Technical Discussion April 5 2012

• only Jordan and Perry showed up to the meeting this week
  • everyone else was probably busy with exams
  • we discussed many random things, but here are some interesting links I wanted to post for future reference

• The original topic that Perry had suggested was procedural map generating using voronoi diagrams, which Jordan had mentioned in the previous week
  • Perry was mostly interested in the algorithm for constructing a voronoi diagrams, called fortunes algorithm
  • Jordan wondered if the algorithm for map generation could be scaled up to create more realistic sized landmasses
  • The main problem with this map generation algorithm is that it creates simplistic terrain that looks good from a far but lacks details like cliffs and valleys.
  • Another issue is that all of the mountains are near the middle of the landmass
• We also discussed other generators
  • On the topic of map generators, there is a site that sells generators for making dungeons and cities

• We also discussed some interesting mobile apps and robots!
  • Augmented reality games
    • Jordan had an for a capture the flag type game
    • Also discussed the game ARG zombies
    • Discussed QR codes and how they can be customized because they contain lots of redundant information
  • Discussed some interesting robots
    • original came from the fact that the kinect does not have a good way to express movement
      • as a result kinect games either use a static camera or an rail camera
      • also we had just watched this assassins creed april fools video
    • a multi directional tread mill or a group of robots can be used for capturing movement
    • The group of robots reminded Perry of a video of the amazon factory robots
  • Lastly, we played with Akinator, a website that can guess any character that you can think of

• Also, Jordan was going to mention that Microsoft is currently running their dream-build-play competition again with a grand prize of $40,000 plus several other smaller prizes. The competition is usually pretty tough since it runs till June there are not very many rules.