Page 3
State/Local
The Battalion
Monday, Oct. 10, 1988
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NOVA prepares
for spring show
By Melinda Eddleman
Reporter
Not everyone has the imagination
or mental endurance for games like
Dungeons and Dragons or Star Fleet
Battles. But for 60 players who did,
MSC NOVA’s mini-wargaming con
vention, NOVACON IV, was a
gamer’s heaven.
The event, held at the MSC Satur
day and Sunday, was part of the pre
paration for NOVA’s big convention,
WA.RCON XV, which is scheduled
for the spring.
Mike Becnel, NOVA chairman
and junior animal science major, said
that NOVACON is designed to pre
pare the club officers for WARCON
by letting them learn from any mis
takes that occur during the mini-con
vention.
“(The convention is held) to make
sure we don’t mess up our big fling,”
he said.
The convention provided gamers
with the opportunity to participate in
tournaments or play in the open gam-
! ing room. Saturday tournament play
ers participated in games such as Car
| Wars, Star Fleet Battles and Dun
geons and Dragons. Final rounds in
the games were held Sunday.
Free passes to WARCON and
packages of miniatures were given as
prizes to the winners.
Two classes of games were played
at the convention, board games and
role-playing games. Becnel described
board games as being strategically
designed, with the players using
boards and game pieces. He said role-
playing games require players to use
their imagination more because they
create their own characters from a list
of basic criteria.
“People who have a good imagina
tion will imagine (the character) is ac
tually them out there playing,” he
said. “It enhances how good the game
is for them.” He said Dungeons and
Dragons is the most popular game at
both NOVACON and WARCON.
NOVACON presented continuous
video showings and movies. The
films followed a “Vietnam” theme,
and included “Platoon,” “Good
Morning Vietnam,” and “Hamburger
Hill.”
NOVACON participants also were
able to buy games, miniatures, comic
books, videos and jewelry in the
Dealers' Room. The Dealers’ Room
gives merchants the opportunity to
sell their merchandise to a large
group while giving convention partic
ipants a chance to buy merchandise
from more than one dealer at one
time.
Mike Schiller,a junior business
analysis major and officer of the
Dealers’ Room, said that 22 local and
out-of-town merchants rented space
at the convention, which was more
than at previous NOVACONs.
Darrel Dearing, NOVACON direc
tor and junior physics major, said that
having guest speakers made this
year’s NOVACON different from last
year’s. Lea Hernandez and Ben
Dunn, comic book industry represen
tatives, spoke to the convention par
ticipants, gave demonstrations and
promoted their line of work.
Hernandez is a free-lance artist
who specializes in the lettering of
comic books translated from Japanese
for Viz Communications, an Ameri
can division of Shogakuka, a Japa
nese publishing company that pub
lishes half of Japan’s publications.
Her job is to change Japanese sound
effects and dialogue to English and to
redraw any areas that have been
changed in the process, she said.
Ben Dunn is a comic book writer
and artist whose books include “Ninja
High School” and “Tiger-X.” He said
past comic books consisted of heavy-
handed parody and satirical humor,
but when he created “Ninja High
School,” he wanted to introduce gen
uinely humorous characters and sto
rylines.
He said that everything he has
learned is self-taught. “School is
there to help get you over the basic
points,” he said. “But, in order to
really establish your own technique,
you have to learn it yourself.”
A&M scientists investigate
new eye-tracking technique
By Stephanie Richard
Reporter
Texas A&M scientists are researching
eye-tracking, a technique that may revo
lutionize wheelchair operation, video
games and flying jets, the chairman of
A&M’s Human Performances Labo
ratory says.
Eye-tracking electronically controls
eye movement in the socket with the help
of a microcomputer. Dr. Charles Shea
says.
Shea says that computers interpret the
information given by the controller and
perform the desired tasks. Eye-tracking
finds out where the eyes are looking at
any one time, he says.
Shea’s research is focused on helping
the handicapped.
“For those who want to use a com
puter and are not able to use their hands
or a mouse, there is a way to look at a
screen and make things happen,” he
says.
Bernard Zee, electrical engineering
graduate student and assistant to Shea,
says that handicapped or disabled per
sons would be able to become more inde
pendent through the use of eye-tracking.
Shea says that possible advances for
Group offers service,
fellowship to Aggies
By Rose Ann McFadden
Reporter
Four years ago, six male Texas A&M
students created the Aggie Men’s Club
as an alternative to joining fraternities,
Eric Thode. a member and former presi
dent of the club, said.
“The Greek system wasn’t for them,”
Thode, a graduate student studying pub
lic administration, said. “They wanted to
emphasize service and Christianity.”
Today, about 100 students are mem
bers of the club.
Charles Plum, former faculty adviser
for AMC, said that the club still em
phasize the values it held four years ago.
“They are very service-oriented,”
Plum said. “AMC gives many students
the opportunity to follow the values their
parents taught them.”
Thode sa'd AMC voluteers time to the
Bryan Boy’s Club, the Special Olympics
and a local nursing home. They also
clean a stretch of Highway 6 four times a
year, and they painted the Grove last
year.
AMC als° has a basketball-a-thon ev
ery year, \vhich raises about $2000 for
various charities, Thode said.
Emphasising Christianity. AMC orca-
the handicapped through eye-tracking in
clude dialing telephones, turning appli
ances on and off, or accessing the pages
of a text on the computer terminal. Hos
pital patients who have had a stroke or
spinal injuries also would be able to sig
nal distress with their eye movements, he
says.
“The advantage of the system is that it
is very fast,” Shea says. “Our eyes are
compatible with our thoughts. It’s an au
tomatic process to look toward the things
we think about —no new learning is in
volved.”
