Principle Investigator:  Nancy N. Soreide

Line Organization: OAR/PMEL
Routing Code: R/E/PM
Address:
                  NOAA/PMEL/OD
                  7600 Sand Point Wy NE
                  Seattle, WA 98115

Phone: (206) 526-6728
Fax: (206) 526-4576
E-mail Address: nns@pmel.noaa.gov

Co-investigators:
 

Christopher Moore	Glenn Wheless	Cathy Lascara
cmoore@pmel.noaa.gov	wheless@ccpo.odu.edu	lascara@ccpo.odu.edu

 

Proposal Theme: Collaborative, Visualization or Analysis Tools, NGI

Funding Summary:    FY 2001 $154,345
 

 
 

___________________________	___________________________	_____________________________
Nancy N. Soreide Associate Director for Info Tech	Cynthia L. Loitsch,  Program Support Officer	Eddie Bernard Director
Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory	Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory	Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory

Executive Summary:

HPCC funds in FY 2001 will support the training of NW campus scientists in ImmersaDesk visualization techniques, integrating visualizations into AGU and AMS meeting presentations, establishing ImmersaDesk to ImmersaDesk network collaboration sessions (with the Arctic Region Supercomputer Center (ARSC), the University of Alaska, Fairbanks (UAF), and Old Dominion University) and leveraging the ImmersaDesk hardware to facilitate a wall-projection device for displaying stereo animations to an audience in a seminar or conference setting.  A seamless data converter/interpreter will be developed to more easily incorporate data from several sources in various file formats, and an in-situ data viewer will put online-available data into an ImmersaDesk world for sharing in collaborative mode.

Defined as a key enabling technology by the Next Generation Internet (NGI) project, collaborative virtual environments (CVEs) allow multiple participants to collaborate using high-speed networks connecting heterogeneous computing resources and large data stores. As such, CVEs extend the human/computer paradigm to include human/computer/human collaborations.  Our objective is to establish a collaborative virtual environment at the NOAA/PMEL facility. This testbed will be comprised of virtual reality hardware, a collaborative software application, and an NGI network connection. The testbed will allow application scientists at NOAA to explore datasets using interactive and immersive visualization tools, share data, analyses, and interpretations using a distributed ImmersaDesk to ImmersaDesk collaborative framework, participate in testing/evaluation of the NGI.

Problem Statement:

Problem Statement: Immersive virtual reality has been defined as a key enabling technology by the Next Generation Internet (NGI) project. In FY2000, PMEL acquired, installed and initiated the use of an ImmersaDesk, a large format, immersive virtual reality device for viewing and interacting with physical oceanographic and meteorological data in three dimensions and in stereo. This is the first deployment of any virtual reality hardware in NOAA, and as such, provides a test bed for the applicability of the technology to the NOAA mission related research. Situated on NOAA's northwest regional campus, PMEL's ImmersaDesk is available to other members of the campus (including all the NOAA line organizations) and the University of Washington, with whom NOAA is affiliated through its Joint Institute for the Study of Atmosphere and Oceans (JISAO).

During FY2000, the PMEL Virtual Reality Laboratory developed three-dimensional (3D) stereo animations highlighting ocean and atmosphere dynamics for several NOAA projects for use at professional society meetings (AGU/Ocean Sciences, and AMS), and hosted an open house for NW campus line organizations and nearby research institutions (University of Washington, Joint Institute for the Study of Atmosphere and Oceans).  These virtual reality simulations include data from the TAO buoy array, model output from the FOCI group of the Sitka, Shelikof, and Bering Sea regions, model output from the Vents group showing turbulent hydrothermal plumes, a modeled Japan Sea tidal wave from the Tsunami group, hurricane data from GFDL, and data from the University of Washington School of Oceanography's study of the Indonesian Throughflow.

Software for large format devices such as the ImmersaDesk is evolving rapidly. In order to maximize the utility of the ImmersaDesk, NOAA must stay abreast of these developments. Although PMEL has attempted to provide wide exposure to immersive technologies and the ImmersaDesk, much work still remains to be done. It has been widely recognized (See inset box) that utilizing advanced technologies requires changes in work patterns for scientists and engineers. The PMEL situation (ImmersaDesk, NGI) and co-location with all the NOAA line organizations on the northwest regional campus, is uniquely positioned to participate in facilitating that change within NOAA. A key, important component of the NGI project, referenced in numerous high performance computing studies, including NOAA's HPC study, is the collaborative virtual environment (CVE), which allows multiple participants to collaborate using high-speed networks connecting heterogeneous computing resources and large data stores. Testbed applications would allow application scientists at NOAA to explore datasets using interactive and immersive visualization tools, share data, analyses, and interpretations using a distributed collaborative framework, such as ImmersaDesk to ImmersaDesk collaboration sessions, in order to fully participate in testing, evaluation, and utilization of the NGI.

