Digital Media - the Faculty of Arts & Science - University of Toronto

Memorandum
Date: 31 March 2008
To: Council of Chairs, Principals and Academic Directors
From: Meric S. Gertler, FRSC
Interim Dean and Professor of Geography
Goldring Chair in Canadian Studies
Re: Digital Media
Sidney Smith Hall
100 St. George Street
Suite 2005
Toronto, ON M5S 3G3
Canada
Tel: 416-978-3383
Fax: 416-978-3887
www.artsci.utoronto.ca
CPAD # 68-2007-08
The provincial government has signaled Digital Media as a strategic priority in its research
programs (including MRI's ORF-RE) and is also promoting interdisciplinarity and interinstitutional
collaboration in research. The Vice President, Research office recently struck a
Working Group to identify strengths and synergies in the Digital Media domain at the University
of Toronto; the group has developed a compendium of activities that it hopes will be a useful
resource in helping identify partnerships and focusing applications for future development and
opportunities.
The compendium is a 'living' catalogue of digital media projects across all disciplines at the
university and we ask that you distribute the attached document to your faculty and to ask them
to review their entries and to alert us to any relevant research activities that have been missed.
Please send your comments to Paul Young's attention at vp.research@utoronto.ca and copy to
Rob Baker at vicedean.graduate@utoronto.ca.

University of Toronto
Professor R. Paul Young, Ph.D., FRSC
Vice-President, Research
The University of Toronto
Research and Innovation in Digital Media Convergence
In early 2008, University of Toronto President, David Naylor and Vice-President, Research, Paul Young, began
an initiative to develop a framework document for understanding digital media research at this institution, partly
in response to the government’s Science and Technology strategic priorities document. As part of this effort, the
office of the Vice President, Research (VPR) has begun an initiative to develop a ‘living’ catalogue of digital
media projects across all disciplines at the University of Toronto.
To help in this effort, a Working Group was formed (Appendix 1) to begin the process of identifying the depth,
breadth and strengths of research and innovation in the digital media domain at the University of Toronto. An
initial draft (as of March 20) is attached (Appendix 2). It is intended to demonstrate how individual, identified
strengths might map into the broader digital media scene, not only institutionally, but globally.
UofT is a powerhouse of digital media-related research sector-wide with active research funding in this area
exceeding $80M, which we have only begun to map. We recognize that the catalogue of researchers and
projects presented here is by no means exhaustive (Appendix 3). We are now looking to you to review your own
entry and to alert us to research that we have missed. We would also hope that you forward the information to
others at UofT whom you feel would benefit from being part of this initiative.
As government research programs, including MRI’s ORF-RE, begin to focus on Digital Media as a strategic
priority, and as government at the same time are promoting interdisciplinarity and inter-institutional
collaboration in research, we hope that this compendium will be a useful resource to you in helping identify
partnerships and focusing applications for the next transformative step.
The VPR office will be setting up a Digital Media workshop shortly to bring researchers together to discuss
opportunities and strategies in this sector. One of the VPR office priorities is to create compendiums of research
at UOT that map into the government Science and Technology Strategy and Digital Media is our first attempt. I
welcome any comments and suggestions you may have to make this document of value to you and your
colleagues.
Best wishes
Professor R. Paul Young Ph.D., FRSC
Vice-President, Research
University of Toronto
Simcoe Hall, Room 109
27 King's College Circle
Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 1A1
Telephone: 416-978-4984
Email: vp.research@utoronto.ca
Web: www.research.utoronto.ca
Simcoe Hall, 27 King’s College Circle, Rm 109,Toronto ON, M5S 1A1 tel: 416-978-4649, fax: 416-971-2647

Professor R. Paul Young
Vice-President, Research
University of Toronto
vp.research@utoronto.ca
Appendix 1
U of T DIGITAL MEDIA WORKING GROUP
Professor Stewart Aitchison
Vice-Dean, Research
Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering
stewart.aitchison@utoronto.ca
Professor Robert Baker
Acting Vice-Dean, Graduate Education and Research
Faculty of Arts & Science
rbaker@eeb.utoronto.ca
Professor Patricia Brubaker
Acting Vice-Dean, Research and International Relations
Faculty of Medicine
p.brubaker@utoronto.ca
Professor Meric Gertler
Interim Dean, Faculty of Arts & Science
gertler@geog.utoronto.ca
Professor Robert Gibbs
Director, Jackman Humanities Institute
rb.gibbs@utoronto.ca
Professor Ulli Krull
Vice-Dean, Graduate & Vice-Principal, Research
University of Toronto at Mississauga
ukrull@utm.utoronto.ca
Professor Carole Moore
Chief Librarian
carole.moore@utoronto.ca
Professor Brian Cantwell Smith
Dean, Faculty of Information Studies
brian.cantwell.smith@utoronto.ca
Linda Vranic
Director of Operations
Office of the Vice-President, Research
l.vranic@utoronto.ca
3/28/2008

University of Toronto
Office of the Vice-President, Research
Appendix 2: Digital Media Overview
The University of Toronto: Research and Innovation in Digital Media
The University of Toronto’s unparalleled depth and breadth in digital media expertise positions it
to be a key leader in propelling GTA strength in digital media to new heights—delivering great
economic, cultural, and social value to the region, the Province, and Canada.
A) The digital revolution
At first there was oral culture—the origins of human creativity, communication, and
comprehension. Call it Knowledge 1.0. A few thousand years later, with the development of
writing, Knowledge 2.0 emerged: massive new patterns of communication, methods of thought,
means of expression, and forms of social organization, catalyzed by writing and its evolution into
print. Knowledge 3.0 is the new structure of knowledge and culture being unleashed by the rise
of digital media. The magnitude of the social, cultural, creative, and economic transformation
from Knowledge 2.0 to Knowledge 3.0—from written to digital culture—will be unprecedented,
exceeding even that from an oral to a written society.
Digital media seamlessly combine all aspects of human communication, creativity, knowledge,
and expression—text, sound, images, animations, film, visualizations, models, simulations—
allowing users to explore content in customized, multi-dimensional ways. From entertainment to
surgical imaging, from video games to electronic publication, from animation to telepresence,
digital approaches span the entire realm of human endeavor. Health, the arts, pure and applied
science, engineering, culture, politics, economics, governance, public policy—not a corner of
society remains unaffected. New media lead to new technologies, overturning the boundaries of
traditional disciplines. New insights, practices, institutions, and social configurations arise from
the mastery of digital media.
For the GTA to compete successfully in the digital world, its digital media initiatives and efforts
must be more coordinated, more innovative, more synergistic. Power in digital media doesn’t
arise from a series of discrete projects: successful efforts build on complex interactions, assemble
a wide range of skills, pursue constantly evolving opportunities. A successful sector must be both
deep, leveraging all requisite dimensions of technical expertise, and broad, spanning a wide
range of industries, sectors and academic disciplines.
The University of Toronto is one of a few premier academic institutions in the GTA with worldclass
depth and breadth in digital media innovation. By exploiting deep veins of expertise,
nourishing productive interactions, and creating focal points for synergy and innovation, the
University is poised to leverage knowledge across the GTA and beyond into a strong global
presence in this vibrant new sector—helping to build capacity, create jobs, attract investment,
and serve as an engine of economic growth.

Draft — Version 4.0 Page 2 March 20, 2008
B) Getting to the Next Level
Figure 1 — Possible Structure of UofT Digital Media Strengths
To understand the diversity and evolution of digital media research at the University of Toronto,
the Working Group developed a structural model (Figure 1) to depict the scope of UofT digital
media projects, and demonstrate how they mesh with the needs of the emerging digital world.
Clusters were classified into three layers, on which successful digital innovation is built. While
some projects will span layers, the grouping has three main advantages: it is comprehensible; it
recognizes the crucial role of human, as well as technological infrastructure; and it more or less
corresponds to the attached catalogue (Appendix 3).
1. Applications: This “top level” of digital media is the most visible. It is where programming,
services, architectures, hardware, and interfaces come together in specific combinations—to
meet end users’ needs and interests.
2. Human infrastructure: The digital world demands that data, information and interfaces be
structured in ways that let users find, use and move through material seamlessly and simply.
More profoundly, human practices of organizing, maintaining, using, and deploying digital
media are playing an increasing role in the deployment of usable media systems and services.
3. Core technology: The delivery of digital media relies on appropriate devices, networks,
components, platforms, software and technical protocols, with a growing need for the
capacity to deliver content across a range of outlets.

Draft — Version 4.0 Page 3 March 20, 2008
Ontario’s competitors in the digital media sector are focusing increasingly on building capability,
not just in applications, but in the essential layers of core technology and human infrastructure on
which innovation depends. They are also looking at how best to ensure the necessary linkages
between and among layers to develop fully integrated applications. The University of Toronto
can contribute to helping Ontario achieve these steps. We have in-depth abilities in all three
layers, an understanding of how to build linkages among them, and knowledge of how to move
ideas to the marketplace. These attributes are all critical to continuing Ontario’s leadership in the
digital media sector. By bringing diverse digital resources and other inputs into the innovation
process together through a convergence centre, the University would build on current efforts by:
• Providing access to its entire body of expertise, working in partnership and collaboration
with other institutions, researchers and organizations;
• Providing a forum for pinpointing and helping to bridge gaps between the aspirations of
developers and success in bringing products and services to the marketplace; and
• Providing convergence at the intersection of industry, government and academia in the
global evolution to a digital age
Strength in digital media requires not just a thorough understanding of how the digital experience
is changing the world, but the ability to turn that understanding into tangible results. Digital
media is a key research theme, not only across the U of T, but also at partner institutions.
Activities span a wide range of disciplines and academic units, covering topics from e-health to
multimedia display, media policy to religious studies, mobile computing to digital humanities.
The power of the U of T and its sister institutions across the province doesn’t come just from
leading-edge applications in diverse areas. It also stems from the depth of the resources the
University can deploy to develop hardware, software, architectures, applications, and services in
ways that are innovative, responsive, sustainable and responsible to societal needs.
C) Bringing it all together
Inspiring, creating, capturing, teaching, and disseminating knowledge are core functions of
educational institutions. Integrating knowledge and know-how, and moving the resulting
practices, products and services to the places they will best serve society are equally important.
Our collective challenge is to assemble the wide variety of digital media expertise distributed
throughout the GTA and more widely and, from that base, deploy the insights, teams, projects,
platforms, and visions necessary to drive the innovation agenda forward. By developing an
integrated digital media initiative, built on a wide-ranging spectrum of deep forms of
expertise, which identifies and overcome any areas of weakness, recognizes project overlaps and
synergistic potential, nourishes untapped potential, determines opportunities for vertical
integration, and by making shrewd use of scarce resources, putting researchers into closer and
more productive contact with other innovators, institutions, government, private-sector

Draft — Version 4.0 Page 4 March 20, 2008
technology users, and investors in the sector, we can propel the GTA, Ontario, and Canada to a
proud place of digital media leadership on the world stage.
D) Conclusion
The University of Toronto is poised to lead and eager to assist Ontario in its commitment to use
digital media as a Provincial driver of innovation and prosperity. With the incredible wealth of
regional repositories in the world of knowledge and expertise, and with an unsurpassed breadth
of scholarship, the province can marshal the needed research resources to find solutions in any of
the areas in which digital applications can serve society, and do so quickly and nimbly.

