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WestGRID CV Focus Areas and Projects

Collaboration Focus: Large-scale, distributed, multimedia collaboration

This focus area complements the research in the Visualization Focus Area through the creation of a collaborative hardware and software infrastructure to support large-scale, distributed, multimedia collaborations. The infrastructure will support widely diverse systems with highly variable display, interaction, and networking capabilities. Such an infrastructure will provide a mechanism for scientists to effectively collaborate with remote colleagues, without requiring an in-depth understanding of the technologies involved.

The infrastructure will support a wide variety of display technologies (PDA, laptop, desktop, GridStation, GridRoom, and VisRoom), interaction technologies (PDAs, tablet PCs, touch sensitive screens, 3D interaction technologies, haptics, and sound), and networking technologies (cellular wireless, 802.11 wireless, LAN, WAN, and advanced optical networks). Central to this research focus will be the integration of many of the projects in the Visualization Focus Area into the collaboration environments that are developed for WestGRID.

This integration of the visualization infrastructure with the collaboration infrastructure will provide WestGRID researchers with the ability to explore their data with distant colleagues in ways that were previously extremely difficult or impossible. Through a collaboration between the UofA and BigBangWidth (Funded by WED) we will also explore how the newly developed BigBangWidth high-speed switch (capable of delivering an amazing transmission speed of 15Gb/s without any switching delay) can solve many of the problems relating to networking problems associated with these applications.

Projects NewMIC/NRC Advanced Collaborative Environments (ACE) Project

o Summary: The ACE program is exploring how people interact with each other, using technology, over potentially large distances. Our focus is on how advanced collaboration technologies will allow users to collaborate with each other easily, efficiently, and effectively. The goal of the program is to maximize the Quality of Experience (QoE) of the end user over a wide range of technology platforms. Critical to this work is the fact that QoE is a human centered measure not a technology-centered measure. Thus we want to maximize a human perception based on a rich and diverse set of factors. These factors include, but are not limited to:

Networking (broadband, wired, wireless, and cellular wireless) Interaction (3D tracking, touch sensitive devices, voice recognition, mouse,

keyboard) Display (Immersive displays, wall, table top, desktop, laptop, tablet, PDA,

cell phone)

Fundamental to this project is the creation of an architecture to support advanced collaborative environments. The architecture is an open one, allowing for the

extensible creation of collaboration services and the ability to deploy those services on a wide range of technology platforms. This architecture provides the capability to manage the complexity of the problem domain but does not require tools to be written for the architecture explicitly. That is, the architecture plays a managing and integrating role for the technologies involved but does not dictate the use of specific technologies.

o People NewMIC: B. Corrie (Project Leader), H. Wong, T. Zimmerman, R.

Scharein, M. Ihara UBC: K. Booth SFU: J. Borwein, L. Bartram, R. Ballantyne UoA: P. Boulanger UofC: L Katz, R. Levy, D. Mitchell

o Timeline/Milestones December 2002 (NewMIC)

Initial prototype of WestGRID QoE CoLab NewMIC GridRoom/GridStation(s) operational

December 2002 (UCalgary) UofC GridRoom operational

March 2003 (NewMIC) NewMIC GridRoom/GridStation(s) integrated into WestGRID QoE

CoLab May 2003 (UCalgary)

GridStations defined and under construction June 2003 (NewMIC)

Tiled display wall integrated into WestGRID QoE CoLab Passive stereo display wall integrated into WestGRID QoE CoLab

August 2003 (NewMIC) Solutions server integrated into WestGRID QoE CoLab SFU, UoA, UoC GridRoom/GridStation integrated into WestGRID

QoE CoLab WestGRID QoE CoLab deployed for WestGRID users for testing

September 2003 (UCalgary) Rollout of GridStations at EVDS and Kinesiology VR Lab

December 2003 (NewMIC) Commodity visualization server integrated into WestGRID QoE

CoLab December 2004 (NewMIC)

Advanced collaboration and visualization services and capabilities integrated into WestGRID QoE CoLab

December 2004 (UCalgary) Advanced collaboration and visualization services and capabilities

integrated into WestGRID QoE CoLabo Budget Items

NewMIC Networking

IML Room Improvements (GridRoom) Video Conferencing (GridStation) Video Conferencing (GridRoom) Tiled Display Wall (Phase 1) Passive Stereo Display (GridStation) Expansion Access Grid Node (GridRoom) Personal Access Grid Nodes (GridStation) AV Equipment (GridRoom) Miscellaneous

UCalgary Networking to Kinesiology VR Lab and EVDS Design Studio

planned and implemented. IRStudio Improvements (GridRoom) Development of Personal Access Grid Nodes (GridStation)

o Collaborators NRC Institute of Information Technology, Ottawa NTT Japan Mt. Allison University (Andrew Paskauskas) Sheridan College (Walt Winchell)

SFU CoLabo Summary: The CoLab technology matrix is anchored by five Smart Technology

interactive touch-screens: 2 wall-mounted plasma screens, 1 high-resolution projected display, 1 table-inset touch-screen plasma display and a portable touch-screen display (currently outside in the CECM), meant to be used in remote situations and connected back to the CoLab. Additional computing devices include a wide variety of heterogeneous handheld, wireless and standard computing devices.

