Programming Computer Applications in Architecture and Urban Design

VIRTUAL REALITY HISTORY SERIES

THE PANTHEON

This project suggests a possible prototype for an information access system centered around a real-time virtual reality model. In this prototype, a series of images arranged as a tour though the building stand in for the interactive model.

The 'START' button below launches the primary image viewing frame. Once that is open, clicking a mouse button anywhere in the frame increments a two-dimensional image array's column reference to move through the sequence of six images. From this primary frame's title bar, the user can request any (or none) of the following four pieces of support information: a plan view frame to give the user orientation within the space; a topic option frame that the user can use to trigger changes in the text and primary image frames; a text area frame that describes the current scene according to the topic area choice; and finally, a frame that displays supplemental images to support the information presented in the text and primary image frames.

Comments on the text:
The text component of this project is being read from a single text file and parsed according to references to the primary image arrays. It was important to keep the text in a single file so that it could be easily updated or customized. Also, the text I've included was, for the most part, pulled from sources on the web. It is servicable, but nothing more. Obviously, if something like this were to go into wide use, the text would be better, and one would probably want to include broader coverage of the building and more topic areas.

Press 'START' to begin.


The source code for the main applet, the main image frame, the supporting image array frames, topic area frame, text frame, and David Carson's WrapTextArea class.

Feel free to e-mail any suggestions or comments.