After the plane trip here, our time has been full of events. On the Monday after arrival, we started going to some of the classes with the GCU students. The visual 3DS max class was really cool because we got to see how some of the animation got made, and about the limitations involved with making these animations. It was interesting to find out that to render an image, each frame can take up to 30 minutes (there are 60 frames per second). We went to some other classes, but it happens that I have already done what they went through in there math class (Calc 1). The two most interesting classes I saw at Caledonia University, were the visual 3DS max and the 3D simulation. One of the professors gave us a tour of the 3D simulation lab, which worked with augmented reality. We got to see how programs can be simulated to show real world events, in a partial reality. We also got to test out a 3D driving demo, the 3D goggles made the simulation more real, but the steering was off so we got something like driving in Scotland but not quite. The professor even showed us a program on his tablet that allowed him to project 3D images on a real world object like a piece of paper. The 3D visualization, showed us how our Carduino project could connect the physical world to a virtual world. We were talking with the professor about how we could overlay this 3D simulation over something physical, and form a virtual race track, and virtual weapons, but have the cars themselves and sounds stay in the physical world. I believe that by integrating our car into this augmented reality, we could really achieve a viable game. Other than the classes at Caledonia University, we walked around Glasgow and saw a lot of the city. The architecture in very beautiful, and in some parts of the city it is so clear where the gothic buildings end, and the modern building begin. I love the contrast between modern and traditional, old and new.

Scott