User input methods include direct touch, indirect (mouse), keyboard, handwriting recognition, OCR and paper-capture. Input and data needs to be easily and flexibly migrated across devices and displays without excessive latency. The anticipated outcomes include: the identification of techniques to capture, integrate and distribute visualization and input modalities across various devices; identification of capture, archiving, transcoding and reformatting issues when using heterogeneous devices in arbitrary collections of display and interaction components; and the development of expertise so that these technologies can be used at other WestGrid sites.

o People SFU: J. Borwein (Project Leader), L. Bartram, R. Ballantyne UBC: K. Booth NewMIC: B. Corrie, H. Wong, T. Zimmerman, R. Scharein UofC: L. Katz, R. Levy, D Mitchell

o Timeline/Milestones June 2003 (SFU)

Four months after receiving funding the main collaboration grid in SFU will be operational and ready for use for AG-based collaboration between the SFU and NewMIC (including documentation for deployment of similar installations at other WestGRID sites). The main collaboration will include the base level AccessGrid and H323 technology between all sites.

???? (SFU) In parallel, the CoLab technology matrix will be integrated for input

and output distribution and capture, tying in the large interactive touch screens, the whiteboards and smaller personal devices. An event framework, the EventHeap from Stanford, and accompanying multi-device display configuration (PointRight) will be installed and evaluated as a unifying event architecture. How these frameworks fit with the QoE will be studied and reported.

December 2004 (SFU) In the second year of the project, based on the success of the above

two tasks, this research will be extended to include real-time input sharing with remote displays and interactions (using the portable touch-screen/laptop system) and remote display sharing, so that inputs from multiple users can control a single virtual shared display. This will include developing the tiled displays further (passive stereo tiled displays and/or very high-resolution tiled displays) or deploying the current level of tiled displays at other WestGRID locations. This phase will be developed in year two of the WestGRID project.

o Budget Itemso Collaborators

UofC; IRStudio, Kinesiology VR Lab, EVDS Design Studio

BanffCentre - VIC Projecto Summary: Banff will integrate our Collaboration Laboratory and our Visualization

Laboratory. Add passive display system that will allow participants in a meeting to visualize simulations in stereo. This will provide WestGrid with an additional test site for 3D collaboration that allows science and mathematics researchers to share and manipulate objects over networks.

Researchers Sheelagh Carpendale and Saul Greenberg will develop presentation and collaboration tools. Data e updated and changed based on researcher needs. Scientists from WestGrid will come to Banff New Media Institute to test the tabletop and software through ‘03-04

The researchers will combine the physical infrastructure of the tabletop as group collaboration system with visualization capacities. Gesture based

communication will be a component of the research. (Carpendale and Greenberg)

Collaboration software tools will support: distanced based collaboration sharing data (Carpendale); Single display groupware (Carpendale and Greenberg); Distributed Collaboration (Carpendale and Greenberg)

o People: UoC: Sheelagh Carpendale, Saul Greenberg Banff: Sara Diamond, Susan Kennard

o Timeline/Milestones: May, 2003: Summit on collaboration methodologies May, 2003: Establish Banff Centre collaboration laboratory September 2004: Toolkit will enable WestGrid researchers to test and share

data. September 2004: Research summit-on visualization and collaboration--that

includes a public presentation and press coverage of research results from collaboration and visualization toolkit and activities.

o Budget Items: Networking Collaboration Laboratory Creation (GridRoom) Video Conferencing with High Quality Audio (GridRoom) Researcher Cluster Laboratory (Collaboration Environment Design) Passive Stereo Display and Conferencing (GridStation) Establish Access Grid Node (GridRoom) Personal Access Grid Nodes (GridStation) AV Equipment (GridRoom) Comparative Applications for Video and Internet Conferencing

o Collaborators: TR Labs, Georgia Institute of Technology, Alberta College of Art and

Design, University of Surrey Computer Science, UK, National Research Council, BIRS, CNICE Project (developing collaboration tools for disabled)

The Banff Centre Tool and Applications Comparison Projecto Summary : Working with researcher Boulanger, we will build a grid station that

will incorporate passive 3D display. This will allow desktop immersive communication and data display. Banff will provide a second site in addition to U. of A., for this technology, its deployment and analysis in the research process. The Collaboration Laboratory is located in the Banff New Media Institute facilities and will be linked to the WestGrid Visualization Laboratory. This facilitates groups of researchers working on different aspects of a problem. It allows research on comparative experiences in collaboration between the collaboration environment and an immersive 3D-visualization environment.

