Virtual time travel through pre-reformation Edinburgh

In “A View from a Hill”, a ghost story by M. R. James, an archaeologist’s binoculars allows them to see scenes from the past. The Edinburgh 1544 project enables visitors and residents of Edinburgh to see the city as it was just prior to the reformation.

We use mobile phones and the Google Daydream platform to deliver an onsite dual reality experience. As visitors explore the sites of Edinburgh, they can see into the past using their digital time travel binoculars. The app is mobile and orientation aware, automatically delivering the correct view. A map interface allows an engaging experience for remote virtual visitors as well.

Virtual Time Binoculars - Edinburgh 1544 from Smart History on Vimeo.

The binoculars app enables the user experience to be optimised for technology they already have in their pockets.

• It makes virtual time travel a reality and available to mass audiences. 
• It provides a new way of interacting with the past that both enriches the visitor experience and provides insights into the past not otherwise readily available.  

What is the research? 
The VTB design draws upon EPSRC-funded research at the University of St Andrews into dual reality systems where the virtual and real worlds occupy the same space. Position and orientation within the two worlds are synchronised enabling intuitive exploration of both worlds through movement in the real world. The Smart History team investigated dual reality systems through exploring inside (St Salvators Chapel) and outside (St Andrews Cathedral) using modified Oculus Rift and Google Cardboard VR headsets. This led them to observe that users tended to look around whilst using the headsets.

Observation of users led the researchers to a viewpoint-oriented approach, where high fidelity 360 photographs of a reconstruction were used and developed in the UNREAL4 Game Engine. This allowed the digital content to be hosted and displayed on mobile platforms and does not require the virtual reality viewer to be tethered to a bulky computer.

How is it applicable? 

Pre-reformation Edinburgh Netherbow

This research has been applied within The Virtual Time Binoculars (VTB) project and is a core component of the Smart History company founded by Dr Katie Stevenson from the School of History and Dr Alan Miller from the School of Computer Science. The VTB is a Edinburgh Digital Launchpad project funded by Innovate UK.

In VTB the team developed a digital reconstruction of pre-reformation Edinburgh. The Smart History team brings together a multi-disciplinary team of Computer Scientists, Digital Designers, Digital Media producers, Historians and Museum Professional. They have CAA-approved drone pilots, Google-approved 360 photographers and prize-winning historians working together to create engaging mobile onsite experiences.

The historical work has been conducted in consultation with Prof. Richard Fawcett of the School of Art History and John Lawson, a Edinburgh City Council Historian. They also worked with the National Trust for Scotland and the Timespan Museum and Gallery in developing the technology used in the app. They have worked with Edinburgh City Museum to provide a permanent showcase for the project.

The Medieval Edinburgh App was launched at the start of May 2017. It is expected that the VTB will become a ‘must have’ part of the experience of visiting Edinburgh.
View reconstructions
More information

Feeding the world

Half of all seafood consumed now comes from aquaculture. Aquaculture production has grown by 6.2% a year since 2000 and by 2012 it had reached 66.6 million tonnes worth U$144 billion. Less than 10% of production currently uses genetically selected strains which have the potential to dramatically improve yield, sustainability, and the welfare of farmed livestock. In the face of increasing environmental constraints, the use of genetic selection will need to become the norm in order to meet increasing demand for seafood as the human population grows to an estimated 9 billion by 2050.

Prof. Ian Johnston

Research carried out on fish physiology and genomics over several decades by Professor Ian Johnston and his group in the School of Biology led to an understanding of the genetic control of growth and fillet yield in Atlantic salmon, Scotland´s most important food export. The Biotechnological & Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) provided £883K funding in support of this research via Follow-on funding, two LINK grants and an Industrial Partnering Award. Marker assisted selection (MAS) is regarded by many as the future of aquaculture breeding. In MAS natural variations in gene sequence are identified which produce large gains in characteristics of commercial interest such as growth, yield and disease resistance. This enables improvements in a single generation compared with the decades required with conventional breeding programs. The Johnston group discovered natural variants of two genes which when selected together produced fish with 4% more fillet worth £600 per tonne. Last year global production of Atlantic salmon was £1.43 million tonnes.


