In New YouTube Series, UC Researchers Use 3-D Digital Technology to View Our Past, Present and Future

LA JOLLA, Calif., June 18, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- We've seen 3-D digital technology revolutionize movies and video games, but how will it change our lives? "Our Digital Life," a new series from the YouTube original channel UCTV Prime, reveals how UC Merced researchers are using cutting-edge digital tools to help us visualize, research and learn about things we could previously only imagine. The programs incorporate vivid animations, simulations, and interviews with researchers in archeology, engineering, psychology and more to demonstrate how this technology is transforming the way we view our past, present and future - as well as ourselves. The first episode of the three-part series is online now, with new episodes premiering Fridays through June 29 at www.uctv.tv/digital-life and www.youtube.com/uctvprime.

"Our Digital Life," an Original YouTube Series from UCTV Prime

June 15 - "The Past - Digital Archeology and History"
It's easy to imagine how digital technology will influence our future, but what about our past? Discover how "cyber-archeologists" and historians at UC Merced are using cutting-edge digital tools to bring the past back to life in vivid, 3-D detail.

June 22 - "The Present - Cognitive and Computer Science, Our Digital Self"
The second episode moves from the digital past to the present, where cognitive scientists and computer engineers at UC Merced are collaborating and using real time, 3-D motion capture technology to understand our complex behavior and how we use it to record and analyze the way we live. The researchers aim to build a digital library of human motion that will help construct lifelike human avatars for use in telemedicine, education and ways we've yet to imagine.

June 29 - "The Future - Teaching and Life-Saving Tools"
The third and final episode shows how UC Merced scientists are developing digital technology to help visualize, research and learn about objects on the nanoscale. Using 3-D imaging usually reserved for Hollywood films, students and researchers are breaking new ground in the study of nanomaterials and how we use technology in the classroom and the lab to teach and train the researchers of the future.

UCTV Prime is the first university-run channel to be included among YouTube's new production partnerships with recognizable brands like The Wall Street Journal, Deepak Chopra and TED. With documentary mini-series, interviews, commentaries and video shorts each week, UCTV Prime brings to light the innovations, trends, issues and personalities that shape our world, drawing on the tremendous knowledge resources of the University of California's ten campuses, five medical schools, three national labs and other affiliated institutions.

UCTV presents educational and enrichment programming from the campuses, national laboratories, and affiliated institutions of the University of California. UCTV delivers science, health and medicine, public affairs, humanities and the arts to a general audience, as well as specialized programming for health care professionals, teachers and researchers. UCTV is available worldwide via live stream, video archives and podcasting at www.uctv.tv, on YouTube at www.youtube.com/uctv and www.youtube.com/uctvprime, on iTunesU in the Beyond Campus section, and on cable in select cities throughout California. For a complete list of UCTV's outlets, visit www.uctv.tv/wheretowatch.

SOURCE University of California Television