Initial

Project Assessment

Yale University

Project Description: TRIPTYCH

Cost Summary

TRIPTYCH is a multimodal, HCI interface that will allow for simultaneous searching, annotation, and
collating across three types of panelsa m aterial artifact, a foreign text, and English translation [Exhibit
A]. It is envisioned b y Professor Andrew Quintman as a tool that will enable scholars to discover new
relationships between the visual and literary narratives of the Life of the Buddha. This new, web-based
interface will provide a dynamic platform for engaging and analyzing the relationships between texts and
images that is both content and data driven, and that is relational and non-linear. Currently, no tool exists
that allows for multimodal analysis across material and textual materials while also incorporating
annotation, zoom, and translation features.

65 hours Project Management

80 hours UX Design and Config
40 hours Graphic Production
240 hours Programming
20 hours Testing and Deployment
5 hours Analytics and Review
Estimated $50,000-100,000

*External Funding Sources
uncertain; NEH and some technology
grants are being researched

The tool will be useful for any discipline where comparison of the artifacts of material culture and
associated literary documents is paramount, and in learning environments that emphasize close reading,
visual analysis, annotation, and collaborative work [Exhibit B].

Impact / Justification/ Benefits

Potential to impact hundreds of faculty and thousands of students for teaching and learning in several
disciplines both at Yale and in higher education
Will eliminate the need for two or m ore interfaces or systems to manage visual and textual content
Will reinforce Y ales presence in the digital humanities field

Key Considerations / Risks

In Scope: Solicit grants, Develop the interface, Host the interface, Offer ongoing support
Out of Scope: Color Correction and photo stitching additional panels, OCR improvement on Tibetan
documents, identifying additional partners to contribute materials
Assumptions: Unprecedented interface, incomplete set of materials, restrictive deadline of January 2016
with no guaranteed funding
Dependencies: Ways of editing and annotating materials for learning should be identified, secondary scope
objectives are paramount to the projects future, partnership between Quintman and Schaeffer is not local
Constraints: No funding identified, additional work required for optimal OCR, additional photo stitching and
editing may be required, professor has a deadline of January 2016
Risks: costly and new tool without precedent, hard deadline of January 2016 may be unreasonable, no
funding is currently guaranteed, resources are only partially completed

Proposed Schedule

PHASES
Plan
Analyze
Design
Build
Test
Deploy
Warranty

START
8-1-14
9-16-14

END
9-15-14
10-15-14
10-16-14 12-31-14
1-1-15
7-1-15
7-2-15
8-2-15
8-3-15
12-31-15
1-1-16
1-2-16

Next Steps

Grants will be researched and applied

for. Wireframe will be developed. W eb
Architect will be identified, or vendors
will be further solicited for a more
detailed price quote and project
delineation.

Exhibit A: General Sketch

Sketch 2: Image Panel Detail and Notes

Sketch 3: Activity Log, Textual Panel Detail and Notes

Exhibit B

Learning goals: Overview

Scholarly research conducted by experts, should in our view, be directly related to the goals of
undergraduate education. Scholars work to create knowledge, and students need to know that
knowledge is created by people, including themselves. They are and will be producers of
knowledge, and undergraduate learning should entail learning how to create knowledge in a
careful, considered, and collaborative fashion. The much-vaunted term undergraduate research
is, in this view, simply another term for learning conceived as an active and participatory process.
To this end, our project seeks to encourage and make possible a synergy between
undergraduate learning and scholarly research about a particular corpus of visual and textual
resources in a digital environment in a manner that creates new public knowledge for all
participants, novice and expert alike.

Skills-based goals
*Facility in collaborative, project-based or inquiry-based learning
*Develop skills with appropriate technology and tools
*Ability to conduct and present research in primary textual and visual sources in the following
manner:
Ask a question
Search for information
Structure the information
Envision an answer
Represent answer visually and textually
Tell a story that uses evidence to present the answer

Topically specific goals

*Fluency in the central narrative of the Buddhist tradition, ie. the life of the Buddha, identifying key
figures, events, places, and ideas
*Understanding of the context of the narrative within architectural contexts
*Understanding of the distinctions and interrelations of textual and visual narrative
*Increased ability to analyse visual and textual narratives at the micro level in order to explain
how distinct elements combine to create larger patterns
*Increased ability to analyse visual and textual narratives in relation to larger cultural and religious
practices
*Understanding of the historical and cultural contexts for the creation of Buddhist visual and
literary narratives