Spaceaware: The Visible Past Version
Spaceaware is a research project I started a couple of years ago, which looks at how people make sense of information delivery experiences similar to the “hailing billboard” scene in Minority Report. (Remember the scene in which Tom Cruise is greeted by name by Victoria Secret-type models projected on lifesize mall posters?)
This is not as outlandish as it sounds. Bill Gates has a system at his fabled house in Medina, Washington that recognizes the visitors’ lighting preferences and the fixtures dim or brighten up accordingly. Simply put, if a user carries a personal electronic beacon, this can be recognized by the urban electronic environment surrounding him or her and special displays can be customized on the fly. Think urban pop up ads!
Although we are a long way from full scale, real life instantiations of this scenario, there are ways to simulate such experiences using virtual reality “caves”. These are 3D projection rooms, where moving images can be projected on all walls giving the illusion of life-like experiences. Something similar to the flight simulators used by the military and by the major airlines, with the difference that in these caves we can simulate any kind of environment.
I have been working on spaceaware scenarios and on people’s reactions to them for some time (especially in view of their potential as social and learning navigation tools). Now it’s time to get radical. Nick Rauh, a professor of classics from the Foreign Languages Department, the Envision Lab at Purdue and I are planning to teach a class on Julius Caesar in the Ancient Roman Forum (This will become the Visible Past module of the Spaceaware project). The Forum will be projected in the cave and the students will sit on chairs, just like the Roman senators did in the ancient Roman Curia. Nick will wear a toga (OK, we discussed about this and we found it a bit too much, but we might change our mind) and I will play his Marc Anthony. Who will be Cassius? Or Brutus? Stay tuned for details.
The Exponent ran a story about this class, forgetting unfortunatelly about Nick. The gist is all here, however….
Pingback: Visible Past in the Chronicle | I Think