U of T Digital Media: Catalogue (Draft as of March 20, 2008 - in Progress)
Appendix 3: Catalogue
DIGITAL MEDIA RESEARCH AND INNOVATION
AT THE UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO
In recent public comments by the Premier and other representatives of the Ontario government,
the Digital Media and ICT sector has been identified as a priority for research and innovation
funding. Clusters within this ‘creative industries’ sector have further been identified as Video
Gaming; Film Production/Post Production; Financial Services; ePublic Services; eHealth
applications in information management, diagnostics and treatment; Educational applications in
course content and delivery; Software development; Hardware development, including optical,
wireless and satellite networks.
Digital Media is a key research theme within the University of Toronto and there are many
activities across the disciplines and academic units covering topics that are a priority for the
provincial and federal governments. Part of the challenge is to try to understand, in addition to
the individual research pockets, what being digital enables in terms of the creation, production
and distribution practices, which are new, global, and potentially transformative across all
sectors, organizations and institutions of society.
U of T is a powerhouse of digital media-related research sector-wide. The challenge is to focus
on government priorities, while remaining cognizant of the underlying strengths that will allow
us as an institution to respond to changing strategic government and industry priorities and
realign our own to anticipate and match these. For the purpose of addressing the current set of
government priority areas, digital media research at the University of Toronto has been grouped
under the general headings of Multimedia, Culture and Entertainment; eHealth applications;
Digital Media Technologies (engineering architecture); ePublic Services; Educational
applications. The list is by no means exhaustive, but meant to give some sense of the breadth
and depth of the research across the University of Toronto.
I MULTIMEDIA, CULTURE AND ENTERTAINMENT
UT RESEARCHERS INCLUDE: Prof. P. Aarabi (CRC); Rodolphe el-Khoury (CRC); Ron
Deibert; Wendy Duff; Meric Gertler; Prof. D. Hatzinakos; Stephen Hockema; Rodney Hoinkes;
Louis Kaplan; K.N. Plataniotis; Karan Singh; Lisa Steele; Jutta Treviranus; Nick Woolridge;
Prof. K. Plataniotis; Prof. B. Liang; Prof. D. Kundur; Ulli Krull
PROJECTS INCLUDE:
CONCERT: The Consortium on New Media, Creative, and Entertainment R&D
http://kmdi.utoronto.ca/research/CONCERT_overview.pdf in the Toronto Region - a unique
industry-led public-private partnership that will help fuel commercialization and the economic
development of the Greater Toronto Area’s (GTA) creative, entertainment, and screen-based
industries. CONCERT was formed to drive innovation within these industries by sparking
collaborative relationships and infrastructure within the GTA. Led by York University,

U of T Digital Media: Catalogue in progress
CONCERT now consists of almost 30 partners drawn from industry, academia, government, and
4th pillar organizations. The 16 members UofT Academic Researcher Working Group, brought
together by KMDI, includes a broad range of faculty from 9 university divisions and 13
departments or faculties across three campuses. Unlike many other universities and colleges
participating in CONCERT, UofT does not have a single place or even a few places where
research relevant to CONCERT is concentrated. The nature of the research carried out varies
across these faculties along a number of dimensions, and the focus of individual researchers
ranges from theory to applications. Interest and experience with commercialization also varies
widely.
The Multimedia Communications Laboratory is comprised of over twenty faculty members,
researchers and students. Founded in 2002 by Professor D. Hatzinakos, The Multimedia
Communications Lab (MCL) is focused on the research and development of leading associated
technologies (DSP, Communications, networking) for the non-real and real time delivery of
multimedia information to a remote location. The Lab builds on its outstanding achievements
and international reputation to accelerate advances in emerging multimedia industries and
produces research focused on the development of leading technologies for the
telecommunications, information technology and entertainment sectors.
Affiliated Faculty: Prof. D. Hatzinakos, Prof. K. Plataniotis, Prof. B. Liang, Prof. D. Kundur.
Arius 3D Visualization Laboratory (http://www.arius3d.com/):
A partnership with Arius3D; Arius 3D technology creates digital imaging solutions that enable
organizations to research, present, and share unique physical objects in digital form. The
Arius3D three dimensional color scanner and Pointstream imaging software support wide
ranging applications in culture and heritage, research, education and entertainment.
Affiliated Faculty: Prof. U. Krull
The MediaGenerator @ UTM (http://www.mediagenerator.ca/new/) is designed to foster and
promote student production, distribution, and experimentation with digital media with the help of
University of Toronto graduate student facilitators. The Media Generator is a co-curricular
activity geared towards the digital media age. The Media Generator is a joint project of ICC and
KMDI . It has space in the CCIT building, including CCT Room 3135, access to digital media
studios and to the Astra-Zeneca Technology Room in the new Academic Learning Centre.
The CulturAll 2.0 Network (http://culturall.atrc.utoronto.ca), led by the ATRC with 12 partners
across Canada, is a national multi-sector research network exploring innovative approaches,
tools and strategies to ensure that everyone in Canada can participate in the Canadian cultural
exchange online. As the Web becomes a participatory forum for bidirectional communication,
social networking, cultural exchange and collaborative cultural production, it is even more
important that people with disabilities not be excluded. Through strategic applied research the
CulturAll 2.0 Network works to make certain that inclusive design becomes a naturally
integrated component of Web 2.0 technologies and acts as a catalyst for innovation and creativity.
Through pioneering exemplars, the network reaffirms that advances that benefit people with
disabilities, benefit all Canadians. Subprojects include: (a) Toolkit for Accessible Web 2.0; (b)
Accessible Mobile Web 2.0; (c) Accessible Frameworks for Determining Credibility and
Trustworthiness; and (d) Implementation and Evaluation

U of T Digital Media: Catalogue in progress
OpenCollection (a collaboration between UofT's
T ATRC, the Museum of Moving Image, Whirli-Gig,
and Information Services and Technology at UC Berkeley) is a project to research and
develop a web-based, open source collections management software application to be used by
museums, libraries, and archives. OpenCollection supports the cataloging of physical objects,
media, and native digital content, and meets the needs of large heterogeneous collections that (1)
have complex cataloging requirements and (2) require support for a range of metadata and media
formats. OpenCollection explores the use of standard web browsers, and open source tools and
processes to make cataloging and online access to collections information more accessible.
Centre for Digital Curation: Building on its long tradition of strength in digital archives, The
Faculty of Information Studies is launching a Digital Curation Centre, bringing together
multidisciplinary support to explore bringing digital technologies, resources, and practices to the
archiving of cultural resources in the Digital Age. The Centre will be developed in conjunction
with the planned (and AIF-funded) expansion of the Museum Studies Program, which is also in
the throws of adjusting its practices to the digital world. The aim is to explore and develop
theoretical models, practical proposals, and best practices for digital archiving of culture’s
creative expressions, whether in print, performance, or material form.
The McLuhan Program's http://www.mcluhan.utoronto.ca/about_history.htm mandate is to
encourage understanding of the effects of technology on culture and society from theoretical and
practical perspectives, and thus to continue the ground-breaking work initiated by Marshall
McLuhan. To this end, the Program offers courses, conducts and supports research, and draws
together members of the University community whose interests lie in the inter- and transdisciplinary
studies of communications, culture and technology. Through its research, course
offerings, publications, speaking engagements, and experimentation in new and old media, the
Program serves as an enabling connective force among the University of Toronto, other
academic institutions throughout the world, governments, industry, artists of all types and the
general public.
Bringing Canada to the world. The University of Toronto Libraries have worked with external
partners to share our collections of Canadian heritage with the world online. More than fifteen
thousand Canadian texts, photographs, maps, diaries, and other archival materials have been
digitized; much more remains to be done.
Some of our digital collections help tell the story of Canada’s exploration and settlement.
The Barren Lands: J.B. Tyrrell's Expeditions for the Geological Survey of Canada, 1892-
1894. (http://link.library.utoronto.ca/tyrrell/ ) documents two exploratory surveys of northern
Manitoba, Saskatchewan and the area now known as Nunavut. Based on the archives of the
geologist J.B. Tyrrell and his brother James, it includes 5,000 images from original field
notebooks, correspondence, photographs, maps and published reports.
The Champlain Society site (http://link.library.utoronto.ca/champlain/search.cfm), created
by the Libraries for the Champlain Society, holds 83 of the Champlain Society's most important
volumes (more than 41,000 printed pages) dealing with exploration and discovery over three

