Can you Digit? By Ian McLennan There is a wonderful new world of visualization opening up as a result of the confluence of rapid advancements in computer applications, projection technology and data retrieval. There are hundreds of advanced digital science visualization theatres (DVTs) being planned in major cities around the world. Among the most advanced in planning stages are two sister institutions in Alberta, where Telus Worlds of Science (in both Calgary and Edmonton) are planning multi-million dollar facilities devoted to new DVTs.

DIGITAL VISUALIZATION THEATRES

Anything that can be reduced to a data base (and what can't these days?) can now be mediated through an ultra-fast computer system, then translated into visual signals that can be projected through specialized lenses onto large IMAX-type screens or immersive projection domes. Thus, what is projected actually comes from real data rather than the cartoon-type animations that once characterized projection in traditional planetarium domes.

PRE-RENDERED OR REAL-TIME

There are two ways this material can be projected: either through pre-rendered content so that the final product is somewhat like a film with a beginning, middle and end, or through "real-time" navigation, where a skilled operator can manipulate the computer equipment to "fly" the audience through the data sets. Of course, some museums and science centres may elect to present a variety of programs so that a combination of pre-rendered and real-time material is presented. CGI (computer-generated) images are also a potential staple of this exciting new medium.

One way or the other, it is now possible to take audiences through the inner space of the human body, or any part of it like the brain, or to the bottom of the ocean, into the depths of the sub-atomic world, or out to the extremities of the known universe. There is virtually no limit, since there are hundreds of thousands of data bases all over the globe, many of which are in the public domain.

It is also possible to combine data sets into a conglomerate data base, such as Digital Universe, developed through a partnership between Sky-Skan, Inc. and the American Museum of Natural History in New York. That program consists of no fewer than 32 individual data sets that have been amalgamated into one integrated super data set that will illustrate everything from the protecting magnetosphere surrounding the earth to the very edge of the universe where one can see the glowing embers of the Big Bang that started it all, some 14 billion years ago.

IT'S ALL RELATIVE

In a recent demo in Edmonton, it was particularly striking to see the boundaries of the radio sphere, the maximum volume of space where our radio and TV waves have penetrated the galaxy. Yet another visualization took the audience inside a nano-tube and then into a DNA molecule. Just an amazing sight; and all based on real data!

The Edmonton project is considering an initiative to expand the microscopic data base through a partnership with several other science centres and nuclear research laboratories around the world.

The project manager for the Edmonton DVT theatre, due to open in 2009, is TAA board member Ian McLennan who is also consulting on the Calgary project.

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