At Dartmouth College, Professor Joseph Henderson is conducting research into applying some of the principles of cyberspace to an information system.
Henderson has set up a multimedia database covering medical aspects of the Vietnam war, and is working on a cyberspace framework with which to access the information. Henderson is currently in the process of storing and cataloging medical and casualty information for access, retrieval, and manipulation via a Macintosh II computer, using magnetic disk and optical disc storage. To access and manipulate the data, Henderson’s group created a cyberspace matrix, a construct that represents information along its most important dimensions: location and severity of wounds, wound pattern clustering, wound pattern frequencies, and survival patterns.
The construct is made up of a three-dimensional graphic matrix of integer values. The matrix is designed to be manipulated in several ways: rotation on three axes, zooming, highlighting, masking, or slicing on other variables. This enables users to explore and navigate the matrix, highlighting specific areas of data from an intuitive, visual sense. Each region, subregion, or point of the matrix can be linked (via HyperCard or Acius 4th Dimension) to related source data, allowing users to retrieve display statistics, photographs, video footage, and oral histories from the videodiscs.
According to Henderson, by presenting data using the cyberspace approach, an interactive process of discovery can result, in which the users with the matrix and source data use the combination of eye, brain, and hand.
To set up the matrix, Henderson used a Macintosh IIci computer and the MacSpin 3D rotating-plot application. The statistics variables for the matrix were imported into MacSpin.
The matrix is linked to a multimedia data base system consisting of the Macintosh, a Sony video monitor, a laserdisc player, a CD-ROM drive, plus the 4th Dimension datbase program. Access to video and sound is provided through annotated indices in the HyperCard records that provide for transparent control of optical disc devices.
For information, contact Joseph V. Henderson, MD, Interactive Media Laboratory, Dartmouth Medical School, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH 03756; (603) 650-1777.