Banff will provide off-the-shelf and alternate research technologies (such as dialogue visualization tools under development at MIT and Microsoft) that it will make available to the network. Once familiar with the Grid environment, researchers who choose to participate can test the qualities of these tools with the assistance of

Banff Centre researchers. We will use the Laboratory to support researchers in science, mathematics and collaboration itself.

o People : UoC: Sheelagh Carpendale, Saul Greenberg Banff: Sara Diamond, Susan Kennard

o Deliverables/Milestones: April, 2003. Collaboration laboratory will be functional and operational for

testing by the end of April, 2003. We will provide access for on-site WestGrid researcher, BIRS (Banff International Research Station) and user testing.

May, 2003: BNMI Collaboration summit with a public presentation May 22-25th, 2003 that will include WestGrid researchers, consider progress and show results from collaborative visualization research conducted by Carpendale January-April, 2003.

o Collaborators: TR Labs, Georgia Institute of Technology, Alberta College of Art and

Design, University of Surrey Computer Science, UK, National Research Council

Visualization Focus: Visualization applications, tools, and infrastructure

Summary: In this focus area we are developing application, tools, and infrastructure for advanced visualization. This includes the development and deployment of new visualization applications, new visualization hardware technologies, and tools to facilitate the use of visualization technologies by non-visualization experts. Most research projects in this focus area will work towards integrating these visualization tools into the collaboration infrastructure being developed as part of the Collaboration Focus Area. This integration is done through combining existing computational and visualization applications, new visualization applications and tools, and new visualization technologies into the collaboration framework.

Projects Advanced Mathematical Visualization Suite (Application/Tool)

o Summary: Most existing mathematical software packages are not designed to support collaborative work or even to interface directly with other software. Part of our initial effort will be to integrate a number of software tools into a collaborative framework we call the Advanced Visualization Suite. Some progress has already been made in this area, in the sub-fields of topology and geometry. We intend to extend the suite to include tools from all fields of mathematics where researchers use computers to solve computationally difficult problems or as an aid to forming new insights and investigating conjectures.

In order to properly support collaborative work in mathematics, it is important to allow researchers to work together across diverse conditions, possibly using widely different computer architectures. These may range from highly localized and visually rich environments such as the IML at NewMIC, to a hand-held device being

used at a conference (with a possibly limited internet bandwidth). Not all existing software tools will scale well across this range. Our research will involve understanding these boundaries, and providing guidelines to enable developers to write software that can best cope with many different degrees of visual richness.

In addition to integrating existing software tools into our collaborative environment, we intend to build new software that is designed from the ground up to support collaboration (either local or remote). We plan to propose new implementation standards to allow future researchers to more easily convert their applications to allow collaboration and sharing of data objects.

As the word implies, visualization has meant using graphical techniques to represent data and to aid in its comprehension. Although this will remain the major part of our focus, we will also extend visualization to other modalities, such as sound and haptics.

Pierre Boulanger, Jonathan Borwein, BNMI (Diamond) and NewMIC will develop a 3D model of mathematical data that allows navigation of this data in the cave environment. Diamond will study the use of different platform for the presentation of these models. She will compare the research issues, questions that can be addressed and comfort with interaction that arise from the visualization versus the collaboration space. Borwein will place his modeling tools at Banff for BIRS researchers and others to use and for the Banff team to test and evaluate.

o People SFU: J. Borwein (Project Leader), L. Bartram, J. Tolmie UBC: K. Booth NewMIC: B. Corrie, H. Wong, T. Zimmerman, R. Scharein UofC: L. Katz, R. Levy, D Mitchell UoA: P. Boulanger Banff: S. Diamond and Design Group

o Timeline/Milestones March 2003

Build out of IRStudio with SMART board and enhanced display capabilities

May 2003 Preview at Collaboration Summit, Banff Centre May 22-24th

June 2003 Evaluation of networking needs and formulation of proposal to

ensure sufficient connectivity between collaborative sites. July 2003

ICIAM 2003 September 2003

Integration of stereo visualization systems into GridRooms Testing on distribution of stereo visualization imagery between

collaborating sites. December 2003

Identification of Showcase Research Project(s) that will only be possible using this technology

