Month: March 2015

Press release #6: Pass It On! Inc Finalizes Goals, Implementation In Progress

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Blacksburg, VA, March 27, 2015: This week the team at Pass It On! Inc was excited to share its work at a public demo. During the demo, the team gained valuable feedback concerning some of its features and came up with some great ideas for how to handle the implementation. The team felt the presentation was a great success and was glad to be able to demonstrate its progress so far.

“I was really excited to share our progress with everyone this week. Feedback seemed positive with us receiving quite a bit of constructive feedback. I’m looking forward to having a much more robust product to show to everyone soon.” ­ Matthew Chittum

“Our Go­NoGo presentation went well this week and it was good to get feedback from our class as well. I’ve also started learning how to do the back end coding for the website this week!” ­ Joshua White

This week the team met with their sponsor, Dr. Horning, and discussed definite plans for the semester. The team discussed a few design decisions and worked out some of the mechanics about the service. Another topic of discussion was the basic goals for the semester.

“We met with our sponsor this week to discuss our current progress. Dr. Horning was impressed with our progress thus far and is excited to see what else is in store. As we finish up settling some of the overall design aspects, our team will start development on the backend, organizing and setting up databases as well as connecting the front and back end together. I believe we are on track to reaching basic service by the end of the semester” ­ Minahm Kim

In the coming weeks, development will continue with plans to have a high­ fidelity prototype finished by late April. After this prototype, the team will conduct usability testing with possibly a closed­beta version of the site launching to selected users. If you’re interested in participating in this, keep an eye out for more announcements in the coming weeks.

“The Pass It On! group has made good progress on developing the front of their prototype. They’ve given a lot of thought to how they will visualize profiles, what content to include, and how to establish the credibility of people using the site. The next step will be to focus on developing the back­end database and work towards a functional prototype.” ­ Dr. Michael Horning

Press release #6: AddHawk Presents Official Project Plan

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BLACKSBURG, Va., March 20, 2015 – AddHawk is a group of Computer Science students taking their Human-Computer Interaction capstone project to a massive scale. They begun working on an application called PixelPusher, a massive crowdsourced display in Lane Stadium, using all the attendees mobile device screens as pixels. This type of project, mobile phone mosaics, has been attempted by several companies before, including Sony, HTC, and Blinkendroid.  “The current guinness world record is 400 devices, we’re optimistically looking at 50,000.” said PixelPusher developer Michael Peter. The current record belongs to China Unicom, Sohu IT and HTC which used 400 HTC One devices in July of 2013, playing a one minute advertisement. This project could beat that record by over a hundred times the amount of screens.

Updates on PixelPusher:

This week marks a big step for the AddHawk team. PixelPusher has officially been presented for approval from the higher up management for a go/no-go status. All pre research for the project is completed and the team is ready and eager to begin full time development. The team also received useful feedback on the status of the project and is in an excellent state of crossing the t’s and dotting the i’s in preparation for the weeks to come.

Unlike many of the other updates from the group, this marks completion of the first monumental milestone for development of PixelPusher. Every week leading up to this one has been preparation for this presentation and approval. Front end developer Connor Hoene remarked on Wednesday that,  “Even though it has only been a around 2 months of work so far, the amount of progress we have made forward is amazing. We couldn’t be happier about where we are right now.”

A Look Into the Future:

At this stage of development, the application, PixelPusher, is starting to become a reality. Every week for the next month and a half will be full of exciting and important news regarding the teams progress forward. Coming soon on the horizon is also the first live demo of the PixelPusher product to a small focus group. “While our first test will be fairly small and limited to only a handful of people, the implications are huge in finally getting a proof of concept up and working.” said backend developer Christopher Wood. The team is excited to be working on the project and looks forward to releasing more information as it happens in the near future. Stay tuned for more information coming soon!

Mission Statement:

PixelPusher will allow football fans in Lane Stadium at Virginia Tech to display individual pixels on their phones which are part of a larger image. In this way PixelPusher acts as a crowd-sourced collaboration application that will bring together football fans everywhere. PixelPusher also aims to break the current world record of 400 connected devices. The application will be developed with the idea of simplicity and efficiency at heart, providing a lightweight, seamless user interface to football fans at Virginia Tech.

“AddHawk is an up and coming software development initiative aimed at revolutionizing how a single member of a crowd can have a huge impact on an event. ”

For more information or questions please contact: cmw2379@vt.edu

Press release #6: War is Coming!

