Through its highly
visible presence and variety of outreach programs,
MAGIC acts as a catalyst to assimilate
and exploit new technology.
The Media and Graphics Interdisciplinary Center
y and is bringing together existing, but isolated, efforts across campus to introduce this new technology into various research and educational programs. Through its highly visible presence and variety of outreach programs, MAGIC acts as a catalyst to assimilate and exploit new technology.
Core funding to support the establishment and operation of MAGIC has been provided by the Ministry of Employment and Investment under Contract C90/702 signed on March 2, 1990. This is supplemented by funding from UBC and by external sources for specific projects operating under the auspices of MAGIC. Two objectives are stated in the contract for the on-going opera tion of MAGIC.
tre (MAGIC) was approved as a centre by the University of British Columbia in May of 1990 and has just completed its fifth year of operation. The activity included in MAGIC covers the entire spectrum of new computer-based and com puter-associated media. Typical examples include computer animation, 3-D modeling, inter active video disc applications, hypermedia and multimedia, computer music and scientific visu alization.
The creation of MAGIC highlights the University of British Columbia's commitment to pioneering the use of advanced media technology
In the five years since its creation MAGIC has accomplished many of its goals. Building on initial strength in computer research, the first two years of MAGIC concentrated on developing resources for computer animation involving re search and educational projects at UBC and selected projects with industry and non-profit organizations off campus. The focus of this activity was the Graphics, Film and Computers project that was initiated through a donation of hardware and software by IBM Canada enhanced by software donations from Alias Re search, Vertigo Technology and Wavefront Technologies Canada. This in turn led to a number of mature collaborations involving bio-medical imaging, and scientific and engineering visualization that have been pursued during the sec ond two years. A remaining goal is a similar success in the area of multimedia. This is an area in which MAGIC has maintained a presence during its first four years, but in which much remains to be accomplished.
Objective A Continue and enhance the operation of the Media and Graphics Interdisciplinary Centre at the University of British Columbia.
Objective B Strengthen interaction with industry through establishing collaborative research projects. These interactions will include collabo rations with manufacturers of computer hardware and software to develop technology and
collaborations with industrial users to transfer this technology.
These two objectives will lead to the continuation or the establishment of various projects involving computer graphics, multimedia, and other new technology utilizing advanced com puter technology such as those projects currently underway within MAGIC as described in previ ous reports.
Kellogg Booth
Stan Jang
Peter Cahoon
T
Dean of Graduate Studies.
The MAGIC Advisor
y Board has members representing the academic community, the industrial partners of MAGIC, and government and public organizations with interests that overlap the programs within MAGIC. The Advisory Board is responsible for reviewing projects within MAGIC, recommending policy guidelines for the operation of MAGIC and making general recommendations on future directions for MAGIC. Members serve three -year, staggered terms, except for the three ex officio members. The Advisory Board met on September 22, 1993 and February 11, 1994. The current membership of the MAGIC Advisory Board is listed at the end of this introduction.
The core administrative staff
for MAGIC continues at the
previous level: a half-time director
(Dr. Kellogg Booth), a full-time
secretary (Ms. Christine Adams),
a research programmer (Stan Jang), and a research associate
(Peter Cahoon).
here are three researchers working in MAGIC, one full-time (Dr. Peter Cahoon) and two part -time (Dr. Theo Goldberg and Mr. Stan Jang). They provide support for scientific/engineering and creative/artistic projects within MAGIC. In addition to these positions, there are technical staff members employed by projects affiliated with MAGIC.
Within the University, the Director of MAGIC reports to the Dean of Graduate Studies. A Steering Committee, comprising five deans representing faculties in which MAGIC projects exist, is appointed by the Vice President Academic and oversees the operation of MAGIC within the University of British Columbia. It meets periodically and is chaired by the
There are six laboratories associated
with MAGIC. These currently operate in assigned space in
various buildings on campus.
The MAGIC Multimedia Laboratory
This facility moved from its old location in the Library Processing Center to a new location (Room 309) with an adjoining office suite (Rooms 311A-F) in the former Computer Science Building. This has roughly doubled the available laboratory space and sets the stage for expansion of the multimedia activity. The MAGIC Multi media Laboratory houses a collection of multimedia equipment, primarily Amiga 2000 com
puters donated by Commodore, and special purpose audio and video equipment for digitizing and manipulating sound and images appropriate for multimedia applications in the arts.