March 2004 Results assessment and evaluation

o Budget Items NewMIC

TerraVision Visualization Server (GridStation) Passive Stereo Display System (GridStation) Tiled Display Walls (Phase 1 and 2) IML Room Improvements (GridRoom) Networking (Infrastructure)

UofC Integration of touch screen video displays into existing GridRoom Integration of interleaved stereo projector and projection surface into

GridRoom Evaluation of visualization needs for GridStations

o Collaborators UofC: IRStudio, Kinesology VR Lab, EVDS Design Studio

Collaborative Virtual Environment Development Toolso Summary: This project will take existing expertise and tools to the next level.

Using software packages such as Virtools, Sense8 and interface devices such as the CyberMIND head mounted display (HMD), JesterPoint motion capture system, and the VRex 4200 projector, the team will work to identify and mount demonstration applications that can be run over a broadband network for interactive experience by remote users.

These devices and expertise combined with digitizing devices such as the Cyberware head and model scanners, and the Cyrax 3D scanner for scanning building sized objects, create ordered data clouds that can be processed to enable models of objects, buildings and other large items to be brought into virtual environments. Once proven over distance, these technologies should allow HPC researchers to more easily visualize data from their particular applications and discover new ways of interpreting and sharing the data generated by their activities on the WestGRID cluster.

In addition, materializing devices such as the Thermwood CNC Router and the Stratasys Genisys 3D Printer allow digitally modeled objects to take operational concrete form for further analysis and appreciation by researchers.

o People: UofC: L. Katz, R. Levy, D Mitchell, D. Gadbois UofA: Robert Lederer

o Timeline/Milestones May 2003 Testing of Software performance over distance

Identification of suitable test subject material November 2003 first demonstration

o Budget Items UCalgary

Networking AccessGrid enhancement Software Renewals and Upgrades

Earth Magneto-dynamics Simulation/Visualizationo Summary: This project involves the creation of a collaborative visualization system

for the earth dynamo simulations. This ongoing project is part of collaboration between Dr. Moritz Heimpel from the Department of Physics and Dr. Boulanger from the Department of Computing Science. A major problem for modern four-dimensional computational simulations is that they generate large volumes of data at a much faster rate than can be effectively processed using standard storage and visualization techniques.

The main goal of this project is to build an advanced system for interactive, real-time visualization of computational planetary dynamo simulations. The dynamo code is a modified version of Magic2 (J. Wicht, Phys. Earth Planet. Int., 2002). Time scaling of typical dynamo simulations is such that it is presently feasible to observe the motion of convection and magnetic variations in a way similar to a laboratory experiment.

o People Pierre Boulanger (Project Leader), Moritz Heimpel CNS: Denise Thornton, Jon Johanson People at BigBangWidth NewMIC: B. Corrie, H. Wong, T. Zimmerman, R. Scharein UBC: K. Booth

o Timeline/Milestones October 2003 first demonstration (UofA-NewMic)



UofA Passive Stereo Display System (GridStation) Acess Grid Room at CNS

Access Grid Update for the VizRoom BigBangWidth 15Gb Switch 2x SGI 1 Gb/s network cards

Geophysics Visualizationo Summary: Geophysics involves large-scale and complex 3D data sets that are

important to understanding the geology of an ore deposit. This project explores the use of immersive, high-resolution visualization technologies to help gain that understanding. In addition, the project explores the use of collaboration technologies that allow geophysicists at the mine site collaborate with colleagues at the head office of an organization. This is a collaboration between the Geophysical Inversion Facility at UBC, Placer Dome Inc, and NewMIC.


Scharein UBC: D. Oldenburg, K. Booth Placer Dome: Peter Kowalcyk

o Timeline/Milestones January 2003 (NewMIC)

Initial demonstration of collaborative visualization between NewMIC (Vancouver) and Mirarco (Laurentian University, Sudbury) with Placer Dome.

December 2003 TBD



HPC Solutions Server (Tool/Infrastructure)o Summary: One of the critical components of the WestGrid project is to design the

visualization/collaboration system in such as way that it should run relatively independent of the original simulation code. In order to do so, we need to create a toolkit that will easily allow users of the WestGrid infrastructure to view and manipulate online simulation without the need for major code modifications. In particular, the system architecture should allow three-dimensional (3D) rendering of scalar and vector fields to occur independently of the data production process. This means that data production delays should not cause delays in manipulation of the visual representation, such as object rotation.

