About Immerse

Immerse is written by Dr Dan Jacobson, aimed at disseminating the latest research from the Investigating Multi Modal Representations of Spatial Environments research group. It is intended as a rapid way to provide access to some of our initial ideas and findings and as a vehicle for other researchers and students to collaborate.

Dr Dan Jacobson is, when not writing the blog, an Associate Professor of Geography at the University of Calgary, and the Director of the Masters in Geographic Information Systems Program.

Any thoughts or comments are always welcome and feel free to drop us a line via the contact link on the sidebar.

Our primary focus in on the understanding and representation of spatial and geographic information. As such, our interests bridge the human and physical, the environmental and the social, the technical and the cultural. The locations of our work vary from the urban to the rural, the developed to developing worlds, and from cutting edge technologies to traditional methodologies. Multi-modal refers to sensory modalities, such as vision, touch and audition, and also to information modalities, language, maps, computer systems and so forth. We are a diverse and international group of researchers. We are primarily located in the Geography Department at the University of Calgary in Canada.

Below is a list of some sample papers of the work to date. The rest of the papers should be able to be tracked down via a Google Search. If you cant find them just drop me a line and I can email you the work.

Publications

Papers

Golledge, R.G., Rice, M. and Jacobson, R.D. (2005) A Commentary on the Use of Touch for Accessing On-Screen Spatial Representations: The Process of Experiencing Haptic Maps and Graphics, The Professional Geographer, 57 (3). 339-349.

Jacobson, R.D. (2002) Representing Spatial Information Through Multimodal Interfaces: Overview and preliminary results in non-visual interfaces. 6th International Conference on Information Visualization: Symposium on Spatial/Geographic Data Visualization, IEEE Proceedings, London, 10-12 July, 2002, 730-734.

Blades, M., Lippa, Y., Golledge, R.G., Jacobson, R.D., and Kitchin, R.M. (2002) Wayfinding by people with visual impairments: The effect of spatial tasks on the ability to learn a novel route. Journal of Visual Impairment and Blindness 96, 407-419.

Jacobson, R.D., Lippa, Y., Golledge, R.G., Kitchin, R.M., and Blades, M. (2001) Rapid development of cognitive maps in people with visual impairments when exploring novel geographic spaces. IAPS Bulletin of People-Environment Studies (Special Issue on Environmental Cognition) 18, 3-6.

Golledge, R.G., Jacobson, R.D., Kitchin, R.M., and Blades, M. (2000). Cognitive maps, spatial abilities, and human wayfinding. Geographical Review of Japan, ser. B: The English journal of the Association of Japenese Geographers, 73 (Ser.B) (2), 93-104.

Jacobson, R.D. (1998) Cognitive mapping without sight: Four preliminary studies of spatial learning. Journal of Environmental Psychology 18, 289-305.

Kitchin, R.M., Jacobson, R.D., Golledge, R.G., and Blades, M. (1998) Belfast without sight: Exploring geographies of blindness, Irish Geographer. 31(1), 34-46.

Jacobson, R.D. and Kitchin, R.M (1997) GIS and people with visual impairments or blindness: Exploring the potential for education, orientation, and navigation. Transactions in Geographic Information Systems 2(4) 315-332.

Kitchin, R.M. and Jacobson, R.D. (1997) Techniques to collect and analyze the cognitive map knowledge of people with visual impairments or blindness: Issues of validity, Journal of Visual Impairment and Blindness. July-August, 360-376.

Jacobson, R.D. (1996) Talking tactile maps and environmental audio beacons: An orientation and mobility development tool for visually impaired people, Proceedings of the ICA Commission on maps and graphics for blind and visually impaired people, 21-25 October, 1996, Ljubjiana, Slovenia.


Book Chapters

Jacobson, R.D. (2006) Cartography. In Warf, B. (Ed.) Encyclopedia of Human Geography. Sage: London.

Jacobson, R.D. (2006) Behavioral Geography. In Warf, B. (Ed.) Encyclopedia of Human Geography. Sage: London.

Jacobson, R.D. (2006) Disability, Geography of. In Warf, B. (Ed.) Encyclopedia of Human Geography. Sage: London.

Jacobson, R.D. (2006) Mental Maps, Geography of. In Warf, B. (Ed.) Encyclopedia of Human Geography. Sage: London.

Golledge, R.G., Rice, M. and Jacobson, R.D. (2005) Multimodal Interfaces for Representing and Accessing Geospatial Information. In Rana, S. and Sharma, J. (eds.) Frontiers of Geographic Information Technology. Springer-Verlag.: Berlin & New York.

Jacobson, R.D. (2004) Haptic Soundscapes: Developing novel multi-sensory tools to promote access to geographic information. Land Minds: 100 Geographic Solutions to Saving Planet Earth (eds) Warf, B., Hansen, K, and Janelle, D. Kluwer.

Jacobson, R.D. Kitchin, R.M., and Golledge R.G. (2002) Multimodal virtual reality for presenting geographic information. In Fisher, P. and Unwin, D. (eds) Virtual Reality in Geography. Taylor and Francis, London, pp. 382-400.

Cheesman, J., Dodge, M., Harvey, F., Jacobson, D., and Kitchin, R. (2002) ‘Other’ Worlds: Augmented, Comprehensible, Non-Material Spaces. In Fisher, P. and Unwin, D. (eds) Virtual Reality in Geography. Taylor and Francis, London, pp. 295-304.

Jeong, W. and Jacobson, R.D. (2002) Exploratory user study of haptic and auditory display for multimodal information systems. In McLaughlin, M. L., Hespanha, J.P., and Sukhatme, G.S. (eds) Touch in virtual Environments: Haptics and the design of interactive systems. IMSC Series in Multimedia. Prentice Hall, New York, pp. 194-204.

Update

update to blog to verify adress

International Community for Auditory Display

Immerse Reseracher and MGIS student Ryan MacVeigh will be presenting our reserach on augmenting GIS displays with sound at the upcoing ICAD confefrence in June this summer.