#eestec

On Monday 25.9. we started the project by scanning the bomb shelter of TUT (Bommari) by using a laser scanner provided by the CIVIT lab of TUT. Aim was to use the data as a base for our VR gaming projects.

After scanning, the obtained point cloud data had to be processed into something useful for Unity. First, the point cloud was imported into Meshlab for calculating the normals and to create the mesh out of the vertices. Next, everything was transferred to Blender for fixing the normals and also to remove any excess material. In the afternoon we had a tour in the CIVIT lab, the center for immersive visual technologies. In the lab we had a really unique chance to try out the Omnideck manufactured by Omnifinity. The platform allowed one to walk almost freely in the virtual reality environment.

Hervanta is a lively and unique suburban located 8 kilometers south from Tampere city center. Hervanta was founded in the 1970’s and it has now more than 22 000 people, most of whom are students. By area Hervanta is pretty small, only about two by two kilometers. This means that services and people are near wherever you are. In the center of Hervanta lies the shopping mall Duo, containing three grocery shops, Alko and Subway. (OK, it has some other shops as well, but who needs those, Alko is btw where you need to go if you want something stronger than beer). Hervanta’s center has also many pizza/kebab places and pubs. We even have our own nightclub called Cupola, which by the way was founded under our Student Union. There are many reported cases where people notice that they haven’t visited the city center for months just because there hasn’t been anything that couldn’t be done in Hervanta.

Tampere has an airport, where at least AirBaltic, Finnair, Blue1 and ryanair operate. Finlands largest airport is in Helsinki. If you only get a flight there you need to take a bus or train ride to Tampere. For that there are three ways:

A Bus ride straight from the airport lasting about 2 hours and costing 27 euros one way with matkahuolto busses (buying return tickets will save you 10%). You buy the ticket with cash (matkahuolto hasn’t noticed that we live in the 21st century) from the driver and you don’t need to book anything in advance.

A train ride, which also lasts about 2 hours and which prices depend a lot on how much in advance you book them. [please disregard the student prices on train or bus websites, they only accept Finnish student cards :(]

An adventurous chance of taking Onnibus (tickets start from a few euros), which leaves from Helsinki city center, but gets you directly to Hervanta, where you’ll be staying. Onnibus is of course a good idea, if you want to see some of Helsinki. Please reserve enough time to get to the city center. Easiest way to get to Helsinki city center is to take Finnair’s city bus from the airport. This bus costs 6.30 (from the driver with cash or debit/credit card) and the bus leaves every half an hour. The city bus and onnibus doesn’t stop at the same place. The city bus stops near the railway station and Onnibus leaves from the main bus station of Kamppi (walking distance 500 meters). When booking the Onnibus choose stations named “Helsinki” and “Tampere(Hervanta)”. There is also station called Tampere, but that’s not what you want.

You can also look for cheap flights to Tallinn or Stockholm. If you get to Tallinn take a ferry to Helsinki and then a bus or train to Tampere. From Stockholm you need to take a ferry to Turku or Helsinki and then a bus or train to Tampere. Those ferry rides take around 12 hours, so please consider this, when booking flights to Stockholm.

You can start planning your trip here: http://www.journey.fi/

for schedules and prices please check: Buses: http://www.matkahuolto.fi/en/ http://www.onnibus.fi http://www.onniexpress.fi http://media.finnair.com/files/pdf/FINNAIR_CITY_BUS_TIMETABLE.pdf

Trains: http://www.vr.fi/en/index.html

Ferries: http://www.tallinksilja.com/en/web/int/stockholm-turku (ferries Stockholm - Turku) http://www.sales.vikingline.com/en/find-cruise-trip/route-traffic/stockholm-turku-vv/ (ferries Stockholm - Turku) http://www.tallinksilja.com/en/web/int/helsinki-tallinn (ferries Helsinki - Tallinn) http://www.sales.vikingline.com/en/find-cruise-trip/route-traffic/helsinki-tallinn-vv/ (ferries Helsinki - Tallinn) https://www.eckeroline.fi/ (ferries Helsinki - Tallinn)

There it is: Our next workshop, coming this fall!

LC Tampere is back with another workshop in 2015. We invite you up North to share our most favorite activities with us: sauna, gaming and parties.