Shea says that eye-tracking is not nec
essarily only for the handicapped. The
system also could allow a non-hand
icapped person to have his hands free to
do something else while working on a
computer. For example, he says, a sur
geon may be able to look at reference
materials while operating.
Zee says a wide range of options in us
ing eye-tracking is available.
“The computers can be hooked up to
various external devices and can be acti
vated by a signal the computer can gen
erate,” Zee says.
Shea says the disadvantages of the
system are obvious.
“You must be relatively still or the
system won’t work,” he says. “It is a
problem for some applications because
you must keep control over your eyes.”
Shea also is working in conjunction
with the psychology and bioengineering
departments.
Funding for eye-tracking is provided
by the Texas Advance Technologies Pro
gram. The organization tries to use cur
rent technology in new environments.
Zee says the possibilities for eye-tra
cking are nearly endless.
“It all depends on whether someone is
willing to invest in it,” he says. “The
technology is here now.”
The researchers do not have a working
prototype yet.
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Texas A&M Bookstore
Book Fair
Prentice Hall Technical Books
20 % off
October 3-
* Discount applies to
special orders also
nizes two Bible studies each week. One
is for members of AMC and their male
friends, but the other is open to AMC
members and any AMC Sweethearts.
Thode said about 20 people attend the
Bible studies, although the co-ed group
had 60 members last spring semester.
AMC is not all service and study,
however. The group sponsors mixers
with sororities, date parties, a fall formal
and a spring dance, Thode said.
The group's committment to Christian
values is not forgotten during social
functions, he said.
Plum said he is impressed by AMC’s
ability to have successful parties without
alcohol.
No alcohol is served at AMC func
tions.
AMC’s rule about alcohol is appre
ciated by the sororities they socialize
with, Thode said.
“They don’t have to worry about some
drunk hanging all over them,” he said.
“It’s never going to happen.”
AMC takes new members every fall
semester, Thode said. He said AMC lim
its its membership to 100, so only 30
new members are chosen each year from
a growing number of applicants.
Local Brief
Prize money offered for paper on guns
By Sissie Allensworth
Reporter
The Sanders-Metzger Gun Collec
tion Committee is offering $300 to
the author of the best research paper
submitted to the 7th Annual Sanders
Research Paper Contest.
The contest theme is “The Role ot
Firearms in American History.” The
competition is open to students en
rolled at Texas A&M during the
1988-89 school year.
Prizes will be awarded to the au
thors of the three best papers. The
second-place winner will receive
$200, and $150 will be given to the
third-place winner.
The prize money has been donated
by Dr. Sam Houston Sanders of the
Texas Gun Collectors Association, a
principal donor to the gun collection.
Dr. Jim Earle, civil engineering
professor and chairman of the gun
collection committee, said he hopes
the contest will direct more attention
to the collection.
“We have some very rare guns that
don’t exist anywhere else,” Earle
said.
He said the collection, which is
housed on the third floor of the MSC,
is worth $2 million to $3 million.
The entries, which are to be no
longer than 12 pages, may feature the
guns of soldiers, hunters, cattlemen,
settlers, lawmen, outlaws or Indians,
but they should present material in
vestigating the history of firearms
from 1800-1900.
Papers should be submitted to 103
Rudder Tower by April 5, 1989.
“He wants to disarm the people in his state except for the military and the police! ,
George Bush, Longview, Texas, Aug. 26
This statement is a lie.
It’s the latest in a series of Republican lies.
We think you should know the facts.
P|l piT* Governor Michael Dukakis and Senator Lloyd Bentsen strongly support a citizen’s right to
I Ml# I ■ keep and bear arms. They believe law-abiding Americans should be able to use firearms
for protecting their homes and businesses, hunting and target shooting, and collecting. Our Government must
respect those rights.
P A Governor Dukakis believes that our nation’s gun laws should help law enforcement officials
I Ml# I ■ fight crime and keep guns out of the hands of criminals. He will not interfere with private
ownership of weapons by responsible citizens.
P A The Dukakis/Bentsen ticket has been endorsed by the International Union of Police
■ Ml# I ■ Associations, the International Brotherhood of Police Officers, the Southern States Police
Benevolent Associations and the Combined Law Enforcement Associations of Texas, among other groups.
Like President Reagan and the nation’s major law enforcement groups, Governor Dukakis
1 Miw I ■ supports legislation requiring people who want to buy guns to wait seven days—so that
police can determine whether the person has a criminal record or is mentally dangerous. Despite over
whelming police support for this bill, George Bush opposes it.
P A PT" The number of Massachusetts gun owners has tripled since Mike Dukakis became Governor,
| Ml# I ■ and grown by almost 50 percent in the last five years. There are 1.7 million handguns, shot
guns and rifles in a state with 4.3 million people over age 18.
P A In 1968, then-Congressman George Bush voted for Federal gun control. After the bill
■ HI# I ■ passed, Bush said he thought “much more” needed to be done to curb purchases of firearms.
P A ■ George Bush supported deep cuts in aid to state and local police and personally blocked a
■ Ml# I ■ law that would have banned plastic guns used by terrorists and drug dealers.
PAPT" Mike Dukakis is tou 9 h on crime. Under his leadership, crime has dropped 13 percent in the
■ Ml# I ■ past five years-while it has continued to climb in the rest of the nation. The homicide
rate is the lowest of any industrial state, about half the national average.
“The Republican charges on gun control are an
insult to Texans’ intelligence. Look at the facts
before you vote on November 8th.”
— Gib Lewis, Speaker, Texas House
The Dukakis/Bentsen Team
Strong Leaders for a Strong America.
Political ad paid for by Aggie Democrats, Michelle Touchet, President
Brazos Co. Democratic Party, Ron Gay, Chairman