The main components of the proposed system are 1) simulation program; 2) solution server; 3) solution formatter; 4) visualization program. Here the solution server directs which data coming from the simulation will be processed. The solution formatter converts simulation output for further processing by the visualization program. The subsystems 1), 2) and 3), are run on a large multiprocessor SMP machine or on the grid whereas subsystem 4) may be run on a remote PC or workstation. The data transfer from the SMP machine to the PC is facilitated by data compression, which is performed by the solution formatter.

One of the outcomes of this project is a new software library capable of connecting easily advanced simulation programs to low cost immersive visualization system. This toolkit will be based on SGI Performer and the VTK library and will be made available to all the WestGrid partners free of charge.

o People Pierre Boulanger (Project Leader), Moritz Heimpel CNS: Denise Thornton, Jon Johanson NewMIC: B. Corrie, H. Wong, T. Zimmerman, R. Scharein

o Timeline/Milestones First version with a demo for October 2003

o Budget Items UofA

Access Grid Update for the VizRoom BigBangWidth 15Gb Switch Two SGI 1 Gb/s network cards

NewMIC TerraVision Visualization Server (GridStation) Passive Stereo Display System (GridStation) Tiled Display Walls (Phase 1 and 2) IML Room Improvements (GridRoom) Networking (Infrastructure)

Passive Stereo Displays (Infrastructure)o Summary: This project explores the use of passive stereo displays using commodity

off the shelf hardware. Such a display environment makes large-screen stereo displays a cost effective and efficient tool for advanced visualization. This project will develop both the technologies for the display environment as well as software tools for using the technology effectively.

There are several planned outcomes of this work: the identification of collaboration and visualization tasks that require these technologies, the identification of application domains that require these technologies, the identification of techniques to link these display technologies to other types of displays (desktop, laptop, and

wireless devices), and the development of expertise so that these technologies can be easily deployed at other WestGRID sites. The UofA will also provide and share its passive stereo display system and its stereo glassless tele-immersive technology which integrate and add to the VTK toolbox a stereo video teleconferencing capability over various platforms and bandwidth limited networks.

The University of Calgary will evaluate alternative stereo systems in tandem with the UofA’s passive system. Facilities at the University of Calgary will support and contain stereo visualization systems within its GridRoom and extend this capability to GridStations. These facilities will function as test beds for advanced visualization technologies and techniques and provide distant partners for evaluation and development purposes.

o People UoA: P. Boulanger (Project Leader) NewMIC: B. Corrie, H. Wong, T. Zimmerman, R. Scharein UBC: K. Booth UofC: L. Katz, R. Levy, D Mitchell

o Timeline/Milestones June 2003 (NewMIC)

Passive stereo display wall integrated into WestGRID QoE CoLab

June 2003 (UofC) Passive stereo display integrated into IRStudio to enable multi-site

collaborative research (GridRoom)

September 2003 (UofC) Creation of GridStations and equipping of linked GridStations with

stereo visualization technologies for evaluation of performance, resolution and const/benefit analysis

December 2003 (UofA/NewMIC) Basic visualization tools for passive stereo display environment



UofA Passive Stereo Display System (GridStation)

UofC Passive Stereo Display System (GridStation) IRStudio Improvements (GridRoom) Networking (Infrastructure)

3D Virtual Reality Model Rendering Over Distanceo Summary: The objective is to record 3D binocular video footage of model skills in

sports, like a golf swing done well (in our case a speed skating start or cornering), so that a student can observe, study and learn from any position with respect to the expert. In this virtual environment, the student can even walk around the recorded dynamic model, slowing the movement down, if that is so desired.

To complement this, it is also our intention to build wire frame models (as with Maya) and then to add movement and textures to them, so that the same user access to the dynamic skill sequences are available.

The technology for doing the first, with stereo video images, requires seamless dynamic interpolation from what is recorded to what is generated. There are problems with this technique, which we will learn from and attempt to minimize. The second approach, with synthetic images, is simpler in some ways but the results may be less natural.

Both approaches will be compared for effectiveness, efficiency and learning outcomes. Users at a distance will help to further evaluate the overall effectiveness of this training technology.

o People Project Leader Larry Katz, PhD Richard M. Levy, M. Arch, PhD, MCIP, AIA Ernie Chang, MD, PhD Gail Kopp, PhD David Mitchell, PhD Xiufeng Peng, MSc Chris Chisamore, MEdTech.

