Projects

In an effort to expand House's technical book collection, and in cooperation with well-known publishers Apress and O'Reilly, CSH members have been given the opportunity to write book reviews. Each review is done on a strictly volunteer basis and represents the opinion of the individual reviewer, not CSH as a whole. Click here to access the reviews we've done so far.

DAMMIT (Digital and Analog Musical Manipulation of Incandescent Technology) is House's popular and frequently-borrowed musical light show. One of our most frequently revised projects, it works by activating its lights in different patterns, keying off the beat of an audio input. DAMMIT currently supports 16 primary lights, with the capacity for about twice that many. It has also been hooked up to strobes, a bubble machine, christmas tree lights, and a magnesium floodlight.

Perhaps the most famous project ever to come out of CSH is the Drink project, consisting of two heavily modified drink machines (with embedded PCs, of course) that take payment in "credits" over the CSH network. Members can connect to the machines from just about anywhere and specify a drink to be dropped, as well as the amount of time the machine should wait before dropping it. Drink undergoes near-constant revision and maintenance, as newer generations of CSHers upgrade the software and hardware with new capabilities. The most recent of these upgrades involved adding a snack machine to the system, aptly named Snack.

Based upon goals set forth by its predecessor, Hero, Heroine is a wheeled robot that will (eventually) deliver drinks from Drink straight to members' doors. The project is still in the prototype stages, but many exciting ideas are being thrown around, including the use of sonar and RFID tags to navigate the hallways, automatic battery recharging, and a webcam mounted on the "head" providing a live video feed via wireless connection. For maximum flexibility and ease of programming, a full-fledged PC mounted inside the body will control all Heroine functions.

iButtons are small keychain-sized metal "buttons" that act as unique ID tags for all members. Each button contains a microchip with a unique code stored on it, which is transmitted to a "reader" when the button is pressed against it. Currently, the only function of iButtons is to log into the touchscreens on Drink, but eventually there will be an interface to take attendance, and an interface to open the doors for the special rooms on floor. For more information on iButtons, visit iButton.com.

InfoSys was originally designed to be a House-wide information system. Various monitors and/or terminals have been mounted around CSH over the years in an attempt to continually broadcast important information. More recently, the project has been re-invented as a scrolling LED ticker that displays various useful bits of information, such as current weather, news feeds, and Drink status. Work on a much larger, outward-facing display mounted in the lounge windows is in progress.

An arcade cabinet turned multimedia database, this project will make many house history videos and favorite games available to members with a tap of a joystick. The original project was envisioned by Ryan Leonard and Jordan Sissel, but it has been developed further in the hands of many other CSHers. Its main purpose will be to give access to our history, which can be shown at RIT Open Houses or simply when it is in the lounge, but the system can also provide hours of entertainment through classic arcade machine emulators and open-source games.

Multitouch is a large touch-sensitive computer display mounted on a pedestal, with an ordinary PC inside. The display can register the position of multiple fingers simultaneously, allowing software to be written that responds to a variety of natural hand motions and gestures. One of House's most ambitious projects, the initial prototype of Multitouch was built in Fall 2006, and development has continued steadily up to the present day. Once the final hardware is assembled, House members will be able to develop games and applications using the Multitouch API in their programming language of choice.

Seminars are an important part of Computer Science House's educational environment. They give members the opportunity to learn about a wide variety of topics outside of the classroom. They also allow members to practice and improve their presentation skills. In all, seminars are an excellent resource in that they promote the sharing of knowledge and experience amongst members.

The touchscreen project is designed to connect to Drink, as well as many other programs written by CSHers. Currently, there are touchscreen systems mounted in both Drink machines. Coupled with the iButton project, the touchscreens provide a simple and quick interface that is easily usable without requiring access to one's computer to dispense a drink.