My first ever video game experience was a Nintendo Gameboy when I was 4 years old, and I’ve been absolutely enthralled by Video Games ever since. This is primarily what lead to my interest in technology, and therein programming, as I wanted to know how these wonderful, entertaining works of art were made. When I was young, the image I had in my mind of programming, was nerdy dudes in glasses writing code in a terminal like something out of War Games. In Middle School, one of our “wheel” classes (constantly rotating topics) covered programming, teaching us using “Scratch” where different blocks can be connected to create little games or apps. I was absolutely hooked and spent alot of time out of class playing around with it and seeing what kind of games I could make. Even to this day, I still love playing video games, and even though I’m not interested in taking Game Development courses right now, I credit it with being the driving force behind my interest in software engineering, and my degree in Computer Engineering.
As a long time gamer, I’m always interested in the latest tech or gameplay innovations, so when HTC announced the Vive Virtual Reality System in early 2015, I was fascinated. I wouldn’t actually purchase my own Vive until mid 2017, but I closely followed the development, and watched many different youtube channels centered around VR. It seemed like a whole new world to explore, similar to when games made the jump from 2D platformers like Mario, to 3D games such as Wolfenstein or Doom. Never have I felt so immersed and part of the game, with a massive field of view through headset, and sensitive controllers that give you a sense of connection to the game world. There are so many new games and experiences that Virtual Reality can help convey, further confirming gaming’s place as an artform. Of the games that I’ve played so far, my favorites are Beatsaber (A guitar hero style game, where you slash the notes with lightsabers) and HotDogs Horseshoes and Hand Grenades (A realistic physics and firearm simulation game). As I introduced family members and friends to VR, I was able to see the child-like sense of awe and wonder that they experienced, really spurring my desire to further the capabilities of this technology.
Beyond simply being a fascination, VR has really gotten me interested in how we interface with technology. This was the primary motivation for the Brain Controller Interface Project that I worked on in EE396. In that project we used the Emotiv epoc EEG headset, which read brainwaves and gathered motion data, to control a Braccio robotic arm via an Arduino. This was a really interesting method of control as there were many mappable actions, and we could control the robot arm with a reasonable degree of precision. I hope to be hired into a permanent position at NIWC (Naval Information Warfare Center) where I currently work as an intern, there is a whole division dedicated to Future technologies, and a branch within that division that focuses on Virtual Reality. I’ve spoken with the branch head a few times, and our organization is focuses on creating virtual reality environments for training purposes. From virtual cockpits to submarine cabins, and even virtual war games, the amount of money and time that could be saved by utilizing Virtual Reality as a tool is insane. There are so many opportunities within the Virtual Reality Field that are applicable to software engineering, but I hope to be able to integrate this with physical hardware as well.
As I enter my final year of Computer Engineering here at UH Manoa, I hope to be able to not only learn programming languages, but mainly gain more skills in regards to learning. I don’t know too much about software engineering for virtual reality, but by improving my learning abilities through the athletic software engineering pedagogy, I hope to be well prepared for my future profession.