by Kiandra Shawnta Johnson
Staff Writer
Interactive Flight Simulator, a virtual reality experiment, was the first in its nature to appear in University of La Verne’s Computer Science Engineering Department’s senior projects.
The game simulator built by Mark Frank, and Khatcho Orfali, took approximately a year and a half of “intense” work to build. The project was built from scratch and operates by basic assembly language and a combination of hard and software.
It is composed of a personal computer, two transformers for interacting the software, and two motors for movement of the machine. All of these control the headgear, joystick and chair who in turn produce the sight, hearing and movement of the game machine, allowing the “virtual reality” or simulated reality.
The project resulted from “sitting around wondering what to do,” said Frank and was something to do, but he knows enough not to do it again.”
Interactive Flight Simulator will land in competition in this year’s Los Angeles County Fair. It will be in competition with other senior projects within its field from fellow engineers at DeVry Computer Technology Institute.
“I have no doubt that we’re going to win,” said Seta Whitby, director of La Verne’s Department of Computer Science Engineering. “That’s the fun part.”
Orfali, a computer graphics technical assistant for Industrial Light and Magic, has worked on special effects in films such as Jumanji, Dragon Heart, Twister, and a commercial for BMW. Although he “wasn’t expecting to get a job in special effects” he said, “It was like a dream come true.”
Also presenting senior projects were Brian Ward, with “Building a Database Application Using Visual Basic,” Rod Dixon, with “Computer Controlled Servo-System,” which is an energy conservation project and Vincent F. Kiley with “Computer Controlled Servo-Mechanism.
