Everything from laser-firing tanks to a cantankerous stuffed cat that verbally insults anyone who pets it was on display at this year’s information technology and applied systems fair at VIU.
The annual event happened Monday, April 14, showcasing 19 projects from first- and second-year ITAS students with VIU’s web and mobile development program.
“We have everything from a magic mirror that you can talk to and it talks to you,” said Allan McDonald, instructor and program chairperson. “We have a cat that, if you pet it, it will insult you … Every year they blow me away with what they’re doing and what they can do, so that’s why I put this on.”
Jack Redberger, Kalev Altosaar and Matt Wells created the Proximity Pal, a unit that people with visual impairment wear on their chest, which buzzes to warn if the wearer is in danger of walking into an object.
“The idea initially came from when I was watching a documentary about a blind person trying to navigate through New York,” Redberger said.
He said the Proximity Pal is meant to augment, not replace, a white cane, but an ultrasonic beam from the device can scan the area in front of the wearer and relay that information by sending strong rapid-frequency or weak slower-frequency pulses into the wearer’s body depending on whether the user is moving closer or farther away from obstacles.
“Don’t stand so close. You’re making me claustrophobic,” was the initial greeting from the Grouchy Feline, a stuffed fuzzy kitten with LED eyes that glow red when it speaks. The project was created by Andrew Sutherland, Wes March and Katrina Gibson and March said the idea for Grouchy Feline came from a T-shirt he owns depicting an ornery cat.
“The cat doesn’t want to be bothered and will let you know that when you try to wake it up,” March said.
Brooks Gill, a second-year student, created photography app Delta Vista to help photographers align sequences of photographs taken over time without requiring use of a tripod or having the camera in the exact same position when each photo in the sequence was taken.
“I would go on walks in Cottle Lake, Linley Valley and I started taking a photo from the same spot every time, but I wanted them to line up perfectly in case I wanted to make a time lapse of it one day,” Gill said.
Gill said his camera software and online apps online apps he tried weren’t up to the task. His Delta Vista program, he said, provides much greater consistency in lining up sequences of photos for later playback and it could be applied to everything from casual landscape photography to time lapses of building renovation projects or even medical applications.
“Someone mentioned dermatology, like, tracking mole growth, it could be useful,” Gill said. “I mean, just a normal camera can do that, but the fact that [the app] keeps them together and lines them up might be important for [observing] minute change.”
Rentium is an online program authored by second-year student Raj Singh to help property managers and tenants handle everything from rental contracts and disputes to general property management business online. He found that other property management programs weren't tailored to B.C.’s specific rental market and regulations. He will be putting his program into production at the end of this month.
“I just realized that there were a lot of conflicts that happen and different kinds of situations and I figured that there has to be a better way of dealing with this,” Singh said.
Rentium, he said, keeps all details about properties, operating expenses, revenue and tax information and other accounting, rental dispute and rental contract details and other information in one place, which can be accessed by both the landlord and tenant. Maintenance requests, for instance, can be filed directly online on the tenant’s dashboard which shares with the tenant all the history and contract details about their rental.
“They can literally just log into their account, download it, track all their payments and bill payments they’ve done, check how long their lease is lasting, get updates and do everything from here,” Singh said.
Other projects included a magic mirror that talks to the user, a refrigerator that provides an inventory of its contents to help with grocery shopping lists, and a Harry Potter sorting hat.
