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ver the Edge

November 9, 2005

Volume 12, Issue 5

New Sunday Transit Services A Reality

VINCENT CHAN

After such strong demands from students, the City of Prince George is finally going to offer bus service on Sundays for

five to six hours each week.

ANNA GRADOWSKA
STAFF WRITERS ;

Many students in Prince George
know the isolation of Sundays all too
well, Those without cars and living
on residence feel this restriction most
strongly, Currently, there is no public
transportation to get students to down-
town or up to UNBC on Sundays. This
has meant immobility and inconven-
ience, but also the isolation of the aca-
demic institution from the city. Many
students are stranded in residence, un-
able to access the city’s stores and servi-
ces, while those within the city are un-
able to use UNBC’s Sunday hours of
operation for valuable academic study.

Due to the ever-present demand
from students, the NUGSS Trans-
portation Improvement Commission
(NTIC) was created to try and help
make transit better for the students of
UNBC. The idea of Sunday bus service
was integral to last year’s commission,
and, with the aid of Warren Hall (the
City Transit Analyst) this year, the
ideas have taken shape.

After talks with the city works, the
NTIC was able to negotiate 5 to 6
hours of transit time for use on Sun-
days. NUGSS admits that, with so
little time to work with, the routes will
not be full service, but they are planning
to give access to major points in the city,
such as the Downtown, Spruceland,
and Pine Centre areas.

NUGSS is curtently collecting
input for routes from students, mainly

through surveys. It is expected that

many of UNBC commuting students
will use this new service. So far, the

student response has not only been
widespread and supportive, but also
overwhelmingly positive. There is no
doubt that, in addition to the students
of UNBC, the service will benefit regu-
lar commuters within the city, increas-
ing business around the town.

The NTIC is meeting with city rep-
resentatives on November 9 to finalize
plans. Ideally, the new Sunday service
will be in place in approximately one
month,

“The city has been very accommodat-
ing,’ says Aidan Kelly, VP of External

Affairs for NUGSS. “They realize.

UNBC isa vital part of the community,
and they want to help our students.’

When asked to comment for the arti-
cle, many students, hearing the news
for the first time, were clearly overjoyed
with the additional service. “It’s long
overdue,’ said Nathan Frost. He says
that he would use the service primar-
ily to take the bus up the hill to the
University, even it may take longer than
on weekdays, Others echoed this senti-
ment, breaking into smiles and general
expressions of happiness in learning
that they would no longer be denied
access to the bus system on Sundays.

Until our coveted transit service is
realized, the plague of Sunday cabin
fever will reign: still, we can rest easy,
knowing salvation is at hand.

‘Pillow Creature’ IIluminates the Power of Interactive Touch

COLLEEN TANG
THE UBYSSEY
{UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA)
VANCOUVER, B.C. (CUP) — Ani-
mals and pillows may have much more
in common than previously believed.
The Hapticat, currently in its second
prototype stage, resembles a rugby ball,
cocoa brown in colour, with two white
ears that perk up when touched, said
Steve Yohanan, a computer science
gtaduate student at University of Brit-
ish Columbia who helped found the
project. Ir’s a lap pillow - similar to a
household pet, he added.
The purpose of the project is to deal

with human interaction and touch by

simulating the characteristics of ani-
mals through the Hapticat. “We're
studying how people interact in the
world through touch, Wete trying to

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FEAtUTE nessccseserseses ~ 4
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GOMES icassssssiscacescocsversten ants dvereentestaey 8

enhance computer interaction in the
same way, said Yohanan, “I was think-
ing back to when I used to have a cat
and how much my interaction with the
cat is related to touch.’

His intention, however, isn't to con-
tribute to the demise of the household
pet. “I think there are things to be
gained but I wouldn't want to replace
an animal,” he said. “I hope it’s not the
end of cats. Part of my goal is not to
build...an artificial cat like a robot cat,
but to kind of look at what's going on
with a real cat and the same thing with
a dog or any-type of animal you pet,
even a horse or a cow and try to build
devices that give you the same kind of
pleasure and quality that those do,’ said
Yohanan. “This approach is a way of
interacting in a beneficial manner with
another device that's not a living crea-

ture,’ he said.

UBC professor Karon Maclean, who
is supervising Yohanan and his team
on the project, echoed his sentiment.
“I cannot imagine that. That would be
very sad. It’s hard for me to see where
a creature like this anytime soon is go-
ing to replace an animal or be as good
or better than a real animal because a
real animal has so much richness,’ said
MacLean. .

The research being done also looks
at how people are affected by emotions
and how well people can recognise and
respond to them. “We saw that people
could recognise the emotions of the
creature and... our responses show that
they had a generally positive response,’
explained Yohanan.

Yohanan began exploration with his
idea of the Hapticat in his Physical

User Interface Design class, “[The class
is] kind of a cross between Human
Computer Interaction and robotics,
which is about building and controlling
robotic devices,’ said MacLean, who
also teaches the class. “There is a lot of
psychology involved and understanding
physical touch and how to design user
experiments using the sense of touch.’
The class, consisting of computer sci-
ence and engineering students from
SFU and UBC, completed their own
projects. Yohanan pitched his idea and
formed a group with Mavis Chan, Jere-
my Hopkins and Haibo Sun to create
the original prototype of the Hapticat.

The result of the project ended up as
a paper that got published and select-
ed, along with all the papers from the
class, to be in the Seventh International
Conference on Multimodal Interfaces

this past October in Trento, Italy, “This
is very unusual, actually, These are [all]
high quality papers,’ said MacLean.

The second prototype is similar to
the first one, but is’ now mechanic-
ally controlled instead of having several
people behind a curtain controlling the
Hapticat. “It’s more of a high-tech pup-
pet... the new version is more computer
controlled,’ said Yohanan.

Associate Computer Science profes-
sor Joanna McGrenere said that this
technology has a powerful role to play

in out lives. “Technology should be in

the service of the humans that use it...
I think it's absolutely critical that if we
make any steps forward in terms of
making technology not just cool but
really making it usable and [improving]
the quality of life:’

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