VISUALIZATION

AUSTIN, TX -- Collaborative AVS (cAVS) is a new application developed by TACC Visualization Scientist Greg Johnson in collaboration with Steve Mock and Jeff Mock of the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC). cAVS enables two or more researchers to interactively and collaboratively explore scientific visualization-related data. For example, a UT researcher analyzing the output of a fluid-flow simulation might do so in real-time collaboration with a colleague in another state. Together, they might share each other's views of the visualization, as well as control over parameters (such as color, lighting, etc.) affecting this graphical representation of the data. As another example, a member of the TACC Visualization Group might assist a researcher elsewhere on campus in developing a visualization of his/her data from the ACES Visualization Lab. No matter the purpose of the collaboration, cAVS enables any aspect of a visualization to be selectively shared. Moreover, the collaboration can be tuned to match the computational and network resources locally available to each participant. cAVS was built on top of and requires the general purpose, commercial tool called the Application Visualization System (AVS 5). AVS 5 is an intuitive and widely used tool that helps users gain insight into their data quickly, without the need for programming. "cAVS is an implementation of a data-flow model for collaborative visualization. This model permits virtually any aspect of a visualization application to be shared. The new Java thin-client even enables researchers without access to AVS 5 to participate in cAVS collaborations." said Johnson. "Users of this Java applet can interactively control (and view the result of changes to) any of the visualization parameters currently being shared." More information about the cAVS system, and components of this public-domain software, can be downloaded at: http://www.tacc.utexas.edu/cavs/. For more information about cAVS, see the project web site at http://www.tacc.utexas.edu/cavs/. For more information about AVS 5, see the TACC AVS 5 User Manuals at http://www.tacc.utexas.edu/resources/user_guides/#avs5 or the product web page at http://www.avs.com/software/soft_t/avs5.html. For more information about AVS/Express, see the TACC AVS/Express User Manuals at http://www.tacc.utexas.edu/resources/user_guides/#express or the product web page at http://www.avs.com/software/soft_t/avsxps.html.