// Projects // _- Digital Arts at Dartmouth College -

Projects

This page includes a list of undergraduate projects performed by students under the supervision of members of the Digital Arts faculty.

CS 27

Students in the Projects in Digital Arts class (Computer Science 27; formerly Computer Science 42) have produced 3D animations from scratch every spring term since 2007. Students split into teams and have 10 weeks to design, model, rig, animate, light, and render an animated short. All of these shorts, in addition to work by students in its prerequisite classes, are available for viewing on our YouTube channel.

Students with a different vision in mind are free to pursue it in this class as well; E McNeill created Turret, the first game to come out of this class, in 2011. You can read about it at E's website.

The D-Planner

by S.J. Lee, M. Calloway, L. Loeb

The D-Planner is an interactive tool made for the Office of Visa and Immigration Services (OVIS) to help International students plan and explore their D-Plan options.

Because international students have to fulfill government visa requirements, as well as Dartmouth D-Plan requirements, it can be tough to find a plan that works. The D-Planner helps students visualize their D-Plan, while also alerting them of any rules they may be breaking. The site is currently in an open test phase with a group of International Students here at Dartmouth.

Recycle This

by X. Chen, L. Loeb, L. Torresani, R. Kerr

This iPhone app helps people identify the recyclability of an item and encourages them to recycle, reuse and reduce. A locale item table describes various types of items, each of which belongs to a certain category. A category table stores the categoric recyclability information such as #1 plastic and metal. A locale table stores a number of places, and a recyclability table tells whether an item at a place set by the user is recyclable or not. In addition, Xiaoyi is working on a machine learning version in which users could take a photo of the item and the app would return a result to tell them if the item is recyclable or not.

Get it for free on the iTunes store.

What is Chemistry?

by E. Swanson, E. Murillo, J. Wu, L. Loeb, J. Mack, E. Ross, A. Dupuis, S. Lloyd, S. Kini

As part of proposed educational activities for an National Science Foundation Career Award to Professor Jimmy Wu (Chemistry), two short animated films which focus on central topics in organic chemistry have been created. The primary purpose of these films is to stimulate students’ interest in chemical subjects beyond those which are traditionally taught in high school. Because stereochemistry is one of the most important topics in organic chemistry, this is the subject of the first animated film. The subject of the second short is polymers.

The completed short films are on YouTube and are also available to instructors and science museums. Watch Eric's animation here and Erika's here.

GreenLite Dartmouth

by E. Tice, T. Tregubov, L. Wachter, A. Lobel, S. Lei, B. Lotan, G. Ross, Green Lite team, L. Loeb

Green Lite Dartmouth is a multi-departmental project to help students use less energy in the dorms through real-time feedback, information and education. Inspired by the work of Donella Meadows, this Student Digital Arts Project encourages and supports electric use reductions across campus. Central to the project are animations displayed on monitors in the buildings. The animations show a polar bear whose health and happiness is dependent upon the amount of electricity being used by the building. As energy use goes up, the bear becomes more and more distressed. As it goes down, the bear can rest easy and play.

The project has experienced success and grown dramatically on a number of fronts, as described below. Check out all its features, including live data, here.

Tuck Installation by D. Pu, J.W. Pan, S.Lei, Tuck Sustains

The Tuck class of 2010 gave the GreenLite project as a class gift. This enabled installation of floor level sub-metering in all Tuck Dorms, monitors in the halls and a full installation of the GreenLite system in the Tuck dorms. In conjunction with the launching of the system, posters were made by WISP students, work was done with Tuck Sustains to develop a strategy for the launch, students developed new content for the GreenLite site. Working with staff, faculty and students at Tuck the system was launched in April and a Tuck-wide competition took place. The results were an 8% reduction in dorm electricity use. A survey was conducted before the launch and after in order to compare results and see shifts in behavior and attitudes. We have submitted the case study to a conference on sustainability in business. Read more about the Tuck installation and see the live data here.

Goal Setting by A.W. Kan, S.J. Lee

CS Master’s student Alun Wu Kan developed a “Goal Setting” page to provide further motivation for behavior change and resource conservation. Using baseline energy use, a goal is set. In Tuck, a goal of an 8% reduction was chosen. A page, designed by Sang Jin Lee, showed current progress towards the daily goal, along with a smile for each day the goal was reached or a frown when it wasn’t. A leader board shows dorm floor ranking. Tips and other information are provided. The goal setting page was used in the Tuck competition and, through Google analytics, we could see that the floor that used the page most had the best results in the competition. Goal setting is an important new approach changing behavior and we will conduct several user studies next year, for submission to conferences related to behavior, climate change and economics.

McNutt Installation by C. Galarza, A.W. Kan

As part of a grant from the Morgan Foundation, we put the GreenLite system in McNutt Hall. The system is easily seen as you enter the building and serves as a center piece for students and prospective students. Working with the McNutt Energy group, we are learning how a feedback system works best in an office setting and developing displays and “mood algorithms” specifically geared towards that setting.