The discovered genetic markers were patented and in Dec 2012 Professor Johnston and Dr Tom Ashton formed a university spin-out company, Xelect Ltd, to commercialise the research. The company licensed its patented genetic marker for enhanced fillet yield in Atlantic salmon to SalmoBreed A/S which is part of Benchmark Holdings, one of the world´s leading breeding and genetics companies. Xelect has since developed similar genetic selection markers for increased fillet yield in Nile tilapia which have been licensed license to Genomar A/S, the world’s leading Tilapia breeding operation with operations throughout SE Asia. Nile Tilapia is a tropical species with an annual production of 3 million tonnes – 15% of which is for the fillet market. Using Xelect´s genetic markers, broodstock can be identified that will produce offspring with 4% more meat worth U$124 tonne. The company has an active program of research to develop markers for other traits and species and has received funding from the EU H2020 programme, Innovate UK and Scottish Enterprise. Xelect is also sponsoring academic research, including a BBSRC Industrial CASE PhD studentship at Aberdeen University and a project to support a biosecure hatchery in the Shetlands for blue mussels co-funded by the Scottish Aquaculture Innovation Centre.

Xelect also leverages its expertise in molecular biology and seafood to provide genetic and flesh quality analysis services to an expanding range of business in the aquaculture supply chain. Exports now make up 60% of the company´s turnover. Xelect is becoming a strong, well-recognised brand within the industry based on a reputation for scientific excellence and exceptional customer commitment. The BBSRC recently published an Impact Case study on Xelect providing an example of the successful translation of basic academic research into a commercial enterprise with widespread societal benefits.
Visit the BBSRC webpages to read more. 

The Light touch…

A red blood cell, 1/10 the width
of a human hair held with
gently with laser light

Optical tweezers, miniscule forces that light exerts on micron-size particles, developed by researchers in the School of Physics and Astronomy, have empowered scientists to perform important studies on single molecules, cells and colloids without inflicting damage. The technique of optical tweezing is difficult and multifaceted, involving lasers, microscopes, imaging systems, specialized software and complex opto-mechanical design. The St Andrews Optical Manipulation Group has developed a number of innovations in beam shaping and applications for the optical tweezing and sorting market. This has led to the development of a suite of products, particularly for the biomedical sector, based on the group’s technology, resulting in more than £1M worth of sales in over 10 countries for the licensing company. The systems are regularly used to study single cells and even single molecules to help understand the biological world.

The Seeing Light Through a New Light outreach program has currently reached approximately 25,000 people across the UK Scotland. The aim of the program is to enthuse and excite the public about light and its use in medical and biological applications. Interactive shows, lectures and workshops are delivered throughout Fife, Scotland and the UK to school, family and adult audiences to show how light is changing our life. If you would like to book/request an event or activity or would like more information about the project please contact Kishan Dholakia (kd1@st-andrews.ac.uk).

The research and outreach project are funded by a number of sources, including the Engineering and Physics Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), a Partnership for Public Engagement (PPE) Award, Cancer Research UK, the European Union Framework 7 programme and the Royal Society.

English poetry goes digital

The study of Medieval and Renaissance English poetry conjures up images of quiet libraries and beautiful volumes, but researchers in the School of English are endeavouring to change this image.

“Reading Shakespeare’s Sonnets” (Faber, 2010), by Professor Don Paterson, twice winner of the T. S. Eliot prize for poetry, and partly a result of discussions with Renaissance researcher Professor Neil Rhodes, is a full-length popular commentary written from the perspective of a practising poet. Through Paterson’s collaboration with World Book Night (WBN) new and diverse audiences were also found for Shakespeare’s Sonnets with the inclusion of a sonnet on the back cover one of each book that was distributed.
Since then, Paterson’s work has been reinterpreted for new audiences and is breaking new ground with the launch of a highly successful The Sonnets by William Shakespeare, a Faber/Touch Press iPad application which features a lightly re-written version of all of Paterson’s commentary, as well as him reading several sonnets.

Collaboration between Dr Chris Jones, researching the application of Old English in the work of modern poets, and Jacob Polley, a practising poet, resulted in several translations of, and new poems in dialogue with, Old English literature. “Livings”, several newly composed riddles in response to those in the Old English Exeter Book, followed by a several new poems published as part of the award-winning collection, “The Havocs” (Picador, 2012), which includes a poetic translation of the Old English “Ruin”, made in a manner that imaginatively restores the damaged, fragmentary nature of this poem.

In March 2013, the StAnza Poetry Festival developed an online Poetry Trail in conjunction with the School of Computer Science, which includes a recording of Polley reading his contemporary Ruin as well as Jones’s poem ‘Borges on the Wall’, a poetic reimagining of Old English in a modern context. The Poetry Trail, available as an App for iPhone and Android, guides literary tourists around the town of St Andrews by use of QR codes at several sites (including local museums, visitor centres, and independent cafes) where the user can listen to site-appropriate poems.