U of T Digital Media: Catalogue in progress
centuries. It includes first-hand accounts of Samuel de Champlain's voyages in New France as
well as the diary from Sir John Franklin's first land expedition to the Arctic, 1819-22.
The Labrador Inuit Through Moravian Eyes
(http://link.library.utoronto.ca/inuitmoravian/) site, a joint project with Memorial University
of Newfoundland and Bibliothêque de l'Université Laval, documenting the 250-year relationship
between Moravian missionaries and the Inuit of Labrador.
Other collections document the cultural and historical fabric of Canada.
Canadian Pamphlets and Broadsides (http://link.library.utoronto.ca/broadsides/) is a
collection of pre-1930 Canadian broadsides and pamphlets. Many, now rare, pamphlets
document wide swathes of Canadian life ranging from election pamphlets to theatrical bills,
from religious tracts to the government brochures that promoted immigration and pioneering
settlement. The collections also reflect our scientific heritage.
The Discovery and Early Development of Insulin, 1920-1925
http://link.library.utoronto.ca/insulin/ documents the initial period of the discovery and
development of insulin, at the University of Toronto. It presents over seven thousand pages
ranging from laboratory notebooks and charts, correspondence, writings, and published papers to
photographs, awards, clippings, scrapbooks, printed ephemera and artifacts.
Among our contemporary collections is the
Canadian Poetry and Poets site (http://www.library.utoronto.ca/canpoetry/), housing the
poetry, biographies, and bibliographies of over seventy poets. It also provides information about
literary events and awards, Canadian poetry journals and magazines, other poetry sites, and other
related resources.
Sharing our research collections worldwide:
A great diversity of internationally significant research and archival collections are held at the
University of Toronto. By digitizing these collections we both benefit researchers worldwide and
support
Ontario and the U of T as a locus of international research.
The Lexicons of Early Modern English (http://leme.library.utoronto.ca/) tell us what
speakers of English thought about their tongue in the period 1480-1702. Edited by Prof. Ian
Lancashire, this publication contains over half a million word entries in 150 searchable lexicons,
supported by extensive primary and secondary bibliographies.
The Wenceslaus Hollar Digital Collection (http://link.library.utoronto.ca/hollar/) features
over 2500 of the prints of Wenceslaus Hollar (1607-1677), a great master of the art of etching.
The lion’s share of Hollar’s work was produced in and about his adopted England, but his artistic
interest was broad ranging and the site also includes religious and historical prints, maps,
portraits, costumes, and natural history.
Anatomia 1522-1867: Anatomical Plates from the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library
(http://link.library.utoronto.ca/anatomia/) features approximately 4500 full page plates and

U of T Digital Media: Catalogue in progress
other significant illustrations of human anatomy, from 1522 to 1867. It is a fascinating record
both of the history of medicine and of illustration.
REED Patrons and Performances, (http://link.library.utoronto.ca/reed/), produced in
support of the Records of Early English Drama research project , documents the movements of
professional performers of all kinds in England and Wales as they toured to provincial towns,
monasteries and private residences before 1642,.
Mexican Political Pamphlets, 1808-1832
(http://link.library.utoronto.ca/mexicanpamphlets/) is one of the most important research
collections and archival sources pertaining to the independence movement in Mexico, 1789-1828.
Compiled by the late Prof. James McKegney, the collection contains a database of more than
11,000 citations and over 1,150 pamphlets. A sister collection, pertaining to the Cuban
revolution, has yet to be funded for digitization.
Toronto Korean Language Newspapers
(http://link.library.utoronto.ca/eal/web/digitization/korean/) provides two significant
newspapers: The Minjoong Shinmoon (Jan. 1982; Jan. 1989 - Mar. 1993) and The New Korea
Times (May 1982 - May 2003). The collection features approximately 7,420 pages. This
digitization project was an international collaborative project funded by the National Institute of
Korean History.
II eHEALTH INNOVATION AND APPLICATIONS IN MANAGEMENT, DIAGNOSTICS
AND TREATMENT
UT RESEARCHERS INCLUDE: Ron Baecker; David Bazett-Jones (CRC); Andrea Kassner
(CRC); Stuart Foster (CRC); Alex Jadad (CRC); Cheryl Grady (CRC); Mark Henkelman (CRC);
Shitij Kapur (CRC); Christopher Chan; Diane Doran; Elza Marziali; K. Plataniotis; D.
Hatzinakos; M. Popovic; Aviv Shachak; Linda Wilson-Pauwels; Steve Easterbrook; K Wilson
PROJECTS INCLUDE:
Cities, Health, and Neighbourhood GEomatics (CHANGE): Director Kathi Wilson’s research
interests include health, access to health care, and the links between neighbourhood physical and
social environments and health. Her research involves the use of both qualitative and quantitative
methods and is heavily dependent on GIS.
STEPping Stones: A Blended Learning Program for the Breast Cancer Survivorship
Transition to Employment Project (STEP) is a partnership between KMDI members and the
Breast Cancer Survivorship Program at Princess Margaret Hospital. This $70,000, 3-year project
is funded by Canadian Council on Learning, Work and Learning Program. The goal of this
research project is to create and evaluate an innovative blended learning program designed to
assist breast cancer survivors reintegrate into the workforce during and after their cancer journey.
STEPping Stones innovates on several levels. The project extends the PMH Survivorship
Program’s educational offerings by creating STEP as a training course on the transition back to
work. This project further supports patient-centred learning by the addition of adaptive online

U of T Digital Media: Catalogue in progress
learning. The model holds significant promise of applicability across a range of contexts,
including other programs for cancer survivors, and those living with other chronic diseases.
Health Informatics: In collaboration with HPME and the Centre for Global eHealth Innovation,
FIS is developing 3 projects: (i) End-user support in the implementation of Electronic Health
records in family health care: a case study of early adopters, to understand the influence of
support - broadly construed to include formal/informal, personal/impersonal sources, various
activities and characteristics on the quality, use and impact of EHRs; (ii) Patient-doctor
communication in EHR settings, and (iii) Educational interventions for facilitating
physicians use of web-based resources for patient education, with potential international
collaboration with Amitai Ziv (Tel-Aviv University and Israel Center for Medical Simulation).
Laboratory for Collaborative Diagnostics http://www.lcd.utoronto.ca/node Canada's current
diagnostic system is outdated. Access to highly skilled diagnosticians is difficult and slow. The
Laboratory for Collaborative Diagnostics has been developing a new model for over two years.
The goal of this model is to use modern communications technology to link Canada's
diagnosticians to where they are needed using very inexpensive PC technology-(which is easily
available across the country and around the world)-and commodity electronics. For example
using the LCD's Malaria TV pilot project, suspected cases of Malaria can be diagnosed in hours
instead of days regardless of where you are in the country. The reason is that the LCD
technology will link Canada's malaria experts to where they are needed using the Internet and
cheap, ubiquitous PC technology. For example last year there were suspected cases of malaria in
New Brunswick. New Brunswick's malaria diagnostic capability is limited therefore it took
several days for malaria to be discounted. The process of eliminating malaria was not cheap.
However if the LCD's Malaria TV platform was used, malaria could have been discounted in
minutes. This is just the opening round in getting new ideas and technology into Canada's health
care system.
Internet Multimedia Technology to Support Alzheimer’s Caregivers and Families:
Professors Baecker and Elsa Marziali are just completing this 3-year grant from the U.S.
Alzheimer’s Association. Baecker, Dr. Sandra Black, Eyal DeLara , Elizabeth Rochon (Speech
and Language Therapy), and David Ryan have begun work on a BUL Grant entitled Contextaware
Mobile Devices and Wireless Services as Cognitive Aids for Senior Citizens. Finally,
Baecker, Black, and Stern from the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons
have received a $100,000 gift from Microsoft Research Cambridge (UK) in Support of Research
Comparing and Contrasting SenseCam “External Episodic Visual Memories” with Authored
Multimedia Biographies.
III DIGITAL MEDIA TECHNOLOGIES
UT RESEARCHERS INCLUDE: Prof. P. Aarabi, Ron Baecker; Prof. Andrew Clement; Brian
Cantwell Smith, Prof. G. Hinton, Prof. F. Kschischang, Prof. R. Neal, Prof. S. Roweis, Prof. R.
Zemel. Eyal DeLara; Steve Easterbrook; Stuart Aitchison; Stephen Hockema; Gale Moore;
Renee Miller; John Mylopoulos; Jun Luo; Stephen Hockema; Dwayne Miller; Cynthia Goh;
Dilip Soman; Jutta Treviranus; Luis Seco; Anthony K.P. Wensley; David Zweig; Ravi Adve;
Prof. E. Sousa; Ron Deibert; Hans-Arno Jacobsen; Ulli Krull; B. Moldofsky; I. Lancashire;

U of T Digital Media: Catalogue in progress
Baochun Li; Peter Marbach; Eric Yu; Ron Baecker; Prof. I. F. Blake, Prof. A. Chan Carusone,
Prof. B. J. Frey, Prof. P. G. Gulak, Prof. F. R. Kschischang, Prof. S. Pasupathy, Prof. A.
Sheikholeslami, Prof. W. Yu, Prof. A. Leon-Garcia; Prof. E. Sousa, Prof. R. Adve, Prof. D.
Kundur, Prof. T. J. Lim.
PROJECTS INCLUDE:
TransformAble: Based on the premise that disability is a mismatch between the needs of the
individual and the environment or service offered, the ATRC is pioneering a personal
optimization approach to accessibility to address this mismatch. Developed in partnership with
Sakai, IMS Global Learning Consortium and WGBH, TransformAble is a research platform to
explore the viability of this approach in an elearning environment. TransformAble is a set of
Web services that can be used by any suitable Web application to deliver a more accessible and
customizable user experience. The TransformAble services modify a site's user interface and
content resources in order to accommodate the individual needs and preferences of each user.
These services enable Web sites to optimize their appearance, layout, and structure. Thus the
project harnesses and enhances the plasticity of computer-mediated systems to match the
education delivery to the needs of each learner.
Institute for Optical Sciences The Institute for Optical Sciences is an advanced technology
facility composed of full time scientists and technologists with 4,000 square feet of laboratory
space and a wide range of specialized equipment. The mandate is to act as a technology bridge
between university research and industry to transfer technology into industry, develop industrial
capabilities and highly qualified personnel. The Institute is part of the University of Toronto and
was transferred from Photonics Research Ontario in April 2004, where it had operated since
1988. The staff members of the IOS have extensive experience in working with industry and
have access to University Faculty members who are world experts in their respective fields. The
IOS areas of expertise include fiber optics, high powered lasers, ultra-fast lasers, spectroscopy,
surface characterization, optical design, optical simulation and laser microprocessing. Services
include, contract research, feasibility studies, prototype development, instrument testing, rental
use of specialized instruments and laboratories and optical training. Affiliated Faculty include:
Dwayne Miller, Cynthia Goh
http://www.optics.utoronto.ca/index.php?module=pagemaster&PAGE_user_op=view_page
&PAGE_id=3&MMN_position=6:6
e-Presence Interactive Media is the world’s first open source webcasting, web conferencing,
and rich media archiving system. Research and development of the ePresence system began in
2000 when Ron Baecker (CS) and Gale Moore (SOC) were initially funded by Bell University
Laboratories. Research on ePresence, the use of ePresence for research and its experimental use
in the Collaborative Program as well as other UofT classrooms is ongoing. In 2006/2007, the
Provost and various units of the University of Toronto contributed $17,000 to support an
experiment in using ePresence to enable a multi-campus distributed course. In 2007 the
University’s Student Experience Fund awarded $50,000 to ePresence Interactive Media to
prototype an automated electronic ePresence classroom so the team could continue to use and
evaluate the technology in undergraduate computer science classes. Collaborations with the
African Studies program at New College is planned and work is also underway on developing

