ViBe (Virtual Berlin) - Immersive Interactive 3D Urban Data Visualization - Immersive interactive 3D urban data visualization

The project investigates the possibility of visualizing open source data in a 3D interactive virtual environment. We propose a new tool, 'ViBe'. We programmed 'ViBe' using Unity for its compatibility with HTC VIVE glasses for virtual reality (VR). ViBe offers an abstract visualization of open source data in a 3D interactive environment. The ViBe environment entails three main topics a) inhabitants, b) environmental factors, and c) land-use; acting as representatives of parameters for cities and urban design. Berlin serves as a case study. The data sets used are divided according to Berlin's twelve administrative districts. The user immerses into the virtual environment where they can choose, using the HTC Vive controllers, which district (or Berlin as a whole) they want information for and which topics they want to be visualized, and they can also teleport back and forth between the different districts. The goal of this project is to represent different urban parameters an abstract simulation where we correlate the corresponding data sets. By experiencing the city through visualized data, ViBe aims to provide the user with a clearer perspective onto the city and the relationship between its urban parameters. ViBe is designed for adults and kids, urban planners, politicians and real estate developers alike

The development and use of variables in mathematics and computer science

There are a wide variety of uses of variables in mathematics which we cope with in practice through conventions and tacit assumptions. Experience with computers has made us articulate, criticise and develop these assumptions much more carefully. Historically the term 'variable quantity' was introduced in the context of describing and calculating changing quantities which corresponded to phenomena in the observable world (e.g. the velocity of fluxion of a body moving under the inverse square law). The evolution of the concept has divorced it from these routes of reference and required us to establish the formal apparatus of interpretation and valuation. While the changes considered are highly structured this may be satisfactory, but computing power invites us to cope with change in vastly more complex, unstructured situations such as in simulation of 'real world' processes. We relate this challenge to the distinctive differences in the use of variables in mathematics and practical computing, and we develop a general framework in which all uses of variables can be described in a unified way

Conceptual Constraints and the Graphic Design Process: An Investigation into Creativity and How Self-imposed Conceptual Constraints Can Affect Banal Information

The discipline of graphic design has an important role to play in developing how information is conveyed and consumed. This thesis has focused on uncovering how including self-imposed conceptual constraints in the design process can encourage creativity. Using weather data, I explored how such constraints can be used to liberate banal information from its structured, restrictive and mass consumed context, and ultimately participate in developing alternative meanings. Thus, through an exploratory approach to design practice, this investigation examined how conceptual constraints under three "creative operations" (combination, analogy, mutation) structured my work to allow for richer visual interpretations of banal information. Furthermore, by juxtaposing conceptual constraints with the "creative operations," I generated different visual propositions in order to disrupt routine processes in design and promote new and different designs. This research demonstrated how rules and conceptual constraints are viewed inside the context of graphic design. It also demonstrated how this framework for exploration can contribute to my own practice by allowing me to develop alternative design processes, and, ultimately, richer visual propositions for a given design problem