State of the art review of presentation technologies
The project is essentially an information gathering exercise. A comprehensive survey will be conducted to acquire a whole host of specific information pertinent to sophisticated modern day presentation technologies covering all relevant areas and issues from a wide range of information sources by a variety of means including literature and network searches interviews visits and evaluations.
The study will focus on those display paradigms which are specifically oriented to the presentation of 3D data visualizations and virtual environments where stereoscopic vision adds depth to the third dimension and where some form of immersion either partial or full with high levels of interactivity perhaps involving other modalities than sound and vision is advantageous or even essential to the participants sharing the experience for the learning and understanding processes in teaching and research particularly where conventional methods are inadequate or inappropriate for these new kinds of applications.
The presentation technologies we have in mind to study are generally not available in UK HE particularly so for teaching and it will be of interest to assess their use and effectiveness in this context. Different disciplines have different presentation requirements and the study will evaluate user requirements for teaching and research as well as assessing the potential for new uses of the technology in the HE community. Their appropriateness to different types of application will also be evaluated. The knowledge and experience gained in performing this study should enable a set of guidelines and criteria for evaluating such presentation technologies to be prepared besides a relevant set of recommendations to TASC to address the issues.
Outputs from the study will be made available in both electronic and hard copy formats and the details and outcome of the study will be widely publicised including dissemination through conferences and workshops. Edinburgh University is in an excellent position to pursue this activity having a wide range of expertise in a huge variety of disciplines and besides this study fits well within the Universitys IT strategy. Moreover the team designated to perform the work have a competent track record and are very experienced in the visualization of 3D applications and heavily involved in the development and application of virtual environments to which the new and emerging presentation technologies are highly suited.