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.
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6 Elements of Great Usability

Usability is a word that is often heard, yet is not often understood. What is usability? Why spend so much time on usability? How is it measured? When done right, usability can increase user productivity, provide a higher retention of information, and raise user satisfaction by creating and providing a stronger experience. Understanding what makes something usable or intuitive is never clearly defined. There are many factors that should go into the design of a usable solution. Usability is a component of user centered design, and is based on the goals, objectives, and even the limitations of you and your audience. Usability can be broken down into six elements that overlap each other to provide one cohesive experience. These six elemental groups are defined as: goal solving, intuitive, efficient, functional, satisfying, and memorable.

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Illumen’s David Charney Speaks at CD2

David Charney, Chief Creative Officer at Illumen, speaks at CD2 about the user experience and design. CD2 (Chicago Designers and Developers User Group) is focused on nurturing the collaboration between designers & developers and the importance of the user experience and how it relates to creativity and technology.
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Higher Education turns to Interactive

Purdue University continually explores the future of interactive learning in an effort to find effective and engaging content delivery methods for it’s faculty and students. On August 28th Purdue’s Vet School invited Illumen Group along with Dr. James “Butch” Rosser of The Stealth Learning Company to present the topic of Experiential Learning and how it’s shaping both academic and corporate learning environments. Over three sessions, the trio provided insight on Experiential Learning’s past, present, and future. Audience members consisted of faculty from Purdue’s Vet Sciences, Nursing, Engineering and Agriculture Departments.

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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.