Relationship to NOAA HPCC objectives:  This project directly addresses the HPCC themes focused on Collaborative, Visualization or Analysis Tools, and Next Generation Internet.  It utilizes advanced graphics and visualization technology and requires the high bandwidth provided only by the NGI. Moreover, PMEL partners at the University of Alaska and University of Hawaii supercomputer centers and Old Dominion University are also on the NGI.  PMEL is uniquely situated within NOAA to further the HPCC goals of developing modern network based applications that require high end utilization of networking capabilities, require the cooperation of multiple sites, and utilize emerging immersive virtual reality visualization technology.

Proposed Solution:

Professional Society meetings: The ImmersaDesk has proved to be a useful tool in the analysis of oceanographic/atmospheric data.  Three dimensional stereo rendering of oceanographic and atmospheric data sets give scientists a unique perspective.  Relationships between several variables can be seen simultaneously, using our natural sense of sight, and the dynamics between these variables can be observed as they evolve over time. In the coming months we plan to push the envelope even further by working closely with the NOAA line organizations on the northwest campus, with scientists at the University of Washington and with NOAA partners and colleagues elsewhere. We will take the ImmersaDesk to the FY2001 AGU and AMS meetings, and will make the ImmersaDesk available to NOAA scientists for demonstrating their work at these meetings in a realistic, large format, virtual reality context. The PMEL ImmersaDesk model R2 was developed as a shippable version of the older I-Desk version.  The ease with which the ImmersaDesk folds into its integrated, air-cargo-certified shipping case comes in particularly handy for NOAA labs, since one of the primary uses for the ImmersaDesk is as an electronic display device at AGU, Ocean Sciences, AMS, and other professional society meetings.  The speed with which a scientist can communicate the results of a study by using the ImmersaDesk on the poster floor at one of these meetings is astounding.

Collaborative application sharing with ImmersaDesks: Several universities that scientists at PMEL work closely with have ImmersaDesks of their own, and test connections have been made to prove the concept.  Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences departments at the University of Washington, Old Dominion University, and the University of Alaska, Fairbanks (UAF) all have collaborative-mode ImmersaDesks available.  A permanent connection between PMEL and UAF has been proposed, and users at the NOAA northwest regional campus will be trained in the use the Cave6D (a collaborative-mode version of Cave5D), as well as vGeo, a new software package being developed by our co-PI's and colleagues at Old Dominion University and elsewhere.  With the shared projects between PMEL and UAF, regular "virtual seminars" are being proposed.

Flat Screen Projection for Seminar/Conference settings: While the ImmersaDesk is a large-format projection device, the 82.5" screen comfortably displays virtual worlds for about six viewers at a time: the perfect number for small-group discussions at professional society meetings, but work is in progress to try to expand the capabilities of the ImmersaDesk to reach larger groups.  The projector driving the ImmersaDesk is a fast-refresh RGB projector made by Electrahome.  This projector easily detaches from the mirror/screen frame for maintenance, and can be ceiling-mounted for stereo projection on an even larger screen in a seminar or conference room setting.  PMEL's seminar room is already wired to accept the SGI graphics engine, and all that would be necessary for a full, animated, stereo presentation for the full seminar room is to wire the head/wand tracking PC so that the speaker can use the 3D "mouse".  With 25 more pairs of stereo goggles (along with the 5 pairs already acquired), the ImmersaDesk will be able to reach a full 30 people at regularly-scheduled weekly PMEL seminars or other conference room settings.

Convenient data gateways to the ImmersaDesk: Several things on the PMEL Virtual Reality Laboratory agenda would help scientists more easily participate in these seminars by making their data more easily transferred to the ImmersaDesk.  A seamless data converter/interpreter for model output and in-situ data would put PMEL scientists data into the file format readable by ImmersaDesk software.  Crude converter programs for several popular file formats exists already, and would easily be made user-friendly.  The Virtual Laboratory will be giving a seminar on different techniques for visualizing different types of data, with emphasis on in-situ data, which, up until now, has been neglected because model output is much more easily rendered.  These in-situ techniques for visualizing standard hydrographic data will be linked to existing online-available data servers such as EPIC/Realtime Data Display, Live Access Server, and DART.

Since the ImmersaDesk is driven by an SGI graphics engine, several high-end graphics packages are available including Iris Explorer, a software package already in use here at the lab.  Several scientists here also use Vis5D, a desktop visualization package.  Since the ImmersaDesk application Cave5D was developed by the same team that wrote Vis5D, the data files for Vis5D are directly readable by Cave5D, and scientists can almost immediately transfer their work from the desktop to the ImmersaDesk.

