VIRTUAL VELLUM: online viewing environment for the Grid and Live Audiences

从事国际合作研究项目的艺术和人文学者通常需要相互咨询，以探讨共同感兴趣的问题（例如，肖像学的各个方面，离散的艺术历史特征，图像内容的定义，相似或相关图像的实时比较）。访问和数据网格提供了理想的框架（和计算能力），可以快速有效地处理如此大规模的高分辨率图像集合，允许对单个或并列（2+）图像进行实时特写检查，具有独立的缩放控制和其他功能，如热点定位，高亮显示和博客。这样的工具还不存在；开发它们是一项相当大但颇具吸引力的挑战。桌面工作需要一个强大但可定制的环境，配置以满足艺术与人文研究人员的特殊需求，并与不同类型的平台兼容。其次，在所有涉及图像的领域（手稿研究、艺术史、肖像学、戏剧、博物馆和画廊只是我想到的几个领域），学者们在会议上现场发表论文，或者在网上发表研讨会上引用图像（通常是为了对比），很大程度上依赖于ppt。尽管它很好，但它并没有为这种演示提供理想的工具，而且再一次缺少的是学者在设计过程中的积极参与。迫切需要一个更灵活、更健壮的观看环境，兼容Windows XP、Mac和Linux平台，使学者能够自信地展示论文，并能够快速、高效、灵活地操作图像文件。这样的环境可能会有额外的好处，鼓励学者使用休眠的数据集。

Arts and Humanities scholars working on international collaborative research projects involving large-scale image collections held on local and/or distributed databases often need to consult one another to explore questions of mutual interest (e.g. aspects of iconography, discrete art-historical features, definition of image content, real-time comparison of similar or related images). The Access and Data Grids afford the ideal framework (and computing power) for rapid and efficient handling of such large-scale collections of high-resolution images, permitting real-time close-up scrutiny of single or juxtaposed (2+) images, with independent zooming control and other functionalities such as hotspotting, highlighting and blogging. Such tools do not yet exist; to develop them poses a considerable but appealing challenge. A robust but customisable environment is needed for desktop working, configured to address the particular needs of Arts & Humanities researchers and compatible with different kinds of platform. Secondly, in all fields involving the image (manuscript studies, art history, iconography, theatre, museums and galleries are just a few that come to mind), scholars presenting papers live at conferences or delivering online seminars that incorporate reference to the image (typically for side-by-side comparison) are largely dependent on PowerPoint. Good as it is, it does not afford the ideal tool for such presentations, and once again what is missing is the active involvement of scholars in the design process. A more flexible, robust viewing environment is urgently needed, compatible with Windows XP, Mac and Linux platforms, to allow scholars to present papers with confidence in a manner which allows them to manipulate the image files quickly, efficiently and flexibly. Such an environment might have the additional benefit of encouraging scholars to use otherwise dormant datasets.