Both software and hardware major developments occurred this week!
The major hardware developments occurred with the touch table. I upgraded the OS to Windows 8 to take advantage of the native touch applications in that system. Dual- monitor workstations for application development are up and running with Windows 8 and Windows 7. The Windows 8 workstation uses an Intuous touch pad in addition to standard keyboard and mouse inputs. The big advantage of the three systems of touch table, W8 and W7 workstations is that I am able to blend and test a wide variety of inputs with a number of related software packages. Related software packages include The Layered Earth, ArcGIS 10.2, Gestureworks suite, and the ubiquitous MS Office apps and internet browsers.
The major software developments center on finalizing the software applications that offer the most potential for realizing the three goals of the sabbatical. The Layered Earth (TLE) is working beautifully on the touch table. I spent considerable amounts of time looking at TLE data structure, and I should be able to create custom datasets from existing collection data without too much difficulty. The very large caveat is that I have not yet actually created any custom datasets! Gestureworks and ArcGIS will be used extensively. Other software may be used . These three applications are going to be the heavy lifters for the time being. The data and software interoperability will be facilitated with Python 2.7 as a common scripting language. Python seems to work well with HTML, KML, and GML protocols.
The stage and sets are close to being complete. Now it is time for the scripts and application to write the play for the Museum specimens and planetarium to perform.
More next week from the Ryan Museum Catacombs!
