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--- projects [2010/05/03 19:29] – bil
+++ projects [2010/12/10 14:54] (current) – bil
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-====== Web-based digital signage ======
-**Supervisor**: John Amanatides
-**Required background**: General prerequisites
-**Recommended background**: CSE 3221, CSE 3214
-__Description__
-Digital signs are increasingly used in many modern buildings to direct people to appropriate rooms for meetings, services, etc. Unfortunately, "programming" them is non-trivial, especially for non-technical people such as administrative staff. The goal of this project is to make using digital signs much easier for such people.
-One way to do this is to utilize what administrative staff are really good at: dealing with calendars. By assigning calendars to individual rooms/organizations/events, and having the digital signage software interpret this calendar data to display the day's events, an easier-to-use signage system can be developed.
-More specifically, the deliverables of this project include a digital signage system for Bethune College. Some of the technologies that you will be expected to learn/use include Javascript, JQuery, HTML, CSS, and ical/CalDAV. We expect to go open source with this software so that others can use it as well. The deliverables will also include an analysis of what it takes to scale this type of signage campus wide, including provisions for campus alerts/emergency announcements.
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-====== Estimating Registration Error ======
-**Supervisor**: Burton Ma
-**Required background**: General prerequisites
-**Recommended background**: N/A
-__Description__
-A fundamental step in computer-assisted surgery is registration where the anatomy of the patient is matched to an image or model of the anatomy. For some types of orthopaedic procedures, registration is performed by digitizing the locations of points on the surface of a bone and matching the point locations to the surface of a model of the bone. Here, a surgeon uses a pointer that is tracked using an optical tracking system to measure registration point locations on a patient. A registration algorithm is used to compute the transformation that best matches the points to a model of the anatomy.
-Virtual navigational information (such as where to drill or cut the bone) can be provided to the surgeon after the registration transformation has been established. Here, a surgeon is using a tracked surgical drill to drill a hole along a pre-operatively defined path. Notice that the surgeon looks at the virtual navigational information instead of the patient when performing this task.
-Computer-assisted surgical navigation depends on having an accurate registration. If the estimated registration is inaccurate then the navigational information will also be inaccurate, which may lead to errors in the surgical procedure. It is of great interest to know the accuracy of the estimated registration.
-Further details on the project can be found [[http://www.cse.yorku.ca/~burton/4080/4080.html|here]].
@@ Line 166: / Line 129: @@
+====== Selenium/Eiffel Web Test Driven Development ======
-====== Robotic tangible user interface for large tabletops ======
+**Supervisor**: Jonathan Ostroff
+**Required background**: General prerequisites, at least a B+ in CSE 3311
+**Recommended background**: Knowledge of Javascript a plus
-**Supervisor**: Wolfgang Stuerzlinger
+__Description__
-**Required Background**:  General CSE4080 prerequisites
+The Selenium IDE is an integrated development environment for Selenium scripts. It is implemented as a Firefox extension, and allows you to record, edit, and debug tests of web applications. The Selenium IDE is a recording tool, or you may edit your scripts by hand. With autocomplete support and the ability to move commands around quickly, Selenium IDE is the nice environment for creating webtests no matter what style of tests you prefer.
-**Recommended Background**: CSE3431 or equivalent
+Tests can be translated to Java (JUnit), C#, Python etc. It can be extended to [[http://seleniumhq.org/about/platforms.html|any language]] that can make HTTP calls.
+The goal of this project is (1) to translate Selenium tests into tests that can be run under Eiffel (e.g. via ESpec or AutoTest), and (2) to provide a complete Eiffel web application creation template (with embedded database such as sqlite) for creating and testing web applications.
+====== Automated Reasoning System for Quantified Propositional Logic ======
+**Supervisor**: Zbigniew Stachniak
+**Required background**: General prerequisites
+**Recommended background**: Passion for programming and experimentation; Some knowledge of propositional and predicate logic
 __Description__
+Quantified Propositional Logics (QPL) plays an important role in a number of computer science disciplines from the theoretical computer science to knowledge representation and verification. There are also a number of open problems concerning this logic, and formulated more than 70 years ago, that can be finally solved (or at least approached) using automated reasoning techniques. The first step in such investigations has to be the design and implementation of a theorem prover, or automated reasoning system, for QPL. Such a system should, in principle, be able to determine whether or not a given formula of QPL is a theorem (or a tautology) in this logic.