Tiled Display Walls (Infrastructure)o Summary: This project explores the use of tiled display walls for high-resolution

collaboration and visualization. Tiled display walls are a fundamental component of the Grid Room and this project explores novel uses of high-resolution displays in this environment. This includes the integration of interactive visualization applications into the Grid Room. In addition, visualization problems that involve large-scale data sets, such as genomics and geophysics, require displays that allow high fidelity imagery.

This project will explore the use of commodity off the shelf computer and projector technologies for visualization applications. There are several planned outcomes of

this work: the identification of collaboration and visualization tasks that require these technologies, the identification of application domains that require these technologies, the identification of techniques to link these display technologies to other types of displays (desktop, laptop, and wireless devices), and the development of expertise so that these technologies can be easily deployed at other WestGRID sites.

These systems will use commodity off the shelf technologies and will therefore be cost effective to deploy. Phase 1 of the tiled display wall will occur in the early stages of WestGRID. Phase 2 will occur in the second year of WestGRID, and will be deployed based on the experiences gained from Phase 1 of the deployment and based on funding available in the WestGRID budget. This project is tightly coupled with the Geophysics Visualization project and the Collaboration Focus Area.

o People UBC: K. Booth (Project Leader) NewMIC: B. Corrie, H. Wong, T. Zimmerman, R. Scharein UofA: Pierre Boulanger

o Timeline/Milestones June 2003 (NewMIC)

Tiled display wall (Phase 1) integrated into WestGRID QoE CoLab March 2004 (NewMIC)

Tiled display wall (Phase 2) integrated into WestGRID QoE CoLabo Budget Items

NewMIC Tiled Display Walls (Phase 1 and 2) IML Room Improvements (GridRoom)

TerraVision Visualization Server (Infrastructure)o Summary: This project explores the use of commodity hardware for use in providing

high-end visualizations capabilities to users at a remote desktop. Until recently this capability could only be provided by a high-end (and expensive) visualization server like the SGI Onyx. This project explores the issues and capabilities of using a modern commodity graphics chip set and high-end frame-buffer and networking cards to provide the same capability at a fraction of the cost. This allows remote scientists to visualize large, complex data sets and manage them from their remote desktops. Due to its relatively low cost, such a system could also be widely deployed at a variety of sites to increase the visualization capability of the WestGRID scientific community.


Scharein UBC: K. Booth

o Timeline/Milestones December 2003 (NewMIC)

Commodity visualization server integrated into WestGRID QoE CoLab


TerraVision Visualization Server (GridStation) IML Room Improvements (GridRoom) Networking (Infrastructure)

BanffCentre VIC Projecto Summary: Visualization and collaboration research by Dr. Sheelagh Carpendale

and Saul Greenberg, with Alan Dunning and Sara Diamond. Observational study of interdisciplinary practice around collaboration in visualization research; develop common language amongst researchers; develop process guidelines. Carpendale will use WestGrid data from CyberCell, U. of A. Bioinformatics Group and BIRS. (see details Page Four). Researchers will draw conclusions about how to make the collaborative process work well and related tools; provide data visualizations for research scientists to use in their research; continue Diamond/Carpendale research into visualizing conversation and related information data; develop elastic presentation of science data.

Visualization components of VIC/Banff collaboration. Banff New Media Institute will build a Visualization Laboratory, working in close collaboration with Pierre Boulanger, which can be reconfigured in response to the needs of researchers and specific projects. This Laboratory will be capable of demonstrating immersive interactions with a simulation running on the grid. This laboratory will have three wall display capacity, immersive sound, wireless interface capabilities and a responsive floor, as well as the sensor and haptic interfaces Dr. Boulanger has developed. Some of the deliverables are:

Creation of a networked research laboratory at the Banff Centre. This laboratory will include the collaboration laboratory and the visualization laboratory. In the past, the lack of appropriate equipment has hindered collaboration between the Banff Centre and VIC researchers. Most equipment was too old to run VIC software effectively, or was on the wrong platform. The Centre simply did not have enough modern equipment to dedicate for discretionary research. WestGrid changes this situation.

Contrast and compare use of various tools by specific WestGrid researchers. Sub-Projects in this area are:

Phidgets (Greenberg). Phidgets, or Physical Widgets, is a toolkit that makes it extremely easy to prototype physical user interfaces under computer control. This is a mature by still evolving project. With Banff Centre residents, we will create physical interfaces for collaboration. In particular, we will look at how sensor-based phidget interfaces can guard privacy concerns, and how output phidget

interfaces can display awareness information as well as event notifications.

