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PrincetonUniversity
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Senior research scholar and lecturer Ben Shedd
leads his class in front of the huge display wall
in the Frist Campus Center. Workers are putting the
finishing touches on the wall, while a student club
is deciding how best to use it.
• Scalable
Display Wall home
page
Photograph: Denise
Applewhite
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Imaginations drive
wall
Riddle: What part of the Frist Campus Center is
designed to be:
• a performance space as
well as a participant in performances;
• a bulletin board
announcing new events as well as a new event that
is being announced; and
• a product of computer
science research as well as a tool for scientific
research in fields from geosciences to
astrophysics?
Answer: The 18-foot section of
wall between the coffee shop and the main stairwell
on Frist's 100 level.
Known as "the digital
high-resolution display wall," the surface is
really a giant computer monitor, 18 feet wide by
6.75 feet high. Turned off, it is just a dark
expanse of wall. Switched on, the wall becomes a
lively display space driven by the imaginations of
those programming the computers behind it.
The Frist display wall grew out
of a longstanding research project in the computer
science department. Specialists in computer
architecture, programming and graphics have been
building larger, sharper and cheaper display walls,
while senior research scholar and lecturer Ben
Shedd has been developing innovative ways to use
the technology.
Two years ago, in his class
called "Visual and Audio Design for Large-Scale
Computer Displays," Shedd assigned students to
ponder how a display wall might be used in the
nascent campus center. Fueled by the enthusiasm of
students and administrators who saw their work,
this exercise developed into a working project.
Full
story in the Princeton Weekly Bulletin
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