Information Access Seminar: 3-D Visual Analysis of the Korean Buddhist Canon September 14, 2007

Speaker: Lewis LANCASTER, Electronic Cultural Atlas Initiative

A report on two related projects:

1) "Text Analysis and Pattern Detection: 3-D and Virtual Reality Environments". The physical positions of each ideograph on the woodblocks used to print the 1,500 Chinese Buddhist texts provide a physical framework for complex analyses of the woodblocks, the texts, and their associated metadata. A new project funded by the National Science Foundation; and

2) The "Religious Atlas of China and the Himalayas" is expected to include names, dates, coordinates, and associated information for several thousand religious places in China and the Himalayas, including mosques, churches and temples; sacred mountains; religious kingdoms; monumental statuary, and other categories of features. The Henry Luce Foundation recently awarded a grant for a three-year continuation. See http://ecai.org/chinareligion

Using the Chinese Buddhist canon as a backdrop for exploring these issues, 3-D and graphic interfaces can offer a dynamic experience for canonic research by combining multiple modalities (text, images, maps, audio, video, 3D graphics, etc.) and contextualizing them in space and time.

Official Website: http://www.ischool.berkeley.edu/about/events/ias20070914