In 2011, four UQ students took an interactive design and programming approach to the popular Smartphone game Angry Birds, which required game participants to fire a giant, 1.5 metre slingshot, while the trajectory of the bird was projected on the wall. The group of Multimedia Design and Engineering students were able to construct the interactive game using items readily available at electronics and hardware shops for a small budget. When the user pulls back on the slingshot, they activate the pressure switch which turns on the infrared (IR) Light Emitting Diode (LED), which is then tracked via a webcam with an IR Pass Filter. The device also includes a large foot operated button, adapted from a ($10) mouse, which when stood on activates the left click on the mouse, enabling the special abilities possessed by some of the birds to be employed

To view a video of the Angry Birds project in action, visit http://vimeo.com/24803701.

Aaron McDowall and Kim Hunter used their Bachelor of Information Technology assignment to launch their careers. Their successful mobile navigational application UQnav is now helping UQ staff and students find their way around campus.

Released for iPhones in February and Android in June, UQnav contains searchable maps of the University's four campuses: St Lucia, Ipswich, Gatton and Herston.

UQnav can be used to find lecture theatres, laboratories, as well as where to grab a coffee, the closest bank and nearest public transport stop. The built-in favourites functionality allows users to bookmark the locations they visit most frequently, and they can also email a Google Maps link to people who don't have an iPhone. UQnav also links to other useful sites, including UQ Contacts, UQ News Online, UQ events, the library, plus iTunesU, Flickr, Twitter and YouTube.

UQnav was developed by Aaron McDowall and Kim Hunter, two Bachelor of Information Technology students, as part of the subject Special Topics in Computer Science (COMP3000).

Kim Hunter said they realised that there was a real need, particularly amongst new students, for a convenient and portable way of checking where to go, so they started working on a map-based application.

“We were able to sell the application to UQ and were even employed by the University for several months to tweak the app in time for an Orientation Week launch,” he said.

Both students said that COMP3000 had been one of their favourite subjects, and that the opportunity to work on a project from pitch to launch had been invaluable.

“The subject really gives you that practical experience and a taste of what professional developers do,” Aaron McDowall said.

“Of the four applications that were developed in our class, two of them were picked up and rolled out professionally.”

UQ Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic) Professor Deborah Terry said the O-Week launch of UQnav for iPhone had been a success, with more than 10,000 downloads recorded to date.

“It's clear that a mobile maps application is something that students, staff and visitors to UQ have found to be a practical, user-friendly tool,” Professor Terry said.

And the experience hasn't only been a positive one for the University: Kim Hunter is currently deciding between job offers.

“The fact that I've got a tangible product to show has really helped my career prospects,” he said.

To download UQnav, visit www.uq.edu.au/uqnav 

Plants need light and water to grow, right? Wrong. Bashkim Isai's Meet Eater plant at The Edge also needs love and attention. The Meet Eater wants to be touched, has a desire for social media interaction and the occasional need for quiet time. This plant is watered upon the receipt of physical interaction, when it makes friends on Facebook and when people write on its wall. Behind this project is the idea that by introducing both physical and virtual levels of interaction the plant is able to make the move from being an object to being a creature. A creature you can become friends with on the Internet no less.

Find out more about the Meet Eater on Facebook and help it grow.

UQ ICT students have developed Virtual Interior Design technology, which allows users to project life-size 2-D outlines of furniture on the floor, before viewing them in 3D via use of an iPad.

Via use of an iPod Touch, an iPad and an infrared glove, users are able to arrange virtual furniture in a physical space to preview how a room might look without the inconvenience of having to physically arrange each item. When users clench a fist, it activates a switch on the glove, causing infrared light to be transmitted, which is tracked by a Microsoft Kinect mounted next to the projector. Once the Kinect has detected infrared light, the ActionScript application springs into action, tracking the motion of the user using the infrared light as a basis, and allowing them to manipulate the position of the products which are projected onto the ground. Once the user is finished arranging products in the space, they are able to tap the 'view in 3D' link on the iPod, thus replacing the images of furniture by specially-generated Augmented Reality (AR) codes. The iPad is then employed, as users can point the camera of the iPad at the AR codes and, through a library called ARToolkit, see models of the relevant pieces of furniture.

To view a video of the Virtual Interior Design project in action visit http://vimeo.com/25059985  

Rotary-wing Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) designs lack the flight stability of fixed-wing designs and hence require sophisticated control systems to maintain stable flight. When considering a quad rotor UAV experiencing in-flight motor failure, the control system cannot compensate for the lack of thrust on the affected axis, resulting in uncontrolled landing and aircraft loss.

Igor's thesis aimed to implement in-flight motor failure detection hardware and a survival mode control system for quad rotor UAVs. Motor failure detection is achievable by monitoring and profiling in-flight motor performance by sensing motor temperature, current consumption and rotational speed. Upon motor failure detection, the survival mode control system is triggered. Under survival control, the motor opposite the failed unit is allowed bi-directional rotation. By controlling the rotational direction of this motor, the control system is able to maintain sufficient flight stability to enable safe landing of the aircraft.

Sensors capable of monitoring aforementioned motor parameters have been developed. A testing rig emulating a single axis of a quad rotor UAV has been constructed and equipped with motor sensors. Motor failure detection algorithms which process motor sensor data have been implemented on Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) technology. An FPGA based, proof-of-concept survival mode control system has been developed and demonstrated to work on the testing rig.

Future research in this area should focus on more robust motor failure detection algorithms and testing of the concept on an actual quad rotor UAV. The ultimate outcome of the research is the delivery of a control system capable of maintaining UAV flight stability under motor failure conditions and hence preventing costly aircraft crashes due to in-flight motor failure.

The interactive music library known as Prime, is an application that was developed by UQ ICT students Daniel Plesnicar, Chris Taylor, Sarah Weeden and Nicholas Bartholomew. The students felt that the current conventions of playing music in a party environment could be improved and made more fun using physical computing.

Prime uses Microsoft's XBOX 360 Kinect sensor to detect movement/distance of users which are interpreted and sent to the application. I.e., it does not use a mouse/keyboard, but instead tracks a primary person's hand movements. These hand gestures control actions within Prime, including the placement of the user's hand cursor.

The application is initialised when a user waves to the Kinect and data begins flowing to the PC, which is read by the Frosty Engine. Developed by Chris and Dan, the Frosty Engine is a logic controller that extends the underlying framework/APIs and tells Prime what actions to perform. Music files and album art are gathered from a music collection directory and parsed into the system. Once loaded, users can play, arrange, search, etc. for songs using only their hands.

Dave Harper, Mike Brand and Tom Nelson developed an interactive globe as part of the physical computing course. The Globemasters project is essentially a giant trackball with a globe projected onto its surface. When users spin the globe, the projection updates to track the movement, and when it stops on a specific country, the system displays information about that country around the edges.

The Globemasters project received  a lot of interest from industry following the 2011 UQ Interaction Design Exhibit at The Edge and the students have been invited by world renowned software developer SAP to submit their Interactive Globe for inclusion in the Demo Jam event at SAP TechEd 2011 (Demo Jam sessions will be held at Las Vegas, Bangalore and Madrid).

To view a video of the project development visit http://vimeo.com/23983508.