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Planetary-scale Data Rendering in Autostereoscopic Virtual Reality
No full textComputer ScienceThe Image of Research 2008FinalistThis photograph combines two of my areas of research. First, the application is my planetary-scale data visualization tool displaying NASA Shuttle Radar Topography Mission elevation data with the Blue Marble Next Generation color map, both at a resolution of 86400 x 43200 pixels, a total of 31 GB of data. This parallel renderer dynamically pages data from disk to video RAM, adaptively achieving optimal resolution at interactive frame rates. This research is being done in cooperation with astronomers at the Adler Planetarium and Astronomy Museum, and is currently on display in Adler’s Space Visualization Laboratory. Beginning in 2009, this tool will be used to bring sub-meter-resolution imagery from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera to the public via Adler’s Moon Wall exhibit and StarRider digital dome theater.
Second, the display in the image is the Electronic Visualization Laboratory’s Varrier autostereoscopic virtual reality environment. This cluster-driven tiled display provides real-time stereo imagery without the need for stereo glasses. Total resolution is 50 million pixels per eye. My research in GPU-based techniques for parallax-barrier autostereo rendering enabled high-performance sub-pixel image interleaving, doubling the effective resolution of the display and allowing 20/30 visual acuity
Infinity Gliders
No full textArt and DesignThe Image of Research 2008First PlaceThe idea of infinity is a personal belief. While researching how artists and scientists visualize the concept of infinity, I have found very few variations. The most popular rendering is the mathematical infinity symbol, which is well understood by most people and artists. However, I believe infinity is a more of a never-ending void. Using my own beliefs and research on the concept of infinity, I have created an intimate atmosphere of robotic creatures moving through an illusion of never-ending, multi-dimensional space.
This image is a still shot from the original physical sculpture that I created using a two-way mirror and a glass mirror to perpetuate an infinite trail of images. The project is a tangible representation of spatial infinity: small mirror-climbing robots represent the hypothetical life existing in between the physical world and the infinite void of space. Currently, a high-definition documentation video of this piece is being displayed on an ultra high-resolution tiled display system at UIC’s Electronic Visualization Laboratory
Abandoned Sugar Mill at Lamanai, Belize
No full textAnthropologyThe Image of Research 2008Second PlaceThis photograph is of an American-made, British-owned 19th century sugar mill that was constructed at the Maya site called Lamanai in Belize, Central America. Lamanai is unique for the fact that it was among a handful of large Maya sites that were not abandoned during the great Maya collapse circa 1200AD. This site was chosen for sugar production in the 19th century due to its location along the New River, as well as a cheap exploitable work force of rural Maya still living near by. However, the Maya soon rebelled against poor treatment and low wages, the English owners were ravaged by jungle diseases, and the mill was abandoned.
I visited this site my first year in Belize while I was a supervisor on an excavation at a Classic Maya site called Chan. However, it was this interaction between the Maya of Lamanai and the British colonizers (symbolized by the sugar mill) that first piqued my interest in the living descendants of the Maya, and their interactions with other culture groups after the conquest. I am currently working with Dr. Joel Palka to study the historical archaeology of an unconquered Maya group called the Lacandon, who live in southern Chiapas, Mexico
Typographic Cities
No full textGraphic DesignThe Image of Research 2009Second PlaceTypography and printing have had major influences on human development. In my thesis I will combine Arabic and Latin typography in order to harmonize them visually and to increase their efficiency as a communication tool for cultures that understand one or both of the languages. The thesis will investigate the effect of juxtaposed typefaces from different alphabets: what do they represent and reflect as they communicate with different cultures?
My processes include studying both alphabets and understanding their essences. To recognize the differences I wrote a paragraph, once in Latin and again in Arabic. Then I tried to abstract the typography by drawing rectangles on the letters in order to observe the differences and shared principles between these two opposite scripts. The results show not only the differences between those alphabets but also the cultures represented by the architecture of cities onto which the typography is overlaid. The abstracted Latin is juxtaposed over an aerial photo of Chicago and the abstracted Arabic over Marrakech in Morocco. Just as a city can impart a certain identity to its citizens, so can a script lend a particular identity to a language and to a culture’s cherished heritage
Primate caught by a camera trap
No full textBiological Sciences - Ecology and EvolutionThe Image of Research 2009SubmissionI spent three months in Limpopo Province, South Africa, studying the habitat preferences of Greater Bushbabies. Research was conducted mostly at night using bait stations and camera traps. This resulted in hundreds of pictures of foraging bushbabies and other wildlife, as well as this picture of me, taken by a camera that I forgot to turn off when I moved it to a new site.
