Contact:
Eric Sloss
Carnegie Mellon University
412-268-5765

Kyle Fisher
Entertainment Technology Center
412-268-9157

For immediate release:
October 18, 2006

High-Tech Manufacturer Provides Motion-Tracking System To Carnegie Mellon's Entertainment Technology Center

ETC Students Use Latest Tracking Technology To Build Interactive Game Experiences

One virtual world generated by ETC first-year master's students this semester using the Polhemus LIBERTY— motion-tracking system allow users to become a green dragon skiing down a mountain pass, trying to elude snow bunnies, bigger dragons and snowball-hurling snowmen. This virtual world was created by students Andy Jih, Bill Manegold, Masato Ikura and Phuong Le.

PITTSBURGH—Polhemus, the industry leader of "6 Degree-of-Freedom" (6DOF) motion-tracking, digitizing, eye-tracking and handheld 3-D scanners, has provided Carnegie Mellon University's Entertainment Technology Center (ETC) with its most recent groundbreaking release in tracking technology for use in the ETC's "Building Virtual Worlds" class this semester. Polhemus' LIBERTY™ system inserts virtual 3-D objects into live video images to create a noninvasive, interactive environment that immerses the user in "augmented reality."

The ETC is using two of these tracking systems to enrich the learning and playing experience for first-year master's students taking its "Building Virtual Worlds" course, a core element of the innovative curriculum at the ETC, which awards the world's only master of entertainment technology degree.

During the 15-week "Building Virtual Worlds" course, teams of four students have about two weeks to create a virtual world or experience — from inception and design, scripting, graphics, rendering and programming to user testing, full-production and working prototype. Students are then assigned to new teams, given a different technology platform to use and asked to tackle a different interactivity goal or feature as they create their next virtual experience in another two weeks.

Worlds generated by ETC students this semester with the Polhemus LIBERTY™ system allow users to take wing as a soaring white bird or turn into a green dragon skiing down a mountain pass, trying to elude snow bunnies, bigger dragons and snowball-hurling snowmen.

Created by Computer Science Professor and ETC Co-Founder Randy Pausch, the course was inspired by the rapid prototyping methods of Walt Disney Imagineering. The goal of the course is to take students with varying talents, backgrounds and perspectives, and put them together to do more than they could do alone — to create virtual worlds and experiences that engage users in bold, new ways.

"We don't try to teach artists to program, or engineers to paint," Pausch said. "We form teams where everyone does what they're already skilled at doing, but they attack a joint project."

This year, the course is taught by former Disney game developer Jesse Schell, assistant professor of entertainment technology and CEO of Schell Games. "Polhemus has been a dream to work with," said Schell. "The two systems showed up quickly, were easy to set up, and have made a huge difference in the quality of student work. Now the students can focus on the quality of the world itself — instead of worrying about the reliability of the tracking system."

The course culminates in a raucous stage show, where a juried selection of the best work is shared in front of a live, 500-person audience in Carnegie Mellon's McConomy Auditorium. In addition to standing-room only crowds of students, faculty and alumni, executives from companies such as DreamWorks, Electronic Arts and Pixar have traveled to campus to participate in the show and talk with ETC students about internships, co-ops and full-time employment.

For more on "Building Virtual Worlds," see www.etc.cmu.edu/bvw/description.html. For more about the Entertainment Technology Center, see www.etc.cmu.edu. For more about Polhemus see www.polhemus.com.

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