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  Saturday, February 15, 2003


Immersive Virtual Reality Environment

Writing on the walls of a 3D cave? Yes, at Brown University, a project in-progress
is taking that concept a step further by exploring how 3-D computerized environments could expand our understanding of the written word. Over the last decade or so scientists and engineers have used virtual reality and other so-called "immersive technologies" to help them visualize complex designs and natural phenomena.

Brown has created a lab that
contains a high-performance parallel computer and a cave - an eight-foot cubicle in which high-resolution stereo graphics are projected onto three walls and the floor to create an immersive virtual reality experience. High-end workstations generate the 3D virtual world and create the sounds of the environment. Special hardware and software keep track of the positions and movements of a person entering that virtual environment, changing the images in the cave in a way that allows the visitor to feel immersed in the virtual space. By combining computer servers, video projectors and stereo speakers behind and above a slate-colored, 8-foot square cube, viewers inside the cave wear 3-D eyeglasses, which trick their brains into seeing flat pictures as three-dimensional objects. The servers track the viewer's x, y and z coordinates, and re-project images onto the cave's walls and floor up to 120 times per second. Environments inside the cave look real. Viewers can walk around objects; the illusion is only broken when the user reaches out to touch something.

The Computer Science department is using the cave for a variety of projects that will benefit from an immersive virtual reality environment: scientific visualization, concept visualization, novel artistic concepts, algorithm visualization, behavior simulation, and user interface research. Current Graphics Group projects include  brain MRI visualization, cave painting,  archaeologyVR user interfaces and others.

Time to put on your 3D glasses and have a look.

Source:

Brown University Cave


11:52:14 PM    comment []

The Debate About a Digital Archive 

Two years ago, Congress established the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program, charging the Library of Congress with leading a nationwide plan for the long-term preservation of digital content. Unfortunately, one of the bizarre things about government and politics is that even if our lawmakers decide that something should exist…they may not necessarily fund it.  So it sounds quite honorable on paper but in reality, nothing happens. This is not atypical.

According to the
NY Times, the library submitted a plan for digital preservation to Congress last September, and lawmakers approved the plan in January. $20 million will now be released for carrying out the early phases of the plan.  An interesting part of the plan is that congress will allot an additional $75 million IF this amount is matched by the private sector. The private contributions could be in the form of cash, hardware, software or consulting services. Initially, the matching funds had to be raised by March 31 of this year. But the library is seeking an extension to March 31, 2005.

According to the authors of the congressional bill, the library has digitized some of its physical collection, including items like Civil War photographs and presidential papers. But it is lagging in the task of archiving the electronic works i.e., scholarly journals, books and magazines that are "born digital"; CD-ROM's; digital photographs, music and films; and millions of miscellaneous pieces of Internet-based material. Digital technology "has spawned a surfeit of information that is extremely fragile, inherently impermanent, and difficult to assess for long-term value

What is amazing is that this even needs to be debated. It wouldn’t dawn on Washington NOT to save a paper copy of a speech or a videotape of an address to congress but the value of a digital archive needs to be debated for hours and still only permitted to exist IF there are matching funds from the private sector.

I can’t imagine anyone saying that a paper copy or videotape of an important speech will be destroyed unless private industry is willing to pay half of the cost of filing it in the Library of Congress.

Source:
NY Times


10:41:32 PM    comment []


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