Timothy Poston, Center for Information-enhanced Medicine, Institute of Systems Science, National University of Singapore, Singapore: Dextrous Virtual Work and Design

Many Virtual Reality environments trap the user in a narrow field of view, looking at objects that jitter around, and unable to do more than admire them and depart. To create or modify dextrously, whether it be a model of an artery or a plan for a gold mine, one needs to bring the workpiece into the user's work volume, not to dissolve the user's personal space in a largely unreachable Look, Don't Touch environment. The Virtual Workbench is a station for 3D work, avoiding the user-surliness of head-mounted VR on the one hand, and of trans-window mouse-pushing on the other.

To create mechanical forms, use a formula; to create natural shapes, grow them (perhaps in simulation) or design them with hand and tool. To use tools well, you must have all the human dexterity that hand-eye coordination gives -- not a Thing beyond a computer window, and mousepad to work the tool. The Virtual Workbench lets you put hands into the computer's 3D space and create and modify delicate objects there. I will illustrate, with brain surgery planning, how a skill-supporting environment can be built.

Short Biography: Timothy Poston

Tim Poston is a Senior Scientist at the Centre of Information-enhanced Medicine created by the Institute of Systems Science (Singapore) and Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore). He has worked in Rio de Janeiro, and in general relativity, the USA, economic models, South Korea, catastrophe theory, Geneva, medical imaging, Stuttgart,... and always in geometry and its role in science and in technology. He received his PhD in 1972, from the Mathematics Institute of the University of Warwick.

http://ciemed.iss.nus.sg/people/tim/tim.html

There are several downloadable papers by Timothy Poston on the above http reference. Other papers available in our own library are:

T. Poston and L. Serra. (1996). Dextrous Virtual Work, Communications of the ACM, May 1996, vol. 29, no. 5, pp. 37-45.

M. Solaiyappan, T. Poston, P. A. Heng, E. A. Zerhouni, E. R. McVeigh and M. A. Guttman. (1996) Interactive Visualization for Speedy Non-invasive Cardiac Assessment, IEEE Computer and IEEE Computer Graphics and

Applications, vol. 29, no. 1, pp. 55-63.

Välkommna!
Kenneth Nilsson