The Lab Facilities
The Linguistic and Assistive Technologies Laboratory (LATLab) is housed in a research space on the main level of the Computer Science department on the CUNY Queens College campus in Flushing, NY.
The LATLab has been furnished to be functional for research activities and to be a comfortable and welcoming environment for human subjects visiting for user-based studies.
The campus and the LATLab are easily accessible by New York City public transportation.
The laboratory has several Dell graphics workstations, Macintosh desktop computers, Lenovo tabletPCs, and other laptop computers. In addition, the lab has equipment for motion-capture (used for sign language research):
- Two 22-Sencor Wireless Cybergloves from Immersion Corporation (used to digitize the configuration of a human’s hand).
- Four-sensor configuration of a MotionStar magnetic tracking system with an extended range transmitter.
- Animazoo IGS-190 human inertial motion capture suit.
- Intersense IS-900 inertial/acoustic hybrid motion-capture system, four-sensor configuration.
- Applied Science Laboratories Model H6 head-mounted optics eye-tracking system with EYE-HEAD integration software for head-movement compensation.
- Applied Science Laboratories Model D6 desktop-mounted remote optics eye-tracking system for user-interface studies.
The LATLab also has the following software resources:
- Autodesk Motion-Builder, the software used to collect motion-capture data and apply it to a virtual human skeleton.
- Visage Technologies software: Visage Life and Visage Interactive. This project uses character animation software from Visage Technologies AB (www.visagetechnologies.com) under the free Academic License.
- The Jack Virtual Human toolkit from Siemans-UGS PLM Software (thanks to a GO PLM Academic grant from Siemens for $630,150).
- SignStream Sign Language Video Annotation Software (developed as part of the American Sign Language Linguistic Resource Project at Boston University).
- SignSmith Studio, ASL Dictionary, ASL Animations, and GestureBuilder software from Vcom3D.
- Adobe Creative Suite 3.
- Camtasia Studio screen-capture and recording software.
In addition to Queens College computer resources (including a campus-wide wireless network), the Computer Science department maintains its own network and computer facilities with full-time computing staff members. Resources include: e-mail and web servers, networked printing facilities, and a high-speed departmental network. The Computer Science department also maintains several computer laboratories and meeting spaces that can be reserved for use by faculty research projects.