The MAGIC Multimedia Laboratory is directed by Dr. Theo Goldberg and is used for various courses offered as part of the regular curriculum or through Continuing Education, and other spe cial courses. The office suite is shared with the
ng support, designed by the researchers in Commerce, has been written and installed. Future additions will result in a fully -equipped facility for research in group support systems. MAGIC has played a key role in acquir ing funding for the multidisciplinary projects associated with the GSS Laboratory.
Electronic Games for Education in Math and Science (E-GEMS)
E-GEMS has laboratory space in Room 045 and staff office space in Room 003C of the CICSR /CS Building. E-GEMS is a multidisciplinary project whose UBC node is affiliated with MAGIC.
Scientific Visualization Center
MAGIC is sharing laboratory and office facilities with the the Scientific Visualization Centre operated by the Institute for Applied Mathematics, directed by Prof. Uri Ascher. This space in the old Computer Science Building was recently renovated for this purpose and networking up grades and other improvements are on-going. The Institute is an independent sub-unit at UBC, but shares some common goals with MAGIC that have led to a cooperative arrangement involving space and support personnel.
Graphics, Animation and Multimedia
Teaching Laboratory
A new laboratory in Room 008 of the CICSR/CS Building is equipped with 23 Silicon Graphics workstations (10 donated by Silicon Graphics, with an approximate value of $200,000) for use in undergraduate and graduate courses in computer graphics, animation, human-computer in teraction and multimedia. This will be operated jointly by the Deparenent of Computer Science (the primary user) and MAGIC. Commercial animation software donated by Alias Research will be used for the animation courses.
Institute for Applied Mathematics, which also operates a Scientific Visualization Center that shares networking and other facilities with MAGIC.
The Multimedia Ethnographic Research Laboratory (MERLin)
This facility is in Room 309D of the Neville Scarfe Building (Faculty of Education). MERLin is directed by Dr. Ricki Goldman-Segall and is the focus for much of the multimedia research taking place within MAGIC. The laboratory has a number of Apple Macintosh computers and other workstations and a substantial collection of video equipment that can be used under computer control for multimedia projects.
The Graphics, Film and Computing Project (GraFiC)
This laboratory is housed in Room 047 of the new CICSR/CS Building. GraFiC provides access to state-of-the-art computer graphics workstations and commercial animation software. Made possible by donations from IBM Canada, Alias Re search, Wavefront Technologies and Vertigo Technology. GraFiC is used as a resource by a number of other projects in addition to those directly related to computer animation.
The Group Support System Laboratory
This laboratory is in Room 307 of the Henry Angus Building in the Faculty of Commerce. It was established by researchers in the Management Information Systems (MIS) Division for their experimental studies. A portion of the activity involves multidisciplinary research us ing video databases to record and study activity related to group decision support systems. The laboratory has a number of NeXT workstations. Software for meeti
Industrial Liaison Activities of MAGIC
MAGIC focuses its industrial efforts through specific projects in order to maximize the potential impact. The current set of projects include mature projects with significant industrial involvement as well as newer projects in various stages of development where the industrial contributions are still being developed. There are four representatives from industry on the MAGIC advisory board. Highlights of recent activity during the reporting period are listed here.
hing connectivity between MPR Teltech, MAGIC's research facilities at UBC, and other locations such as Children's Hospital, St. Paul's Hospital, Science World, SFU and the Centre for Image and Sound Research. MAGIC has played a central role in the initial stages of this work by serving as one of the principal sites in the network. An "Rnet Coming Out Party" was held at Science World B.C. on December 15, 1994. An ATM-equipped workstation provided by MAGIC was used by St. Paul's, Children's, and SFU to demonstrate projects utilizing Rnet's ATM capa bility.
Advanced Telecommunications: MPR Teltech
A number of initiatives are underway with MPR Teltech. The most recent activity is a proposal for a Network of Centres of Excellence (NCE) on TeleLearning, for which a letter of intent was submitted in September, 1994, and a full proposal was submitted on January 15, 1995. A "site visit" with the NCE evaluation team was held March 1, 1995. This effort is being led by re searchers at SFU with participation from researchers at UBC, a number of them involved with MAGIC. If successful, funding will begin in Fall ,1995.
