Temporal Modelling is a project led by Johanna Drucker looking at ways to model time. At McMaster we are getting some 3D environments and visualization expertise and I would like to try developing a 3D time visualization environment.
Here is a sketch of the idea:
It is common to have to develop timelines for events in history of projects that are ongoing. We have developed some 2D timeline tools that can present the user with a timeline of events that meet search criteria. (See http://cheiron.mcmaster.ca/~history) For instructional and research projects I propose a 3D timeline visualization tool. This would be used in the following ways:
a. In my Introduction to Computing in the Humanities I would use such a system to give selected lectures in the proposed 3D enhanced classroom.
b. The Globalization MCRI project would use this as a way of testing the navigation of histories of globalization. This is an MCRI project that combines researchers in the Humanities and Social Sciences. Andrew Mactavish and myself are coinvestigators responsible for an online Globalization Compendium that is using best practices in content delivery to build an environment where research by the project can be returned to the larger community. Lian has been working on this as it is a project connected to TAPoR. We anticipate have event information encoded into the research papers and glossary items that we want to interactively search and navigate. (See http://strange.mcmaster.ca)
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How would it work?
The system would have the following features.
1. It would accept a data file in XML for representation in a 3D space. The format might look like this:
<data>
<item>
<label>Transistor</label>
<date>1947</date>
<image src=”transistor.gif”/>
<description>
<p>The transistor was the single most important invention in the history of computers.</p>
</description>
<keys>
<keyword type=”primary” relevance=”9″>Engineering
<keyword type=”general”>Hardware
<keyword type=”general”>Chips
<keyword type=”audience”>Intermediate
</keys>
<links>
<link type=”related”>Integrated Circuits
<link type=”place”>Bell Labs
</links>
</item>
… more items
</data>
This data would be generated by a different process like a search of a database or from a raw XML file entered manually.
2. The visualizer would generate a 3 dimensional time line with panels floating in the space for each item. The Z-axis would be time. Items would put in different areas of the X and Y axis based on their “primary” keyword. Thus “Engineering” events might be in the upper left hand corner. This 3D timeline by itself could then be navigated as a space for lecturing or discovery purposes.
3. An enhancement would be to add an interactive component to the visualization system with the following features:
3.1 Themes and Keywords. A list of keywords would be available from a menu and they could be dragged around the outside rim of the visualization. I could then decide which items I want to see by keyword themes. I could also move the steams of keywords into different configurations on the X-Y axis.
3.2 Link Visualization. Links could be visualized. I could either ask to see the links emanating from an item by clicking on it and seeing threads reach out to other items, or I could ask to see all links of a particular sort rendered.
3.3 Popup Items. By double clicking on an item one should be able to get it centre and expand so that its content is readable (by an audience.)
3.4 Threads. The system should allow one to define a thread to follow through the items. This would be used for lecturing where one would prepare a thread and move through that in the lecture while letting students see the surrounding items.
3.5 Views. The system should allow one to save preset views of the space.
3.6 Relevance. The system could show and hide items by their relevance to the keywords being shown. Thus a low relevance item could be hidden to reduce clutter.
4. Extremely cool things. Given the processing power and the capability it would be interesting to use this as a platform for more sophisticated timelines. Some of the extreme features would be:
4.1. Representation of connections between items. The system could create light lines between items that share non-primary keywords or links.
4.2 What would be really cool is to get away from a lines and squares type of timeline and image a visualization that had blobs of items connected by colour amoeba like extensions to each other.
4.3 The ability to represent date ranges and more complex time relationships like approximate dates, forward influence, possibility and so on. See http://www.iath.virginia.edu/time/project/index.html.
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Why is this the greatest idea since sliced bread?
In essence this a particular application of a more general need for a tool that can represent a set of items in 3D where different data fields from a dataset are used to establish location in the space. This imagines the combination of quantitative information for the Z-axis with categorical information for the X and Y axes. A more general tools could put items into 3D space based on either quantitative or categorical information.
Such a project would of use not just to myself and Globalization – it would provide a basic tool that could be used by any project modeling events over time either for project management purposes or historical purposes.