So a little while ago I said that I was going to review the new Open Scene Graph 3: Beginners Guide book from Packt Publishing. Unfortunately, I still haven’t had time to do the review. However, I thought I would mention that all through April Packt Publishing are running discounts on all of their Graphics books!

During April, Packt will be running a series of discounts and promotions on a selection of its Open Source Graphic books wherein readers can avail exclusive discounts of 20% and 30% off the cover price of Graphic print books and eBooks.

So, I suggest you go check out what they have to offer:

http://www.packtpub.com/article/graphic-open-source

Cheers
Michael

Full Disclosure: I have nothing to do with Packt Publishing. However, they did give me a free e-book version of the OSG3 Beginners Guide for me to review. I feel a little bit guilty that I haven’t done the review yet. Other than that, I have no affiliation with Packt Publishing, and I didn’t get anything for posting this. So I haven’t sold out. In my opinion, someone going out of their way to produce documentation and reference books for Open Source Software is a good thing!

Just a quick note to say that I’ve put all the Java video tutorials up on Youtube. Things have changed since I started making the videos – Youtube has finally allowed videos longer than 15 minutes, which means I can upload them without having to slice them all up.

Youtube Playlist

Cheers
Michael

3DUI has wrapped up for the year, so here is our second publication. We introduce a new material for freeform sculpting in spatial augmented reality environments. Please read the paper, and have a look at the video below.

So right now I am at the IEEE Symposium on 3D User Interfaces in Singapore. We have a couple of publications which I’ll be posting over the next few days. First up is Adaptive Color Marker for SAR Environments. In a previous study we created interactive virtual control panels by projecting onto otherwise blank designs. We used a simple orange marker to track the position of the user’s finger. However, in a SAR environment, this approach suffers from several problems:

• The tracking system can’t track the marker if we project the same colour as the marker.
• Projecting onto the marker changes it’s appearance, causing tracking to fail.
• Users could not tell when they were pressing virtual controls, because their finger occluded the projection.

We address these problems with an active colour marker. We use a colour sensor to detect what is being projected onto the marker, and change the colour of the marker to an opposite colour, so that tracking continues to work. In addition, we can use the active marker as a form of visual feedback. For example, we can change the colour to indicate a virtual button press.

I’ve added the publication to my publications page, and here’s the video of the marker in action.

Hi Everyone

The guys over at Packt Publishing have kindly asked me to review a new book on programming with OpenSceneGraph. I haven’t looked at the book yet, but will get the review done sometime this week. In the mean time, checkout the book:

http://link.packtpub.com/NwneHs

http://www.swiftless.com

So what is the problem? Well, Australia only has an MA15+ rating for games. Therefore, any game that doesn’t fit into this banner is refused classification and not allowed to be sold. However, the average age of Australian gamers is 30. In a fumbled attempt to protect the children, the adult majority get treated like immature social misfits. I have no problem with refusing to sell children games that are specifically made for adults. My problem is with treating adults like children.

What can we do about this? You contact the people responsible and give them a piece of your mind. The states’ Attorneys General are responsible for holding back an R18+ rating for games. SA Attorney General Michael Atkinson has been the most vocal in his opposition. I urge everyone to write to their respective MP and share your thoughts on the issue. Below is my letter to Atkinson.

Dear Mr Atkinson

My name is Michael  and I am a 24 year old PhD Candidate at the University of South Australia. I am writing to express my disgust at the current rating scheme for video games in Australia. As a country with a rich new media industry, I cannot believe we are falling behind the rest of the world with our lack of an R18+ rating for video games. Recent incidents, such as the censored release of Left 4 Dead 2 (news.com.au, 17/9/09), and the refused classification of Alien vs Predator (news.com.au, 7/12/09) has shown how out of touch Australia is.

The video games industry is no longer a niche market. The Entertainment Software Association states that in the US alone, video games are an 11.7 billion dollar industry. The video game Halo 3 recorded $170 million in sales on its first day, compared to $151 million for the film Spiderman 3 on its opening weekend (esa.com).

Furthermore, it is clear that the Australian public wants an R18+ rating for games. According to the Interactive Australia 2009 report (igea.net), the average gamer in Australia is 30 years old. Gaming is no longer an activity for children, and it is important for video games to be treated in the same way as all other mass media the Australian adult public has access to. The report also stated 91% of adults, both gamers and non‐gamers, believe Australia should have an R18+ rating for games.

Protecting the Children is a poor argument. 92% of Australian parents say they are aware of the games being played in their home. Purchasing games should not be considered any different to purchasing an R rated DVD. I agree that there are some games that children should not have access to. However, censorship is not the way to solve the problem. Children are not allowed to purchase alcohol, cigarettes, R rated movies, etc., retailers and parents can be responsible for enforcing the same restrictions for video games.

I look forward to hearing your opinion on this matter. The video games industry is large and growing, and games are an important recreational activity for many Australian adults. Australia can not afford to keep falling behind the rest of the world any more. Thank you for your time.

Yours faithfully

Michael

Now if everyone would do the same, Australia can catch up with the rest of the world.

Just a quick note to say I’ve updated my publications list to include ISMAR 2009 and ACE 2009. Below is a video for my ISMAR poster.

Enjoy!

http://www.20papercups.net/projects/web-development

Now you can see some of the work I’ve actually done. I hope to have 3D and PhD related work up soon.

Cheers, Michael

So this afternoon I was bored. Then I thought I would be somewhat productive and make some videos. I didn’t have anything prepared for making programming ones. However, I had a couple of people ask me about Git and why I thought it was so freaking great. So, today I offer you 3 new videos, giving a basic overview of the Git Source Code Management System. Here are the videos so far:

VTM01 – What is Git?
VTM02 – The Basics of Git
VTM03 – Pushing and Pulling

Thats all for now. If anyone has any thoughts on what topics should be covered, let me know. Git is huge, and I can’t cover all of the features in great detail. And remember kids, if all else fails:

man git

Cheers
Michael