Category: Innovative Technology

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Innovative Technology VRC

Highlighting the Digital Humanities

The article “Digital Keys for Unlocking the Humanities’ Riches” recently published in the New York Times discusses the growing importance of data and technology to research in the humanities.

The next big idea in language, history and the arts? Data.

The focus on digital humanities is timely; this weekend the Visual Resources Center and the Division of the Humanities are co-sponsoring, along with the Newberry Library and Northwestern University, the very first THATCamp Chicago. THATCamp Chicago is a user-generated “unconference” where humanists and technologists work together for the common good. For more information, click here.

See also the University of Chicago Press’ recent blog entry exploring the top five recent books about new methodologies in the digital humanities.

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American Architecture Innovative Technology

Wright Guide for Mobile Devices

The new Wright Guide, developed by Azara Apps and adapted from William Allin Storrer’s The Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright, offers descriptions and a photograph of each of the built works by Frank Lloyd Wright. Building descriptions link to other nearby architecture as well as to directions from the user’s current location. Buildings may be searched through the index or by browsing location or date. Users can even keep track of which buildings they’ve visited in the application.

The app is $9.99 and compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad with iOS 3.0 or later. It is available from the iTunes store.

Via Deep Focus.

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East Asian Exhibitions Innovative Technology Museums

Highlighting the Smart Museum’s Buddhist Caves Exhibit

The most recent University of Chicago newsletter highlights the interdisciplinary nature of the Smart Museum‘s current exhibition, Echoes of the Past: The Buddhist Cave Temples of Xiangtangshan:

Visitors can step inside re-creations of spaces and groupings of sculptural images that no longer exist today. The displays combine digital imagery of the caves with physical artifacts such as three-foot-tall limestone heads of bodhisattvas and the Buddha. The exhibition’s centerpiece is a multimedia installation known as a “digital cave,” designed by artist Jason Salavon, Assistant Professor in Visual Arts and the Computation Institute. Salavon conceived of the cave as an immersive experience, using multiple screens to give visitors a glimpse inside the largest temple at Xiangtangshan.

The article also discusses at length the extensive research undertaken by The University of Chicago’s Katherine Tsiang (exhibition curator) and Wu Hung, among others. This Sunday at 2pm, Jason Salavon will discuss the components of his installation in an Artist Talk at the Smart.

The exhibition will be open from September 30, 2010 to January 16, 2011 and, like all Smart Museum exhibitions, is free.

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Architecture Innovative Technology

Architectural Models and More, Printed in 3-D

The New York Times recently published an article about 3-D printing technology and its impact on several industries, including design and architecture.  3-D printing technology may eventually advance from the creation of architectural models to the construction of actual buildings:

A California start-up is even working on building houses. Its printer, which would fit on a tractor-trailer, would use patterns delivered by computer, squirt out layers of special concrete and build entire walls that could be connected to form the basis of a house.

For a demonstration of the kinds of products manufactured with this technology see the video included in the NYT story.

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Innovative Technology

How Much Does That Folder of Images Weigh?

It may eventually be possible to tell via TeslaTouch, a new tactile technology for touchscreens (say that ten times fast). Chris Harrison, a Ph.D. student at Carnegie Mellon University is working with Disney Research to create a new method of electronic screen production, utilizing electrical impulses to simulate different sensations. According to the CNN Tech Blog:

The touch screen is made up of three layers. A glass plate, topped with a transparent electrode and an insulator, is what people touch. To simulate friction and texture, the electrode creates small electrical fields in the insulation layer. These fields oscillate between positive and negative charges, creating those sensations.

Such technology could make it possible to feel computer keys on a touchscreen, allowing users to “touch type” rather than look at the screen’s keyboard. Rubber, sandpaper, and even cat fur could be simulated. Additionally, the technology can imitate the “weight” of files or folders, depending on their size. This could allow users to feel how long a file or folder will take to transfer from one location to another.

For more information, see the TeslaTouch project page.

