Enabling Technology

Information visualization: Rendering

Project ideas

Recording-Based Audio

Categories | Disabilities: Visual | Interfaces: Auditory | Information visualization: Maps and diagrams | Information visualization: Rendering |

Description - How can recording-based audio be related to image-based rendering? Is there a way to synthesize virtual sound environments based on recorded audio? How can sound environments be made more realistic? Applying this idea to a UNC campus map would be interesting. GB has built a system for recording audio with an array of 8 microphones arranged in a circle. Can we make realistic sound scapes of points around campus using the array?

Realistic Sounds

Categories | Disabilities: Visual | Interfaces: Auditory | Information visualization: Maps and diagrams | Information visualization: Rendering | Social impact: Education |

Description - Is it possible (or even worthwhile) to make realistic sounds for audio simulations like a street-crossing game? How much does realistic audio improve such simulations over using synthetic sound effects? Research in this area would be beneficial to other projects that make use of audio environments for education.

Spatial Sound

Categories | Interfaces: Auditory | Information visualization: Rendering |

Description - How can spatial sound be put to use in a user interface? We've used it to convey spatial information from maps, but what about the location of text information on a webpage? Can it be used to create a virtual chat room where instant messages come from different directions, much like in face-to-face conversation within a group? Research new ways in which spatial sound can be put to use, and possibly develop a simple prototype.

Recursive Zooming

Categories | Disabilities: Visual | Interfaces: Visual | Interfaces: Auditory | Interfaces: Tactile | Information visualization: Maps and diagrams | Information visualization: Rendering |

Description - What does it mean to 'zoom in' without sight? Can users without vision effectively zoom in and out of parts of images, maps, and diagrams to get more and less information? Research methods for using the numeric keypad with its directional layout to zoom into and out of certain regions on the screen. Try to develop an interface that allows navigation both in and out of the screen. Such a development would be very useful in displaying maps to the blind.

External links

Institute for Innovative Blind Navigation

Categories | Disabilities: Visual | Interfaces: Visual | Interfaces: Auditory | Interfaces: Tactile | Interfaces: Devices | Information visualization: Text | Information visualization: Maps and diagrams | Information visualization: Rendering |

Description - This site has lots of information about orientation and mobility. Among other things, there is an entire book on teaching orientation and mobility to kids and a "living" book in progress about assistive technologies for wayfinding.

Submitted by Andrew Raij