Activity related to ATM networking, utilizing the Rnet infrastructure now in place, is establis
unding for E-GEMS under NSERC's CRD program was announced in September, 1994, fol lowing a site visit to UBC. E-GEMS is now operating under the NSERC funding, which matches industrial contributions. (See Section 5 below for more details).
General Industry Liaison: ASI and CISR
The VISTA Laboratory, housed at the Centre for Image and Sound Research (CISR) in downtown Vancouver, is the site for joint projects between MAGIC, the EXC11 FI Lab at SFU (the Exemplary Centre for Interactive Technology in Edu cation, headed by Dr. Gerri Sinclair) and CISR. Prof. Ray Hall (Department of Film & Theatre, UBC) has replaced Dr. Booth as a member of the board of directors at CISR.
The B.C. Advanced Systems Institute (ASI) has fellowships for three UBC faculty members as sociated with MAGIC (Dr. Kellogg Booth, Dr. David Forsey and Dr. Alain Fournier). These were awarded in part to foster the exchange of ideas between universities and industry by pro viding funding for such activity. The fellowships continue until September 30, 1995.
Digital Post Production: Gastown and Pthalo
A joint effort between Gastown Productions (Vancouver) and Pthalo Systems (Burnaby), a project related to high-definition video and film transfer, funded by the Centre for Image and Sound Research, is underway.
A new project with Pthalo, involving a digital film scanner, has been approved for funding by CISR and ASI and a CANARIE proposal for related work is under review. Faculty and gradu ate students in MAGIC will be sub-contracted for some of the research activity once all of the funding is in place.
CISR is submitting a proposal to add these and other companies to Rnet so that ATM communi cation can be used in these projects. MAGIC will be one of the participants.
Video Games: Electronic Arts (Canada)
This activity involves interest in Math and Science education in Grades 4-7 using video game technology. Electronic Arts Canada (Burnaby) and Motion Works (Vancouver) as well as other industrial participants are in the multi-year E-GEMS Project, which released its first commer cial product in the Fall of 1994. Three-year f
Funding for MAGIC from UBC, the Ministry and the Industrial Partners Program provides the basic core operating budget for MAGIC. Included in this is provision for two technical staff positions to assist in starting new initiatives within MAGIC and provide liaison between various projects that have need for common infrastruc ture. Beyond this basic level of support, all projects are expected to acquire sufficient funding from internal, external or a combination of internal and external sources in order to remain self-sufficient.
The following projects within MAGIC were active during the reporting period:
Graphics, Film and Computing Project (GraFiC)
This has been the largest project within MAGIC. It was originally funded by equipment donations from IBM Canada over a three-year period and matching funds from the Province of British Columbia under UBC's World of Opportunity campaign. It is now funded by UBC operating funds and interest from the endowment. The goal of GraFiC is to develop and use basic tools for computer animation in conjunction with the production of computer-animated films and videos. Much of the collaborative activity within MAGIC utilizes the resources of GraFiC.
The director of GraFiC is Dr. Alain Fournier, a faculty member in the Department of Computer Science. The matching funds provided technical and administrative support for this project. This included salary for a full-time animator (Goesta StruveDencher), a half-time system manager, George Phillips (who works half-time on the GraFiC project and half-time on two other projects), a portion of the MAGIC secretary's salary, a portion of Dr. Peter Cahoon's salary for work related to scientific visualization, and Dr. Goldberg's consulting fees for work related to 2 -D animation. This funding terminated March 31, 1995.
The fourth offering of a graduate course on computer animation, designed to accommodate both students with a computer science background and students who wish to utilize com puter animation in their own fields, was given during the 1994-95 academic year. The course was taught by Dr. Fournier and Dr. David Forsey with the assistance of Mr. Struve-Dencher. Plans are underway to offer this next year as a joint course with the Department of Theatre and Film.
Projects involving hardware or software from GraFiC related to scientific visualization were coordinated by Dr. Peter Cahoon. Most of these are shortterm collaborations, although some (such as the medical and dental imaging) are longer-term and often overlap other projects listed be low.
A significant new activity this year is the Yuan Ming Garden Project, which is using the Alias software to build a model of the famous Yuan Ming Garden of Beijing. External funding of $50,000 has been obtained by the project direc tors, with additional funding expected from CISR. MAGIC is providing access to the animation software and computing support for the initial stage of the project. Commercialization of the project will take place during subsequent phases
when a CD-ROM version of the animations will be produced.