Leveraging:  This project leverages from FY2000 HPCC funding for the ImmersaDesk and from the expertise of our ODU co-investigators who are developing custom ImmersaDesk software (vGeo) with direct input from NOAA scientists.  PMEL is contributing PI salary, and is providing system support for the ImmersaDesk and SGI graphics engine.  Individual projects, who utilize the ImmersaDesk contribute their time and expertise.  This project also benefits greatly from past projects in VRML development, for example, by adding head/wand tracking to the stereo VRML viewer for use with the ImmersaDesk.

Analysis:

Rationale:  Defined as a key enabling technology by the Next Generation Internet (NGI) project, collaborative virtual environments (CVEs) allow multiple participants to collaborate using high-speed networks connecting heterogeneous computing resources and large data stores. As such, CVEs extend the human/computer paradigm to include human/computer/human collaborations. The CVEs being developed today are prototyping the information infrastructure of the next century in terms of advanced networking, virtual reality, high performance computing, data mining, and human/computer interactions.

Comparison:  Considerably more portable, and less expensive, than the CAVE, the ImmersaDesk is a drafting table format virtual prototyping device with a computer operated audio system. Using stereo glasses and magnetic head and hand tracking, this projection-based system offers a type of virtual reality that is semi-immersive.  The ImmersaDesk model R2, which has been acquired by PMEL, is a roadworthy (air cargo qualified) version of the ImmersaDesk.  This self-contained flight case features a rapidly deployable rear projection  system optimized as a sloped screen Spatially Immersive Display [SID] and includes on board tracking, audio and input device equipment.

Benefits:  Although other manufacturers produce immersion virtual reality devices, the ImmersaDesk was chosen because it is built to be portable, low cost (relatively speaking), widely deployed, and mirrors the equipment at ODU and several other oceanographic and atmospheric research institutions.  PMEL utilizes heavily the technologies, software, and expertise at ODU, in order to make the best possible use of NOAA's first ImmersaDesk deployment.  NOAA scientists benefit by using a tool which allows them to share views of project data with collaborators in ways that make complex dynamics more easily and quickly understandable.

Performance Measures:

At the end of FY 2001 we will support high-end 3D stereo visualizations on the ImmersaDesk, and establish collaborative-mode NGI connections with ImmersaDesks located at participating institutions.  The results of this NOAA testbed project exploring the use of immersion technology will be presented jointly by the principal investigators, and the ImmersaDesk will be demonstrated at scientific and professional society meetings (AGU Fall Meeting, AMS, NOAA Tech 2001).

Milestones and Deliverables

Month 4- Initiate testing of Idesk to Idesk collaboration (PMEL-ARSC/UAF, PMEL-ODU)
Month 6 - Develop seamless data converter/interpreter gateways to the Idesk
Month 8 - Leverage Idesk hardware into a seminar room wall-projection device
Month 12 -Present new efforts at professional society meetings
Month 12 -Create Virtual Environments for CO₂ group, NMFS, and the NWS

We will involve other line organizations on the NW regional campus in using ImmersaDesk and other advanced visualization techniques to support their research (all NOAA line organizations are present on the NW regional campus), maintain contact with University of Washington high technology Human Interface Technology (HIT) Laboratory, work with Joint Institute scientists at UW, take ImmersaDesk to AMS, AGU, NOAA Tech 2001, establish collaborative-mode connection with ARSC/UAF and/or ODU, and utilize ImmersaDesk projector in a seminar room wall-projection device.
 

Budget Summary:
 

Category	Description	Amount
		FY 2001
Personnel Compensation	Soreide 2 month PMEL/JISAO 12 months	$0 $85,600
Contracts or Services	Contract with ODU and/or colleagues in DES Inc .SGI Maintenance I-Desk Maintenance	$30,000 $13,095 $8,000
Rent, Communications, Utilities	PMEL networking charges	$2,400
Capital Expenses
Supplies and Materials	shutter glasses	$2,400
Training/Travel	1 person ODU to PMEL 2 people to AGU 2001 2 people to AMS 2001 2 people to NOAATech 2001 1 person PMEL to ODU	$1,000 $2,000 $2,000 $2,000 $1,000
Other	Shipping IDesk to AGU 2001 Shipping IDesk to AMS 2001 Shipping IDesk to NOAATech 2001 Shipping Insurance	$1,200 $1,200 $1,200 $1,250
		_________
Total Requested:		$154,345

 

Administrative Officer:  Cindy Loitsch
Phone:  (206)526-6236
E-mail Address:  loitsch@pmel.noaa.gov
FMC Number:  940