RIApalooza Brings New Ideas to Developing Better Applications

RIApalooza is an annual meeting of designers, developers, managers, and creative professionals focused on the user experience and developing better rich Internet applications. This all day event  is driven by platform agnostic and PowerPoint-free presentations. Among the presenters are top technology developers and consultants from Microsoft, Adobe, Magenic, and Roundarch, to name a few. Their discussions involve theory and practices covering topics such as mobile applications, user experience principals, and social medias. These sessions conclude with an evening  meet and greet to network, ask questions, and continue discussions. And like last year, a free t-shirt for all those who attend!

RIApalooza is on Friday, May 8th 2009, downtown Chicago. Check out the RIApalooza website for details.

RIApalooza is sponsored by CD2, which is an Illumen sponsored user group focused on bridging the gap between design and development to create stronger, more engaging solutions and experiences.

Illumen and UIC College of Dentistry Team to Develop Haptics Simulator

The University of Illinois at Chicago College of Dentistry set out to develop cutting edge dental training simulations using haptics. Haptics is the science of applying touch sensation and control to interaction. These dental simulations would provide a new platform for training. The dental school needed anatomically accurate tooth and gum models that would reflect natural imperfections and irregulatirites when used in the virtual dental simulator.

Working with UIC’s leading dental educator, Dr. Arnold Steinberg, Illumen’s team planned to map out all key anatomical imperfections, build the 3D models, then test them for accuracy within the virtual dental simulator.
Read more

Illumen at Gartner Healthcare Summit

Chris Okamoto co-presented the Gartner keynote with Dr. James “Butch” Rosser at the Gartner Healthcare 2007 Summit in Miami. The keynote topic was “Video Games and Simulation of Safe Surgery”. Chris walked through real-world medical projects that blended gaming and simulation components, providing a glimpse into today’s challenges and tomorrow’s solutions. The Gartner Healthcare Summit is widely regarded as the industry’s most comprehensive healthcare IT and business conference.

Illumen Presents at Learning 2007

Illumen’s, Chris Okamoto, helped run the Top Gun 4 Surgeon training event at the 92nd Annual Clinical Congress of the American College of Surgeons. This Laparo-scopic Skill and Suturing program integrates simulations with gaming methodology to train laparoscopic surgeons around the world. The Top Gun Training program was recently featured on ABC’s hit show, Grey’s Anatomy. Chris also helped run a Top Gun 4 Kids event as part of the conference, an event that aims to draw attention to career choices in Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, and Medicine (STEMM). This  event uses video games, reality based simulation challenges, pop culture icons, and interactive media to hit a grassroot level of awareness around STEMM.