NOVA of Great Interest at ETH Study Weeks

14 September 2007

Since September 2006 the three dimensional color display hovers high above the heads of passers-by at Zruch main station. On the first anniversary of its installation the ETH anniversary project received once more a lot of attention: as part of the ETH Study Weeks, organized by ETH Tools, Simon Schbiger explained the idea behind NOVA to a highly interested young audience.

By Katja Abrahams

More than 100 high school students from all over Switzerland were given insight into the creation and functionality of NOVA - a project developed at the Computer Graphics Laboratory at ETH Zurich. "10'000 users a month and an energy consumption equalling about 600 lightbulbs are pushing NOVA to the limit" says Simon Schubiger of the Institute for Computer Systems at ETH. "So it makes sense to view the project as a work of art, as a sort of relaxation point in the hectic atmosphere of the main station".

The cube-like display consists of 25'000 lightballs which in turn consist of 12 light diodes each. It displays 16 million colors and is provided with new image information at a frequency of 25 images per second. Next to two dimensional images, the display can also process three dimensional abstract contents. The basic idea of the project was conceived by graphic designer Parta Eberle who is the daughter of the project initiator Professor Meinrad Eberle.

Excellent Feedback after One Year on Display

After having been exposed as a gift to the public every day from 7a, to 10pm for a full year NOVA has stood its ground. Initially the project was envisaged as a passive installation, i.e. without interaction, however, the final version ended up with a touchscreen which can be manipulated from the meeting point at the main station. Research results of ETH institutes can be visualized and advertisements displayed: the "Digital Art Weeks" of the Department of Computer Science used NOVA to display an ad in regular intervals during the event's happening in July. A few months ago a new feature was installed which enables the users to become artists themselves (a popular feature among the listeners of Simon Schubiger's talk): by tracing a finger on the touchscreen colorful drawings can be made to appear on the display.

Interaction and Possible Applications

Art, the public and science will play a major role in the further development of the project: user-generated content such as MMS messages as well as visalizations of ground-breaking research results of international Nobel laureates will be displayed. According to Schubiger there are also intense negotiations with the Zurich University for the Arts under way to enable the up- and downlaod of movies. Additionally, students of the Depatrment of Computer Science at ETH will have the opportunity to make NOVA even more attractive by programming games and other applications that increase the interactivity ofthe project.

NOVA could also come to play a role at fairs or in modern architecture by morphing away from its cube-like shape. "Perhaps cities would be interested in more beautiful christmas decorations" Schubiger smiles during the presentation at the Dozentenfoyer.

Mini-NOVA on the Road

The study week participants - who dined at and enjoyed the beautiful view of the Dozentenfoyer after the presentation - are also somewhat enthusiastic about the NOVA concept, which was financed by sponsors, exclusively: "I find it very future-oriented that ETH seeks to communicate with both the industry and the public by assimilating ideas from artistic backgrounds as well" says one of the attendees who took the  "Algorithmic Adventures" course  offered by the Department of  Computer Science.

Soon high school students will have the opportunity to experience ETH technology firsthand and bring out the game-freaks: a miniature version of the color display - the Baby NOVA, containing 1000 spheres - will travel to Swiss high school as part of the "ETH on the Road" program in November 2007.

Project NOVA: http://www.nova.ethz.ch
ETH Study Weeks: http://www.ethtools.ethz.ch/projects/stdw