Omnidirectional 3D Visualization for the Analysis of a Large-Scale Corpus: Tripitaka Koreana

Abstract

This paper presents the research and development of a new omnispatial visualization framework for the collaborative interrogation of the world's largest Buddhist textual canon, using the worlds' first panoramic stereoscopic visualization environment -the Advanced Visualization and Interaction Environment (AVIE). The work is being undertaken at a new research facility, The Applied Laboratory for Interactive Visualization and Embodiment (ALiVE), City University of Hong Kong. The dataset used is the Chinese Buddhist Canon, Koryo version (Tripitaka Koreana) inclassical Chinese, the with 52 million glyphs carved on 83,000 printing blocks in 13th century Korea. The digitized version of this Canon (a project led by University of California Berkeley) contains metadata that links to geospatial positions, contextual images of locations referenced in the text, and to the original rubbings of the wooden blocks. Each character has been abstracted to a 'blue dot' to enable rapid search and pattern visualization. Omnispatial refers to the ability to distribute this data in 360-degrees around the user where the virtually presented visual space is in three dimensions (3D). The project's omnidirectional interactive techniques for corpora representation and interrogation offer a unique framework for enhanced cognition and perception in the analysis of this dataset.