Since 2004 the Duke Digital Initiative (DDI) has facilitated the exploration of emerging technologies that provide innovative and creative enhancements to teaching and learning at Duke. Jointly managed by the Office of Information Technology (OIT) and the Center for Instructional Technology (CIT), DDI programs have helped to drive strategic innovations in instruction, learning, and undergraduate life by connecting our community with new and emerging technologies.
This year DDI supported the following faculty projects exploring technologies such as Google Glass, drones, 3D motion capture video, Oculus Rift and others.
On Site and On Location: Augmented Cultural History with Google Glass
Victoria Szabo — Art, Art History & Visual Studies
This project focused on the use of Google Glass to support augmented reality application design for digital history projects. According to Victoria Szabo, “augmented reality is a technology that as a conceptual category brings together ubiquitous computing with the lives of built spaces and places.” This project supported teaching and learning both in Information Science +Information Studies and in courses in Visual and Media Studies and Historical and Cultural Visualization.
Lightboard Onstage: Research in 3D Performance
Martin Brooke — Electrical and Computer Engineering
This project provided funding to develop a system to capture and playback 3D video of dance performances. Martin Brooke explains: “In our multidisciplinary class (Dance 308/ECE 364/ISIS 376/THEATRST 364: Performance and Technology), used this technology to investigate performances using modified and modulated objects and bodies. We applied real time scanning of a performer and then used the scan in a real-time body modification exercise.”
The Tangible Interactive Table for Archaeology
Maurizio Forte — Classical Studies
Using DDI funding, Forte developed the Tangible Interactive Table for Archaeology (or TITA) as a prototype of a digital-haptic device, printed in 3D and designed for museums and digital communication about archaeological artifacts, monuments and sites. The project supported research and education in digital humanities and virtual heritage at Duke.
Digital Flying in Archaeology
Maurizio Forte — Classical Studies
Funding allowed Forte and team to purchase a UAV (unmanned aerial vehicles) and additional recording equipment to explore the advanced use of drones for archaeology, landscape archaeology, digital heritage and virtual museums.
Google Glass for Safety and Quality Improvement for Neurosurgeons
Michael Haglund — Neurosurgery
This project, led by Haglund and his team, used wearable technology to record entire operations by surgeons in Uganda. By watching and mentoring the Ugandan operation videos, Duke trainees (with attending physician’s guideline and a safety checklist available) would get trained, meanwhile providing feedback to surgeons over Ugandan.
Originally, the team planned to use Google Glass, but just before they got started, Google took Glass off the market. Since then, they have experimented with several technologies to explore qualities such as battery life, the comfort of the device for the surgeon wearing it, the ability to stream or not stream the video, etc. They are currently using a device from Pivothead and continuing to explore other such devices for use during surgeries.
Repurposing VR Technology for Educational Use
Molecules in Motion 3D — Amanda Hargrove (Chemistry)
This project used the enhanced Virtual Reality (VR) interface available for the Oculus Rift Developer’s Kit 2 (ORDK2) to present students with a learning environment that accurately depicts 3-dimensional structure of the molecules studied in chemistry and biochemistry.
The presence of a fully 3D environment for displaying such biological structures and their interactions with each other and with small molecule therapeutics has already proven useful in the Duke Immersive Virtual Environment (DiVE) for education and research in catalysis and drug design.
The ORDK2 can move this VR technology into the classroom, allowing us to reach many more students simultaneously at a fraction of the cost. This project was recently featured in a news story on iSchoolGuide.