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Blacksburg, VA; March 27, 2015 –

This week the War of Ages gone from cold to hot. We unveiled our mobile prototype to a very receptive audience. We thank the audience for their participation and feedback. Using this suggestions, the team has decided to focus on creating a playable prototype in GameMaker and push it out next week. We are hoping to give willing participants a hands on experience of leading their troops on the Fields of Battle. As was mentioned during the unveiling of the prototype, our game is open to any strategy. We would like to foster a community that creates their own tactics and is not restrained by the game mechanics.

To reiterate our goals, we are planning to roll out a playable version of the game on Android devices by the end of the semester with the ability to play with your friends and right then and there. So make sure to keep your poker face, unless you want to give away your mines. For those that might be uneasy jumping into a new game without anybody to play with, we are going to introduce Facebook sign-in. This will allow our first settlers to easily get into the game and tell their friends to prove their worth with three unique races. Will you be the defenders of your homeland that used to leave peacefully on this land and had to sometimes protect their territory from invading forces? Or will you be the mighty conquering force that through skill and cunning has enlisted allies to acquire  the precious gems whose power was told through legends and now only the very few know of their locations? Last, but certainly not least, will you be able to survive the fate that has been dealt to you by time’s cruel irony?

Join us next week as we prepare to relinquish the command of our armies into your hands and allow you to write the story of this War of Ages.

For more information, contact Joe Wileman @ wjoe113@vt.edu

Press release #6: J5 Completes Go/No Go Presentation

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Blacksburg, Va., Mar. 20, 2015 – J5 has completed a Go/ No Go presentation and has a clear plan for the weeks ahead!

J5 met to plan for their Go/ No Go Presentation in order to discuss the project and finalize a plan for the Gaming Social Network Project. Their presentation fully explained the current prototype and where the team plans to go next.

Team member Lucas Eckert said “The presentation was great as it allowed our team to get some helpful feedback from our peers.”

During the presentation, J5 found that the audience had quite a few good suggestions for the quality of the app. Specifically, there were suggestions that were geared towards improving functionality and UI design.

Team member Parham Ghazanfari said “One suggestion I really liked was adding different options for reporting users that exhibited toxic behavior instead of just giving them a thumbs down. That would allow others to see what they were reported for, rather than just being reported.”

In order to evaluate their product, J5 decided to plan a heuristic evaluation. Once the prototype is complete, they will ask volunteers to run through their application completing tasks and giving feedback. This will allow them to see if their app holds up to the standards of well known and popularly used heuristics.

Team member Iyaz Shaikh said “A heuristic evaluation shows us where our app’s strengths and weaknesses are. It allows us to look at areas such as aesthetics and UI consistency/flexibility to see if those parts of our app are well designed or if they need to be changed.”

With the Go/No-go presentation complete, J5 now plans to refine and polish the UI and begin researching the back end networking code for their app!
J5 – “Let’s Play Together” Contact person: Lucas Eckert <lucase93@vt.edu>

Press release #6: Cumulonimbus Presents its Cloud

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Blacksburg, VA., Mar 20, 2015 – Team Cumulonimbus presented their material this week, along with five other groups. A Q&A session followed afterwards. These presentations determined a “Go/No-Go” status.

The halfway point of the semester has just passed and this presentation was essentially a status report for the semester. In addition, receiving feedback is an invaluable tool to a great project. Tyler, Matt, and Romico reviewed the past couple weeks, prepared the prototype, and brainstormed future plans. They briefly touched on the research in early February, to the contextual analysis, to a demo of their prototype, and finally the plans for the rest of the semester.

Evaluation is key to success. The Q&A sessions always prove to be a success. The audience was very engaging and constructive ideas bounced from audience to presenters. Team Cumulonimbus received fair feedback from their peers.  Now, team Cumulonimbus must use it to their advantage.

With half of the semester left, Romico, Matt and Tyler are ready to finish. But to finish, they’ll have to start. The next steps will essentially be the implementation of the design. They designated the month of April to design and implementation. In addition, they will self-assign deadlines in order to keep a pace throughout the month. In the near future, the team will start building the foundation to PhotoClouds

Team Cumulonimbus is a team of three senior level computer science students at Virginia Tech: Matthew Bock, Romico Macatula, and Tyler Haines. All three of them have extensive skill sets in computer science after their years of study. With several semesters of experience in the field of human­-computer interaction at their disposal, the team is dedicated to creating the best experience possible for their users through rigorous testing and design iteration. Any questions or comments, contact Romico Macatula at rmac817@vt.edu.

