1. 19.2.2003 / jcnVirtual Exhibits on Demand1 Virtual Exhibits Theory, methods, and tools for development of virtual exhibits on demand The VED Project plus ”A Whale of a Site” Paper for the Museums and the Web Conference, 2003 Joan C. Nordbotten, 1.amanuensis Dept. of Information Science, University of Bergen http://www.ifi.uib.no/staff/joan/

2. 19.2.2003 / jcnVirtual Exhibits on Demand2 Virtual Exhibits on Demand - VED NFR project 2002-2005 http://nordbotten.ifi.uib.no/VirtualMuseum/VMwebSite/VEDweb-site.htm Project leader:Joan C. Nordbotten Partners:Jan Erik Vold, IT directorBergen Museum Anne Karin Hufthammer, 1.aman -”- Participants: 1 – PhD stipendiat – Vibeke VoldInformasjonsvitenskap 6 – master/hovedfag projectsstarted Fall’02 -”- 19 – hovedfag seminar studentsSpring ’03 -”- NFR support:per year: travel + ca. 1300 hours (project assistants)

3. 19.2.2003 / jcnVirtual Exhibits on Demand3 VED Project motivation The user – Teacher/student/researcher –Requiring data/information about a specific topic –“immediately” – or at most 1-2 weeks The provider – Museums – world wide –(Virtual) exhibit topics are determined by museum curators. –Exhibits are hand crafted. Creation time in man-months Virtual exhibits are: – Localfew collaborations across museums – Self-contained lack links to external sites – Staticpredefined On-line databases are for museum colleagues

4. 19.2.2003 / jcnVirtual Exhibits on Demand4 VED DB access problems Information retrieval from museum databases is difficult Problems include: –Search interface assumes knowledge of collection DB –Keyword search with list aids – moderate help –QBIC (query by image content) is difficult to use –Result presentation Without apparent order Bound to 1 DB Transient –Little explanatory information

5. 19.2.2003 / jcnVirtual Exhibits on Demand5 http://americanart.si.edu/study/

6. 19.2.2003 / jcnVirtual Exhibits on Demand6 to develop IT methods, and techniques to support development of ’on-demand’ virtual exhibits - search & save from multiple DB sources for educational applications VED Project Goals

7. 19.2.2003 / jcnVirtual Exhibits on Demand7 Oracle 9i Semantic Schema SemQL Virtual Exhibit Semantic Model Presentation Model VED Project components Bergen Museum + Associated museums VED project Object Catalog T I V MM-DB R

8. 19.2.2003 / jcnVirtual Exhibits on Demand8 DB test bed v.0.1 Oracle8i Bergen Museum, Oracle 9i at IFI theme Whales Dept. of Zoology - Osteologi 1.RDB-catalogWhale collection 2.Document DBText/Html documents 3.Image DB scanned images 4.Video DB from excursions - Gunnar Langhelle, BM Hovedfag projects:- started Fall ’02 1.Multimedia DB modelling & integration (2+1) 2.Query language development (3) 3.Data presentation (2) Interface prototypes: 1.Split-screenfor image + documents 2.Quadrantfor images, facts, and video VED Status – Feb 2003

9. 19.2.2003 / jcnVirtual Exhibits on Demand9 VED split-screen interface v0.01 Rune Vidareid, jcn March 02 h ttp://nordbotten.ifi.uib.no/VirtualMuseum/demo/demo.htm

10. 19.2.2003 / jcnVirtual Exhibits on Demand10 Questions or comments on the VED project?

11. 19.2.2003 / jcnVirtual Exhibits on Demand11 ”A Whale of a Site” Anne Karin Hufthammer, Assoc. Professor Natural History Museum, Zoological section University of Bergen Joan C. Nordbotten, Assoc. professor Dept. of Information Science, University of Bergen http://www.ifi.uib.no/staff/joan/

12. 19.2.2003 / jcnVirtual Exhibits on Demand12 ”A Whale of a Site” Paper for the Museums and the Web conference - 2003 http://nordbotten.ifi.uib.no/VirtualMuseum/Publications/MW2003paperWebVersion.htm Application for the VED project Prototype development: Joan C. Nordbotten Bengt Hjertholm, h-fag studentInformasjonsvitenskap Jan Erik Vold, IT directorBergen Museum Prototype location:under development !! http://nordbotten.ifi.uib.no/VirtualMuseum/WhaleExhibit/demo.htm

