E-topia: Utopia after the Mediated Body

open access journalA custom-made media installation, diplorasis, will be used to explore the body in digital media. This mediated body attempts to re-think how the Deleuzian time-image is translated from its cinematic confinement to the space of new media. In diplorasis the digitized time-image becomes more directly incorporated with-in the bodily schema. Consequently, the thinking of the virtual and actual space of the body in diplorasis enables a questioning of bodily space-time, and particularly the relation between self and digitized self-image. It is thus crucial to re-frame how this digitized mediated body is distinct from a conventional notion of a metric and habitual space—one that is reinforced by, for example, the medium of linear perspective. The articulation of the mediated body will be used to in-form and extend Elizabeth Grosz’s paradoxical reading of embodiment and utopia, by revisiting the notions of utopia as eu-topic/ou-topic. The spatio-temporality of the topos must be re-considered before utopia. Foucault’s analogy of the mirror will then serve to superimpose the dual and slippery relations between utopia and the heterotopic. The digitized mediated body will thus seek to explore emerging ways by which to consider the utopic by conflating embodiment, time and space within an electronic topos. It is argued that as the sensing and cognitive body becomes increasingly pliable in relation to technological mediations, our very understanding of space-time is changing

A manual for inexpensive methods of analyzing and utilizing remote sensor data

Instructions are provided for inexpensive methods of using remote sensor data to assist in the completion of the need to observe the earth's surface. When possible, relative costs were included. Equipment need for analysis of remote sensor data is described, and methods of use of these equipment items are included, as well as advantages and disadvantages of the use of individual items. Interpretation and analysis of stereo photos and the interpretation of typical patterns such as tone and texture, landcover, drainage, and erosional form are described. Similar treatment is given to monoscopic image interpretation, including LANDSAT MSS data. Enhancement techniques are detailed with respect to their application and simple techniques of creating an enhanced data item. Techniques described include additive and subtractive (Diazo processes) color techniques and enlargement of photos or images. Applications of these processes, including mappings of land resources, engineering soils, geology, water resources, environmental conditions, and crops and/or vegetation, are outlined

Redundancy of stereoscopic images: Experimental Evaluation

With the recent advancement in visualization devices over the last years, we are seeing a growing market for stereoscopic content. In order to convey 3D content by means of stereoscopic displays, one needs to transmit and display at least 2 points of view of the video content. This has profound implications on the resources required to transmit the content, as well as demands on the complexity of the visualization system. It is known that stereoscopic images are redundant, which may prove useful for compression and may have positive effect on the construction of the visualization device. In this paper we describe an experimental evaluation of data redundancy in color stereoscopic images. In the experiments with computer generated and real life and test stereo images, several observers visually tested the stereopsis threshold and accuracy of parallax measuring in anaglyphs and stereograms as functions of the blur degree of one of two stereo images and color saturation threshold in one of two stereo images for which full color 3D perception with no visible color degradations is maintained. The experiments support a theoretical estimate that one has to add, to data required to reproduce one of two stereoscopic images, only several percents of that amount of data in order to achieve stereoscopic perception

Geologic interpretation of Skylab photographs

There are no author-identified significant results in this report

A preliminary training guide for utilizing high-altitude, color-infrared photography in compiling soil maps

Instruction for acquiring and analytically processing small-scale color-infrared photography to perform a soil resources inventory over forests of the southern U.S. is provided. Planning the project; acquiring aerial photography, materials, equipment and supplemental data; and preparing the photography for analysis are discussed. The procedures for preparing ancillary and primary component overlays are discussed. The use of correlation charts and dichotomous keys for mountain landforms, water regime, and vegetation is explained

Photographic technology development project: Timber typing in the Tahoe Basin using high altitude panoramic photography

Procedures were developed and tested for using KA-80A optical bar camera panoramic photography for timber typing forest land and classifying nonforest land. The study area was the south half of the Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit. Final products from this study include four timber type map overlays on 1:24,000 orthophoto maps. The following conclusions can be drawn from this study: (1) established conventional timber typing procedures can be used on panoramic photography if the necessary equipment is available, (2) The classification and consistency results warrant further study in using panoramic photography for timber typing; and (3) timber type mapping can be done as fast or faster with panoramic photography than with resource photography while maintaining comparable accuracy

Helmholtz’s Physiological Psychology

Hermann von Helmholtz (1821-1894) established results both controversial and enduring: analysis of mixed colors and of combination tones, arguments against nativism, and the analysis of sensation and perception using the techniques of natural science. The paper focuses on Helmholtz’s account of sensation, perception, and representation via “physiological psychology”. Helmholtz emphasized that external stimuli of sensations are causes, and sensations are their effects, and he had a practical and naturalist orientation toward the analysis of phenomenal experience. However, he argued as well that sensation must be interpreted to yield representation, and that representation is geared toward objective representation (the central thesis of contemporary intentionalism). The interpretation of sensation is based on “facts” revealed in experiment, but extends to the analysis of the quantitative, causal relationships between stimuli and responses. A key question for Helmholtz’s theory is the extent to which mental operations are to be ascribed a role in interpreting sensation

Absorbing new subjects: holography as an analog of photography

I discuss the early history of holography and explore how perceptions, applications, and forecasts of the subject were shaped by prior experience. I focus on the work of Dennis Gabor (1900–1979) in England,Yury N. Denisyuk (b. 1924) in the Soviet Union, and Emmett N. Leith (1927–2005) and Juris Upatnieks (b. 1936) in the United States. I show that the evolution of holography was simultaneously promoted and constrained by its identification as an analog of photography, an association that influenced its assessment by successive audiences of practitioners, entrepreneurs, and consumers. One consequence is that holography can be seen as an example of a modern technical subject that has been shaped by cultural influences more powerfully than generally appreciated. Conversely, the understanding of this new science and technology in terms of an older one helps to explain why the cultural effects of holography have been more muted than anticipated by forecasters between the 1960s and 1990s