May 1998
Volume 62 |
Number 5
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WHAT'S NEW IN ...
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| ... the Wood Library-Museum:
Take a Virtual Tour |
George J. Sheplock, M.D., Trustee
Wood Library-Museum of Anesthesiology
See the "Crown Jewel" of ASA - Now from the jewel case of a CD-ROM
or on the Internet. See the world's first stethoscope! Marvel
at a working iron lung! Gape at a South American blowgun used
to deliver curare I.M., of course! Experience your specialty's
heritage by a visit to the Wood Library-Museum of Anesthesiology
in ASA's spectacular headquarters located in Park Ridge, Illinois,
or now from the desktop of your personal computer.
The history of the Wood Library-Museum (WLM) Virtual Tour
of Anesthesiology began during the summer of 1995. The WLM Board
of Trustees invited the ASA's Ad Hoc Committee on Electronic Media
and Information Technology (EMIT) to visit the WLM and to assess
how technology might be used to help make the ASA membership aware
of one of anesthesiology's most precious resources. Upon viewing
and "experiencing" this extensive high-quality collection, a new
found appreciation of our specialty's heritage was developed by
EMIT Committee members.
Recommendations proposed by the EMIT Committee included
developing an interactive "Virtual Tour" of the Museum to be distributed
on CD-ROM and also developing a WLM site on the World Wide Web.
These recommendations were immediately put into action.
A cross-platform, interactive, multimedia Virtual Tour
of the WLM on CD-ROM was developed using the latest advances in
personal computing imaging technology. These advances allow users
to navigate the museum's gallery and to access close-up images
and information on all of the items on display. Using Quicktime
VR imaging technology, 37 interactive 360-degree panoramic scenes
are combined to provide the experience of "physically" being on
the sidewalk outside the ASA Executive Office and "walking" into
and throughout the museum's gallery. Users can use their mouse
to view the panoramic scenes, to move from one location to another
and to view up close the contents of the cases and displays in
the gallery. In addition, an interactive map is provided to identify
the user's location as well as to allow the user to move directly
to another location in the gallery.
The WLM Virtual Tour incorporates high-resolution digital
images of all of the items on display. Information is also provided
on each item and includes the item's title, descriptive information,
time period and donation information. Each digital image of more
than 200 items can be "zoomed," allowing the user to get a close-up
view which, in many cases, is closer than possible when actually
at the museum. The program also allows for "searches," using either
keywords to obtain text-based information or using a range of
dates to take a tour of items in a particular time period.
The WLM Virtual Tour CD-ROM can be ordered for $30 by
contacting the WLM at (847)-825-5586. System requirements for
PC computers include a 486 (Pentium preferred) microprocessor
with 10MB RAM for the program, a 4x speed CD-ROM, and a 640 x
480 pixel screen with an 8-bit (256) color monitor (16-bit or
thousands of colors preferred). Macintosh requirements include
a PowerPC microprocessor with 10MB RAM available for the program,
a 4x speed CD-ROM, and a 640 x 480 screen with an 8-bit (256)
color monitor (16-bit [thousands] color preferred).
The WLM Virtual Tour was developed through the efforts
of the WLM Board of Trustees, the ASA Ad Hoc EMIT Committee and
the multimedia development company October Interactive in Bloomington,
Indiana.
A subset of the Virtual Tour on CD-ROM can be seen in
the WLM's World Wide Web site on the Internet. Aside from providing
a sample of the WLM Virtual Tour, the Web site also highlights
the many goods and services the WLM makes available to you. You
can visit the WLM's Web site by pointing your Web browser to:
<http://www.asahq.org/wlm/>.
It is time now to make your visit to the WLM, whether
via the WLM's Virtual Tour on CD-ROM, the Internet, a trip to
the WLM at the ASA Executive Office or, best yet, all three.
George J. Sheplock, M.D., is Assistant
Professor of Anesthesia, Indiana University School of Medicine
and Faculty Fellow of the Center for Excellence in Education at
Indiana University, Indianapolis, Indiana. He is Chair of the
Committee on Electronic Communication for the Wood Library-Museum.
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