Struve-Dencher left the project March 1, 1995, to work with a small start-up company involved with computer animation and multimedia. His departure was a result of uncertainty in future funding for MAGIC.
Psychology Projects
Investigations into the use of preattentive visual features in data visualization applications are continuing by Ph.D. student Christopher Healey (Computer Science) and Dr. Jim Enns (Psychology). Two computer science journal articles aris ing from this work are currently under review.
Wideband Telecommunication
Participation in a UBC-based ATM network and the larger Rnet ATM network involving B.C. Tel, Rogers Cable, MPR Teltech, Science World, SFU, and MAGIC is underway. Active commu nication on campus has been established between three sites: the Imager Computer Graphics laboratory (two connections), Dentistry (one connection) and Radiology (one connection). In Sep tember this was extended using Rnet to reach Children's Hospital (one connection), SFU (three connections), and St. Paul's Hospital. An application for three-year funding from NSERC to support research on collaborative bio-medical visualization that will utilize the ATM network is under review.
The Province's Innovation Fund contributions at UBC are being used largely to support new use of multimedia technology in teaching. MAGIC is playing a role in this through the Media Re sources Network. MAGIC participants, including Profs. Booth, Goldstein, Goldman-Segall, Hall, and Hannam were members of various
MRN committees.
A proposal initiated by MAGIC to the University's Teaching and Learning Enhancement Fund to provide a series of short courses and seminars designed to give faculty and staff experience with new multimedia authoring tools was awarded one-year funding of approximately $51,000.
GSS/CSCW
Research related to Group Support Systems (GSS, also known as CSCW, or Computer Supported Cooperative Work) is being conducted by Dr. Robert Goldstein and his colleagues in the Fac ulty of Commerce.
Visualization of Dental and Medical Data
Various research projects in the Faculty of Dentistry employ 3-D modeling and animation of growth and associated cellular and molecular changes. Work within MAGIC has concentrated on new software tools developed with Dr. Alan Hannam (Oral Biology) and postdoctoral fellow Tom Korioth (Oral Biology) regarding jaw motion during chewing. This work is being ex tended to models for forensic dentistry and facial reconstruction. Funding from the RCMP for the forensic studies has been received and a more advanced graphics workstation was installed in Dentistry to continue this work (this is the workstation now attached to the ATM network). Ar rangements are being made to test some of the visualization software using the Rnet-OCRInet link provided by the federal CANARIE initiative.
Discussions with the Communication Research Centre in Ottawa are expected to result in a link between UBC and the RCMP for this project.
A number of other projects involving CT and
MRI data are continuing including orthopedic studies for Children's Hospital with Bonnie Sawatzky, Dr. Steve Tredwell, Dr. Chris Reilly and Dr. Ross Outerbridge and the modeling of bronchial passages with Dr. Ellen Grant.
A conference paper was presented in February describing the work in this area related to scoliosis studies. That work was funded by a grant from the B.C. Health Research Foundation for 1994 and by a grant from the Department of Orthopaedics at UBC for the first four months of 1995. A re-application submitted to the Medical Research Council (MRC) for three subsequent years of funding has been awarded ($26,000 per year). This will enable the project to continue its study of scoliosis and development of new multimedia tools.
Video Logging, Annotation and Navigation
A three-year NSERC strategic grant is investigating the development of software tools for analyzing video data. This involves researchers from Commerce (Drs. Goldstein, Rao and Woo), Computer Science (Drs. Booth and Ng), and Education (Drs. Goldman-Segall from UBC and Sinclair from SFU). The work utilizes both the MERLin facility in Education and the GSS Labo ratory in Commerce, in addition to work done at ExClTE at SFU.
Electronic Games for Education in Mathematics and Science (EGEMS)
A major initiative that involves MAGIC is the E-GEMS project. The project is a joint Canadian and US venture, involving government, industry and academia. The goal of the project is to stimulate interest in mathematics and science in Grades 4-7 (the period when students are known to "drop out"). This will be accomplished by using current video game technology to engage students in educational activity that will lead them to an appreciation of mathematics and sci
ence. This project has received three-year funding from NSERC under its CRD program, recog nizing the collaboration between UBC, the other universities, Electronic Arts Canada and Motion Works. Substantial donations by Apple Canada have provided computer workstations for class room use so that the research can be conducted directly in schools.