Press release #6: Civil War driving tour app developers present ideas to class of potential users

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BLACKSBURG, Va., March 27, 2015 – This week was an important week for the team Kool Katz, consisting of the three developers, Laura Avakian, Seth Canon, and Ryan Kiel. Kool Katz presented their current state to their Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) class of potential users.

The group presented to the class the general overview of the project, the current state, where they are going, gave a demonstration of the medium fidelity prototype, and then answered a battery of questions about the project.

As mentioned last week, the medium fidelity prototype was created using POP, or Prototyping On Paper. This allowed the group’s high fidelity sketches, and ideas about how the app will operate to come to life on an iOS device, which is the device that this app will be used on once it is developed. This enabled the class to easily envision the app, and thus ask in-depth, important questions about the functionality and features of the app.

For example, Dr. Luther, the professor of the HCI class, brought up some solid points about the social interaction that will go on with the app. A few of the other questions had to do with how the app will work, in terms of a backend server versus just having the data available in the app, and the peculiarities of the app, including a suggested rating system or a system that allows users to be ranked.

The team now has a list of considerations and ideas to think about, which will be further explored now that the development of the app can begin.

Next week, the team will finally begin their eagerly-awaited stage of the project now that much of the design has been conducted: development! They first will begin creating a basic, functional skeleton of the app, and then will dive in to the features. Stay tuned!

Contact Laura Avakian for any further inquiries.

Press release #5: J5 Designs Multiple Prototypes

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Blacksburg, Va., Mar. 20, 2015 – J5 has developed their initial prototypes for the Gaming Social Network!

To begin developing their application prototypes, J5 met together to brainstorm multiple design ideas. After discussing their ideas, J5 decided on the five best design ideas to sketch as low fidelity prototypes.

Team member Daniel Rusz said “We should consider making the prototypes that focus on different features so we can decide what design is best”.

Team member Parham Ghazanfari said “I will draw the sketches”. Surprisingly enough, he did draw the sketches and they were integral to coming up with the low fidelity designs for the application.

J5 built designs that range from mobile applications that focus on finding nearby gamers to web applications focused on finding friends with similar gaming interests.

Team member Lucas Eckert said “Design number two seems to meet our target audience’s needs the most so we should make that into a higher fidelity prototype”.

Out of their five design decisions J5 came up with, their second design was chosen as their best option. This design was a mobile application that shows the user nearby gamers and gives the user the option to make contact with these people based on their interests.

Team member Iyaz Shaikh said “The mobile prototype was chosen specifically because of the ease of use and intended flow of the application. The app is supposed to allow the user to quickly and easily find friends and we felt the mobile prototype was best for that”.

J5 completed their initial prototyping and are now ready to finalize the design and polish out any flaws with their application.

J5 – “Let’s Play Together” Contact person: Lucas Eckert <lucase93@vt.edu>

Press release #5: Reptiles, Barbarians, Crystals, Ohh My!

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Blacksburg, VA; March 20, 2015 –

War of Ages has gone under some serious redesign since the break! The cavemen are all but extinct, and taking their place are the small cute natives to our battlefield: the kittens. These kittens are mighty small cats who parade the battlefield with intense prowess, stealth, and cutenessssss!… Just kidding, they’re reptiles.

Snake-men, flying raptor, burrowed drakes, you name it they have it. Or should I say “become it”? These ancestral creatures guard precious gems that alter living creatures around them. They become stronger, faster, and smarter versions of themselves, and having extra arms never hurt. The gems are super rare, and very desirable! Not only can the reptile people summon gems on the battlefield to boost their units, but they wear armor and weapons of armies they’ve previously defeated. Who doesn’t like a T-Rex with four arms and a machine gun?!

The vikings are now the war-seeking Barbarians. Still a mighty conquering race of medieval warriors, the Barbarians are led by a council of elders, who can channel great magics long forgotten. The elders can also call on old allies such as the Necromancers and the Sorcerers. Necromancers gain bonuses the more units are killed on the battlefield, and sorcerers… well sorcerers just like to play with fire. Lots and lots of fire!

For the board, we are introducing our idea of “turn crystals”. On the start of a new turn, both players receive an additional crystal to spend on units, upgrades, etc. After the crystals are all but spent, the player will end their turn and look forward to their next turn with the additional crystal.

For more information, please contact Joe Wileman: wjoe113@vt.edu

Press release #5: The Cumulonimbus System: The Collective Prototype

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Blacksburg, VA., Mar 20, 2015 ­ After taking a week off, team Cumulonimbus is back at work. It’s always difficult to transition back into the workflow but each person had to press on to fulfil the next deadline. Next on the schedule is the prototype phase. Through the contextual analysis and the requirements extraction, the initial prototype was made.

