Physical pixels

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Architecture and Planning, Program in Media Arts and Sciences, 2000.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 48-51).The picture element, or pixel, is a conceptual unit of representation for digital information. Like all data structures of the computer, pixels are invisible and therefore require an output device to be seen. The physical unit of display, or physical pixel, can be any form that makes the pixel visible. Pixels are often represented as the electronically addressable phosphors of a video monitor, but the potential for different visualizations inspires the development of novel phenotypes. Four new systems of physical pixels are presented: Nami, Peano, the Digital Palette and 20/20 Refurbished. In each case, the combination of material, hardware and software design results in a unique visualization of computation. The chief contribution of this research is the articulation of a mode of artistic practice in which custom units of representation integrate physical and digital media to engender a new art.by Kelly Bowman Heaton.S.M

Exploring multimedia and interactive technologies

The goal of multimedia design strategies and innovation is to produce meaningful learning environments that relate to and build upon what the learner already knows and what the learner seeks. The multimedia tools used to achieve knowledge transfer should activate recall or prior knowledge and help the learner alter and encode new structures. Traditionally, multimedia has been localized to specific delivery systems and demographics based on the government, industry, or academic concentration. The presenter will explore the introduction of immersive telecommunications technologies, constructivist learning methodologies, and adult learning models to standardize networking and multimedia-based services and products capable of adapting to wired and wireless environments, different devices and conditions on a global scale

A Conceptual and Technical Discussion on Digital Painting as New Media Art: Introducing Some Malaysian Works

The revolution of media technology offers artists a lot of possibilities to create different art forms. The artist explored and manipulated different media to give different impact in their works since modernism and post modernism period. Malaysia as one of Asian country also committed to art development where artist explore various media in painting including conventional and technological media as well. Digital technology and art movement were developed in two separate segments. In fact, new media art does not establish in art history plot. Therefore, the word digital painting poses an ambiguity to describe its status. The convergence of scientific term and art term called digital painting will be discussed into two sections under conceptual issues and technical issues. In conceptual issues, digital painting will be linked to the ingredient and components of art including the artist, the form, the audience and its surrounding, the subject, and the content. This paper will also discuss what is behind digital painting which includes some technical issues including concept of digital image, the hardware and the software. This paper will confer some Malaysian digital paintings situation and scenario. Subsequently, it summarizes the core elements in digital painting to be implemented in further studies

A Conceptual and Technical Discussion on Digital Painting as New Media Art: Introducing Some Malaysian Works

The revolution of media technology offers artists a lot of possibilities to create different art forms. The artist explored and manipulated different media to give different impact in their works since modernism and post modernism period. Malaysia as one of Asian country also committed to art development where artist explore various media in painting including conventional and technological media as well. Digital technology and art movement were developed in two separate segments. In fact, new media art does not establish in art history plot. Therefore, the word digital painting poses an ambiguity to describe its status. The convergence of scientific term and art term called digital painting will be discussed into two sections under conceptual issues and technical issues. In conceptual issues, digital painting will be linked to the ingredient and components of art including the artist, the form, the audience and its surrounding, the subject, and the content. This paper will also discuss what is behind digital painting which includes some technical issues including concept of digital image, the hardware and the software. This paper will confer some Malaysian digital paintings situation and scenario. Subsequently, it summarizes the core elements in digital painting to be implemented in further studies

The future of interactive literature

Interactive literature is a fresh form of literature that has not yet existed even for a hundred years, yet it has a wide history, jumping between continents and including a number of evolutionary steps. Its evolution is still ongoing and this thesis aims to map out where it might be headed next. The first part of the thesis focuses on unearthing the past of interactive literature in full, starting all the way from the first gamebook released in 1930 and making its way to the present. The second part builds on this by trying to see where it might be heading next. For this purpose a scenario-based questionnaire (focusing on technological advancements) was deployed on forums filled with both consumers and developers of interactive literature. Answers to the questionnaire ended up being quite few and biased towards developers so the results are analyzed with a grain of salt. Also past personal experience in writing interactive literature is discussed in order to provide a more writer-centric perspective into currently available tools and needs.Interaktiivinen kirjallisuus on tuore kirjallisuuden muoto, joka ei ole edes sata vuotta vielä, mutta sen historia on kattava, hyppien mantereelta toiselle lukuisien evoluution muotojen myötä. Tämä evoluutio on vieläkin menossa ja tämä tutkielma pyrkii selvittämään minkä muodon se ottaa seuraavaksi. Tutkielman ensimmäinen osa keskittyy interaktiivisen kirjallisuuden historian kokonaisvaltaiseen selvittämiseen. Tutkimus alkaa ensimmäisestä pelikirjasta, joka julkaistiin vuonna 1930 jatkaen siitä aina nykypäivään asti. Tutkielman toinen osa rakentaa edellisen päälle yrittäen selvittää mikä olisi seuraava askel historiassa. Tämän selvittämiseksi tutkielma käyttää skenaariopohjaista kyselyä, jota esitettiin erilaisilla foorumeilla, joiden käyttäjiin kuului niin interaktiivisen kirjallisuuden kuluttajia kuin kehittäjiäkin. Kyselyyn saatiin vain muutamia vastauksia jotka tulivat suurimmaksi osaksi kehittäjiltä, joten tulokset analysoidaan tämä huomioon ottaen. Kyselyn lisäksi myös kertynyttä henkilökohtaista kokemusta interaktiivisen kirjallisuuden kirjoittamisesta käydään läpi. Tämä tuo kirjoittaja läheisemmän näkökulman tarjolla oleviin työkaluihin ja tarpeisiin

