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Texas Memorial Museum Spotlight The Texas Memorial Museum in Austin Texas is undergoing changes. They are changing their focus, many of their exhibits, and even the way they exhibit. The Texas Memorial Museum, TMM for short, is situated on the University of Texas campus, and as such the museum enjoys close working relationships with the University and the many research initiatives being done there. In order to take advantage of discoveries and the knowledge generated by ongoing research, the museum was looking for a way to quickly bring that information to the public and present it in a thoughtful, intelligent, and enjoyable manner. TMM turned to VRCO to help them with their vision of providing information rapidly, cost effectively, and using state-of-the-art techniques. VRCO decided to propose their new Full Circle solution. This immersive 3D display, along with VRCO's vGeo visualization software was a perfect fit for TMM. This new solution is allowing TMM to ingest models and information from various laboratories on campus and place it on "virtual" exhibit with very little effort or time. Edward C. Theriot, Ph.D., Director of the Texas Memorial Museum, writes: "We decided to put in a Virtual Reality system because the University of Texas has developed several initiatives in visualization of the natural world. The NSF supported High Energy X-Ray Computed Tomography Lab is producing a website called Digimorph.org, for example, with dozens, if not hundreds of virtual 3-D rendered visualizations of animal and plant anatomy. The potential for scientific study of rare or delicate museum specimens is tremendous, but we recognized the public appeal as well. The Bureau of Economic Geology has created 3-D models of the aquifers of Central Texas, and our fish curator studies blind cave catfish that live thousands of feet beneath the city of San Antonio. We saw the opportunity to merge geology and biology in a way that cannot be accomplished with physical exhibits alone. The Center for Nano and Molecular Science and Technology is creating fantastic virtual models of existing and potential nano-tools. The potential of these visualization tools for science is enormous, but we immediately saw the potential to bring exciting research results directly to the public in ways that were both more accessible and more entertaining than could be achieved through physical exhibits. "For example, before we bought the system, one of our advisory board members viewed our 3-D model of a hummingbird skull in the UT Visualization Lab. We were treated to a navigation through the beak and over the top of the skull, following the path that the extraordinarily long tongue of the hummingbird would take when it was being flicked in and out of a flower. Our board member exclaimed, "I know how the hummingbird tongue works!" You need to know that this man is not a naturalist, he is not a birder, and he knew nothing more about hummingbirds than you can learn by watching them in your backyard. But after being led through the skull of the hummingbird, he was able to deduce correctly that the hummingbird tongue is split and that it is retracted on top of the hummingbird skull without any explanatory text or voice over. The demonstration was not even presented as a "guess what happens to the hummingbird tongue" feature. The concept and the question came to him purely through immersive 3-D visualization without prompts or cues. I tell everyone that if a picture is worth a thousand words, and then a 3-D picture is worth a thousand words cubed. "We selected VRCO as a vendor for five main reasons. First, they are pioneers in the field of visualization technology. Second, the UT Visualization Laboratory had done a thorough investigation of available technology and companies and believed that VRCO best met a wide variety of needs for the diversity of research projects and programs they support. It was our best bet for maintaining compatibility with the growing number of virtual models we can access for public viewing. Third, they did not hesitate in adding features to make the software and hardware "museum" compatible in terms of "hands-off" operation, adding scripting features that can be quickly learned by our IT staff. In fact, I have myself already modified one of the demo scripts. It is very straightforward. Fourth, related to this, the system is Windows compatible and runs on advanced, but still standard PC hardware. The hardware is entirely commodity driven. Fifth, VRCO offers a wide range of hardware and software options so that our 3-D exhibit can grow as our capabilities and funding grow. We could get a very affordable and high quality base exhibit from VRCO which can grow." ### About Mechdyne Corporation Mechdyne Corporation is the world’s largest company dedicated to consulting and development of immersive, networked and collaborative visualization systems. The company addresses complex projects where an in-depth understanding of user requirements leads to the development of products and customized solutions involving elements of visual, software and support systems. Mechdyne’s product divisions provide advanced display technology, audio/visual systems design, and implementation services, as well as immersive and interactive software development and support. Headquartered in Marshalltown, Iowa, Mechdyne’s customers include leading government laboratories, military research programs, energy companies and a variety of ‘edutainment,’ manufacturing, and other users of visualization technology. More information is available at www.mechdyne.com. Mechdyne Press Contact Jeff Brum Matt Schmidt |
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