Minneapolis College of Art and Design

About: Minneapolis College of Art and Design is a education organization based out in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Design education & Virtual reality. The organization has 14 authors who have published 20 publications receiving 328 citations. The organization is also known as: Minneapolis School of Fine Arts & MCAD.

Trend-Centric Motion Visualization: Designing and Applying a New Strategy for Analyzing Scientific Motion Collections.

Abstract: In biomechanics studies, researchers collect, via experiments or simulations, datasets with hundreds or thousands of trials, each describing the same type of motion (e.g., a neck flexion-extension exercise) but under different conditions (e.g., different patients, different disease states, pre- and post-treatment). Analyzing similarities and differences across all of the trials in these collections is a major challenge. Visualizing a single trial at a time does not work, and the typical alternative of juxtaposing multiple trials in a single visual display leads to complex, difficult-to-interpret visualizations. We address this problem via a new strategy that organizes the analysis around motion trends rather than trials. This new strategy matches the cognitive approach that scientists would like to take when analyzing motion collections. We introduce several technical innovations making trend-centric motion visualization possible. First, an algorithm detects a motion collection's trends via time-dependent clustering. Second, a 2D graphical technique visualizes how trials leave and join trends. Third, a 3D graphical technique, using a median 3D motion plus a visual variance indicator, visualizes the biomechanics of the set of trials within each trend. These innovations are combined to create an interactive exploratory visualization tool, which we designed through an iterative process in collaboration with both domain scientists and a traditionally-trained graphic designer. We report on insights generated during this design process and demonstrate the tool's effectiveness via a validation study with synthetic data and feedback from expert musculoskeletal biomechanics researchers who used the tool to analyze the effects of disc degeneration on human spinal kinematics.

A ‘semantics’ of visual design: the care and feeding of studio projects within a communication-theory context

Abstract: This paper has three parts. In the first part I describe a communication-theory context for the visual designer and educator. I try to conceive of and position a number of major concerns, notably the literature one reads, the graduate schools one recommends to students, and lectures and projects that one develops for a classroom or studio. In a second part I report at a moderate level of detail on the genesis and development of four projects from the conceptual context proffered in part I. Prospects are endorsed in a concluding section.

Creating Widely Accessible Spatial Interfaces: Mobile VR for Managing Persistent Pain

Abstract: Using widely accessible VR technologies, researchers have implemented a series of multimodal spatial interfaces and virtual environments. The results demonstrate the degree to which we can now use low-cost (for example, mobile-phone based) VR environments to create rich virtual experiences involving motion sensing, physiological inputs, stereoscopic imagery, sound, and haptic feedback. Adapting spatial interfaces to these new platforms can open up exciting application areas for VR. In this case, the application area was in-home VR therapy for patients suffering from persistent pain (for example, arthritis and cancer pain). For such therapy to be successful, a rich spatial interface and rich visual aesthetic are particularly important. So, an interdisciplinary team with expertise in technology, design, meditation, and the psychology of pain collaborated to iteratively develop and evaluate several prototype systems. The video at http://youtu.be/mMPE7itReds demonstrates how the sine wave fitting responds to walking motions, for a walking-in-place application.

Visual Resources Association: Statement on the Fair Use of Images for Teaching, Research and Study

Abstract: This Statement on the Fair Use of Images for Teaching, Research, and Study describes six uses of copyrighted still images that the Visual Resources Association (www.vraweb.org) believes fall within the U.S. doctrine of fair use. The six uses are: 1) preservation (storing images for repeated use in a teaching context and transferring images to new formats); 2) use of images for teaching purposes; 3) use of images (both large, high-resolution images and thumbnails) on course websites and in other online study materials; 4) adaptations of images for teaching and classroom work by students; 5) sharing images among educational and cultural institutions to facilitate teaching and study; and 6) reproduction of images in theses and dissertations.

An Ethnographic Case Study of Affordances in an Architecture Design Studio

Abstract: Background/ContextStudio-based courses—the primary approach in design education— have been viewed as effective environments for learning. This study uses an ecological approach to explore how the s...