13. 19.2.2003 / jcnVirtual Exhibits on Demand13 Goals for the virtual exhibit: –Present Bergen Museum’s (physical) whale exhibit 24 specimens believed to be the largest of its kind in the world –Support research, educational, and general public interests Long-term goals: –Give virtual ’access’ to the whole whale collection 94 specimens –Provide an interface to associated collections Current focus: –Presentation of very large objects in a Virtual exhibit –The use of video VED - Whale Exhibit goals

14. 19.2.2003 / jcnVirtual Exhibits on Demand14 VED - Whale Exhibit context Bergen Museum’s whale hall 300 m 2 24 whale specimens –22 whole skeletons –2 crania –18 (all) N.Atlantic species –1.4 – 24m –10 skeletons > 5m +large and small fish +coral +Development specimens +Images

15. 19.2.2003 / jcnVirtual Exhibits on Demand15 Imaging challenges –Very large & overlapping specimens –Only 1 view/perspective availableno 3D possibilities –Lighting –Funding Video experiments: For interface: 1.http://museum.uib.no/demo/dyremuseet.MOV 2.http://museum.uib.no/bmu/hval/qtvr/1.mov For data presentation –http://nordbotten.ifi.uib.no/VirtualMuseum/WhaleExhibit/filmOKknoel.mov VED - Whale Exhibit imaging

16. 19.2.2003 / jcnVirtual Exhibits on Demand16 Characteristics: –Gives ’walk through’ experience –Easy/intuitive selection of supplemental information –good proportions Requirements: –Requires non-overlapping source objects –Professional development expensive to produce ’rigid’ – difficult to change/modify –High-end PC with broadband connection required unavailable to 97% of the world population(Internet survey Jan.2003) VED - Whale Exhibit video interface http://museum.uib.no/demo/dyremuseet.MOV

17. 19.2.2003 / jcnVirtual Exhibits on Demand17 Problems: –5 videos required for the 2 rooms –no natural transitions => ’walk-through’ –Distorted proportions –Relatively long load time VED - Whale Exhibit whale hall video http://museum.uib.no/bmu/hval/qtvr/1.mov File name - File size MB Pixel density Mbit Load-time – sec at 18:00-18:30 Comments QT/VR – 21.59Acceptable quality Ok zoom quality QT/VR – 1212-1515Good zoom quality QT/VR – 7025049Very good zoom quality Zoomify42612Slow image development Very good image

18. 19.2.2003 / jcnVirtual Exhibits on Demand18 Characteristics: –Own productionNikon Coolpix 4500 digital camera –Quickly doneca. 10 minutes –Inexpensive –Poor zoom quality Plans: –Develop image/video clip for each specimen –’Match’ video time to skeleton length VED - Whale Exhibit Video for data presentation http://nordbotten.ifi.uib.no/VirtualMuseum/WhaleExhibit/filmOKknoel.mov

19. 19.2.2003 / jcnVirtual Exhibits on Demand19 Characteristics: –Architect drawing as an interface – inexpensive in time requirements –Quadrant layout for specimen data Combination of: – Research collection and –Popular information –Database based Further development: –Design development –Addition of text query facility –’real’ DB retrieval –Multi-Database access VED - Whale Exhibit Prototype http://nordbotten.ifi.uib.no/VirtualMuseum/WhaleExhibit/demo.htm

20. 19.2.2003 / jcnVirtual Exhibits on Demand20 Takk for oppmerksomhet VED For more information http://nordbotten.ifi.uib.no/VirtualMuseum/VMwebSite/VEDweb-site.htm

21. 19.2.2003 / jcnVirtual Exhibits on Demand21 VED interface, v0.01 - Rune Vidareid, jcn http://nordbotten.ifi.uib.no/VirtualMuseum/demo/demo.htm Bergen Museum, videos: http://museum.uib.no/demo/dyremuseet.MOV http://mediabase.uib.no/nafa/index.html http://museum.uib.no/bmu/hval/qtvr/1.mov http://museum.uib.no/bmu/hval/qtvr/enlink/1_enlink.mov Whale exhibit prototype. V0.01 – Bengt Hjertholm, jcn http://nordbotten.ifi.uib.no/VirtualMuseum/WhaleExhibit/demo.htm VED Early prototypes