U of T Digital Media: Catalogue in progress
technology for automating lecture capture across the St. George campus. e-Presence Open
Source Consortium was established to distribute and support the project, while at the same time
providing an additional revenue stream. Today there are over 30 subscription-based members in
the Consortium. Members are located in Europe, United States, South America, and Canada, and
represent a variety of organizations including universities, medical schools, hospitals, research
institutes, and private corporations. At UofT e-Presence is being used in 5 divisions, and four
hospitals
Dojo (http://dojotoolkit.org/): To address the inclusive design of next-generation online digital
media, the ATRC is working with industry partners including, IBM, SitePen, W3C, the Dojo
Foundation, and the open source community to build accessibility into the Dojo toolkit, one of
the leading libraries used to build Web 2.0 digital media applications. Dojo enables developers to
build rich, highly-interactive online media, and the ATRC's work will ensure that this new media
is useable by everyone. This work is supported by the Mozilla Foundation and IBM.
Large Scale Parallel Processing: The interconnection of up 25 Apple computers is presently
being implemented as a test system that will likely scale to over 200 machines in the CCT
Building. This will provide computing power for modeling and visualization.
Affiliated Faculty include: Ulli Krull and Joe Lim
National Microelectronics and Photonics Testing
http://www.eecg.utoronto.ca/~gulak/adsl.html
Four Laboratories will make modern test and measurement instrumentation available to
researchers at the host site and other Canadian universities via the Internet. Both on-site and
remote access will be provided. Each laboratory will have full-time technical support;
education/training, maintenance/ calibration, scheduling, etc. Collaboratory funded by Canadian
Foundation for Innovation. Four Advanced Test Laboratories: Digital SoC (Toronto); Photonics
(Queen's); Mixed Signal (McGill); RF (mm-wave) (Manitoba)
The Communication Algorithms Laboratory provides an environment for the development of
new information- and signal-processing algorithms from conception to implementation in
software or hardware. Recent projects have focussed on implementation of new coding and
modulation schemes for wireless, copper wireline, and fibre-optic communication systems.
Affiliated Faculty: Prof. I. F. Blake, Prof. A. Chan Carusone, Prof. B. J. Frey, Prof. P. G. Gulak,
Prof. F. R. Kschischang, Prof. S. Pasupathy, Prof. A. Sheikholeslami, Prof. W. Yu.
Clapboard: As a project of its new Coach House Institute, the Faculty of Information Studies is
designing and developing an open-source architecture and web-based platform for collaborative
research, based on an ontology for documents, bibliographies, annotation, and discussion. The
system will facilitate online peer-review, electronic publication, annotated bibliographies, critical
commentary, threaded discussions, etc. It is supported by funds from CFI and CRC.
Digital Identity Constructions: Funded by SSHRC Initiative in the New Economy (INE) with
additional support from the Office of the Privacy Commissioner, this FIS project is investigating
the development of various forms of personal digital identities, including through the creation of
biometric ID documents, workplace surveillance and on-line interactions. Currently it is
developing an privacy enhancing toolbar extension for the open-source Firefox browser.

U of T Digital Media: Catalogue in progress
Accessibility Checker (http://checker.atrc.utoronto.ca/index.html), led by Jutta Treviranus and
Chris Ridpath of the ATRC, is a digital media resource system that demonstrates how web pages
may be checked for accessibility problems and a research platform to demonstrate and evaluate
automatic accessibility checks or testing algorithms. The accessibility checks in this system are
based upon the proposed Open Accessibility Checks (OAC), a universal series of tests that may
be applied to HTML pages to determine their compliance with accessibility standards. The
ATRC leads an international initiative to advance and harmonize accessibility checking and
repair.
Knowledge Media Design Institute (KMDI) Since its creation within the Graduate School in
1996, the Knowledge Media Design Institute has become the University of Toronto's focal point
for innovative cross-disciplinary research and scholarship dealing with digital media - design,
applications, and implications. Knowledge Media (KM) are a broad class of media and media
technologies designed to support and enhance the ability of people, groups and communities to
work, learn, play, and create knowledge. The Institute is a leader in fostering tri-campus, crossdivisional,
cross-disciplinary research and teaching at the University of Toronto. Its agenda is to
work across the disciplines and divisions as a virtual institute, to do research on collaboration
and computer mediated environments, and to ask how ‘putting people first’, or how taking a
human-centred approach could inform the design of technologies and policy. Working at the
intersection of technology, design and the social and human sciences, the Institute designs, builds,
uses and evaluates a variety of knowledge media and knowledge media technologies in ways that
respect people and their practices
Gnome Onscreen Keyboard (GOK) (http://www.gok.ca/), led by the ATRC’s Jutta Treviranus
and David Bolter, aims to enable users to control their computer without having to rely on a
standard keyboard or mouse. Many individuals have limited voluntary movements and must
control the computer using alternative input methods. These input methods may be controlled by
actions such as blowing and sipping to activate a pneumatic switch, an eye blink and/or directed
gaze with an eye tracking system, head movement, muscle contractions or limb movements.
Using innovative dynamic keyboard strategies, and leveraging Gnome 2's built-in accessibility
framework, the GOK will make control more efficient for these users, and enable use of the
Gnome 2 desktop for some users who otherwise would have no access to Gnome. This project
also helps to discover the challenges and possible solutions to using assistive technologies in a
Linux environment.
** RiskLab Toronto (falls within the ‘financial services’ sector, identified by MRI)
(http://www.risklab.ca/) http://www.news.utoronto.ca/bin6/071030-3451.asp RiskLab is
part of the international network of RiskLabs sponsored by Algorithmics to conduct universityindustry
research initiatives in the mathematical sciences for risk management. We provide the
financial industry with a unique opportunity for addressing the sector's critical need for cutting
edge research as well as for highly qualified personnel. Through industry sponsored projects,
faculty, postdoctoral fellows and graduate students can now develop interactions with
practitioners from financial institutions in a way which may not be possible through more
traditional academic programs. Affiliated Faculty include: D. Soman; A. Wensley, D. Zweig;
L. Seco http://www.research.utoronto.ca/brochure/8.html

U of T Digital Media: Catalogue in progress
** Citizen Lab (also falls under e-public services) http://www.citizenlab.org/ is an
interdisciplinary laboratory based at the Munk Centre for International Studies focusing on
advanced research and development at the intersection of digital media and world civic politics.
A "hothouse" that brings together social scientists, filmmakers, computer scientists, activists, and
artists, the Citizen Lab sponsors projects that explore the cutting-edge of hypermedia
technologies and grassroots social movements, civic activism, and democratic change within an
emerging planetary polity. Affiliated Faculty: Prof. Ron Deibert
http://deibert.citizenlab.org/
Project Open Source (KMDI) The proposal for Project Open Source is an exciting and
impressive illustration of what a commitment to interdisciplinary can do, in the context of a fastmoving
field. It is proposed that it forms the hub of a very large wheel, with spokes extending to
all campuses, and both academic and support units. The proposal has support of and links to the
Faculty of Information Studies, UofT Libraries and the Department of Computer Science. KMDI
will support the development of a cross-divisional, tri-campus networked community of scholars
and students interested and engaged in all aspects of open source. The project will consolidate
the UofT expertise in this domain and foster awareness, coordination and knowledge
mobilization through its programs and communications vehicles. The development and support
of Open Source may also benefit our institutional administrative systems. One result of this
project is that UofT now has a fact sheet on open source licensing on ORS web page - the first
university in Canada and comparable with MIT, Stanford, Berkeley and other leading
universities in the US.
The GANITA Lab (http://www.utm.utoronto.ca/~w3ganita/) The aim of this Laboratory will be
to study and develop expertise in the theory and implementation aspects of symmetric and
asymmetric (public key) encryption methods and the mathematics underlying them. Topics of
interest include: Symmetric Protocols: DES, 3DES, AES; Arithmetic of Finite Fields; Arithmetic
of Abelian varieties and Elliptic Curves over finite fields; RSA and ECC; Computational
algebraic number theory, the number field sieve, in particular calculation of Hecke polynomials,
their factorization; Modular forms; Index calculus and the discrete log problem; Arithmetic on
Jacobians of Hyperelliptic curves
Affiliated Faculty: Prof. V. Kumar Murty (Director), Prof. I. F. Blake
The Mobile Computing Lab focuses on the development of cutting-edge algorithms using
communication and signal-processing tool-sets for information processing applications in
dynamically changing environments. Significant work relates to wireless signal processing and
communications. Affiliated Faculty: Prof. E. Sousa, Prof. R. Adve, Prof. D. Kundur, Prof. T. J.
Lim.
Researchers in the Probabilistic and Statistical Inference (PSI) Lab invent and analyze new
algorithms for probabilistic inference and machine learning, with a concentrated focus on the
most challenging problems in computer vision, image processing, gene expression array analysis
and speech recognition. The lab is headed by Prof. Frey and is located in rooms 4161, 4159 and
4165 in the new Bahen Centre on College St. The lab emphasizes research excellence and
collaboration with other leading research groups at the U of T, and at Cambridge University,
Microsoft Research, MIT and UIUC.

