[sf-lug] Linux Users' Group of Davis, December 20th: "3D Display/Interaction/Capture and Off-Label Uses of Commodity Hardware"

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The Linux Users' Group of Davis (LUGOD) will be holding its next meeting on:

  Monday
  December 20, 2010
  7:00pm - 9:00pm


The meeting will be held at:

  Explorit Nature Center
  3141 5th Street
  Davis, California 95616


Presentation:

  "3D Display, 3D Interaction, 3D Capture, and Off-Label Uses of Commodity
  Hardware (or: How to Become an Internet Celebrity in Three Easy Steps)"

  Oliver Kreylos, Project Scientist, Department of Geology, UC Davis
  (maintainer of the "Kinect 3D Video Capture Project", "Vrui VR Toolkit",
  "Wii Controller Tracking Package", and other projects)

    One unintended consequence of intense competition in the entertainment
    and gaming hardware markets is that it puts previously unavailable
    (or unaffordable) technology such as stereoscopic displays, 3D input
    devices like Wii or PlayStation Move controllers, or 3D cameras like
    Xbox Kinect into the hands of independent innovators, "hackers,"
    who use them for purposes beyond the narrow range of what their
    makers intended -- or even imagined.

    The combination of these three classes of devices, which --
    by coincidence? -- all reached market at the same time, enables
    fundamentally different ways of interacting with computers, ways
    which had previously been limited to well-funded research labs and
    well-researched science-fiction movies (yes, both of those things
    do exist).

    In this talk, Oliver will show examples of such natural user interfaces
    employed in his facility, the UC Davis W.M. Keck Center for Active
    Visualization in the Earth Sciences (KeckCAVES, www.keckcaves.org),
    explore how they work -- and why they work -- and how the combination
    of commodity entertainment hardware and free, GNU/Linux-based software
    can recreate them in an everyday, albeit still somewhat upscale,
    living room.


For more details on this meeting, visit[*]:

  http://www.lugod.org/meeting/upcoming/#2010.12.06


For maps, directions, public transportation schedules, etc., visit[*]:

  http://www.lugod.org/meeting/explorit/on.php


About LUGOD:

  The Linux Users' Group of Davis is a 501(c)7 non-profit organization
  dedicated to the Linux computer operating system and other Open Source
  and Free Software.

  Since 1999, LUGOD has held regular meetings with guest speakers
  in Davis, California, as well as other events in Davis and the greater
  Sacramento region.  Events are always free and open to the public.

  Please visit our website for more details:  http://www.lugod.org/


[*] After our next event, Tuesday December 7th's LUGOD Social Gathering,
    information can be found at the typical URLs:

    http://www.lugod.org/meeting/
    http://www.lugod.org/meeting/explorit/

-- 
Bill Kendrick
pr at lugod.org
Public Relations Officer
Linux Users' Group of Davis
http://www.lugod.org/

(Your address: sf-lug at linuxmafia.com )