To me, this picture symbolizes a research season in Africa: a place filled with artful scenes that we are trying to understand empirically. The painterly strokes created by the motion of the camera gives an impression of the dense and inscrutable forest I was working in, as well as showing the frenetic pace of research. Despite the abstract scene of the photo, it is also a data point, time-stamped by the dispassionate eye of the camera trap
Murine Ileum
No full textMicrobiology and ImmunologyThe Image of Research 2009SubmissionMy work focuses on the pathogenic interaction between Enteropathogenic E. coli (EPEC) and the intestinal epithelium, a single layer of cells reponsible for sealing our digestive tract and keeping bacteria, viruses and other particles from accessing the underlying tissue while regulating the absorption and secretion of water and various ions and nutrients. This image is a section of mouse small intestine, which was thinly sliced and mounted on slides, then stained using fluorescent probes for actin, a cytoskeletal protein, in green; occludin, a protein involved in sealing the spaces in between epithelial cells, in red; and DNA in blue. The tissue section was imaged using a wide-field epifluorescent microscope and 20x objective. The lower right corner of the image is the basal lamina, which is separated from the intestinal lumen, visible as the dark areas in the upper left corner, by epithelial cells, which are lined up one next to the other throughout the center of the image. What is striking about this image is that it is a stark illustration of the gravely important job that evolution has assigned to a single, 100-micron thick layer of cells
Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?
No full textBiological Sciences (Ecology and Evolution)The Image of Research 2010SubmissionI study detrital food webs, specifically the interaction pathways between wolf spiders and their prey. Wolf spiders are cursorial, meaning that instead of building webs they hunt for food within the leaf-litter of the forest-floor. These animals are both small and cryptic; it is difficult for a scientist to watch the spiders to see what they eat, yet these interactions are important to overall forest stability and ecosystem functioning.
I am in the process of building a PCR lab that will examine the DNA within wolf spider's gut contents in order to prove what they eat. From this information, I will be able to elucidate the interactions pathways that exist within the forest-floor food web. During the summer of 2009 I caught wolf spiders from Palos, IL which are now being housed at UIC. These spiders will be used in the development of PCR testing. The image seen here is of a day-old wolf spider, which hatched from an egg sac on the UIC campus. This spider will remain on his mother’s back for several days before adventuring out on his own
Non-Finito: Michelangelo's Dilemma
No full textBioinformaticsThe Image of Research 2010SubmissionFor Michelangelo, artistic vision was something well-defined and clear. It was the job of the artist to free the form that already existed within the block of stone. By simply removing that which was not necessary, his works' of art took on a life of their own. His genius lay then in knowing when his work was complete. In the world of protein folding, upon which all life depends, the relation between structure and functional form is unclear to us computationally. At no point is the precise scale, at which life springs forth, resolved.
In the series of images presented, each atom's 3d-coordinate for a protease inhibitor, protein 1acb, is separated using a Voronoi diagram. A Voronoi diagram creates unique polygonal cells, whose 'generating point center' is closer to its point than any other cell (tesselation). Neighboring polygonal cells can be grouped to describe possible functional relationships of the protein, without the need for specific cutoff distances.
Now imagine Michelangelo picking up a tool, the alpha-complex, as he stares at his block of stone (first image). A large alpha provides coarse resolution, and groups many points into large cells. As this alpha is reduced, the great artist can begin to reach between more sets of points (subsequent images), until all that remains is simply the original coordinates. At either a coarse or fine-grained scale the exact functional form cannot be visualized. The problem lies in knowing at what resolution, or set of resolutions, the process is complete. Each image shown contains some mislabeling error, of inaccurate unions or separations, and thus the moment at which protein structure takes functional form remains an open problem
Crystals the Magic of Life in Different Forms
No full textPharmacognosyThe Image of Research 2010FinalistStructural characterization of macromolecules is often performed by x-ray crystallography. In the x-ray crystallography techniques, the first (and often most difficult) step is to obtain adequate crystals. In this image I have captured four different crystals of the same protein that were crystallized under different conditions. These crystals were grown following standard crystallization technique with hanging drop vapor diffusion, and the images were captured on an inverted microscope