3-D Hand-Centred Input Techniques
A three-year project funded under an NSERC strategic grant is underway involving research ers at UBC and SFU in Computer Science, Engineering and Kinesiology. It is investigating the use of computer graphics techniques to study human hand motion, with particular applications to 3-D user interfaces and computer animation.
Other Educational Activities
MAGIC continues to conduct educational activities, including the training of graduate students engaged in the centre's research projects, hosting introductory seminars aimed at making professionals from diverse fields aware of the current technology, and holding workshops on specific application areas of media and graphics tech niques.
The Multimedia Laboratory offers short courses and regular academic courses in multimedia through various departments on campus and through the Continuing Studies. These are taught by Prof. Goldberg.
MAGIC was in association with MultiComm 94, the Third Annual Conference and Exposition on Multimedia Solutions for Business and Education, that was held November 2-3, 1994, at the Westin Bayshore in Vancouver. MAGIC will be assisting in the organization and sponsorship of MultiComm 95 (November, 1995).
Committee Membership
· Dr. Kellogg Booth, Director of MAGIC (ex officio)
· Dr. John Grace, Dean of Graduate Studies (ex officio, chair)
· Dr. Robert Kubicek, Associate Dean of Arts
· Dr. Barry McBride, Dean of Science
· Dr. Axel Meisen, Dean of Applied Science
· Dr. Nancy Sheehan, Dean of Education
Board Membership
· Dr. Clark Binkley, Dean of Forestry (until June 30, 1997)
· Dr. Kellogg Booth, Director of MAGIC (ex officio)
· Dr. John Grace, Dean of Graduate Studies (ex officio, chair)
· Dr. Martha Salcudean, Associate Vice President Research (until June 30, 1996)
· Dr. Nancy Sheehan, Dean of Education (until June 30, 1995)
· Mr. Ian Dowdeswell, MPR Teltech (until June 30, 1995)
· Mr. Don Mattrick, Electronic Arts (Canada), Inc. (until June 30, 1996)
· Mr. David Rebak, Chancery Software (until June 30, 1997)
· Dr. Gordon Robertson, Pulp and Paper Research Institute (June 30, 1996)
· Ms. Justine Blzzocchi, Director of the Centre for Image and Sound Research (until June 30, 1997)
· Mr. T. Becher, Emily Carr College of Art and Design (until June 30, 1996)
· Mr. J. Bizzocchi, Capilano College (until June 30, 1995)
· Ms. Fran Rothman Ministry of Employment and Investment (ex officio)
Collaborative projects
Collaborative projects are a key part of
MAGIC's mandate. This dissemenation of state of the
art graphics and animation has been a
key to MAGIC's success.
T
he following is a partial list of the collabora
ics
· Non-Linear Filtering of Video Images
· 3-D Analysis of Scoliosis Surgery
· Making Shaders More Physically Plausable
· A Simulation Platform for Animating Motion
· Computer Animations in Animal Behaviour Studies
· An Analysis of the Design Principals of the Taj Mahal
· Objects That Can't be Taken Apart With Two Hands
· Visualization of the Stabilization of Differen tial Equations
· Compact Approximate Voronoi Diagrams
· A Programming Library for 3-D Widget Con struction
· Segmentaion and Reconstruction of the Ventrical System in the Human Brain
· Real time 3-D Scanning of the Human Head with Cylindrical Texture Mapping
· Computing the Fractal Dimension of the Grey White Matter Boundary
· Multiresolution Representation
· Continuously Deformed Surfaces
tive projects undertaken by magic. Each page contains an image associated with the project as well as a brief, non-technical description:
· The ATM Network at UBC
· Computer Augmented Reality
· Collision Response and Free-form Surface Modeling
· Real Time Cranoifacial Modeling
· Hierarchical B-spline Surface Modeling
· The Behaviour of High Speed Logic Circuits
· Tracking Spatial Temporal Patterns in Glau coma
· Fish Tank Virtual Worlds
· Inverse Kinematic Techniques for Positioning Articulated Figures
· Mathematical Visualization
· Algorithms for Line Simplification
· Mouse Gain and User Strategies
· Automatic Presentation of Multimedia Infor mation
· Neuron Tracing from 3-D Confocal Micro scope Data
· Cooperative Learning in the Classroom
· Volume Visualization of a Resistivity Model
· Integrating Commercial and Custom Software for Inverse Kinemat