Date of Award

5-2008

Level of Access Assigned by Author

Campus-Only Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Computer Engineering

Advisor

Bruce Segee

Second Committee Member

Rick Eason

Third Committee Member

Yifeng Zhu

Abstract

Distributed displays make it possible to view data in a way that no commercially available product can. A 24-inch wide-aspect consumer LCD with a resolution of 1920x1200 can only display roughly 2.3 megapixels at once, far less than the data that even today's lowest grade consumer digital cameras can record. A modest distributed display created by combining sixteen 19-inch LCDs can yield a display capable of over 20 megapixels. High resolution display tools are often built with the latest hardware and high performance components which can make them very expensive. This thesis explores the details involved with creating distributed displays and shows that they can be created for a very reasonable expense. Bringing the concept of distributed visualization into the middle school classroom is also discussed. Thanks to a state funded program, all middle school students in the state of Maine have Apple iBook laptops. These laptops can be used as individual display tiles for a distributed display and provide the infrastructure for new and exciting learning opportunities for the students.

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