Michael BoyerAdvisor: Prof. John SpinelliHandheld Campus Tour Guide
The goal of this project was to design and build an automated handheld tour guide system for the Union College campus. The purpose of the system is to provide prospective students with an informative and enjoyable campus visit at times when student-guided tours are not available. The system provides the user with a continuously updated visual representation of his or her current location on a campus map. As the user approaches a building, the system also displays the building’s name. The user can then press a button to learn more about the building, including its history and present use. The main technological challenge associated with the project is localization, the process of determining the user’s location. For the proper operation of this system, the localization process needs to occur in three dimensions, in real time, and both indoors and outdoors. For outdoor localization, the system uses the well-established GPS. For indoor localization, the system uses a recently developed localization process based on signals transmitted by GSM cell phone towers. The use of GPS provides relatively accurate outdoor localization with no training, while the use of GSM provides accurate indoor localization but with significant training required.
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Matthew J. KorchinskyAdvisor: Prof. Aaron CassFramework for Interactive Applications
The Java language was written to accomplish many different tasks therefore it is made up of a large number of classes. Although Java is extremely versatile it can be cumbersome to use when one is designing an interactive application, especially for beginners. One negative aspect is the complex listening system Java uses to service events. When one is learning event programming the listening system can be complex and difficult to learn. Another is the large amount of possible classes to use to create an effective Graphical User Interface. Although this allows for many different designs it could overwhelm the programmer. This project seeks to aid both of these problems by creating a new event system and a tailored set of classes that can be used in a wide variety of interactive applications.
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Daniel J. Spoor and John E. KraemerAdvisor: Prof. RudkoIncorporating RFID Technology into Airport Checkpoints
Modify Lockheed Martin's current time-based checkpoint system to an RFID based checkpoint system
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Stephen E. LeeAdvisor: Prof. CatravasActive Noise Cancellation for Sound Attenuation
In today’s world, noise pollution is a byproduct of technological progress. Long term exposure to noise has been proven to be detrimental to one’s health. Active noise cancellation (ANC) is the solution that many businesses and consumers are choosing to reduce this noise. Active noise cancellation is process whereby a signal is captured, phase shifted and then rebroadcast. This retransmitted signal will ideally destructively interfere with the original signal and thus cancel it out.
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Stuart WehrlyAdvisor: Prof. SpinelliAutonomous Navigation of an Indoor Blimp
An autonomous navigation system was designed to allow an indoor Blimp to follow a predetermined flight path. Such Blimps are normally controlled remotely by a human operator. Designing an autonomous control system was challenging due to the extreme weight restrictions imposed by the small size of the helium bag. The merits of computer processing using a nearby wireless computer were compared to having all decision making on the Blimp itself. An accelerometer and a rangefinder were used to keep track of the position of the Blimp and to detect if it nears or contacts any obstacles.
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This report generated by script ./write.project.sections - March 28, 2006
Address questions or comments to spallhol@union.edu