CAREER: Breakthrough Display Technology as a New Medium for Spatial Thinking in STEM

这个项目的目标是通过开发一种新型的3D显示作为空间推理的教学工具来提高人们对STEM的兴趣和能力。强大的空间推理能力对人类在科学和工程方面的许多最大进步都很重要。为了帮助教授这些技能，这项研究将开发一种与之前所有3D显示技术完全不同的显示平台。显示器使用光来捕获空气中的多个粒子，然后移动并照明这些捕获的粒子以绘制3D图像。我们认为这些“空间图像”是物理对象，因为它们实际上是空间中的物理对象。这些全彩色、高清晰度的图像可以从各个方向看到。这项技术首次使科幻小说中描绘的许多3D图像成为可能。除了直接纳入主要研究目标的对STEM教育的更广泛影响外，在首席调查员(PI)的监督下，一个本科生团队还将为来自工程专业人数较少群体的初中生和高中生设计一所名为“空间力量”的3D中心星期六学院，重点关注低收入和农村学生。这些学生将为微型博物馆制作互动、旋转的3D内容，旨在让他们的社区接触与当地相关的STEM主题(例如，保护美洲原住民文物、水源保护、当地猎鱼的生物学等)。该方案将包括向微型博物馆学习示范装置，并为其创造内容。作为学院体验的一部分，学生将接受情感能力和空间能力的评估，该计划的结果将由教育咨询委员会评估，并传播给当地和州外的合作伙伴。通过与犹他州干细胞行动中心的合作，将提供项目永续和扩展的机会。这项研究的长期目标是创造无眼镜、互动的3D环境，作为扩大人类能力和创造力的工具。PI最近的研究带来了一种新颖的、非全息的无屏幕3D显示方法，有可能通过使数据物理存在来改变我们与数据交互的方式。为此，当前项目的目标是创建和评估并行光学陷阱显示(OTD)作为空间思维的工具。一个多世纪以来，自由浮动的3D显示器一直是3D成像的“圣杯”。这种展示对许多信息可视化应用具有潜在的变革性；然而，可能具有最大潜在科学影响的应用领域将是空间思维，这一技能是历史上许多最伟大的科学成就的基础，也与对科学、技术和经济研究的兴趣和成就密切相关。PI的原型OTD是一种天生的空间3D技术，非常适合空间思维，目前能够绘制带有单个捕获粒子的小物体的全彩色、视频级图像。要获得更大的图像体积，将需要一种新的“并行”OTD方法，该方法从多个被捕获的粒子独立且同时照明来创建大体积OTD。这项工作的中心假设是，并行OTD将通过使数据成为物理的和交互的，从而更好地掌握空间概念(通过标准的空间思维测试来衡量)。为了验证这一假设，PI将优化单个粒子陷阱，开发至少两种并行显示方法(例如点陷阱阵列和线陷阱阵列)，并将并行OTD与基于屏幕的空间推理工具进行比较。并行OTD将能够提供全息术的所有3D视觉线索(容纳、视差，甚至潜在的遮挡)，而不受其限制(光圈限制和令人望而却步的计算复杂性)。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The goal of this project is to increase both interest and competence in STEM by developing a new type of 3D display as a tool for teaching spatial reasoning. Strong spatial reasoning skills have been important to many of humanity's greatest advances in science and engineering. To help teach these skills, this research will develop a display platform that is entirely different from all preceding 3D display technologies. The display uses light to trap multiple particles in air, then moves and illuminates these trapped particles to draw 3D images. We perceive these "spatial images" as physical objects because they are, in fact, physical objects in space. These full-color, high-definition images can be seen from every direction. The technology makes possible, for the first time, many of the 3D images portrayed in science fiction. In addition to the broader impacts for STEM education built directly into the primary research objective, a team of undergraduates under the supervision of the principal investigator (PI) will also design a 3D-centric Saturday academy called 'Spatial Forces' for middle and high school students from groups underrepresented in engineering, with a focus on low-income and rural students. These students will create interactive, revolving 3D content for a micro-museum aimed at exposing their communities to STEM topics of local relevance (e.g., preserving Native American artifacts, water conservation, the biology of native game fish, etc.). The programming will include learning from, and creating content for, demonstration installations to be incorporated into micro-museums. As part of the academy experience, students will be evaluated for both affect and spatial ability, and the results of the program will be assessed by an Education Advisory Board and disseminated to both local and out of state partners. Opportunities for program perpetuation and expansion will be provided through a collaboration with the UTAH Stem Action Center.The long-term goal of this research is to create glasses-free, interactive, 3D environments as tools to expand human capacity and creativity. The PI's recent research has led to a novel, non-holographic method of screenless 3D display with the potential to change how we interact with our data by making it physically present. To this end, the objective of the current project is to create and evaluate parallel optical trap displays (OTDs) as tools for spatial thinking. Free-floating 3D displays have been the "holy grail" of 3D imaging for over a century. Such a display would be potentially transformative for many information visualization applications; however, the application space with perhaps the greatest potential scientific impact would be that of spatial thinking, a skill that has been foundational to many of the greatest scientific achievements in history and which is also strongly associated with both interest and achievement in STEM. The PI's prototype OTD is a natively spatial 3D technology ideally suited to spatial thinking that is currently capable of drawing full-color, video-rate images of small objects with a single trapped particle. Achieving larger image volumes will require a new "parallel" OTD approach that creates a large volume OTD from multiple trapped particles illuminated independently and simultaneously. The central hypothesis of this work is that parallel OTDs will lead to better mastery of spatial concepts (as measured by standard spatial thinking tests) by making data physical and interactive. To test this hypothesis, the PI will optimize single particle traps, develop at least two parallel display methods (e.g. point trap array and line trap array), and compare parallel OTDs against screen-based tools for spatial reasoning. Parallel OTDs will be capable of providing all of the 3D visual cues of holography (accommodation, parallax, and potentially even occlusion) without being subject to its limitations (aperture constraints and prohibitive computational complexity).This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.