Author: Ali Farhan
Institution: repss
Date: August 2007
Research into the way humans perceive and interact with digital media and information can bring useful insights in our increasingly digital age. In a pair of papers by students involved in the Rhode Island REU, we see that such an endeavor yields both interesting and valuable results. Wray tackles the problem of representing visual quality in a 3-D image by creatively incorporating intuitively-perceived illustrations into digital images. This allows for a quick, efficient, and intuitive way of perceiving quality in multi-dimensional images, something not achieved satisfactorily hitherto. In the second paper, Lin shows how digital information presented in an interactive interface can be a more attractive way of engaging people in the real-world setting of an aquarium compared to conventional posters. Both papers also highlight the potential for a more creative approach to the use of digital media in applied settings, making the prospect of a world dominated by human-computer interactions even more interesting and fun.