U of T Digital Media: Catalogue in progress
The Network Architecture Lab (NAL) is focused on the theoretical design and simulation of
innovative networking concepts. Founded in 1996 by Prof. A. Leon-Garcia, the NAL
accommodates state-of-the-art networking research equipment provided from the Nortel Institute
for Telecommunications (NIT) at UofT. These facilities focus on prototype implementations and
evaluations of networking systems. Affiliated Faculty: Prof. A. Leon-Garcia
** Integrated Security Technologies and Policies (may also fall into the financial services sector)
An exciting initiative to develop a world-class program requiring cross-disciplinary expertise and
interdisciplinary training, research and development. The proposal complements initiatives at
UTM with links to other divisions at the University to be further developed. Integrated Security
Technologies and Policies is a fast growing industry internationally that requires crossdisciplinary
expertise and interdisciplinary training, research and development. The Lab will link
departments and researchers who are engaged in research in this area across the University,
enhance the student experience by introducing new courses and educational options, organizing
workshops and student-led seminar series, coordinating teaching across different disciplines, and
connecting the University with the broader community via public forums, research workshops
and scientific seminars.
The mission of the Wireless Communications Lab is to advance the future of wireless
communications through education and cutting edge research. Areas of interest include but are
not limited to spread spectrum wireless systems, adaptive antennas, resource allocation, and high
bit rate transmission techniques for future generation wireless systems. Affiliated Faculty: Prof.
E. Sousa.
NECTAR: NSERC Network for Effective Collaboration [NCE] Technologies through
Advanced Research is a $5.5M NSERC Research Network focuses on collaboration
technologies. Its vision is to investigate technological and social issues to make computersupported
collaboration more efficient, more productive, and more natural. NECTAR links the
research efforts of 14 faculty from several disciplines and six universities – Dalhousie, Queen’s,
and the Universities of British Columbia, Calgary, Saskatchewan, and Toronto. KMDI Founder
and Chief Scientist Ron Baecker is NECTAR PI. The project is housed by Bell Universities
Laboratories and administered by KMDI.
Bell University Labs.
Established in 1998, Bell University Laboratories is one of Bell Canada’s important programs
dedicated to university Research and Development. Their mandate is to implement research
projects that bring together Bell professionals, university researchers and students within multidisciplinary
teams. Bell University Labs forge special partnerships with Canadian universities in
order to encourage innovative projects that explore new perspectives, resolve concrete problems
and create new applications and ideas for the future.
Emerging Communications Technology Institute
The proposed Institute will result in a consolidation of a number of research activities and labs in
a high profile research area. This initiative builds on past investments. By combining these
facilities into a single Institute, UofT will create a world class facility which will enable research

U of T Digital Media: Catalogue in progress
across a broad range of micro- and nano-scale engineering and its application in information
technology. The Institute work will be interdisciplinary in nature both in terms of research
capabilities and in coordinating undergraduate, graduate and practice-oriented teaching across
photonics, electromagnetism and telecommunications.
Synergies is a CFI funded project to develop a distributed national network for production,
preservation, and access to digital knowledge. The University of Toronto leads the Ontario
region. While building technical capacity, we will provide a platform for the potential
transformation of the Canadian scholarly record. The project jointly addresses two major
components of scholarly communication: digital publishing services and electronic access to
research. The University of Toronto will further develop 3 publishing and archiving services:
Open Journal System http://jps.library.utoronto.ca/: provides secure digital journal
production, dissemination, and archiving infrastructure for a number of journals including
Women in Judaism and Clinical & Investigative Medicine. The library is collaborating with SFU
and UNB to further develop the underlying software, with a particular emphasis on scalability.
The Library will also be partnering with the Ontario Council of University Libraries to enhance
journal visibility through inclusion in Scholars Portal and other search optimization strategies.
Online Conference Hosting http://jps.library.utoronto.ca/ocs/ : The Library’s conference
services support paper submission and review, registration and online proceeding publication.
The library is collaborating with SFU to further develop the underlying platform, Open
Conference System.
TSpace: http://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/ is the university’s research repository, showcasing
and preserving the institution’s scholarly works. In essence the Library provides free long term
archiving and a web presence for digital materials submitted by faculty and selected student
works. TSpace is a groundbreaking digital system that captures, stores, indexes, preserves and
distributes intellectual digital products. The Library has been a Canadian leader in further
developing the underlying platform, DSpace, originally developed by MIT and Hewlett Packard.
IV ePUBLIC SERVICES, SOCIAL AND COMMUNITY ENABLING
UT RESEARCHERS INCLUDE: Prof. P. Aarabi (CRC); Prof. B. Frey; Prof. A.
Sheikholeslami; Ron Baecker; Clare Beghtol; William Bowen; Leslie Chan; Andrew Clement;
John Danahy; Wendy Duff; David Phillips; Abraham Drassinower; Eugene Fiume; Gale Moore;
Jutta Treviranus; Barry Wellman; David Wolfe; K. Wilson
PROJECTS INCLUDE:
Institute for Inclusive Design (IDI): The inclusive design of information and communications
technologies (ICT) and digital media has been recognized as the basis for a promising new
economic engine and industry cluster within Ontario. Spurred in part by legislation and policy in
many jurisdictions and by the aging population, the demand for inclusively designed products
and services is growing rapidly worldwide. The Inclusive Design Institute (IDI), a regional
centre of expertise led by the ATRC, a partnership of 7 universities, 5 colleges and 5

U of T Digital Media: Catalogue in progress
corporations in Ontario, with the support of several provincial ministries, will act as a generative
hub of innovation, research and training in inclusive design of emerging information and
communication technologies. The IDI will have three primary functions: 1) to conduct
innovative applied research to further inclusive design of emerging ICT, 2) to provide education
in inclusive design at all levels of study (this would include a collaborative master's, the
development of curriculum in inclusive design to be integrated into existing programs from
primary through post graduate, and professional development), and 3) to support compliance and
implementation of the AODA (Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act) in Ontario. The
IDI will also respond to: (i) the recognized opportunity for Ontario to excel and innovate in this
new untapped market area; (ii) Labour market demands for graduates with skills in inclusive
design; (iii) the need for a centre of excellence to support the AODA in Ontario; and (iv) the
urgent need to address projected labour gaps by making employment accessible to workers with
disabilities.
The Artificial Perception Lab performs theoretical and applied research on microphone array
based speech localization, separation, and recognition, as well as multi-sensor based information
processing. The goal of all research projects within the APL is to investigate more robust and
accurate methods of interaction between humans and computers, including robust speech
recognition, gesture recognition, and robust object identification and localization.
Affiliated Faculty: Prof. P. Aarabi, Prof. B. Frey, Prof. A. Sheikholeslami;
The Vocal Village is a spatialized audioconferencing system that has both motivated and
benefited from research carried out by members of the Knowledge Media Design Institute. The
Vocal Village project is led by Mark Chignell (MIE), with much of the related research on
spatialized audio and its benefits being done by Dr. Ryan Kilgore, who was a PhD fellow at the
time. The Vocal Village research has received funding from IBM, the Bell University
Laboratories, NSERC, and the Ontario Centres of Excellence. Members of the ePresence team
have explored the use of Vocal Village in that environment. The Vocal Village uses VoIP
technology to connect collaborative groups over the internet in real time. It binaurally presents
auditory location cues that cause the voices of individual participants to appear as if they are
coming from different positions in space potentially providing a greater feeling of presence.
Since 2003 the Vocal Village has routinely been used in audio conferences between Japan and
North America and has been used in technology demonstrations of mobile VoIP in both Toronto
and Tokyo. In 2006, the commercialization of the Vocal Village began with joint development
by Vocalage Inc., a spinoff company. Vocalage has subsequently received market readiness
funding from partners including the Ontario Centres of Excellence, the National Research
Council of Canada (IRAP) and Oki Corporation of Japan.
Information Policy Research Program (IPRP)
(http://www.fis.utoronto.ca/research/iprp/index.html), coordinated by FIS Prof. Andrew Clement,
is an on-going program of research examining key public policy issues—notably access, privacy
and governance. These issues are studied particularly in relation to rapid Canadian developments
in information/communications infrastructure, electronic commerce and the 'knowledge-based
economy/society generally. Starting in 1995, IPRP has been serving as the organizational hub for
a series of projects, each with its own research focus, team members and funders.

U of T Digital Media: Catalogue in progress
Community Wireless Infrastructure Research Project (http://cwirp.ca): Led by FIS Prof.
Andrew Clement, with co-researchers at Ryerson and York, CWIRP brings together an
interdisciplinary team of academic researchers and community and government partners to
engage in in-depth case studies of public/community-based ICT initiatives in order to document
and assess the various models, best practices and benefits of public ICT infrastructure provision
in Canada. The case studies and community partners of K-Net (NW Ontario), Wireless Nomad
(Toronto), Ile Sans Fil (Montreal) and Fred e-Zone (Fredericton) represent leading and
innovative examples of public/community-based ICT infrastructure deployment in remote and
urban community settings in Canada. The project promises to deliver a series of studies that, in
addition to enriching the academic research literature on community ICTs, will help foster more
informed discussion and debate within communities and policy making circles about the nature,
benefits and challenges of community ICT infrastructure.
The New Transparency: Surveillance and Social Sorting: Led by FIS Prof. Andrew Clement,
the Digital Media Surveillance project (DMS) investigates fundamental questions about
emerging surveillance infrastructures associated with the internet and the associated digitization
of other media. This IRSP relates directly to the electronic activities domain and also
exemplifies the intersection of trends. It focuses on the flip-side of CIT developments—from
online activities to “ubiquitous computing,” the “internet of things”—that are often viewed as
socially transformative and generally beneficial. Here, their surveillance dimensions are teased
out, explored in depth, and assessed analytically and ethically. The causes, nature and
consequences of surveillance in digitally-enabled practices and processes are mapped using
international and cross-disciplinary team expertise both as a central research exercise in its own
right and also as a resource for those working in other IRSPs. Specific questions, to be
interrogated in international comparative contexts include: How are digital identities created and
managed and how do they correspond to real-world identities? How, by whom and why are
individual’s profiles assembled through searching, surfing, and other online activity and what are
the consequences, especially for travel, border crossing and immigration? What are the
surveillance implications of popular social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook?
What are the implications of law-enforcement access to online transactions, for the retention of
personal data by Internet Service Providers, the incorporation of interception and tracing
facilities into transmission protocols, the detection of suspicious behaviour and the risks of
criminalization? Further work on digital media will look at surveillance technology trends in
terms of ubiquity, mobility and pre-emption, taking surveillance questions into debates over the
“internet of things” and “ubiquitous computing.” Shifts currently emerging in the world of
electronically mediated relationships have already-embedded surveillance dimensions which will
be investigated by this ISRP. The project is supported by a SSHRC Major Collaborative
Research Initiative (MCRI), and is conducted in collaboration with Queens Univ, Univ of
Alberta, Univ Victoria and Open University.
The Canadian Research Alliance for Community Innovation and Networking is a research
partnership established in 2003 to investigate the status and achievements of community-based
information and communication technology (ICT) initiatives in Canada. CRACIN is funded by a
four-year grant of $899,450 from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council

