Dinosaur QTVR Mini Walking Tour Debuts at The Internet Public Library Exhibit Hall

[Nettie Lagace]

News from The Internet Public Library

DINOSAUR QTVR MINI WALKING TOUR DEBUTS AT THE INTERNET PUBLIC LIBRARY 
EXHIBIT HALL

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT:

Bernadette Milan 
School of Information 
University of Michigan 
550 East University 
Ann Arbor, MI 
48109-1092 
(313) 764-4386 
exhibits at ipl.org

January 22, 1997

ANN ARBOR, MI., JANUARY 22, 1997--The Internet Public Library (IPL), a
project based at the University of Michigan School of Information,
recently debuted "Dinosaur Floor of the Exhibit Museum", a mini walking
tour using Apple Computer's QuickTime Virtual Reality (QTVR) technology. 
You can access the site via the IPL at: http://www.ipl.org/exhibit/dino/. 
Walk through the dinosaur floor of the University of Michigan Exhibit
Museum at your own pace, without having to leave your computer terminal. 

The exhibition is composed of three "single node" movies, titled: 
"Sauropods","Perissodactyls", and "Artiodactyls", and one "multi node" 
movie, combining the three scenes. "Sauropods" shows a sauropod hip and
leg, a pterosaur skeleton, a duck-billed dinosaur skeleton, and
therapsids-- extinct, mammal-like reptiles. "Perissodactyls" highlights
odd-toed ungulates (hoofed animals), such as horses and tapirs and
includes a Mastodon skeleton. "Artiodacytls" views examples of even-toed
ungulates, such as camels and bovines. Text pages are adapted directly
from museum exhibits, and accompany each QuickTime movie. 

QTVR is a 360 degree seamless, digital representation of a room or scene. 
QTVR allows the viewer to pan a scene at their own pace, with an option to
zoom in on a particular portion. The technology allows movement up, down,
and sideways in any scene. Single node movies are QTVR movies consisting
of one scene. Multi node movies can be made by linking together separate
single node movies into one larger movie. 

The Internet Public Library is a project based at the University of
Michigan School of Information, partially supported by a grant from the
Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The library began as a graduate student
project in 1995, and is now staffed by professional librarians with
assistance from students and volunteer librarians from around the World. 
The library maintains a collection of network-based ready reference works;
responds to reference queries, creates resources for children and young
adults; evaluates and categorizes resources on the Internet, and provides
a space for exhibitions. The library strives to be a source of innovation
in the networked environment, seeking partnerships with organizations with
compatible goals. 

________ David S. Carter __________________________________________________
       superman at umich.edu        "'Because it's way cool' is not a good
       http://www.ipl.org/         reason. (Sorry. It's not. No.)."
   Coordinator for Collections         - Laura Lemay, "Web Tech"
__ the Internet Public Library ____________________________________________