Volumetric Display Research Paper

Last week I completed a paper on Volumetric displays for my PC hardware and software administration class at TVI. The assignment was to research something about PCs and write an 8 to 9 page paper on it. The general expectation from the instructor was that the student would write about wireless networking, the PCI-Express bus, parallel processing and other topics appropos to PC hardware and sotware. My topic was a little bit out there and so I don't know how good of a grade I'll get for my paper. I have no regrets, however, as it offered me the opportunity to spend time researching and learning more about volumetric displays.

There was one big disappointment resulting from this paper. Back in February I discovered a great book I could use for my research: Volumetric Three-Dimensional Display Systems by Barry G. Blundell and Adam J. Schwarz. It's a textbook and it covers all the fundamentals of volumetric displays. It was the perfect book for my paper and so I decided to purchase it from Amazon. It cost over $130 but I figured it would be worth it not only for my paper but also for my own purposes. When I ordered the book, Amazon had the delivery date set for late March. It'll come late into my research work for the paper but it would still be useful. In the meantime I planned to get the rest of my research information from Google searchs and various web sites. Then the bad news came in early March: Amazon would not be able to deliver the book until April 20th at the earliest. ARRRRGH! The bastards! The paper was due April 4th! Now I had to do ALL of my research from the web.

Despite this disappointment, I was still able to get the information I needed for the paper. One thing about web reasearch is that is much more difficult than gleaning data from a book. First of all there is no definitive source for volumetric displays and I had to rely on a large variety of sources to get my information. Secondly, most web sites about volumetric displays tend to be fragmentary - they're only concerned with discussing a small aspect of a particular display, product or line of research. Worst of all, most of the sites assume that you are already knowledgeable in the area of volumetric displays or 3-D graphics and they tend to be infested with jargon, mathematics and incomprehensible prose. There appears to be no web site for volumetric n00Bs and laymen interested in the subject.

No doubt, as I coninue my academic career, I'll get better at gathering research information from the web. This apparent lack of a beginners guide for volumetric displays has enbolded me to put more effort in posting my findings on this blog. As I learn more, updating this blog will help me understand the topic better since it will force me to write down what I learn in my own words. Perhaps it will help anyone reading this blog. I can only hope.