Hands playing HOT SWAP, a game where the controllers are reconfigurable.

ACME Lab: Creating technologies to support creativity

Dec. 6, 2021

ATLAS recently released a new video that celebrates the ACME Lab and its commitment to designing technologies to support creativity. Directed by Professor Ellen Do, the lab researches computational tools for design, creativity, cognition, tangible and embedded interaction, and computing for health and wellness.

Two arms showing a Ƶ tattoo on one arm and numbers on another, illuminated by UV light.

High-tech tattoos may help prevent skin cancer

Nov. 15, 2021

Carson Bruns, assistant professor and director of the Emergent Nanomaterials Lab, and his research team are collaborating with the Ƶ Anschutz Medical Campus to test a tattoo ink that’s completely invisible—and could lower the risk of skin cancer, much like a “permanent sunscreen."

Animated view of a castle with trees around it, as well as showing where variables are chosen in the VR world of Popo.

POPO lets novices program from inside their VR surroundings

Nov. 9, 2021

Julia Uhr, an ATLAS PhD student and researcher in the ACME Lab, has created a fun 3D visual programming language that empowers novice coders to create customized VR environments while inside those environments.

E.O. Rafelson in silouette in front of a large projection of KALEIDEO, a projection from the kaleideoscope he made

CTD student invents new lighting technology for Capstone project

Nov. 8, 2021

CTD senior EO Rafelson has fabricated a high-tech kaleidoscope for his capstone project as well as developed a way to project the patterns generated onto a planetarium dome. His project, “Kaleideo,” will be presented at Fiske Planetarium on Tuesday, Nov. 9 for two free shows.

hapticbots

HapticBots give form to virtual surfaces

Oct. 14, 2021

In virtual reality, when you reach out and try to touch a visible surface, it normally isn't there. Using a swarm of Rubik's Cube-sized, shape-changing robots, the illusion becomes physical.

Future textile heirlooms hanging on a line

In the Unstable Design Lab, Sasha de Koninck creates new heirlooms for future use

Oct. 12, 2021

Sasha de Koninck, a member of ATLAS Institute's Unstable Design Lab, presented her future heirloom project, The Research Lab of Ambiguous Futurology, at the "Making and Doing" exhibition at the 4S hybrid conference, held Oct. 6-9, both in Toronto and virtually.

augmented reality view of a battery energy storage container

Augmented reality technology to give battery storage facility workers "X-ray" vision

Sept. 16, 2021

To assist first responders and site operators, the ACME Lab developed ARMAS—augmented reality maintenance and safety—a marker-based AR system that lets the user see color-coded visualizations of battery cells inside containers.

Front cover

RoomShift research: IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications magazine's cover story

Aug. 10, 2021

THING Lab researchers, led by recent PhD graduate, Ryo Suzuki, developed a swarm of shape-changing robots that move furniture around a room, opening up new haptic ideas for virtual reality.

The back of heads of two young girls in a hammock by a lake.

Digital wellness program provides resources to combat social media’s negative psychological impacts

July 20, 2021

ATLAS Instructor Annie Margaret is creating a Digital Wellness Summer Program for middle-school girls that provides strategies adolescents can use to minimize the negative psychological impacts of social media.

LoopSketch logo on top with Chromapraxis on the bottom.

ATLAS research spins off to Catalyze Ƶ

June 21, 2021

Two teams from the ATLAS Institute were selected to participate in Catalyze Ƶ, a highly selective, summer-long startup accelerator that combines world-class mentorship, funding and dedicated co-working space.

Pages