The matrix revisited: A critical assessment of virtual reality technologies for modeling, simulation, and training

A convergence of affordable hardware, current events, and decades of research have advanced virtual reality (VR) from the research lab into the commercial marketplace. Since its inception in the 1960s, and over the next three decades, the technology was portrayed as a rarely used, high-end novelty for special applications. Despite the high cost, applications have expanded into defense, education, manufacturing, and medicine. The promise of VR for entertainment arose in the early 1990\u27s and by 2016 several consumer VR platforms were released. With VR now accessible in the home and the isolationist lifestyle adopted due to the COVID-19 global pandemic, VR is now viewed as a potential tool to enhance remote education. Drawing upon over 17 years of experience across numerous VR applications, this dissertation examines the optimal use of VR technologies in the areas of visualization, simulation, training, education, art, and entertainment. It will be demonstrated that VR is well suited for education and training applications, with modest advantages in simulation. Using this context, the case is made that VR can play a pivotal role in the future of education and training in a globally connected world

Spatialising narrative pictures : transforming 2D narrative drawing/illustration to video installations

PhD Thesis 3 DVD's of animations available in print thesis only (theses can be requested for consultation from the Newcastle University Library Search Catalogue)This Ph.D. thesis is an investigation of the processes and problems, both practical and conceptual, involved in the transformation of my small-scale two-dimensional narrative drawings into video installations. The aim of this transformation was to increase the active involvement and engagement of the viewer and to enhance and open up the narrative/s within the original drawings. I use the term ‘spatialise’ for this transformation, looking particularly at three major narrative factors - character, event and space. It became apparent through the investigation that scale and position were also crucial factors. These elements are examined through creative practice and a critical body of knowledge gained from firsthand practical experience, contextualised against the historical and theoretical backdrop relating to narrative images and how images relate to spaces. As an artist coming to this inquiry from a drawing/illustration background, the three key concerns and questions were: how to transform a two-dimensional narrative illustration into an installation without losing the drawing/painting quality? When transformed into a video installation, what changes happen to the narrative and to the audience’s engagement and self-awareness, and subsequently the audience’s understanding of the narrative? How can technology, sculpture, installation, and video projection be used to develop and enhance my drawings? This desire to search for a new medium and approach for my drawing/illustration practice is in the context of both my own artistic identity and the backdrop of dramatic social transformation in China. The research has led to new insights as well as new dialogues for me - between drawing practice, my cultural identity as an artist, the narrative content of my own hand-made drawings, and comparisons between the traditions of Western/European and Chinese art. A particularly important new element for me was the idea of an ‘open narrative’ gained through spatialisation. The research therefore contributes to the field of contemporary art practice, video installation and narrative drawing through bringing together experimental video installation and a cultural critique – and by directing the audience’s self-awareness through open narrative discourse

The Cowl - v.81 - n.8 - Nov 3, 2016

The Cowl - student newspaper of Providence College. Vol 81 - No. 8 - November 3, 2016. 24 pages

The BG News April 26, 1979

The BGSU campus student newspaper April 26, 1979.https://scholarworks.bgsu.edu/bg-news/4612/thumbnail.jp

Some applications of holographic interferometry and Speckle correlation techniques to the study of plant growth and physiology

Imperial Users onl