U of T Digital Media: Catalogue in progress
Dictionary of Canadian Biography http://www.utoronto.ca/dcb-dbc/ Multimillion-dollar
licensing agreements are not typically associated with humanities research, but that’s exactly
what the Dictionary of Canadian Biography (DCB) has garnered. Founded in 1959, the DCB is a
joint venture between the University of Toronto and Université Laval. To date, 15 volumes
contain more than 8,000 biographies of notable Canadian who died between the years 1000 and
1930. The print version was distributed free to Canadian high schools, colleges, universities and
public libraries; in 2000, the DCB went digital and was transferred to CD-rom. The government
paid a licensing fee of $1.6 million, and recently invested nearly another $1.2 million. The
website,
The Fluid Project (http://fluidproject.org/) is an international community of academic
institutions, community source software projects and corporations working together to address
the precarious values of usability, accessibility, internationalization, quality assurance and
security within academic software projects. To support human diversity in academic
environments the Fluid project is pioneering new web application architectures that can be
transformed to meet the diverse needs associated with the context, the user, or the community. In
the process Fluid is experimenting with new design and development methods that are better
suited to distributed, open source, agile development communities. The project will produce a
living library of sharable user interface components that can be reused across community source
projects. These components are built to facilitate flexibility and customization while maintaining
a high standard of design quality. The Fluid framework will enable designers and developers to
build user interfaces that can accommodate the diverse personal and institutional needs found
within academic settings around the world. To support user-centered design practices the Fluid
project is also creating a designer's toolkit that will offer useful design, accessibility, and
usability strategies and documentation. Led by the ATRC’s Jutta Treviranus, and supported by
the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Fluid Project has core partners including Cambridge
University, UC Berkeley, UBC, York University and Michigan—as well as IBM, Sun, Mozilla,
Oracle and Yahoo.
Enhancing Access to Heritage: Archives on the Web: Led by FIS Prof. Wendy Duff, this
project assists archival repositories to develop digital archives that better meet the needs of
current and potential users. To this end, we are developing user-based evaluation tools that will
enable archives that otherwise would not have the resources to do so, to evaluate their virtual
archives. Researchers will be able to merge the data from many institutions and be better able to
draw conclusions about the users, uses, and usefulness of digital archives. The data should
support decision-making regarding the economic, cultural, and educational costs and benefits of
providing archival materials and services via the Web.
Institute for the Study of Law, Technology and Culture (ISLTC): dedicated to the idea that
technological innovation is not merely an economic phenomenon but rather also a social, cultural
and political phenomenon, raising fundamental issues of authority, democracy, participation,
identity, agency and ownership that centrally concern the interface between law, technology and
culture. ISLTC brings together scholars at the Faculty of Law who address the interface between
technology and law with the wealth of scholars at the University of Toronto who address the
interface between technology and society. This has synergy with activities in KMDI’s Project
Open Source | Open Access, in particular in the area of intellectual property.

U of T Digital Media: Catalogue in progress
Canadian Research Alliance for Community Innovation and Networking
(http://CRACIN.ca) brings together community informatics researchers, community networking
practitioners and government policy specialists from across Canada to document and assess the
achievements of community-based ICT initiatives in the context of, among other things, the main
Canadian government programs promoting the development, public accessibility and use of
internet services. Under the federal government's 'Connecting Canadians' agenda, over $400
million dollars have been invested in funding thousands of non-profit and community based
organizations to help Canadians communicate electronically, both locally and globally, as well as
to access informational services and resources that strengthen participation in contemporary
economic and social life. CRACIN research examines how community networking initiatives in
Canada contribute to: (i) the amelioration of 'digital divides'; the fostering of local civic
participation; (ii) the development of community-oriented informational resources and cultural
content; (iii) the creation and use of community-oriented learning tools; promoting local
economic development; and (iv) local innovation in the development of ICT infrastructure,
software, and applications. CRACIN researchers are engaged in three different kinds of research
studies: in-depth structured case studies of leading Canadian community networking initiatives;
thematic studies of relevance to community networking research generally; and integrative
studies, which address themes and issues cutting across two or more of the case study sites and
which provide a basis for their systematic comparison. The Alliance also engages in policyrelated
activities and collaboratively develops strategies for the sustainability of community
networking initiatives.
The Identity, Privacy and Security Initiative (IPSI) received $600K to carry out an
interdisciplinary program of research, education, outreach, industry collaboration and technology
transfer with emphasis on technology, policy and science of security.
Supporting Canadian scholars in international partnerships:
Several digital collections hosted at the Libraries serve as focal hubs for international research
communities.
The Iter Project (http://www.itergateway.org/), “Gateway To The Middle Ages And
Renaissance,” is a powerful research tool for scholars of the Middle Ages and / or the
Renaissance (400-1700). The project, led by Professor William Bowen, with partners in Arizona
and Europe, consists of an online bibliography of more than a million records for articles, essays,
books, dissertation abstracts, encyclopedia entries and reviews. This material, collected from
almost 10,000 publications and journals, is updated daily, with thousands of new records added
annually. It supports related book and journal publishing and an international directory of
scholars in the field. It is a not-for-profit collaboration among FIS, the Centre for Reformation
and Renaissance Studies at Victoria University, the UofT T Libraries ( UTL); the Arizona Center
for Medieval and Renaissance Studies at Arizona State University; the Renaissance Society of
America and the Sixteenth Century Society and Conference, with associated members MOISA:
the International Society for the Study of Greek and Roman Music and its Cultural Heritage, the
International Society of Anglo-Saxonists, and the Medieval Academy of America.)
Iter, in turn, has attracted the Medici Archive Project: Documentary Sources for the Arts and
Humanities in the Medici Granducal Archive: 1537-1743 (http://documents.medici.org/) to

U of T Digital Media: Catalogue in progress
the University of Toronto Libraries. Developed by the Medici Archive Project, , it currently
describes 200 volumes of documents in the Medici Granducal Archive (Archivio Mediceo del
Principato), with document records for approximately 10,000 letters and biographical records for
approximately 11,000 people throughout Renaissance Europe.
The G8 Information Centre (http://www.g7.utoronto.ca/) provides summit and ministerial
meeting documents from 1975 to present; G7-related news articles; G7/8-related scholarly
articles. It was developed together with the University of Toronto G8 Research Group, under the
direction of Prof. John Kirton, and has been used by scholars, government and NGO officials
worldwide since its inception.
The Open Content Alliance (http://www.opencontentalliance.org/) is a mass-digitization
partnership between the Internet Archive (http://archive.org/), universities in the US, Canada
and Britain, and major industrial partners. Its goal is to make all out-of-copyright books freely
available online. As one of the largest and most productive nodes, 100,000 English-language
books have been scanned from the U of T Libraries. A wealth of books in other languages
remain to be digitized.
V eLEARNING AND EDUCATIONAL APPLICATIONS IN COURSE CONTENT AND
DELIVERY
UT RESEARCHERS INCLUDE: Jim Slotta (CRC); Leslie Chan; Stephen Hockema; Jutta
Treviranus; Matt Ratto; Stephen Hockema; David Phillips; Gale Moore; Jim Hewitt; Clare Brett;
Doug Tweed; U. Krull; P. Brubaker; Wendy Duff
PROJECTS INCLUDE:
Digital Media Library – Languages (UTM)
The UofTM Language Labs have been a leader in development of digital media for language
instruction. Language labs at UofTM use digitally formatted audio and video content, and use is
required of students to complete activity labs for language courses at UTM;
http://www.erin.utoronto.ca/~w3ll/dml.html
Smart Campus in Your Pocket (SCYP) (http://scyp.atrc.utoronto.ca/): The Smart Campus in
Your Pocket (SCYP) project, led by the ATRC with partners across campus, uses the design and
development of a mobile intelligent assistant for students at the University of Toronto as a
research platform to (i) create an innovative environment for student engagement in critical
applied research and experiential learning; (ii) advance approaches to accessibility based on
automated personalization of user interface and resources using contextual, geospatial and
personal information within a mobile online service environment; and (iii) create an extendable
framework to coordinate a number of disparate information services, including information from
social networks, and distill the information so that it directly responds to the individual’s current,
contextualized information needs: “what I need to know, when I need to know it, in a form that I
can use it in.” Through SCYP students from a broad range of disciplines, spanning the applied
sciences and humanities, investigate a wide range of topics and critically evaluate the impact of
emerging mobile, context- and location-aware technologies.

U of T Digital Media: Catalogue in progress
Centre for Quantum Information and Quantum Control
This is an extremely exciting area of research and is undergoing unprecedented growth
internationally. There is a nucleus of valuable faculty already present at the University that
currently spans departments in Arts & Science and in Applied Science and Engineering. AIF
support for the Centre will be used to educate undergraduate and graduate students in this area of
science, with the development of new courses to be introduced into both curricula. These courses
will be cross-listed in both Arts & Science and Applied Science and Engineering. The proposal
also identifies the need to bring together undergraduate and graduate research activities, ranging
from the purely abstract to the purely applied. The AIF request will allow for interlinking
departments and researchers who are engaged in research in this area across the university,
improve equity and diversity, and connect the University with the broader community by
establishing the University as a significant presence in this fast-moving field.
Developing standardized metrics: Toward understanding the impact of college and
university archives and special collections on scholarship, teaching and learning. This
project extends the research on digital archives funded by PREA and includes both physical and
digital archives (& special collections) in a particular context - colleges and universities. . Few
archives presently evaluate their services because of a lack of expertise and time to develop
research instruments. The questionnaires developed in this project will enable even small, understaffed
repositories to evaluate their virtual archives for varied audiences, from teachers to
academic historians, from genealogists to lawyers and physical archives in colleges and
universities.
The Critical Making Laboratory is a shared space for FIS faculty and students to experiment
with embedded and material digital technology. Building upon new developments in open source
microcontrollers and development environments, and new resources for technical and craft-based
construction, the space encourages the exploration of the ramifications and possibilities of
wearable devices, intelligent objects, and responsive environments. Given the degree to which
physical or ‘palpable’ computational objects are increasingly part of libraries, museums, and
information environments more generally, such a lab will provide a novel space for thinking
through some of the complex issues of information and information technologies. The term
“critical making” focuses attention on the ways in which materially-engaged activities provide
cognitive resources for thinking through complex individual, social, and society issues. As a
thoroughly trans-disciplinary study, critical making’s goal is to trace out the empirical,
pedagogical, and theoretical resources necessary to re-examine making as a species or aspect of
critical thinking. Lab participants will collectively perform practice-based engagement with the
pragmatic and theoretical issues around information and information technology. The primary
question addressed by the lab is how “making”, understood as both constructive and reflective
practice, can help information scholars, designers, and, ultimately, citizens and other subjects,
better address the potentials and the problems with non-screen based (e.g. ambient or ubiquitous)
information technology?
Scholars Portal does for scholarly information resources what Google does for the web by
archiving and providing access to more than 10 million articles from over 7,700 scholarly
journals. Since June 2002 users have downloaded over 15 million journal articles. In addition,