Tweetable riddles, dubbed ‘twiddles’, Jones and Polley’s latest collaboration, is a Twitter collection of the Anglo-Saxon Exeter Book riddles in 140 or fewer characters.
 
The Poetry Trail was funded by National Lottery and Creative Scotland and is promoted by Event Scotland.

Porous material use in the delivery of biologically active gases

Nitric oxide (NO) is an extremely toxic gas at high levels which is extremely beneficial for healthcare at the right doses. The trick is delivering it safely to the treatment site. Professor Russell Morris and his research team in the School of Chemistry have successfully solved the major problem of how to safely retain, transport and deliver NO and other medically active gases to offer novel and effective solutions for a variety of healthcare markets, including the treatment of chronic wounds, and related therapeutic and biomedical applications where eradication of bacterial biofilms is required.

Clinical studies on human skin show that zeolite-NO
technology is non-inflammatory compared with
a major competitor (acidified nitrite).

The zeolites and metal-organic framework (MOF) materials that Morris’ research group have developed store the gas in a stable form that can be delivered in a customised manner, in terms of dosage and rate of delivery, to the specific biomedical application.
The unique combination of highly porous materials and economically attractive, scalable chemistry offers cost-effective solutions to problems in industries as diverse as textiles, chemical consumer and water treatment. The research has resulted in seven patents and has led to the formation of two spin out companies: MOFgen Ltd, a spin out from the University of St Andrews: and Zeomedix LLC, a spin out in the US. Further interactions with ~70 companies internationally have resulted in 14 of the companies benefiting directly from the research, enabling entirely new products, entry to new markets and commercial opportunities.
Pre-startup funded by EPSRC and Scottish Enterprise.

The exponentially engaging Vanessa and Virginia

Extensive editorial and biographical research on the work of Virginia Woolf by Susan Sellers, Professor of English and Creative Writing in the School of English, led to the composition and publication of her first novel, 'Vanessa and Virginia', a glimpse into the life of sisters Virginia Woolf and Vanessa Bell. The book was published by a small independent publisher in the north-west Highlands of Scotland, Two Ravens Press, and became their most commercially successful publication.
In 2009, it went on to become a Barnes and Noble 'Great New Writing Discovery' and editor's choice in the NY Times Book Review (Paperback Row). It has been translated into 16 languages. At that time, it was also adapted by Elizabeth Wright to stage and premiered in Aix-en-Provence in 2010. It attracted the attention of freelance director, Emma Gersch, who set up a company, Moving Stories, specifically to tour the play, which opened in September 2010 and ran until April 2013, when it moved to Riverside Studios in London. The play has toured the UK, France, Germany and Poland.

Vanessa and Virginia was chosen for BBC Radio Cambridgeshire’s ‘Book a Day in May’ and, subsequently, Susan Sellers has been interviewed for broadcast on numerous occasions including a special 45-minute edition of Woman’s Hour on BBC4.

“Seamus Heaney’s Five Fables” iPad app

Drs Chris Jones and Ian Johnson, from the School of English, have collaborated with Flickerpix Animations and Touch Press on their exciting new multimedia iPad app of Seamus Heaney's translation of Five Fables by the medieval Scottish poet Robert Henryson. Henryson was a master of the craft of verse, who probably lived and worked in Fife in the 15th century. No longer widely read, Henryson deserves proper recognition as a giant of medieval European literature, and towards the end of his life Seamus Heaney translated several of Henryson's poems into modern English, with a view to renewing interest in this neglected genius. This app, and its accompanying animated versions of Heaney's translations of Henryson's verse adaptions of Aesop's fables, which Heaney was working on at the time of his death in August 2013, will continue to find new audiences both for Heaney and for Henryson.
Ian Johnson, an expert in late medieval literature, was recorded reading aloud the original medieval Scots of Henryson in original pronunciation. Users of the app can switch between hearing Johnson's interpretation of Henryson, and Billy Connolly's performance of Heaney's modern versions. Chris Jones, who has carried out extensive research into the use that modern poets have made of medieval literary sources (e.g. Strange Likeness: The Use of Old English in Twentieth-Century Poetry. Oxford University Press, 2006), was commissioned to write a detailed set of interpretative notes set of interpretative notes to both Henryson's original text and Heaney's adaptations.

Seamus Heaney’s Five Fables Is available at http://fivefablesapp.com/

An introduction to the fable, The Two Mice, which was shown on BBC Two Northern Ireland in March and tells the story of a country mouse invited by her sister to taste the delights of the town but finds, to her cost, it is not all it is made out to be. http://vimeo.com/88443256