MITE6323 Ricky Ho

The final project

2006-07-25T14:23:00.000+08:00

Isomerism of hydrocarbon with 1-5 carbon.

Please comment our representation, so that we may improve it before dead line.

Please add a carbon atom in suitable positions so that they form a new organic compound and then press submit. Due to there are many possible positions of new carbon atom, many possible looks of carbon string may be found. Press Next , a movie is played to let you to distinguish different isomers.

Chin Po Ho
Ho Wing Kit

Source file (FLA): http://iln.cite.hku.hk/com/1238/users/wkho2/project/final.fla

(SWF):http://iln.cite.hku.hk/com/1238/users/wkho2/project/final.swf

Best viewed by: FLASH PLAYER 9.0
Software: Macromedia Flash 8.0 Professional
Developed by : Ho Wing Kit & Chin Po Ho

Reflection of using FLASH

2006-07-25T14:20:00.000+08:00

This is the most difficult assignment undertaken so far this year but, the most rewarding project of all. Macromedia Flash is a piece of authoring software that has the capability of producing amazing animations and interactive pieces. However, Flash is just a tool, all the creativity and expertise comes from you as planner, developer, script writer, director and editor. There is a steep learning curve attached to Macromedia Flash.

I spent the first two weeks learning how to use the software. However, as Flash includes interactivity a scripting language is involved.

Storyboard of final project

2006-07-25T14:19:00.000+08:00

After a lot of discussion, we give up the idea of Interference and come back to Organic Structure. The representation begins in one carbon atom. User has to add each one carbon atom in any one of many suitable positions so that they form a new organic compound. Due to there are many possible positions of new carbon atom, many possible looks of carbon string may be found. Some of them are isomer(the same atom number but different structure), others in fact are the same. Movies are played in each step to user to distinguish different isomers.

Planning the representation

2006-06-30T18:38:00.000+08:00

Group
HO Wing Kit Chem. teacher
CHIN Po Ho Phy. teacher

In designing the representation, we should consider:

1. We find a topic in Chem. or Phy. that theories can be illustrated by visual display. By a good picture, students can learn the idea and concept of how the forces act on the body and its subsequence motion within a small area.

2 The representation should be interactive such that students can explore the information work with information and draw their own conclusions rather than watching a lot of pictures.

2 Minimize text and provide more experimental rather than instructive experience for students.

Brain storming Ideas

1 Organic structure
Show the structure of organic compound. As adding the number of carbon atom, the molecule below greater and the structure become more complex, this structure can be only show by visual display. By adding carbon number, students can explore the variation of the carbon arrangement and naming system

Raindrop shape: No more tears

2006-06-22T17:19:00.000+08:00

Pleace click on the picture for the interactive effect.

What information visualization is?

2006-06-16T18:53:00.000+08:00

Scientific- (or data-), and Information visualization are branches of computer graphics and user interface which are concerned with the presentation of interactive or animated digital images to users to understand data. For example, scientists interpret potentially huge quantities of laboratory or simulation data or the results from sensors out in the field to aid reasoning, hypothesis building and cognition. The field of data mining offers many abstract visualizations related to these visualization types. They are active research areas, drawing on theory in information graphics, computer graphics, human-computer interaction and cognitive science.

Photo story

2006-06-16T16:53:00.000+08:00

Reflection of lesson 3

2006-06-14T10:21:00.000+08:00

In session of the module, it main concentrated in digital story telling. By definition, digital storytelling reflects both a broad reference to the emergent new forms of digital narratives (web-based stories, interactive stories, hypertexts, and narrative computer games) as well as the specific approach of creating short digital films developed by the Center for Digital Storytelling. As an emerging area of creative work, the definition of digital storytelling is still the subject of much debate. Typically, digital stories are produced in intensive workshops. The product is a 2-5 minute film that combines a narrated piece of personal writing, photographic images and a musical soundtrack. The philosophy behind this type of digital storytelling is one of using technology to enable those without a technical background to produce works that tell a story using moving images and sound.
We also discuss about the power of new media. In the new information era, the media of sharing information not only by using TV and radio broadcasting, it also makes use of new media such as internet (you-tube or google video). We should remind that the new media may consist a lot of problems such as web bullying.
For digital story, we can make use of BBC story telling. http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/digitalstorytelling/
In the task of this week, we learnt how to use MS photo story 3 to make our own story to share with the others. It is a very user friendly application which is free of charge and it is very easy to use and we can produce a photo story easily and presented into different machine and media such as DVD, VCD and even to mobile phone.

Earth's Atmosphere

2006-06-08T19:13:00.000+08:00

Please click on the link for the interactive version!

Reflection of Lesson 2

2006-06-03T11:20:00.000+08:00

In this session, we learnt what visualization is and we can get some ideas to present our information to the viewer. Let us see what visualization is: Visualization (graphic), as in any technique for creating images, diagrams, or animations to communicate any message. For example, Scientific visualization, an application of computer graphics which is concerned with the presentation of potentially huge quantities of laboratory, simulation or abstract data to aid cognition, hypotheses building and reasoning. Knowledge visualization, a sub discipline of Information Design and Instructional Message Design. Product visualization, visualization software technology for manufacture of components and large assemblies of products and music visualization, a feature found in some media player software applications.