U of T Digital Media: Catalogue in progress
Scholars Portal provides access to over 150 million citations to journal articles from more than
100 scholarly bibliographic databases – all through a single search. Scholars Portal also supports
document delivery for those resources not available in electronic form. Originally funded
through the Ontario Innovation Trust and all Ontario universities, this “gateway” to information
has transformed how faculty and students access and use the information they need for their
work.
Access to Learning Canada is an experiment in social networking and a resource to enhance
the experiences of students with disabilities entering post-secondary education by providing
them with general information about their institution of choice. Led by the ATRC, and sponsored
by the Canadian Council on Learning and in partnership with the Abilities Foundation,
individuals may seek out information to support the individuals post-secondary academic
pursuits.
ATutor (http://www.atutor.ca/ ) is an ATRC-led Open Source Web-based Learning Content
Management System (LCMS) designed as an exemplar of accessibility and adaptability and a
research platform to evaluate technical innovations in inclusive design of elearning.
Administrators of this digital media system can install or update ATutor in minutes, develop
custom themes to give ATutor a new look, and easily extend its functionality with feature
modules. Educators can quickly assemble, package, and redistribute digital media resources such
as web-based instructional content. They can also easily import prepackaged content and conduct
their courses online.
FADIS (Fine Art Digital Imaging System): http://fadis.library.utoronto.ca/ is a fine art and
architecture repository and teaching tool of 30,000 digital images, videos and audio files with
accompanying metadata for private study and research. Developed in partnership with the
Department of Fine Arts, courseware tools include the creation of lecture carousels with image
notes, multiple image display options for in class teaching, syllabus information, file sharing and
online quizzes. Students can also create study and presentation "virtual" carousels.
Sniffy Virtual Rat – Psychology: A fun, realistic simulation of a rat in a Skinner Box. This
interactive software gives U/G students a virtual laboratory experience without the drawbacks of
a real laboratory rat. Commercial modules for support of BlackBoard are being developed.
http://www.wadsworth.com/psychology_d/templates/student_resources/0534633609_sniffy2/snif
fy/about.htm
BibWiki takes advantages of wiki technology to create an easy to use application that enhances
the ability of students, faculty, researchers and others to create a bibliographic database as well
as to collaboratively annotate, edit and share the results on an ongoing basis. It is the practices
and pedagogy that BibWiki supports that highlights the innovative nature of this tool. As an
example of knowledge media technology BibWiki is a core technology in KMDI’s collaborative
program where it is both a tool and object of study. Going forward the developer is interested in
exploring new business models for social entrepreneurship – an idea that has synergies with the
activities underway in Project OS|OA.

U of T Digital Media: Catalogue in progress
Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO): The ATRC has partnered with the
Education Quality and Accountability Office to create innovative digital media strategies to
support students with disabilities in standardized testing situations.
(PI, Laurie McArthur, ATRC)
Casebook of Effective Information Technology (IT) Teaching and Learning Practices is a
resource will be used to support instructors in the identification and refinement of best practices
regarding technology integration. It will contain a sophisticated search utility that will allow
instructors to search by level of education (elementary, secondary, tertiary), technology type (e.g.,
Web 2.0 applications, classroom response systems, presentation software, learning environments,
etc.), and keywords to retrieve descriptions of exemplary IT teaching/learning practices
Ontario's Web-Based Teaching Tool (WBTT) (https://www.access.wbtt.ldao.ca/) is a Digital
Media resource for early education teachers (Junior Kindergarten to Grade 2). Sponsored by the
Ontario Ministry of Education, this project promotes an iterative model of early identification of
students with (potential) learning disabilities, followed by supportive intervention, followed by
additional screening and so on. It has been said that primary school teachers are the last
professional group to receive computers and digital media in their daily professional practice. As
a result, this project breaks new ground by clearly demonstrating to teachers, in an easy-to-use
fashion, the important benefits that data tracking and resource discovery can have in the early
education classroom.
Joint Programme in New Media Studies http://www.utsc.utoronto.ca/~jtprogs/newmedia/
permits students to integrate an important area into their existing academic studies. New media
are increasingly important in online learning and as sources of academic information. Using new
media to their fullest extent requires understanding of the capabilities and limitations of these
media, and how to use them in ways which go beyond what is feasible with conventional media
(print, graphics, video etc.).
Action Potential Simulator - Virtual Excitable Membrane - Physiology: Graphical
presentation of the action potential and associated transmembrane ion currents. The model
allows students to specifically block each of the ion channels, change ion concentrations inside
and outside the membrane and view the consequences to the resting membrane potential and
action potential. Action potentials are induced by electrical stimulation; both the stimulus
amplitude and duration are adjustable. Two depolarizing stimuli can be delivered in succession
with a varying inter-stimulus interval in order to demonstrate the membrane refractory period.
APS is available to students on the Teaching Labs web-site.
Arm Control – Virtual Human - Physiology: A simulated robot arm illustrates concepts of
adaptive control. It starts with a brain that is just a random neural network and learns to reach for
a jumping target. Demonstrations show how different learning schemes adapt to different
changes in the environment. Director: Dr. Douglas Tweed.
Body Weight Regulation – Virtual Human – Physiology: A realistic (data-based) simulation
of changes in body weight and composition that occur in direct relation to changes in the age,
food intake, physical activity level and even gender of the actual participant. This interactive

U of T Digital Media: Catalogue in progress
software gives students the ability to acutely model adaptive changes in their own body that
would normally occur over long-periods of time. Director: Dr. Patricia Brubaker.
Biomedical Communications (BMC): The Master of Biomedical Communications (MScBMC)
program (established in 1994) is an outgrowth of the Art as Applied to Medicine program that
began in the Faculty of Medicine in 1945. BMC is in the Institute of Communication and Culture
on the UTM campus. The MScBMC program is offered through the Institute of Medical Science
on the St. George campus. The objective of the graduate program is to use theoretical and
applied approaches in the creation and evaluation of visual media for health promotion, medical
education, knowledge transfer, and as part of the process of scientific discovery. Graduates
practice as media and visualization specialists in: animation and media companies; medical-legal
companies; prepress companies; hospital media departments, and academic departments in
universities, colleges and science centres. Director: Dr. Linda Wilson-Pauwels.
Feedback Guidance – Model – Physiology: Illustrates concepts of feedback control with
simulations showing a blue ball (the ‘gazepoint’) and a smaller gold ball (the ‘target’). In class,
variables in the code are changed to show the effects of gains, internal miscalculations, noise,
integrator leak, delays and moving targets. Director: Dr. Douglas Tweed.
Internal Feedback – Virtual Human – Physiology: The Achilles’ heel of feedback guidance
systems is delay around the feedback loop, which can cause oscillations and instability. One
solution is to use internal models, or in other words to guide the system based not on sensory
feedback about state variables but on internal estimates of those variables. This program
illustrates some advantages and risks of this type of control, using the example of D. A.
Robinson’s internal feedback model of the brainstem circuit that controls saccadic eye
movements. In class, students suggest lesions to the control system, and then try to work out how
the system will malfunction. The lesion is written into the code and then the simulation is run to
see who predicted the malfunctions correctly. Director: Dr. Douglas Tweed.
Network of Excellence in Simulation for Clinical Teaching and Learning: currently being
developed in Faculty of Medicine – more information pending development of final business
plan and formal announcement of priorities.
Oral Glucose Tolerance Test – Virtual Human – Physiology: A realistic (data-based)
simulation of changes in hormonal and metabolic parameters of glucose tolerance that occur in
direct relation to normal physiology as well as various disease states (i.e. type 1 diabetes, type 2
diabetes, obesity, etc.). This interactive software gives students the ability to perform ‘clinical’
experiments without requiring the use of actual patients. Director: Dr. Patricia Brubaker (see also
http://www.springerlink.com/content/6hl4402m78560771/).
Respiratory Control – Virtual Human – Physiology: Director: Dr. James Duffin.
VSim1024 is a simulation of respiratory control that displays ventilation and arterial partial
pressures of CO2 and O2 over a 20 min period. NSim is a simulation of the time course of
activity of 9 neurons resulting from interconnections specified by the student. The Stewart
Equation Solver solves equations involved in modeling the effects of proteins on pH in plasma.
The Respiratory Acid-Base Control program predicts the resting ventilation and PCO2 for

U of T Digital Media: Catalogue in progress
changes in acid-base variables, as well as changes in chemoreflex variables. The Campbell
Diagram is use to analyze pulmonary mechanics and the work of breathing. The Anesthetized
Patient simulation shows the distribution of anesthetic in a circle breathing system and the body,
in a dynamic fashion. The Anaesthesia simulation shows the changes in anaesthetic
concentration, oxygen and carbon dioxide in the external circle administration system and the
patient over time.
Motor Preparation and Reaction Time – Virtual Human – Physiology/Human Biology: The
RT100 (2008) Suite is composed of a set of software modules and hardware accessories that
allow for the successful measurement of Reaction Time (RT) and Motor Time (MT) of a subject
based on either simple or complex triggering signals. The RT100 (2008) Suite helps students
understand the concepts of Reaction Time and Motor Time, and demonstrates the relationship of
Reaction Time to the degree of motor preparedness, as well as showing that increased cognitive
processing of a complex trigger signal increases Reaction Time. The RT100 (2008) Suite is a
flexible system that allows students to create their own protocols for an experimental set;
examples: Dominant vs. Non-Dominant (hand or Foot), Hand vs. Foot Reaction Timing, ingested
Stimulant (i.e. caffeine) vs. No Stimulant, Visual Trigger vs. Auditory Trigger, etc. The software
and hardware allow for a wide range of experimental conditions. The RT100 (2008) Suite is
available to registered students on the Teaching Labs web-site.

