Project touches on virtual reality
Campus Times
September 13, 1996
by Kiandra Shawnta Johnson
Staff Writer
Interactive Flight Simulator, a virtual reality experiment, was the first
in its nature to appear in University of La Verne's Computer Science Engineering
Department's senior projects.
The game simulator built by Mark Frank, and Khatsho Orfali, took approximately
a year and a half of "intense" work to build. The project was
built from scratch and operates by basic assembly language and a combination
of hard and software.
It is composed of a personal computer, two transformers for interacting
the software, and two motors for movement of the machine. All of these control
the headgear, joystick and chair who in turn produce the sight, hearing
and movement of the game machine, allowing the "virtual reality"
or simulated reality.
The project resulted from "sitting around wondering what to do,"
said Frank and was something to do, but he knows enough not to do it again."
Interactive Flight Simulator will land in competition in this year's Los
Angeles County Fair. It will be in competition with other senior projects
within its field from fellow engineers at DeVry Computer Technology Institute.
"I have no doubt that we're going to win," said Seta Whitby, director
of La Verne's Department of Computer Science Engineering. "That's the
fun part."
Orfali, a computer graphics technical assistant for Industrial Light and
Magic, has worked on special effects in films such as Jumanji, Dragon Heart,
Twister, and a commercial for BMW. Although he "wasn't expecting to
get a job in special effects" he said, "It was like a dream come
true."
Also presenting senior projects were Brian Ward, with "Building a Database
Application Using Visual Basic," Rod Dixon, with "Computer Controlled
Servo-System," which is an energy conservation project and Vincent
F. Kiley with "Computer Controlled Servo-Mechanism.