Linh Pham

Wednesday, September 18, 2002

Purpose

The purpose of this project is to create a virtual museum that contains significant film clips in American history.  Primary source videos are very useful in history classes and are sometimes hard to find.  The proprosed project plans to compile them all in an easy-to-navigate virtual museum.  With no limits on the size of the museum, it could continue to expand as videos were added.  The museum could also be expanded to include not only films but music, 3D models of historical artifacts, and more.  The graphical 3D interface would make it seem as if the user were actually navigating a museum, and if the program and video database could be uploaded to the Internet, the primary source videos could made available to everyone.  This program could especially take advantage of Internet2 with its large bandwith capabilities. This virtual museum would benefit American history students who would be able to easily access important film clips in American history, such as the Wright Brothers' first flight in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, the atomic bomb falling on Hiroshima, Martin Luther King Jr.'s 'I have a dream' speech, and other videos clips that are hard to find on the Internet.

Scope of Study

The research that will need to be done will include textures, lighting, and other aspects of OpenGL as well as researching how to run an OpenGL program on the Internet.  The final museum should be able to be seen from the Internet, and there will be an exterior to the museum in addition to the interior.  The interior of the museum will be one long hallway divided into several corridors which represent different eras and themes of history: World War II, the roaring twenties, the depression, the cold war, the civil rights movement, motion picture history, important inventions, etc.  The exterior of the museum would include green grass, bushes, trees, and flowers.  The plan is for a garden in the front and a memorial garden in the back of the museum.  This memorial garden should include statues and fountains commemerating those who died in wars, and those who improved American society, such as Mother Theresa, Mohatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., etc.  There would also be a short montage of videos meshed together honoring them.

Procedure and Methodology

The programming language that this program will be coded in is C++, utilizing the OpenGL graphics library.  Other pictures will need to be used for textures, such as brick textures, stone textures, wooden floor textures, etc.  A database of significant video clips in history will also need to be gathered.  The plan is to convert them from VHS format to a video file using Pinnacle's PCTV Studio.  The current development schedule is:

• Quarter 1: research, testing previous code, and compiling video files
• Quarter 2: compiling video files, adding exhibits and corridors to museum, start coding exterior
• Quarter 3: making montage videos, code memorial garden, research importance of video clips
• Quarter 4: finish coding memorial garden, write formal research paper, make poster