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Images on the Web Innovative Technology Museums Renaissance - Baroque

Uffizi Images in High Resolution

Via Open Culture:

This past week, an Italian web site (Haltadefinizione) placed online six works from the famous Uffizi Gallery in Florence, all in super high resolution. Each image is packed with close to 28 billion pixels, a resolution 3,000 times greater than your normal digital photo. And this gives art connoisseurs everywhere the ability to zoom in and explore these paintings in exquisitely fine detail – to see strokes and details not normally seen even by visitors to the Uffizi.

These digital reproductions will be available online for free until January 29, 2011.

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Artnet Innovative Technology Modern - Contemporary

Auctions App from artnet

A free mobile application is available from artnet, allowing users to “Buy and Sell Fine Art. On the Go.” Find price details for hundreds of original modern and contemporary artworks, vetted by experienced auction specialists.

Click to download from iTunes.

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Images on the Web Innovative Technology Photography

Photographing the Atomic Bomb

Today NPR’s The Picture Show featured photographs taken by Harold Eugene Edgerton during the 1950s which captured the earliest moments of atomic explosions. As the NPR article explains:

After the war, EG & G, Inc. (Edgerton, Germeshausen and Grier Inc.) developed the rapatronic camera for the Atomic Energy Commission to record — specifically, in one take only — the beginning of nuclear explosions… The dangers of shockwaves and radiation required the camera to be placed 7 miles from the detonation site on a tower some 75 feet in the air. Exposure time was one-hundred-millionth of a second. The exposure time was so small that no conventional mechanical shutter could be used. A magnetic field was created around two polarized lenses that were rotated, permitting light to pass through an optical system.

An example of the rapatronic camera is pictured above. To see examples from the series of atomic bomb photographs by Edgerton, visit NPR’s article.

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Color Innovative Technology Software

A Color App for the iPhone

The mobile application colorID, by Winfield & Co. LLC (and available for download from iTunes for $1.99), is a color recognition tool that allows users to capture, identify, and share colors on the go. A recent blog post by Austin Seraphin highlights a profound use of this application: used in conjunction with the iPhone’s standard VoiceOver screen reader and iPhone camera, colorID speaks the names of colors. This allows visually impaired users to hear a narrative of color as they experience it. Below is an excerpt from Seraphin’s blog; find the entire post here. Read more about accessible applications here.

The next day, I went outside. I looked at the sky. I heard colors such as “Horizon,” “Outer Space,” and many shades of blue and gray. I used color queues to find my pumpkin plants, by looking for the green among the brown and stone… I then found the brown shed, and returned to the gray house. My mind felt blown. I watched the sun set, listening to the colors change as the sky darkened. The next night, I had a conversation with Mom about how the sky looked bluer tonight. Since I can see some light and color, I think hearing the color names can help nudge my perception, and enhance my visual experience.

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Innovative Technology News Tech Support

THATCamp Chicago Now Accepting Applications

Northwestern University Libraries and Departments of Gender Studies and English in partnership with The University of Chicago Division of the Humanities and The Newberry Library are pleased to announce the first THATCamp Chicago. THATCamp Chicago 2010 will be held on Saturday, November 20 at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. Applications will be accepted until October 1, 2010.

Over the past few years, the Center for History and New Media has been helping to organize a series of “unconferences” called THATCamp (“The Humanities and Technology Camp.”)  These unconferences are based on the idea that some of the most productive work of conferences happens in the hallways and in more informal gatherings.  With this in mind THATCamp is based on conversations and not the delivery of papers.  They are “lightweight” and are paid for, in part, by attendee donations.

The structure of the conference is decided when everyone arrives, and applications do not include a paper proposal.  Instead, applicants explain why they want to attend and explain current projects on which they might like to collaborate.  In addition, some THATCamps include a “Bootcamp,” which is a series of workshops that teach concrete tools or skills.  These workshops are designed for beginners, and the hope is that attendees leave with something new to tinker with. THATCamp Chicago is planning a Bootcamp that may include workshops on Processing, Omeka, Geographic Information Systems, and Design Tools for the Digital Humanities.

Find out more at http://thatcampchicago.org.