From Carly

First, here is a video that does use projection but is for the most part unrelated to our research and just fun to look at, just thought I'd share it.

I also want to let everyone know that I got a ton of books on Andean textiles out from the library because I finally have a penn card. For the most part they will remain by my computer in the lab and anyone is welcome to look at them, just please keep them in the room.

Yeoni, to answer your question, I am fairly certain that the building thing in the youtube video was indeed done with projection. Also I'm not sure if you checked out the interactive floor product that I mentioned in a comment but that is also done with projection, under the video is a diagram of how the room an projectors would likely be set up. I e-mailed the company requesting more info. The company (Gesturetek) says on their website that they take care of installation, as well as remote diagnostics and trouble shooting. I think that is wonderful because something that I know Jeanette and I have been concerned about is trouble shooting for such a high tech exhibit. Basically we need to be prepared for things not functioning correctly and that may be more than the exhibits department can handle.

Finally, I've been researching the local UArts professor Slavko Milekic. You can read about him here. More specifically I am really interested in his work on "gaze-tracking technologies". This is an interesting paper of his on the subject in which he discusses the possible application of the technology in museum exhibits, or just with cultural heritage information in general. This could assist physically challenged people, and also, it's just really cool.  It seems as though there are a few kinks to work out in regards to the actual application of it. These include allowing for natural head/ eye movement, designing a curser that doesn't interfere with the imagery, dealing with multiple sets of eyes in a museum crowd, and awkward time-based triggers that disrupt the natural flow (which could defeat the purpose to some extent). That will all make more sense once you read it, which I strongly encourage you to do because I think there is some potential here.

I have some research on fabric simulation to post about but I have to go catch a train and this is getting long. I will gather my thoughts tomorrow and post again.

- Carly