Elastic Presentation (Carpendale). Elastic presentation provides lenses that have adjustable interactive local magnification capabilities. These lenses can be applied to visualizations to create images that contain differing levels of magnification and can be used according to current needs for emphasis and exploration. These lenses have thus far only been used in software designed for a single user. With Banff Centre residents, we will investigate employing this facility for collaborative purposes. For instance, if multiple people are able to use magnification lenses, they may prove useful for indicating what aspect of the visualisation they are inspecting.

o People: UoC : Shelagh Carpendale, Saul Greenberg, Bryan Wyvil UoA : Pierre Boulanger Banff : Sara Diamond

o Deliverables/Milestones: May, 22-25, 2003: Public demonstration of Bioinformatics data from the

Bioinformatics group, Dr. Russ Greiner from Carpendale workshop. September, 2003: Build WestGrid Visualization Laboratory at The Banff

Centre September 2004: Toolkit delivered—toolkit will enable WestGrid

researchers to test and share data. September 2004: Research summit-on visualization and collaboration--that

includes a public presentation and press coverage of research results from collaboration and visualization toolkit and activities.

o Collaborators: Collaborators : TR Labs, Georgia Institute of Technology, Alberta College of

Art and Design, University of Surrey Computer Science, UK, National Research Council

HCI Focus: HCI issues in heterogeneous device environments:

In this focus area we are investigating enriched interactive environments in which there are multiple types of devices and technologies that can be combined in novel ways for both single and collaborative work. Several different technologies are being combined and evaluated, from the leading edge to consumer scale, including wall- and table-mounted large touch-screen displays, high-resolution desktop systems, laptops, interactive whiteboards, handheld and wireless devices, pen-based computing tablets and paper.

At SFU three different collaborative environments are being installed: standard desktop, single-user systems based on AccessGrid;. a smaller GridRoom serving 5-8 people with a single large display configuration and portable single-user devices ; and. the SFU CoLab as the larger GridRoom, in which groups of up to 20 can collect to work with the full suite of technologies described above. [NewMIC component – Two GridRooms (our IML with the VR capability and our Living Room

with the Plasma/touch overlay) and multiple GridStations (desktop, laptop, tablet, PDA) This is basically our GridStation and GridRoom budget items.]

The research goals that underpin this focus centre around the study of how heterogeneous devices may be combined into device suites for particular complex information tasks, and what tasks these suites and enriched environments may aid or impede. The content focus is mathematics, quantitative scientific information, and education.

We anticipate this research will contribute to the following outcomes: the identification of collaboration and visualization tasks that are made possible, amplified or impeded.

How effective large wall-sized displays are compared to more traditional displays (monitors or LCD projectors).nologies can contribute to their own needs and the needs of the network as a whole.

How multiple pointers and input devices can be used simultaneously How control of applications is passed amongst users and how this is communicated to those

who are present, those who are remote, and those reviewing the interaction at a later time. How presentation of information or affordances for control of the collaborative technology

can or should be customized to a particular or set of users, a particular task or set of tasks, or to particular attributes of the collaboration (spatial, temporal, cultural, etc.).

By these technologies an analysis and understanding of how different combinations of tools may be useful as device suites for particular kinds of tasks, both collaborative and singular, in both face to face and remote situations; the analysis and development of novel interaction techniques to span, share and control diverse devices ; and the implementation of an adaptive infrastructure that maximizes a collaboration’s Quality of Experience (QoE) for the end user across a wide range of technology platforms. Some specific questions to be addressed include:

The results will inform other WestGrid sites of how these technologies can be used.

The researchers involved in this area are Borwein (SFU), Bartram (SFU), diPaola (SFU), Dugaro (SFU), Tolmie (UBC), Po (UBC), Booth (UBC/NewMIC), Corrie (NewMic), Wong (NewMIC), Ihara (NewMIC/NTT), and Zimmerman (NewMIC).

Deliverables: Phase 1: Four months after receiving funding the systems will be operational and ready for

use for visualization and collaboration projects (including teaching in either of the two GridRooms). Participants for user studies will be solicited and usage will be encouraged and recorded.

Twelve months after receiving CFI funding, an preliminary analysis of device chacracteristics for defined tasks will be available based on initial studies.

By December 2003 a set of methodologies for evaluating multi-user/multi-device use will be developed and reported to other WestGrid sites.

In August of 2003 a prototype of the Quality of Experience infrastructure will be deployed at one or more WestGrid sites and be available for end user testing.

This focus area relates to the Smart MultipleTouch overlays, the networking infrastructure, and the high-resolution PanoRam displays in the SFU WestGrid budget as well as the GridStation, and GridRoom upgrades in the NewMIC budget..

