MT35101

Tuesday, July 29, 2014

The Education Grid

Above we see the homepage of the Education Grid it shows how one would go about joining the group to gain access to all of the materials. It is very simple to join and quite worth the effort.

Here we can learn about the Media Grid's history and how it was formed. It is quite interesting to see how it has grown over the years.

Further down the same page you can read about how it is open source and what that ultimately means

Finally it provides another link to join and mentions cross-platform content and library access tools.

Here is the Biograph for the Director of the Immersive Education Foundation whom played a pivotal role developing the Media Grid website

Monday, July 28, 2014

Final #4: High Resolution Avatar

My Final Avatar

Process

This is the final custom high resolution avatar created in MakeHuman. I was unable to upload my own image so I used a default face image. It is a final exercise from the Immersive Education course that I am taking at Boston College. The course is called Discovering Computer Graphics. For details, visit the immersive BC portal at http://ImmersiveEducation.org/@/bc

Thursday, July 24, 2014

Monocular Depth Cues

Size Difference:

Made in Meshmoon

This screenshot clearly shows an example of size difference used to trick our eye through monocular depth. Each of the white pillars has the same dimensions, yet the farthest away one is significantly smaller than the closest one leading us to recognize the depth of the image, its 3rd dimension. This is a textbook example of size difference and can also apply to many things inside and outside the physical realm.

Occlusion:

Found in Meshmoon

This screenshot shows a great example of occlusion. In it you can clearly seem by avatar occluding the truck with is occluding the backhoe. These occluding layers allow for us to get a sense of the 3D layers of the space as we can therefore tell that my avatar is in front of the truck which is in front of the backhoe. This type of monocular depth is quite easy to replicate via photoshop and gimp via its layers tool, albeit not as effectively as meshmoon does above.

Lighting and Shading:

Found in Second Life

This screenshot shows an exemplary example of the effect lighting and shading have on monocular depth. It can be clearly seen that the light thrown off of the campfire casts a gradated shadow around the sand, along the bench, and onto the cabin's wall. It all works together to create a form of depth around the entire scene as the fire's light shows us just how much depth the sand area around it has.

Texture Density:

Found in Meshmoon

This screenshot captures what Professor Walsh calls the texture density of Monocular Depth. What that means is, that the pattern applied to this wall that is circled above appears more dense in the far range of our vision. This sort of eye trickery is used to show how our eyes are unprecise and cannot focus in keenly on patterns far away so that with constantly repeating patterns, the farther away the part of it we look at, the greater density of the pattern we will see.

Linear Perspective:

Found in Meshmoon

This screenshot is a prime example of linear perspective in a 3D environment. The sides of the road, while the continue parralel to our line of vision and each other, seem to slowly be moving closer together towards the horizon. If we kept walking down the road it wouldn't actually get any slimmer but from a distance such technique is an excellent way to deploy Monocular Depth in a image or virtual world.

Atmospheric Perspective:

Found in Meshmoon

In this screenshot we see the use of atmospheric perspective. It the blue area everything is crisp and detailed, but as you get towards and into the red area it loses focus to where we have very little detail beyond the red area. This is known as atmospheric perspective and it occurs in the real world due to our 20/20 vision restrictions and because of how the atmosphere reflects light and makes objects at a distance harder for us to see. It is most obvious deployed above on the white lines of the road and how it suddenly becomes quite fuzzy in the red area.

This is the Final #2 demonstrating knowledge of the Six types of Monocular Depth. It is a final exercise from the Immersive Education course that I am taking at Boston College. The course is called Discovering Computer Graphics. For details, visit the immersive BC portal at http://ImmersiveEducation.org/@/bc

Final Project: Building My Immersive Libraries/Museum for Review - Riordan vh

Here is a rough draft of my final

so far meshmoon has not allowed me to upload any pictures regardless of format or location(on my desktop or uploaded to my facebook) I will update once I have been able to do so.

Wednesday, July 23, 2014

IMMERSIVE LIBRARIES AND MUSEUMS

The ILAM Charter is a document that lays out the critical parts of the Libraries and Museums Groups' reasons for founding. It outlines its mission statement, membership criteria, overview, objectives, criteria for success, use cases, meetings, and confidentiality statement. Below I will give a brief summary of each of these sections. along with my own beliefs and views regarding each sections content.

The mission statement of the iLAM is quite straight forward, it outlines the purpose and central reasoning for the existence of the iLAM group. It addresses all necessary facilities associated with libraries and museums and their connection with immersive education.

The membership criteria is quite open in my honest belief. It opens its doors to pretty much every student in the world with access to any sort of museum or library in either the virtual or physical world. It is quite welcoming as would be expected of such a noble initiative.

The Overview is just that, an overview. It relates the advent of new technology and the opportunity that these technologies allow for the sharing of educational methods. It also addresses the rapid digitalization of libraries and the needs they have in the coming age. Also, it references the need for museums to become more open and available and how they can cope with the shift into the digital age, a primary concern.

The Objectives outline 10 subobjectives in line to fulfill their overarching goal of provisioning libraries and museums with the tools, resources, and information necessary for immersive education to not only exist, but flourish. Its goals are realistic and should all be manageable with the steadfast dedication of its members and all levels of education.

Its Criteria for Success outlines the steps necessary for successful implementation and building of a framework for the LAM. It outlines the structure of files that will ultimately support the entire system. It is well worded and each step is fundamental for success of the initiative.

The Use Cases section outlines specific examples of how such an environment would instrumental impact the learning environment as we currently know it, outfitting students and teachers with resources and immersive experiences never before thought possible with traditional learning environments. It provides a visionary outlook on the Global Village we will soon be learning and exploring through our education system.

The Meetings section mentions how both virtual meetings and face-to-face meetings in and outside of the environment will take place and the expected schedule for such. It is a hopeful and specific guideline that would provide a serious commitment from its members, whilst allowing them to garner feedback and hear from less vocal members of its community.

The confidentiality section is, of course, legalese...Enough said.

Source: "Immersive Education Libraries and Museums Technology Working Group (LAM.TWG)"

Link for you to visit: http://JiED.org