VISUALIZATION

Imagine viewing cancerous cells in full color on a wall-sized display. The nuclei, mitochondria and cell membranes are clearly visible, as are other microscopic cell components. This scenario is becoming reality. The National Science Foundation has funded a project at UC Irvine's Center of GRAVITY (Graphics, Visualization and Imaging Technology) that will provide unprecedented high-capacity visualization capability to researchers. The Highly Interactive Parallelized Display Wall (HIPerWall) is a massively tiled, grid-based display that allows researchers to view and manipulate their data sets at extremely high resolutions, more than 10 times that of most other tiled displays, at a fraction of the cost and physical space required for projection-based systems. HIPerWall's construction in the UCI Calit2 building consists of 55 flat-panel displays that can be reconfigured to provide different levels of tiling and display orientations. Researchers will be able to view multiple independent data streams or 3D models from different sources at the same time, or a single full-screen visual at over 100-megapixel resolution. The resolution of HIPerWall will be close to the perception threshold of the human eye, allowing multiple users to explore information at the highest levels of resolution. Combining 3D modeling and visualization technology, and supported by middleware that will transport the data, the system eventually will allow geographically separated researchers to collaboratively work on complex experiments. "HIPerWall will enable high-impact research by linking scientists from diverse research areas and supporting fundamental research in distributed computing and visualization," said Falko Kuester, assistant professor of electrical engineering and computer science, and one of the system's architects. One of HIPerWall's primary focuses is visualization of Earth science data. HIPerWall will allow Earth science researchers to see concurrently both the broad view and fine details of enormous datasets, enabling shared viewing of complex results. "Progress on questions of weather, climate and the planet's future depends on distilling meaningful insights from the largest structured datasets ever created," said Charlie Zender, assistant professor of Earth system science. HIPerWall also will provide visualization capabilities to projects in physics, structural engineering, and theoretical and experimental biomedical engineering. "HIPerWall provides a great platform to investigate and develop data management techniques," said Stephen Jenks, assistant professor of electrical engineering and computer science, and another of the system's architects. "Responsiveness and programmability are key goals for our infrastructure development."