Lyn Bartram, Rob Ballantyne, Kelly Booth, Brian Corrie, and Rob Scharein (Dec 18, 2002)

Collaboration Methods and Best Practices-- Evaluation of Cross-Disciplinary Science Research Practices and Technologies

o Summary: It is increasingly necessary for researchers from diverse disciplines to share their domain expertise. Teams increasingly include designers/artists, scientists (Ede 2000), computer scientists, engineers, and social scientists (Sommerer and Mignonneau 1999). A successful collaboration should show demonstrable results that satisfy all participants and lead to discoveries.

Best practice analysis suggests that collaborations work best when there is cohesion (Legrady and Steinheider, 2002; Beam: Bridges, 2001-2). This is indicated by shared goals, a common vocabulary; a willingness and capacity to problem solve, role mobility; project durability and shared validation. Over time, these factors result in a new common identity. (Century, Calvert: Bridges 2002; Steinheider 2001).

In the last three years, computer science researchers have begun to build collaboration tools. Visual cues provide participants with information about discussion topics and the numbers and identities of participants in a conversation (Preece, Erickson, Donath, 1999; Viegas, Donath, 1999; Donath 2002, Smith 2002; Smith 2002; Kurlander 1996; Sack 2000; Salway 2002; Shimojima 1999; Diamond 2000-2002).

Actor-network theory (Law, 1999; Butler, 2002; Broome, 2000) and ethnography (Wakeford, Cohen, 2002; Stone, 1996, 2000, Diamond, 2001-2) examine the ways that identities emerge and change through the actions of participants within a specific set of relationships, effecting the flow of information and the discovery process itself.

Performance theory examines the ways that we play roles within daily life and working experiences. It compares theatrical role-play and the reception of the content of these roles with role-play in the social arena.

Visualization scientists create models from data (Eilen, McCarthy, Brewer 1993; Stohotte 1998; Gardenfors 2000; Wilks, 1995; Spence 1998; BNMI Archives, 2000, 2001, 2002). Recently, researchers have noted that the context in which their visualizations are seen and the ideas that viewers bring with them effects the interpretation of the visualization English, 2002). This

reinforces the need to incorporate cues of visual literacy into tools, in order to help researchers find shared interpretations.

During WestGrid we will refine the criteria for successful collaboration through observation of current face-to-face and on-line components of the collaboration process, the review of complementary projects. I will document and analyse the factors that lead to a durable and successful collaboration. I will test the hypotheses that cohesion reinforces collaboration. I will use these conclusions to contrast physical presence with on-line collaboration, looking for ways that the working and social culture shifted or remained consistent. My hypothesis is that on-line collaboration tools should combine selected benefits of working in a shared physical space with those of on-line experience.

We will examine the archival materials, my documentation of current projects and the user tests to quantify and describe in precise ways new understandings, inventions, methodologies and discoveries that that might result from specific network and tool configurations. I will attempt to indicate any general trends that I see across the collaborations that use on-line visualization tools. This will suggest in turn, ways that these tools could be improved to enable creative collaboration.

Susan Bennett will analyse the ways that collaborative and visualization technologies establish roles for their users. The quality and flexibility of these roles will be an object of study.

Methodology:

Analysis of assumptions within collaborative and visualization tool design

Participant observation of collaboration process

Interviews with selected users and analysis from interviews

User surveys re: selected research tools

o People:

Banff : Sara Diamond (Project Leader), with Susan Bennett, Susan Kennard

o Deliverables/Milestones:

Written analysis of collaboration tools, methods of use and interfaces (2003, 2004)—presentation at Banff New Media Institute Summit, 2003 and 2004

Analysis of visualization tools, methods of use and interfaces (2003,2004)-- presentation at Banff New Media Institute Summit, 2003 and 2004

Recommendations with resulting training procedures on integration of collaboration tools into networked research context

Evaluation of visualization tools with recommendations re: protocols

Recommendations re: future tool development

April, 2003: Establish Archive of Data to Study, including video documentation of sessions, transcripts

May, 2003: Present research methodology and outcomes at Collaboration Summits, TBC, May 2003, May 2004

June, 2003 – April, 2004 : study researchers, undertake questionaires and comparative study

o Budget Items:

Collaboration and Visualization Laboratories

video recording, data base maintenance

o Collaborators:

Sociology Dept., University of Surrey, UK, SmartLab Centre, London Institute, UK, Intel, SGI ENCART (EU), University of New Westminster, UK, TR Labs, RACOL, ABEL Projects, Canada

westgrid cv focus areas and projects - university of albertapierreb/uofacv/focusar… · web...

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