Connection with Dartmouth Campus-Wide Energy Information by A.W. Kan

Working with Rockwell and Campus Energy Manager, Stephen Shadford, we are developing an integrated campus-wide system for energy management and display. Dartmouth and Rockwell developed a system to track energy use in all campus buildings. The GreenLite system can now access the campus system. We are designing a user interface for displaying this information in ways that can be easily accessed and offers meaningful information for faculty, staff and students.

The Sudikoff Interactive Directory

by J. Rogers, L. Xie, A. Kwan, I. Terzic, P. Stein, S. Lloyd, C. Juarez, J. Juarez, L. Loeb

An interactive directory for the computer science department, designed to create a personal, warm introduction to the people in the building. Visitors get to know the faculty, staff and students and are helped to find their way around the building. Video portraits react and interact with the visitor.

This project won Second Place for Individual Innovation in the Kemeny Awards 2007.

West Gym Lighting Control

by A.W. Kan, S.J. Lee, L. Loeb, S. Shadford

In collaboration with J&F Labs, we developed an interactive lighting control system for the West Gym at Dartmouth. Multi-use spaces such as the West Gym end up with all lights on, all the time, because it is too difficult to control lighting for multiple uses. New LED lights were installed with control systems that allowed them to be set to different amounts of light (off, low, medium and high). CS Master’s Student, Alun Wu Kan and undergraduate Sang Jin Lee (’13), designed and implemented a simple, intuitive touch screen lighting control. Gym users can choose the area they are using. Motion sensors turn lights off when nobody is in the space. Timers and lighting over-rides allow athletics department staff to set lights for special events.

The system is in place and plans are underway to expand this project to Leverone Indoor Stadium, Leede Auditorium and Thompson Arena. Take a look at an interactive sample of the interface here.

Earth Climate Model

by L. Fowlie, B. Hawlie, E. Osterberg, L. Loeb

Bob Hawlie and Erich Osterberg, faculty in Earth Sciences, asked us to help them solve a teaching dilemma. They needed to visually and numerically represent data pertaining to natural climate change on earth. The current parameters that are changeable are precession, eccentricity, and obliquity, each of which pertains to the orbit of earth around its own axis and around the sun. Using the Earth Climate Model, users can manipulate these values and watch a 3D representation of the earth change as they do so, or they can switch modes, set a time period to observe, and watch as real data is used to manipulate the graphical representation. This application has been used in Earth Sciences courses at Dartmouth as a learning aid.

Big Green Bus Success Stories

by L. Fowlie, L. Loeb

“Big Green Bus Success Stories” is an interactive map created for the Big Green Bus. The map illustrates various successes of environmental conservation efforts and environmentally sustainable businesses. Upon opening the map, users see various clickable markers, which when clicked perform a small bouncing animation and display a window with information on the chosen location, in addition to a link to that venue’s site. Users can also click a link in order to obtain directions to that location. The map was created using the Google Maps API in combination with JavaScript, and is available online at the Big Green Bus website.

Eat Green

by E. Hoffman, J.W. Pan, L. Loeb

A 2011 WISP project, “Eat Green” aims to inform and encourage students to make good choices around the foods they eat on campus. Emily Hoffman and Jing Wei Pan collected data on all the food choices in Dartmouth dining halls and developed a ranking system. They ranked each food on several environmental and dietary measures including packaging, meat vs. vegetables, distance from production, portion size, calories and storage requirements (refrigeration, shelf, freezer). From this, they created a database and a simple interactive Java application that allows students to choose the foods they eat and see the results. This spring we learned that the Sustainability office, DDS, the President’s office, and a group of Thayer students working through Design for America are also interested in this topic. We met with representatives from these groups and are coordinating our efforts. Future work will include a more robust display, iPhone app and online presence.

Greensite

by Q. Zhao, L. Loeb

As a senior thesis in computer science and digital arts project, Qianqian Zhao created a sustainability social networking site. The site creates a positive experience for users by incorporating human-computer interaction principles while imparting information about sustainability and rallying users to spread the word. There are three components to the work: research, implementation, and user testing. The research component consisted of researching interaction design principles, in order to create an efficient interface for the game that is enjoyable to use. The implementation component entails designing and creating the website itself. This website was coded in PHP/HTML. Information about users and their actions on the website was stored in a SQL database that was accessed through PHP. User testing was conducted along the way in order to improve prototypes.

Life Sciences Building: Science In Sight

by P. Stein, L. Loeb, M. McPeek

The Science in Sight project was an interactive three-dimensional web application created to communicate the design, implementation and effect of the energy saving systems in Dartmouth's new Life Sciences building. The application allows users to interact with the systems directly, demonstrating the effects of certain design decisions. The windows, for example, are arranged in such a way as to maintain heat in the building and keep as much light as possible in the building. We animated the randomization of the windows and performed the necessary computations to determine the effectiveness of the new arrangement. We believe these animations illustrate the importance of these systems to Dartmouth's new commitment to sustainability.