We also learn about what visual language is. When you create an image to communicate an idea, you are using visual language. We can 'visualize' our thinking as well as verbalize it. The elements in an image represent concepts in a spatial context, rather than the linear form used for words. Speech and visual communication are a parallel and usually interdependant means by which humans exchange complex information. A diagram, a map, a painting are all examples of the use of the visual language. It's structural units include the following : Line, Shape, Color, Motion, Texture, Pattern, Direction, Orientation, Scale, Angle, Space and Proportion.
Applications of visual are very wide range, for example Photorealistic Images, Paintings and drawings, Caricatures, cartoons, abstract art, Maps of territories (real and abstract), Symbols and icons, Diagrams and charts, Mindmaps etc. A mind map (or mind-map) is a diagram used to represent words and ideas linked to and arranged radially around a central key word or idea. It is used to generate, visualize, structure and classify ideas, and as an aid in study, organization, problem solving, and decision making. It is an image-centered diagram that represents semantic or other connections between portions of information. By presenting these connections in a radial, non-linear graphical manner, it encourages a brainstorming approach to any given organizational task, eliminating the hurdle of initially establishing an intrinsically appropriate or relevant conceptual framework to work within.

To have effective communication with the reader, interactivity is very important. For example, in task 2 of this lesson, we have to produce a interactive presentation of the atmosphere. In my work, I make use of dreamweaver and make use of the "show and hide layer" function to produce a interactive interface with the user.

Information is not data

2006-06-02T18:56:00.000+08:00

The words, information and data, are used interchangeably in many contexts. This may lead to their confusion. However, they are not synonyms.

Often data is defined as raw facts while information is processed data. Another distinction that is made is that information is the things that we know and data is the representation of the information. As an example, we may be thinking about a favorite niece's age, who is four. We would tend to represent that with Arabic numerals (4), but we could represent it using Roman numerals (IV), tick marks (||||), or any other way we agree on. The information has not changed in each case, although the data has. Note that we tend to think of information in terms of declarative knowledge. That is, the facts we know such as a temperature, an age, etc. Information can also be skills and things we know how to do, which is called procedural knowledge.

An important consequence of this distinction is that information has meaning (i.e. can inform), while data does not. Computers work with data (representations) and not information (meanings). This is why a computer will calculate the average employee number even though it is meaningless.

Note that one person's information may be another's data depending on whether the recipient understand the data (or its context). Also, when someone (or something, such as a computer system) is given a fact, it may only be data, but when they make sense of (or interpret) it, often by bringing it together with other facts, it may become information.

Information is usually thought of as, in a strict sense, a subset of data. However, sometimes the reverse interpretation can be taken (such as describing data as "raw information"). Data may also have a more specific sense in some fields (e.g.: referring to a certain type or set of information used in that context). When used pragmatically in everyday speech, it usually specifically refers to collections of numbers, or, in a wider sense, to any content not of relevance or interest to the speaker, or not (yet) understood by the speaker themselves in particular.

Data is unstructured, lacks context and may not be relevant to the recipient. When data is correctly organized, filtered and presented with context it can become information because it then has "value" to the recipient.

Data which is not information (i.e.: has not yet informed or been given a context) is often called raw data.

Meaning of data, information, knowledge and wisdom

2006-06-02T18:53:00.000+08:00

Data: bits of information such as lists (e.g. phone list) or records in a database or spreadsheet

Information: organized data that can be communicated

Knowledge: information (i.e. organized data) that can be used to achieve some or other result

Wisdom: selection of appropriate knowledge for a specific task

My self introduction

2006-06-02T18:37:00.000+08:00

Reflection of Lesson 1

2006-05-26T20:28:00.000+08:00

It is a great time to share what I learn in the lesson. I think a learning blog is the best place to share my road of learning with my classmate and teacher. I am quite impressed when I noticed that I can admit in this module because it is a CEF module and I expect it is not easy to enroll me. Back to our topic, I am quite happy with the first lesson. I’m late today because of the meeting in my school.
I want to learn more about the visual communication method. In order to do that, I learnt the MITE6313 web publishing and design last year. I want to know more about that in this module. In this lesson, I learnt how to present our data with viewer. It is a quite difficult thing because the viewer may consider the method of presentation, time for reading etc. In this lesson, by using of Minard’ Map, we can know more about the interactivity and visualization for presenting information to viewer. In order to do that, the colour management is very important to produce a user friendly and attractive presentation. It is better to use graphical ways to work with ideas to present information, clarify thinking, and demonstrate understanding.
We also need to start building our learning blog. In this lesson, we learnt how to design the layout of the blog and know how to use the basic functions of the blog.
Let us see an example of visual and design in Minard's Challenge: Modern Re-Visions. If, as some say, Minard's depiction of Napoleon's 1815 March on Moscow defied the pen of the historian in its brutal eloquence (Marey, 1887), and is the best statistical graphic ever drawn (Tufte, 1983),
• Can re-draw it in some modern programming language? What does this tell us about comparative power and simplicity of various programming languages and environments? What a wonderful challenge for statistical computing and graphics!
• Can improve it--- construct a graphical display that tells Minard's story in a new light or from a new perspective? What a wonderful challenge for modern data visualization!