"interactive stereoscopy is worth a thousand pictures"

8/8/2019 "Interactive stereoscopy is worth a thousand pictures"

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/interactive-stereoscopy-is-worth-a-thousand-pictures 1/1Libra Fall 2010

or Dr. Jonathan Silverstein,“interactive stereoscopy is

worth a thousand pictures.” By rtnering with IT Services sta and withSilverstein, Associate Director of the

mputation Institute and Associateofessor of Surgery, Radiology and thellege, the Library has created a cutting-ge, 3-D learning environment that is now ailable for use by UChicago faculty fromy discipline.

e rst faculty member to teach a 3-Durse on campus, Dr. Silverstein taughtmersive Virtual Anatomy to Collegedents at UChicago in the KathleenZar Room during spring quarter10—while 3,831 miles away, anotheroup in Cardi , Wales, saw the sameesentations simultaneously via thecessGrid. Dr. Silverstein will teach theurse again in Spring 2011 and hopesexpand to include other Midwesterniversities in his classes in real time.

e idea for the 3-D course came fromSilverstein’s research, which involved

veloping stereoscopic tools for visualizinggical anatomy from real clinical data. “It

came apparent that an ideal way to usetechnology was for teaching—and that

e could assemble a simultaneous globalssroom by combining the stereoscopic

ndering with Internet-based tele-laboration with audio and video,” he

F

-D learning environment at Crerar immerses students n virtual anatomy

Barbara Kern, Co-Director, Science Libraries Division

said. “When we were able to do this and‘prove’ that people learned more e ciently in a stereoscopic environment with a focusedcurriculum, I became motivated to createa new course to leverage what we hadlearned.”

To make 3-D presentations possible,sta from IT Services and the Library upgraded the already multimedia-equippedZar Room with a 10-foot silver screenspecially formulated for high-quality,polarized 3-D projections. Specializedsoftware and a ceiling-mounted, 2-projector,stereoscopic set-up create images for theleft and the right eye simultaneously from asingle image. When viewed with polarizedglasses, 3-D images become visible. eZar Room is the only space on campusthat provides 3-D projection to faculty from any discipline.

Immersive Virtual Anatomy hasbeen a hit with students, according toDr. Silverstein, and the Zar Room providesthe ideal environment for his course.

“ e large format displays—includinglarge stereoscopic and standard screenscombined in one room—allow the professoto engage the class with multiple digitaltools simultaneously, making this course

what it was really intended to be,” he said.“As we go forward, we can incorporatestudent interaction and control in the classto stereoscopically point at items in thedisplays and ask ‘What is that?!’ is willmake it truly an interactive laboratory-typeenvironment.”

e Kathleen A. Zar Room was createdto honor the memory of Kathleen A. Zar,Science Librarian and Assistant Director fothe Science Libraries from 1994 to 2006. It

was made possible through the generosity of Kathleen’s husband, Howard Zar; hermother, Margaret Sykora; the John CrerarFoundation; and many friends.

To make arrangements to teach inthe Zar Room, contact Sarah Burgin at834-0809 or waite@uchicago.edu.image of a heart that has been projected

eoscopically in Dr. Silverstein’s Immersiveual Anatomy course.

Dr. Silverstein views a stereoscopic rendering of the vasculature of the liver from a CT scan.(Photo by John Easton, University of Chicago Hospitals)