U of T Digital Media: Catalogue in progress
University of Toronto – The Innovations Group
Digital Media Commercialization
Sampling
1. Cyborglog: A Computer Program for Capture, Sharing, and Annotation of Content –
Professor Steve Mann
Overview: This invention relates to a system, method and computer program for capture,
sharing, and annotation of content. Specifically the invention relates to at least one content
capture devices linked to a wireless medium operable to communicate and register via the
wireless medium with at least one computer remote from the content capture device. The
content capture device is operable to capture content based on user defined parameters on a
continuous basis and to transmit the content via a wireless medium to either the remote computer
or another content capture device that is registered with the remote computer. Then at least one
remote computer enables a forum or community wherein users operating a content capture
device may upload recordings, share recordings and associate comments to the recordings.
Please visit www.glogger.mobi to visit a real-world application of this technology.
Surveillance as taken from its French roots literally means “to watch from above”. Research
expounding on this topic is well established and well known. More recently, the notions of
“inverse surveillance” (or in other words surveillance emanating from individuals recording their
personal experience and their immediate vicinity, rather than recording/monitoring of individuals
by an outside party) have emerged. “Inverse surveillance” has also been more recently described
as “sousveillance” to contrast it from surveillance generally. The term “sousveillance” shares
French roots in that it is the composite of the French word “sous”, meaning below and the French
word “veiller”, meaning to watch.
2. DeckChair: An Internet-based Tutoring and Curriculum Authoring System - Professor
Jeff Graham
Overview: DeckChair Tutor is a web-delivered, time measurement-based, guided, adaptive
learning system for multimedia instruction, assessment and customized training. The system
hinges on intelligent tutoring algorithms that assign new exercises based on each student’s
strengths and weaknesses as well as results of testing based on mastery of the section of the
material being studied. The system will evolve with the student improving each learning area to
maximize their time and learning experience, all at their choice of time to study. Additionally, as
the system grows and is adopted by more and more departments the system ultimately becomes a
publishing medium. The infrastructure enables course content to be archived and manipulated
for other universities and sold or licensed creating a revenue stream for DeckChair, as well as for
the Professor and his/her University. Currently, there are ten content partners within the
University of Toronto who have expressed interest to use the software across their divisions and
departments. Introductory Psychology (PSY100) and Calculus (MAT133/4/5) at University of
Toronto are currently using Datasphere (an early version of DeckChair Tutor) with over 1500
students. Over 5000 students have used Datasphere since 2004.

U of T Digital Media: Catalogue in progress
3. MetaCities: Secure Professional Social Networking site and Project Repository for
Architects, Engineers, and Designers - Professor Kumar Murty
Overview: MetaCities is focused on creating a digital market place for designers and architects.
The project’s ambition is to design a social networking and collaboration site for design
professionals. A site that architects would feel they have to log into every morning to find out
what their colleagues are doing, check their messages, join design discussion forums, tap into
central WiKi-like knowledge database for design professionals, create secure version-controlled
repositories of information for projects they want to work on with others, post their resume,
lookup open positions in their city and lookup projects in their city.
Professor Murty and his GANITA lab are interested in collaborating on this project to exploit
their IP’s in security, encryption and authentication algorithms to allow this to be a secure,
efficient and reliable marketplace for all members. It is critical that the system integrates strong
encryption techniques coming out research labs with secure communication protocols and digital
signing of existing information. Companies will use the site’s services to create project
information repositories through which their geographically distributed teams could share
information about projects without worrying about security, version control, information
integrity, and data backup. Companies could also use the site to showcase the work they have
done to the larger community.
Social network is an explosive industry. Facebook’s current valuation is $10 + Billion, with
having secured a minority equity interest from Microsoft. Subscription and content revenues for
various social networking sites from Linked-In to Skype, and Second Life to Flirtomatic, totalled
$6.5B in 2006 (Source: Informa and eMarketer). This includes advertising from social
networking sites such as YouTube and MySpace. Metacities is planning to play in the social
community segment with revenue projections of $260 Million (IDC report) by the end of 2008.
4. Method and Computer Program for Enriching the Desktop: BumpTop - Professor
Ravin Balakrishnan and Anand Agarawala
Overview: Current virtual desktops bear little to no resemblance compared to the look and feel
of a real world desktop. A workspace in the physical world typically has piles of documents,
binders and other objects arranged in a way that provides considerable subtle information to the
owner. This casual organization, prevalent in the real world, differs greatly from the GUI
(Graphical User Interface) desktop that forces users to immediately file their documents into a
rigid hierarchy. Filing typically requires more effort than piling and has been shown to have
other negative effects such as encouraging premature storage of low value documents, or
retaining useless documents because of the effort that went into filing them.
Bumptop enables causal organization of documents as one would on a real desk, using piling
rather than explicit filing as the primary organization style. Bumptop does so by using a variety
of novel interaction and visualization techniques for implicitly and explicitly creating,
manipulating and organization piles and items with the piles. Bump Technologies, Inc. has been
incorporated to commercially develop and exploit the technology. More information and a demo
are available at www.bumptop.com.

U of T Digital Media: Catalogue in progress
5. PrEPARE: Pandemic Emergency Preparedness and Response System - Dr. Kamran
Khan (St. Michael’s Hospital)
Overview: The relationship between human migration and the spread of infectious diseases has
been well documented throughout human history. However, since the advent of intercontinental
air travel in the 20 th century, a massive and evolving global airline transportation network has
emerged to meet the world’s seemingly insatiable demand for mobility. Although commercial air
travel has created a more interconnected world, it has concurrently evolved into a major conduit
for the spread of infectious diseases.
The emergence of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and its subsequent dissemination
via commercial aircraft provided irrefutable evidence that international and even intercontinental
borders are highly permeable to the spread of infectious diseases. Recently, the movements of
H5N1 avian influenza from Asia to Europe and Africa have raised concerns that an influenza
pandemic could be imminent. Whether originating from laboratory accidents, intentional release,
or natural causes, international outbreaks of emerging diseases with pandemic potential
constitute a serious threat to the health and economic security of Canada as well as that of the
entire international community. Despite the role of commercial air travel as a major vehicle for
the spread of emerging infectious diseases, our understanding of the global airline transportation
network remains very limited.
6. Psiphon: Internet Censorship Circumvention and Security Software - Professors Ron
Deibert and Rafal Rohozinski, and Michael Hull
The Internet is the communications media of the 21 st century, the information and
communications matrix that envelops citizens, governments, businesses and consumers on a
daily basis. However, that once-seamless open architecture is quickly closing; Internet
censorship has become a major global problem.
According to research by the OpenNet Initiative, more than 25 countries now actively filter
access to information, including blogs, encyclopedias, popular streaming media, news, business
services, and human rights information. Much of this censorship takes place in secret, with no
public accountability and transparency, putting business and consumers alike in an information
black hole. While there are many different grassroots “hacker” tools to help individuals get
around Internet content filtering, businesses need a robust, reliable, and secure solution.
Psiphon pro is an advanced censorship circumvention service that combines the logic of social
networking with professional censorship circumvention server pools and highly trained human
networks of counter-intelligence to ensure global content providers have their content delivered
to all target jurisdictions while ensuring those within those countries have 24/7 access to the full
range of web 2.0 content.
In addition, organizations that fail to take reasonable measures to secure their digital assets
obviously face huge risks, not only in terms of financial losses and competitive market
positioning, but also from the standpoint of director liability. As a result, organizations are
seeking ways to secure intellectual property and other critical information in a highly secure,
usable, and cost-effective framework. Psiphon pro represents the “next generation” of PKI –

U of T Digital Media: Catalogue in progress
based strongly encrypted information technology and directly a major gap in the current
circumvention market: organizations requiring advanced, unfettered browsing when residing in
a jurisdiction that implements censorship filters. Initial target markets include: Broadcast,
Legal, Financial Services, High Technology and Medical / Pharmaceutical.
7. Sketch2: 3D Sketching Software with Suggestive Interface - Professors Karan Singh
and Ravin Balakrishnan
Overview: Architecture, industrial, interior, product, and structural and mechanical engineering
disciplines all operate within a design context that is primarily spatial and 3 dimensional. Pen &
paper has always been the primary creative tool set used to both explore ideas and to
communicate them. Most designers rely on the familiarity, simplicity and immediacy of the
pen/paper interface, yet will admit to a common frustration in the limitations of the medium
when used to describe ideas that are inherently 3 dimensional. A need for the smart 3D
sketching software has been identified by the experts and researchers in the graphics field. There
is continuous work being done in this area to create software that can use the hand sketch to
create a 3D model. Having a designer translate the sketches directly on the computer will reduce
the design time and frustration. Also, having a computer based “sketching-pad” will help the
designer expand his creativity by easily constructing a number of design variations. In addition,
having the database suggest the available models, improves the overall design.
This invention is a new style of interface for 3D modeling that extends gestural and suggestive
interfaces by integrating scanned images of concept sketches into the modeling process. These
images serve as a guide to the user when sketching the 3D model. This will allow the designer to
input sketches of paper/pencil design ideas directly into 3D CAD system. This innovative
software will provide a unique user interface and database that helps designer’s speedup the
creative and design process. The interface and the suggestions from a database are the key
distinguishing advantages this product has when compared to existing products.
For more information, see Globe and Mail Article - May 15, 2007
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20070515.SRINNO15/TPStory/
8. Sysomos: Methods and Systems for Analyzing High Volume Text Streams - Professor
Nick Koudas and Nilesh Bansal
Overview: Sysomos Inc. has been created to constantly monitor and analyze huge volumes of
content created online. The data collected is made available for sophisticated forms of analysis
which can be conducted using the software platform.
Traditional media monitoring services are based on manual or semi-automated approach to
shuffle through data. Sysomos provides a simple do-it-yourself platform to automatically analyze
all forms of data, including (but not limited to) blogs, news, social networks, audio/video and
online forums. Moreover Sysomos offers the ability to correlate all this information in different
ways. All functionality is offered through a single unified platform via simple and usable web
interface where users can set options as they desire and configure the dashboard on demand.
More info available at: www.sysomos.com

U of T Digital Media: Catalogue in progress
9. Virtual Musical Instrument - Professor Tom Chau
Overview: Currently, there are no products available that enable a child with special needs to
express themselves fully in a creative manner. The Virtual Musical Instrument represents a
significant leap in this direction. By moving their hands into different areas of space, the child is
able to play different notes, chords, instruments and musical passages. The technology that is
underpinning the software is an algorithm that recognizes body movements passing through
different spatial areas and coverts these to musical sounds generated by a computer's MIDI
synthesizer.