Wednesday 12th July
Mobile Application Development
Dr Paul Coulton from the Department of Communications Systems gives a lecture on Mobile applications and systems development.
Hands-on Mobile Phone Game Implementation
The students develop an interactive mobile phone game which is a virtual representation of the Air Hockey game found in many amusement arcades.
The game is written in Python, a dynamic object-oriented programming language. Python can be run on Windows, Linux/Unix, Mac OS X, OS/2 or Amiga computers, Palm handhelds, or Nokia mobile phones.
The code is developed on a workstation PC and uploaded to a mobile phone via Bluetooth. The game can be played between phones using the Bluetooth protocols.
To play the game, a player directs a virtual representation of the air hockey mallet using the phone's directional pad. When the mallet strikes the puck, it is moved in the direction in which it is hit. Once the puck leaves the top of one player's screen, Bluetooth messages are sent indicating this to the opponent's mobile phone and it reappears on the opponent's screen, mimicking the real-world game.
A player wins each round by successfully scoring the puck into the opponent's goal. As goals are scored this is communicated between the phones and an up-to-date scoring system is displayed on each phone.
Robotics Project Brainstorming Session
Groups gather to prototype their initial ideas for the robotics project. Pressure, temperature, light, and rotation sensors are available for use in projects - but supplies are limited! Students must argue their case of the necessity of these components in their design!
Each team must build a robot that is capable of pushing empty cans from an arena. They will be pitted against each other, head-to-head, so must avoid being pushed from the arena themselves! For added spice, there will be some immovable objects in the arena too, which the robots should avoid.
The project objectives can be found here.
Headstart Grapevine
Students are given the opportunity to see some of the work being carried out in the Computing Department from some of the research and have a question and answer session from researchers and recent graduates.
.:thePooch:. Computing Arts Exhibition
An exhibition of ubicomp based arts entertainment is given by .:thePooch:., a group based at Lancaster University. Exhibits include the Kirlian Table, Andrine and real-time ascii art.