-Tangible user interfaces provide the user with object that they can touch and use as input devices. One example is the use of (tracked) toy houses to perform a city planning task on a large surface. This project implements a new form of tracking/identification scheme for tangible objects via LED arrays mounted on them. Furthermore, and using robotic components, the tangible objects will have the ability to move around autonomously, which enables important functionalities such as undo and replay.
+The theorem prover for QPL is to be designed, implemented, and fully tested.
+Background: Various variants of QPL have been formally formulated for the first time in the 1920s by a number of logicians and mathematicians. In modern computer science, QPL plays a significant role in theoretical computer science (proof complexity, satisfiability) as well as in verification and AI.
+====== NABU Network Emulator ======
-====== Different "snapping" techniques in drawing systems ======
+**Supervisor**: Zbigniew Stachniak
-**Supervisor**: Wolfgang Stuerzlinger
+**Required background**: General prerequisites
+**Recommended background**: Java (including 2D graphics); Some knowledge of PC hardware architecture; Some knowledge of (any) assembler language is an asset.
-**Required Background**: General CSE4080 prerequisites
+__Description__
-**Recommended Background**: CSE3461
+Have you ever considered writing your own emulator of an interesting system?
+There has been a substantial activity in building software emulators of historically significant computers, game consoles, and, recently, smart communication devices. As a result, there is at least one emulator of almost every significant system. This activity contributes, in the first place, to the preservation and dissemination of significant hardware and software technologies. It also allows for cost-effective development of contemporary software and hardware. The project's objective is to design and implement an emulator of the NABU Network -- one of the earliest "proto-Internet" networks. The emulator is to be implemented in Java.
+Background : The NABU Network was designed and implemented by a Canadian company NABU Manufacturing between 1981 and 1983. The underlying idea behind the network was to link home personal computers to cable television networks which would supply a continuous, high speed stream of computer programs and information (at the rate of 6.5 Mbits per second) to almost an unlimited number of users. Cable television was a uniquely ideal technology for NABU to deliver software and data to home computers because of its high bandwidth and networking capabilities.
+After the official launch on Ottawa Cablevision in October of 1983, the NABU Network was introduced by Ottawa's Skyline Cablevision in 1984 and a year later in Sowa, Japan, via a collaboration between NABU and ASCII Corp. NABU Network subscribers could rent or buy a NABU PC and dedicated network adaptor, and use an ordinary television set as a display monitor. Once connected to the network, a user could choose from various application programs and services in categories including entertainment, information and guides, education, and professional programs. Dedicated NABU magazines, newsletters, programming guides, and user groups provided subscribers with supplementary information and support. To learn more, visit [[http://www.cse.yorku.ca/museum/research/NABU.htm|here]] .
+====== CPS/1 Emulator ======
+**Supervisor**: Zbigniew Stachniak
+**Required background**: General prerequisites
+**Recommended background**: Java (including 2D graphics); Some knowledge of PC hardware architecture; Some knowledge of (any) assembler language is an asset.
 __Description__
-Many graphics programs implement snapping to facilitate drawing. Snapping ensures that end-points of lines meet, that the endpoint of one line correctly "touches" another, that objects align side-to-side, etc. One problem of simple snapping techniques is that one cannot position objects arbitrarily close together - otherwise the snapping technique interferes. A novel snapping technique "Snap-and-Go" circumvents this problem by slowing the cursor over the line, instead of snapping it close to the line. The objective of this project is to implement several snapping techniques for two-dimensional drawing systems and then to perform an evaluation with a small user study.
+There has been a substantial activity in building software emulators of historically significant computers, game consoles, and, recently, smart communication devices. As a result, there is at least one emulator of almost every significant system. This activity contributes, in the first place, to the preservation and dissemination of significant hardware and software technologies. It also allows for cost-effective development of contemporary software and hardware. The project's objective is to design and implement an emulator of the CPS/1 computer -- one of the earliest commercially available microprocessor-powered computers.
