VISUALIZATION

Sight is a person’s primary sense, and one-third of a person’s brainpower is spent processing visual images. Therefore, visualization is becoming a primary means for scientists and researchers to explore new territory and show new concepts to the general public. Jason Leigh, director of the Electronic Visualization Laboratory at the University of Illinois – Chicago, discussed advanced visualization research and collaboration in a Distinguished Lecture Series for the LSU Center for Computation & Technology, or CCT. Leigh explained the guiding principle of his lab is that the best visualization advances occur by pairing researchers from science, art and industry, then seeing how computer science techniques apply to these areas. “In order to do effective visualization, we need to work with people from other disciplines,” Leigh explained. Previously, visualization was studied mainly by computer scientists, but now is done in a collaborative effort with artists and others who can use visualization to process complex problems. Leigh showed examples of the work his lab has done throughout the past 34 years. In the 1970s, the Electronic Visualization Laboratory created the computer graphics that were used in the first “Star Wars” films, an early visualization achievement. The lab also created the first Cave Automatic Virtual Environment, or CAVE, in 1992. CAVE is a room-sized, immersive, virtual reality environment that has advanced scientific visualization. From CAVE came the creation of Geowall in 2000. Geowall was built using many of the principles that created CAVE, and is a low-cost, 3-D, stereoscopic display that is used primarily for geo-science research and education at more than 500 sites today. The more recent version, Geowall-2, is a tiled array of liquid crystal display panels driven by a cluster of computers. GeoWall-2 is used to help the United State Geological Survey analyze 3-D data of high-resolution images from more than 122 U.S. cities to better plan for disasters. Leigh discussed the lab’s latest research endeavors, primarily related to the OptIPuter project. The OptIPuter, so named for its use of optical networking, combines computational resources over optical networks. The OptIPuter’s central element is optical networking, not computers, and this new project creates "super networks." This format will enable greater research collaboration, as scientists who are generating terabytes and petabytes of data can interactively visualize, analyze and correlate their data from multiple storage sites connected to optical networks. With the rise of high-speed, fiber optics networks, researchers are wondering how such networks can form the backplane of an advanced computer model, and also how an advanced computer system supported by networks could be used to solve problems in the sciences quickly and more effectively? “Most old applications cannot access a new, high-speed network effectively, so we have to build new applications,” Leigh explained. Leigh showed examples of how the OptiPuter is advancing visualization research. One method is LambdaRAM, a pool of clustered memory that provides access to large, remote data sets so scientists can collaborate on projects using ultra-high-resolution tiled screens to communicate and view multiple high-resolution images and data sets at one time. He also showed images of a project with the Science Museum of Minnesota that uses a table-surface, digital map of Hawaii with moveable objects on the surface that researchers can use to simulate rainfall, lava flow or other naturally occurring elements. The table shows how such incidents would affect the land in that area. The final project Leigh discussed is “Lifelike,” a collaboration between University of Illinois-Chicago and the University of Central Florida to create life-size Avatars of historical figures that can react to and interact with others. These realistic images could be a way of preserving historical events for future reference.