really out of my depth here, but Flash comes to mind - I've seen it
in action but haven't used it myself. Maybe somebody else has had
hands-on experience?
Merce
On Tue, 22 Feb 2000 12:53:19 GMT0BST simonf
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Help.....
>
> Got the following message from a colleague
>
> Can anyone suggest a solution please?
>
> regards
>
> simonf
> -----------------------------------------------------------
> Dear Simon
>
> For years I've been explaining principle components analysis to my
> ecology students using a mixture of chalk-and-talk and overheads, but
> it strikes me that it will be difficult to do properly unless it's
> converted into web-pages. The basic problem is this
>
> 1. Plot a 3-D scatter graph of about 15 points, with the x, y, z axes
> representing species A, B and C. (In reality the technique is used
> in 50+ dimensions but for obvious reasons I can't plot that!). It
> will vastly assist the students' understanding if I can rotate this
> plot slowly around its y axis, so some sort of animation
> functionality might be needed to do this.
>
> 2. Stick a line onto the scatter of points (representing the first
> principle component). Again rotate the plot in real-time.
>
> 3. Draw short lines from my points at 90 degrees to my first
> component. (and rotate the plot)
>
> 4. Draw a second line at 90 degrees to the first, and repeat.
>
> 5. Draw an entirely new graph, now only in 2 dimensions of the PCA
> plot. We've now compressed the data from 3 to 2 dimensions with
> minimal loss of information.
>
> I'm happy to write some Java if this is essential (I have access to
> JBuilder) but would prefer not to, as I've no idea how to get
> the scatter-plot to rotate. I assume that one of the new 3-D
> animation packages for web authoring would be better. Can you give
> any advice?
>
> Many thanks
> Roy
>
> --------------------------------
> Learning Technology Co-ordinator
> University of Newcastle
> Tel: 0191-222-5183
----------------------
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