Big Green Bus Storytelling App

by I. Terzic, L. Loeb

The goal of the storytelling app is to allow users to engage with the presenter in a more meaningful way, by recording videos and looking at videos that other users recorded. While there are numerous applicable uses for such a program, we did the pilot project for the Big Green Bus student organization, so that when they tour the US they can display an interactive screen where visitors can watch prerecorded videos about the environment and the impact pollution has on people, as well as record their own message about how those issues affect them. After a summer of touring the idea is to put all those videos together online so that they can also be accessed by others.

Big Green Bus Transportation App

by I. Terzic, L. Loeb

The goal of this application is to demonstrate to people how their actions impact the environment and what steps they can take to reduce their footprint. The application takes the user through a questionnaire about their daily commute. After the questionnaire is finished, the app shows the user how much carbon dioxide was emitted and money spent as a result of their actions, and proposes alternatives such as walking, carpooling and public transport alongside the corresponding savings and emissions reductions.

LightChess

by T. Tregubov, L. Loeb

LightChess is a discovery play chess learning game. The main premise is that the process of learning chess can be broken up in a variety of mini games -- each of which teaches some aspect of the game while being fun on its own. This is implemented in a 3D environment on the Apple iPad with an intuitive touch interface using the Unity3D game engine. Graphically, the pieces (in animal form) are displayed as either cartoon-like two dimensional renderings or as 3D pieces (which can eventually can be animated).

Viscera: Echoes of War

by B. Rayner, J. Duford, E. Michet, S. Jangro, F. Evans, P. Hackett, D. Kotlowitz, L. Loeb, and others

VISCERA marked the first use of digital projection in a live performance at Dartmouth. Funded in part by the Neukom Institute, this work began as a unique collaboration between Ford Evans from the Dance Theater Ensemble, Peter Hackett and Dan Kotlowitz from the Theater Department, and Lorie Loeb from the Computer Science Department, in conjunction with the Hopkins Center. A multidisciplinary production synthesizing performing arts, visual arts, digital arts and computer science, VISCERA premiered in the Moore Theatre (Hopkins Center) on May 21, 2010. VISCERA explored the hidden secrets of war through dance, animation, text and light.

Check out the original Facebook event here and a video of the performance, courtesy of the Theater Department, here.

Interactive 3D Campus

by J. Glago, L. Loeb

Building on the work of the Google Earth Competition team, Jess Glago created a virtually walkable version of the 3D Dartmouth campus using Unity, with even more buildings and features than the campus that won the competition! Although it's missing the newest campus buildings, it's still very cool; download the Windows version or Mac version or try it out in your browser.

The Lawn Conundrum

by K. Davis, L. Loeb

Interactive art exhibit commissioned by the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum, Chicago, Illinois (part of the Chicago Academy of Sciences). An interactive story about lawns – yes, lawns. This piece shows the choices we face in our own front yards and the consequences of those choices on the environment, pets and family.

Play it yourself on the Notebaert website. (And ignore any notifications about malware!)

Motion Capture in Action

by R. Forman, L. Loeb

Motion Capture In Action was a real-time motion capture project that premiered at the Bentley Theater in the Hopkins Center for the Performing Arts on October 2, 2007. Combining the ancient art of dance with state of the art technology, we fit three dancers with specially designed suits. The dancers performed several pieces from Merce Cunningham dances as well as work choreographed specifically for this demonstration. As they danced, their motion was instantaneously transferred to three computer generated 3D models that danced along in unison with the dancers.

Check out the video and more details about the project.

Polarized Pixel Mirror

by E. Greenberg, R. Dimov, J. Harris, L. Loeb, F. Pellacini

Inspired by Daniel Rozin's work, an array of 32x32 servos – each representing a pixel – recreates an image captured by a digital web camera. The image is created by placing a sheet of polarizing film in front of the mirror and a disk of polarizing film on each servo. Rotating the servos creates different shades of gray and a pixellated image of the viewer is created in realtime.

This project was awarded Second Prize for Team Innovation in the Kemeny Awards 2007. Check out more details about the project.

Google Earth Competition

by J. Glago, the team, L. Loeb

A team of Dartmouth students won Google's 2007 Build Your Campus in 3D Competition. Google asked, "How would your campus look in 3D?," and challenged students to use Google SketchUp and Google Earth software to find out. The Dartmouth group was one of seven winning teams chosen from more than 350 entries.

Check out more details about the project.

Lighting with Sketching

by A. Steinberg, F. Pellacini

Lighting design is a fundamental aspect of computer cinematography. This work presents an interactive user interface that facilitates lighting workflow by using a sketching paradigm for light creation. Lights are specified by a series of strokes that define various properties of illumination such as shape of the light and position of illuminated and shadowed areas.

This project was awarded First Prize for Individual Innovation in the Kemeny Awards 2007. Check out more details about the project.