Adapting Anime: Transnational Media between Japan and the United States

Thesis (Ph.D.) - Indiana University, Communication and Culture, 2012This dissertation examines Japanese animation, or anime, as an example of how a contemporary media product crosses national and cultural borders and becomes globalized. Bringing together the theories of Hiroki Azuma and Susan J. Napier, it develops a theory called the "database fantasyscape" as a way of discussing such transnational flows. In short, the "database" refers to how contemporary media products are assembled from a matrix of constituent elements into combinations that are simultaneously unique and familiar, while the "fantasyscape" element expands on Arjun Appadurai's concept of global flows in order to posit a way in which desire travels transnationally. The dissertation discusses how anime came to the United States and the role this had in anime's development in Japan by examining Tetsuwan Atom (Astro Boy), the first half-hour television animation produced in Japan. It examines how anime has been adapted and distributed in overseas markets like the US by analyzing successful media franchises like Robotech and Voltron, as well as unsuccessful ones like Warriors of the Wind. It analyzes the complex and often fraught relationship between anime fans and producers / distributors and discusses the role played by fansubs (subtitled copies created by fans and often illegally distributed). Bringing in Matt Hills's concepts of cult texts, the dissertation discusses how in certain respects anime can be seen as cult and what this means with regard to transnational reception. Finally, it examines the relationship between anime and physical space, both in a temporally-limited fan-oriented space like an anime convention as well as within the city of Tokyo, with anime-ic perspectives providing ways of perceiving and processing the city

The feasibility of using virtual prototyping technologies for product evaluation

With the continuous development in computer and communications technology the use of computer aided design in design processes is becoming more commonplace. A wide range of virtual prototyping technologies are currently in development, some of which are commercially viable for use within a product design process. These virtual prototyping technologies range from graphics tablets to haptic devices. With the compression of design cycles the feasibility of using these technologies for product evaluation is becoming an ever more important consideration. This thesis begins by presenting the findings of a comprehensive literature review defining product design with a focus on product evaluation and a discussion of current virtual prototyping technologies. From the literature review it was clear that user involvement in the product evaluation process is critical. The literature review was followed by a series of interconnected studies starting with an investigation into design consultancies' access and use of prototyping technologies and their evaluation methods. Although design consultancies are already using photo-realistic renderings, animations and sometimes 3600 view CAD models for their virtual product evaluations, current virtual prototyping hardware and software is often unsatisfactory for their needs. Some emergent technologies such as haptic interfaces are currently not commonly used in industry. This study was followed by an investigation into users' psychological acceptance and physiological discomfort when using a variety of virtual prototyping tools for product evaluation compared with using physical prototypes, ranging from on-screen photo-realistic renderings to 3D 3600 view models developed using a range of design software. The third study then went on to explore the feasibility of using these virtual prototyping tools and the effect on product preference when compared to using physical prototypes. The forth study looked at the designer's requirements for current and future virtual prototyping tools, design tools and evaluation methods. In the final chapters of the thesis the relative strengths and weaknesses of these technologies were re-evaluated and a definitive set of user requirements based on the documentary evidence of the previous studies was produced. This was followed by the development of a speculative series of scenarios for the next generation of virtual prototyping technologies ranging from improvements to existing technologies through to blue sky concepts. These scenarios were then evaluated by designers and consumers to produce documentary evidence and recommendations for preferred and suitable combinations of virtual prototyping technologies. Such hardware and software will require a user interface that is intuitive, simple, easy to use and suitable for both the designers who create the virtual prototypes and the consumers who evaluate them

Immersion and interaction: Creating virtual 3d worlds for stage performances

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.This thesis formulates an approach towards the creation of a gesture activated and body movement controlled real time virtual 3d world in a dance performance context. It investigates immersion and navigation techniques derived from modern video games and methodologies and proposes how they can be used to further involve a performer into a virtual space as well as simultaneously offer a stimulating visual spectacle for an audience. The argument presented develops through practice-based methodology and artistic production strategies in interdisciplinary and collaborative contexts. Two choreographic performance/installations are used as cases studies to demonstrate in practice the proposed methodologies. First, the interactive dance work Suna No Onna, created in collaboration with Birringer/Danjoux and the Dap Lab, investigates the use of interactive pre-rendered animations in a real time setting and in real time by incorporating wearable sensors in the performance. Secondly, the potentials offered by the sensor technology and real time rendering engines led to the “creation scene", a key scene in the choreographic installation UKIYO (Moveable Worlds). This thesis investigates the design, creation and interaction qualities of virtual 3d spaces by exploring the potentialities offered by a shared space, between an intelligent space and a dancer in a hybrid world. The methodology applied uses as a theoretical base the phenomenological approach of Merleau-Ponty and Mark Hansen‟s mixed reality paradigm proposing the concept of the “space schema", a system which replicates and embeds proprioception, perception and motility into the space fabric offering a world which “lives”, functions and interacts with the performer. The outcome of the research is the generation of an interactive, non-linear, randomized 3d virtual space that collaborates with a technologically embedded performer in creating a 3d world which evolves and transforms, driven by the performer‟s intention and agency. This research contributes to the field of interactive performance art by making transparent the methodology, the instruments and the code used, in a non-technical terminology, making it accessible for both team members with less technological expertise as well as artists aspiring to engage interactive 3d media promoting further experimentation and conceptual discussions

Augmented Reality and Its Application

Augmented Reality (AR) is a discipline that includes the interactive experience of a real-world environment, in which real-world objects and elements are enhanced using computer perceptual information. It has many potential applications in education, medicine, and engineering, among other fields. This book explores these potential uses, presenting case studies and investigations of AR for vocational training, emergency response, interior design, architecture, and much more