+BACKGROUND: The CPS/1 computer was designed and built by a Canadian company Microsystems International Ltd between 1972 and 73. The computer was built around the first Canadian microprocessor--the MF7114--one of world's earliest microprocessors. Although none of the CPS/1 computers have survived, technical information about the CPS/1 has been preserved. This makes the design and implementation of an emulator possible. More information [[http://www.cse.yorku.ca/museum/collections/MIL/MIL.htm|here]].
+====== Robotic tangible user interface for large tabletops ======
-====== Simulation of a 6dof virtual reality tracker ======
 **Supervisor**: Wolfgang Stuerzlinger
@@ Line 212: / Line 210: @@
 __Description__
-Previous work by the supervisor resulted in a novel and highly accurate Virtual Reality tracking system that matches or exceeds the specifications of all competing systems. However, this system works only in 5 or 6-sided immersive display environment.
-This project is the first step towards an adaptation of the technology for more general environments. In particular we target normal rooms and immersive displays with less than 5 screens. The technical work involves adapting the simulation software for the previous device to simulate a new design, and iteratively optimizing that design based on the results obtained.
+Tangible user interfaces provide the user with object that they can touch and use as input devices. One example is the use of (tracked) toy houses to perform a city planning task on a large surface. This project implements a new form of tracking/identification scheme for tangible objects via LED arrays mounted on them. Furthermore, and using robotic components, the tangible objects will have the ability to move around autonomously, which enables important functionalities such as undo and replay.
-====== Programming Multi-Core GPUs with CUDA ======
-**Supervisor**: Franck van Breugel
-**Required background**: General prerequisites
-**Recommended background**: N/A
+====== Better Layout Mechanisms for User Interfaces Toolkits ======
+**Supervisor**: Wolfgang Stuerzlinger
+**Required Background**: General CSE4080 prerequisites
 __Description__
-CUDA stands for "compute unified device architecture."  It is an architecture to program multicore graphical processing units (GPUs for short).  In the past, these GPUs were only used for graphics. However, CUDA allows us to use these GPUs for other types of computation. Since today's GPUs have hundreds of cores, algorithms can be parallelized and, hence, run often much faster.
+The layout mechanisms for many GUI toolkits are hard to understand and often difficult to use. This project investigates new, easy-to-understand layout mechanisms and evaluates an implementation of one of them in a comparative user study. Platform: any modern GUI toolkit.
-The aim of this project is to get familiar with GPUs and to study how to program them.
-More details can be found at: [[http://www.cse.yorku.ca/~franck/projects/cuda.html]]
+====== Predicting Visibility Obstructions for a 6DOF Tracker ======
-(this link is only accessible from machines within the domain yorku.ca.)
+**Supervisor**: Wolfgang Stuerzlinger
+**Required Background**: General CSE4080 prerequisites
+__Description__
+Previous work of the supervisor generated a novel and highly accurate Virtual Reality tracking system based on (eye-safe) laser diodes. The speed and accuracy of this system matches or exceeds the specification of all competing commercial systems. However, this system works only in 5 or 6-sided immersive display environment.
+Recent work has adapted the system to track successfully with as little as one large display wall and has also characterized the accuracy more comprehensively.
+The next step is to generalize the system to work in normal rooms, which may have lamps, shelves, etc. Here, visibility obstructions play a significant role and predicting these obstructions can be used to increase the tracking accuracy. This project will simulate a new method for visibility obstruction prediction to detect how big an increase in accuracy can be expected.
+====== Extensions to a 3D Modeling System ======
+**Supervisor**: Wolfgang Stuerzlinger
+**Required Background**: General CSE4080 prerequisites
+__Description__
+[[http://www.k-3d.org|K-3D]] is a successful, open-source, 3D modeling system, that can even deal with million-polygon models in real-time. This project aims to improve the user interface for K-3D by adding several novel 3D manipulation techniques. While all the mentioned operations already exist in in K-3D, the user interfaces are typically fairly inefficient and/or require significant learning. Depending on the outcome, the results of each project may even be merged back into the K-3D distribution.
+Each of the following two items can be considered a separate project:
+  * Integration of an existing implementation of a 3D sliding technique, which greatly facilitates 3D object movement.
+  * The ability to draw new "lines", rectangles, and other 2D constructs in a simple manner onto surfaces. This ability greatly simplifies many interesting operations, such as the creation of extrusions, holes, etc.