Tyler, Matt, and Romico prepared low ­fidelity prototypes for their team meeting. This approach allowed many ideas and themes to be spread out across many prototypes. A low­fidelity prototype is essentially the simplest type of prototype, mostly made from sketches. In addition, each person created prototypes for the android system and the web.

When they gathered and shared their ideas, they realized that each person’s prototype had a unique strength. At the team meeting, Matt says, “Tyler’s prototype focuses on ease of use, Romico’s prototype focuses on design, while my prototype focuses on social aspects.”

The approach was a success! The team was able to “pick and copy” certain features of each person’s prototype to create a medium ­fidelity prototype. Romico’s intuitive, well laid out design would serve as a base while incorporating Tyler’s ease of access and Matt’s social components. During the testing phase, users responded with positive feedback.

While the prototyping phase seemed a success, the team must move on to the next goal. At this point, the group must consider if the project can continue and move on. Essentially, this is the Go or No­Go time period for the group. Each person seems optimistic and interested in continuing to further develop the PhotoCloud application.

Team Cumulonimbus is a team of three senior level computer science students at Virginia Tech: Matthew Bock, Romico Macatula, and Tyler Haines. All three of them have extensive skill sets in computer science after their years of study. With several semesters of experience in the field of human­computer interaction at their disposal, the team is dedicated to creating the best experience possible for their users through rigorous testing and design iteration. Any questions or comments, contact Romico Macatula at rmac817@vt.edu.

Press release #5: AddHawk Team Creates Medium­ Fidelity Prototype and Continues Backend Research

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BLACKSBURG, Va., March 20, 2015 – AddHawk is a group of Computer Science students taking their Human­ Computer Interaction capstone project to a massive scale. They begun working on an application called PixelPusher, a massive crowdsourced display in Lane Stadium, using all the attendees mobile device screens as pixels. This type of project, mobile phone mosaics, has been attempted by several companies before, including Sony, HTC, and Blinkendroid. “The current guinness world record is 400 devices, we’re optimistically looking at 50,000.” said PixelPusher developer Michael Peter. The current record belongs to China Unicom, Sohu IT and HTC which used 400 HTC One devices in July of 2013, playing a one minute advertisement. This project could beat that record by over a hundred times the amount of screens.

Updates on PixelPusher:

This week the AddHawk team flew through the Prototyping stage and finally settled on a design to push forward with. The team considered many different possible paths for PixelPusher but struggled the most with choosing the most efficient way to pinpoint a User’s location. Some of the solutions considered were a ticket barcode scanner, using location services, having the User manually enter his or her seat information, among others. After informally testing the prototype with potential users, the AddHawk team decided the best route to take would be to implement an interactive map that allows a User to select his or her current seat location.

“We feel that the amount of students at VT football games who do not sit in their assigned seats is high. With this in mind, we wanted PixelPusher to allow users to be able to accurately and easily select their current seat number. We felt that the interactive seating chart was the best way to achieve this goal. ” commented AddHawk Frontend Developer Connor Hoene.

The team also put extensive work into possible backend prototypes, further advancing into the prototyping process at a level deeper than originally planned. According to backend developer Michael Peter, “While the frontend is important, due to the size of this project, the backend was just as important for us to focus on during this stage.”

A Look Into the Future:

In the upcoming weeks the two parts of the AddHawk team will start to split the work and tackle the majority of it separately. The backend team composed of Christopher Wood and Michael Peter will begin extensive venue scouting to determine how each setting will handle a large stress load on its network connection. “After doing more research into potential venues, Michael and I feel we will have enough information to determine which backend prototype we should continue forward with. ” said AddHawk Frontend Developer Christopher Wood.

The frontend team, Dillon Gresham and Connor Hoene, is diving into developing and designing PixelPusher and hopes to have a working shell of an application within a week or two. The entire AddHawk team will combine the code and information generated and prepare for a meeting with the team sponsor, Ben Knapp, in a couple of weeks.

Mission Statement:

PixelPusher will allow football fans in Lane Stadium at Virginia Tech to display individual pixels on their phones which are part of a larger image. In this way PixelPusher acts as a crowd­sourced collaboration application that will bring together football fans everywhere. PixelPusher also aims to break the current world record of 400 connected devices. The application will be developed with the idea of simplicity and efficiency at heart, providing a lightweight, seamless user interface to football fans at Virginia Tech.

“AddHawk is an up and coming software development initiative aimed at revolutionizing how a single member of a crowd can have a huge impact on an event. ”

For more information or questions please contact: cmw2379@vt.edu