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Virtual reality. One thinks of immersion in a computer-generated world, where navigation is controlled through head gear and goggles and wired gloves.
At the Information Commons, our advanced educational technology facility located in Hardin Library for the Health Sciences, project work is directed to a different type of virtual reality. Using QuickTime Virtual Reality (QTVR) technologies developed by Apple Computer, Inc., staff members have been creating digital models that can be integrated with instructional multimedia products authored for CD-ROM or the Web, and the only control mechanism the user needs is a mouse. The potential applications for the technology to the health sciences are most evident with anatomy.
In 1998, the Information Commons partnered with faculty member Jerald Moon, Ph.D. from the Department of Speech Pathology and Audiology to develop an interactive, computer-based tutorial to help students learn the anatomy of the human skull. After nearly two years of off-and-on development, the product is complete for Windows and Macintosh, and distribution began in early June 2000.
The Bones of the Skull: A 3-D Learning Tool received the 1999 Sandoz/Slice of Life Student Software Development Award and recently won first place in the CD-ROM category of the 2001 Instructional Computing in Dentistry Competition, sponsored by the American Dental Education Association. The program was developed to help students learn the features and bones of the human skull and has two essential features:
We will soon be putting an interactive demo of the product on-line. Please check back here for details. [Update: we completed the demo, but it's a monster. We're looking at ways to streamline its size and load time.]
In the interim, we are featuring some Screen Shots.
If you'd like to see some of our anatomical models on-line, please visit our QuickTime Object VR Gallery.
The Bones of the Skull is available to order free of charge in downloadable format. To request your copy, please go to our Order Form page and complete and submit the corresponding form. If you have any questions about the ordering process, please click on the "Technical support" link above to e-mail us your question.
The Bones of the Skull is a product you download to your computer. It is not a web-based product. It does require that you have QuickTime installed, available free from Apple.
Minimum requirements:
Macintosh
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Windows 95/NT/2000
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Recommended requirements:
Macintosh
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Windows 95/NT/2000
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Our license agreement in its full detail can be viewed on-line. To summarize its salient points:
The Information Commons has employed QTVR technologies since 1996, beginning with panoramic VR and the creation of our Virtual Tour. Following contacts made at the 1997 Apple Worldwide Developers' Conference in San Jose, CA, the Information Commons was designated as a "seed" or beta-test site for Apple's QTVR Authoring Studio software. This provided us with an opportunity to use the software five to six months before its release on the commercial market. To see examples of our early work, please visit:
Creation of the Bones of the Skull educational product and this web site would not have been possible without the efforts of several staff members during the past three years. Here are our team members:
| Marilyn Dispensa | Software and VR models construction | |
| Michelle Holschuh Simmons | Web site design and construction | |
| Jerald Moon, Ph.D. | Anatomy content review | |
| Dan Bell | FTP site administration | |
| Zachary Gorman | Object VR gallery web site design | |
| Jim Duncan | Project direction and coordination |
To learn more about QTVR and our multimedia development work at the Information Commons, please contact us at lib-hardin@uiowa.edu.
Jim Duncan, Coordinator
Information Commons and Electronic Services
Hardin Library for the Health Sciences
The University of Iowa
June 2000