government provides a tax credit of up to 40 percent on labour expenditures for game companies, and uses other subsidies to help start-ups get established. Quebec and British Columbia provide similar benefits, as do many other provinces.

“These are high-paying jobs; the average salary in our industry is $62,000,” says ESAC’s Julien Lavoie. “And generally speaking, it’s young people who work in our industry, who are upwardly mobile and willing to live and work in downtown locations. They can sometimes rejuvenate neighbourhoods, we’ve seen that in Montreal and Toronto.”

Furthermore, Lavoie says, game development jobs have proven to be relatively recession-proof.

Another key for attracting and keeping game companies in Ottawa is the labour supply. Over the last decade, game development programs have started up at Algonquin College, Carleton University, the University of Ottawa, and a handful of other colleges in the region.

Tony Davidson, a professor at Algonquin and the program coordinator for the game development stream, says education programs in the city and the growing industry share a good relationship.

“It’s a very close-knit community, very supportive—and very pro-Ottawa, too,” he says of the companies located here. “We want to see Ottawa succeed as a gaming technology city.”

Those efforts seem to be bearing fruit. Jonathan Simon, the director of marketing at one of Ottawa’s biggest gaming companies, Magmic, ended up in Ottawa after starting out in Florida and moving to Montreal.

“I like Ottawa because it’s a big town, but it still has that small-town feel,” says Simon. “I was able to make connections very quickly.” He says companies will often promote Ottawa’s low cost of living as a big benefit to relocating here.

RocketOwl has also had success drawing employees to the city. “Along with the talent here, you can also approach people in Montreal and Toronto,” says Barlow. “We’ve pulled talent from both cities.”

But Ottawa’s proximity to those larger gaming centres means it can also lose talent there. Montreal and Toronto have large studies like Ubisoft, Electronic Arts and Eidos, and it’s the hope of many in Ottawa that one of those companies will eventually open an office here.

“The biggest thing that’s hurting Ottawa right now is not having one of the big companies here. I hope we’ll see that in the next few years,” says Barlow.

Yet those studies can actually create instability, says Paul Butler. Butler has been in the Ottawa gaming industry for longer than nearly anyone else, having first established Artech Studios here in 1981.

“If you’re in [a place like Montreal], there’s all kinds of churn, people jumping from one company to another. You don’t have that in Ottawa, it’s much more stable,” says Butler. “When you have a company like Ubisoft come in, it’s great for the business in general, but the little developers lose all their people.”

For now, one thing everyone agrees about is that after years of being the scrappy underdog, Ottawa’s game developers are starting to build some real momentum.

“Companies haven’t been paying enough attention to this city,” says Davidson. “Next year the conference is going to be bigger, it’s going to be better…I think it’s just a matter of time before we see one or two of the larger studios put in a presence here.”

Carleton’s Centre for Public History and Information Technology Launch App

ccms_editor — Tue, 22 May 2012 14:28:38 +0000

As boaters prepare for a busy season of voyages on the Rideau Canal, Carleton’s Centre for Public History and School of Information Technology have given the public a whole new way to delve into the history of the venerable waterway. The free Rideau Timescapes App allows visitors to interact with the visual heritage of 26 lockstations along the canal. The app was launched today at an event at Carleton University, and is available for download now in the Apple App Store for the iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad.

“Historic photographs are usually only viewed in archives or museums,” said James Opp, the Centre’s co-director. “By making them accessible and mobile, we can change how users experience the rich histories and heritage of the Rideau Canal.”

App users have access to more than 700 historic photographs, available through a map interface. Short histories of the canal and its lockstations are available at the tap of a button. Users can also slide through time to see the changing landscape in the unique Timescape view. The app will even detect the user’s current position and jump to the nearest site.

The zoomable images can also be overlayed with contemporary scenes in real time through the phone camera, allowing users to position the historical image within the landscape and adjust the amount of transparency.

“This is a definite must-download for anyone interested in Canadian history or photography,” said Don Marrin, Superintendent of the Rideau Canal, Parks Canada. “Rideau Timescapes puts hundreds of seldom seen photos into the hands anyone who wants to enhance a visit to a Rideau Canal lockstation. People from around the world can experience this unique UNESCO World Heritage Site with this impressive app. Parks Canada is proud to have been involved in this project.”

The project was both conceived and brought to life at Carleton. Development of the app was handled collaboratively by Carleton’s Centre for Public History and the School of Information Technology, with marketing input from students in the Sprott School of Business. It was funded in part by a grant from the Canada Interactive Fund, Department of Canadian Heritage.

The app is available in both French and English. Click here to read more about the Rideau Timescapes App. To download the app, click here.

Carleton wins Imagine Cup Canada

charlottebradley — Tue, 01 May 2012 15:15:18 +0000

Two teams from the Interactive Multimedia & Design program at Carleton’s School of Information Technology were invited to the Canadian finals (top three) of the Imagine Cup competition on April 30, and won first and second places in the Windows Phone Game Design category.

The teams were challenged to build a game and tie it to the 2012 Imagine Cup Theme “Imagine a world where technology helps solve the toughest problems”.

First place went to Gar Lam, Clark McGillis, Curtis Field, Eva Demers-Brett and mentor Jean-Sylvain Sormany with Project Beacon. Showing, through a game, the impact of human activity on the planet, and how actions of one person can help to improve the environment, the team’s game highlights the importance of renewable energy sources (sun, wind, water) and focuses on the art style in order to show a shift between a polluted world and a clean world.

Second place was claimed by Ryan Bottriel, Zara Tooth, Matthew Fournier, Skye Gagne and mentor Jean-Sylvain Sormany with Novarum. Attempting to solve the problem of world hunger, as well as the issues of active participation from the mass population in solving such problems, the team is raising funds for a charity via in-game advertising and raising awareness through gameplay.

Alcatel-Lucent Lab

amandacouch — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 16:26:58 +0000

Richard Yu, principal investigator, Advanced Lab for Heterogeneous Communication Networks operates out of the Alcatel-Lucent Lab.

On any given day students and faculty members in the Alcatel-Lucent Lab at Carleton University are researching solutions to real problems like traffic jams, CO2 emissions, and ad hoc networks in war zones.

The lab is equiped for research on mobile activity, mobile communications, flexibility enhancements for wireless communication networks, application domain, networking and optics.

In 2001, Carleton was chosen by Alcatel as a Global Strategic Research Partner (one of only eight in the world).

IMD Student wins Best Student App

ccms_editor — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 16:54:53 +0000

OttawaFun.ca (http://ottawafun.ca/), has awarded IMD-Y3 student Tyler Pearce‘s entry in Apps4Ottawa competition, Best Student App award ($3000) and Gold for the Having Fun In Ottawa category ($5000).

http://apps4ottawa.ca/

Congratulations to Tyler and all other IMD students and alumni in showcasing their talents and skills.

Eric Chan, BIT/08

amandacouch — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 05:00:00 +0000

Eric Chan, BIT/08, melds digital and manual processes as an artist-programmer working in New York City under the handle eepmon. It’s a twist of the word “apeman,” Chan says, because he was born in 1980, the year of the monkey. The handle relates to his artwork, which features monkeys and other creatures floating through digital worlds. He uses a variety of materials: giclée, canvas—and even coding. A past exhibit at hpgrp Gallery in Chelsea was interactive. Audience members uploaded images to Chan’s laptop. Using a program he created, Chan blended the images with real-time weather data to create abstract works.