ITR: Constructive Visualization: Understanding Spatial Relationships Through Interaction

California Institute Of Technology, Pasadena CA

Investigators

Abstract

Complex spatial structures permeate the environment of the future. Nanoscale molecular machines allow sophisticated methods of computing and integrating data with environments. Human-scale industrial designs provide transportation solutions with greater control and efficiency. Architectural forms, growing in both complexity and inter-connectivity, define our experience in the ever-expanding city. While many advances have been made in visualizing these shapes in three dimensions, designers have yet to leverage the power of Information Technology in the early stages of creation. Initial ideas are still mostly constructed with two-dimensional paper sketches or simple physical tools, such as the molecular modeling kits commonly used in organic chemistry. Digital representations in contrast are mutable, dynamic, and re-configurable at a lowest level of the computer. These are difficult for humans to manipulate effectively with contemporary 2D interfaces. Thus designers, engineers, artists and architects must choose either a traditional, pre-Information Technology environment, where they can freely play with simple building blocks, or a digital space where complex elements can be composed only after exhaustive data transformations, strict planning and foresight, and the occasional trick. The work proposed here bridges this divide by creating tools that facilitate (1) the construction of 3D models with the speed of pencil sketches; (2) physical intuition of tangible models; (3) fluid representation of digital data structures; and (4) active response of algorithmic simulation. The results of the work will have immediate application in the fields of architecture, industrial design, and molecular chemistry. Because the research team treats these separate problems within a common framework the results will be broadly applicable to many diverse problems, fundamentally altering the human ability to create structures in space.