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Extended Collaborative Visualization Models

© Adam Hughes

Last week, we took a brief look at the Haber and McNabb model of collaborative scientific visualization as well as the two prevalent modes of sharing visualization, complete sharing and selective sharing. This week, we pick up this discussion and focus on how these ideas are being extended to meet current and future visualization needs.

As a brief review, the Haber and McNabb concept is the reference model employed in the Computer Supported Co-operative Visualization, or CSCV, project a the University of Leeds. The model employs filtering, mapping, and rendering stages to describe a scientific visualization paradigm. Researchers on the CSCV project have developed a centralized view of collaborative visualization into an extended Haber and McNabb model. This model introduces intermediate input/output points for control data. By shifting the focus from the individual use to control issues, the CSCV presents a generalized visualization approach. We won't go into great detail in discussing the generalized Haber and McNabb model, but we will try to get a high-level understanding of the scheme.

The basic idea in this generalized scheme is that each user has his own "pipeline" which may or may not contain the complete set of filtering, mapping, and rendering stages. At each step along each pipeline, it is possible to import and export data. This allows users to see the whole spectrum of collaborative possibilities, from complete sharing of information as changes occur at EVERY step, all the way to virtually no sharing at all. This model also allows for complete control of any aspects that users wish to keep private, as they can make changes they want and then make only the results of the individual visualization stage available to the group.

The Leeds folks have applied this model to existing Modular Visualization Environments, or MVE's. This has been accomplished by adding modules to the existing packages which can transfer either data or control parameters to and from the MVE modules which represent the various visualization stages. Because of the collaborative requirements in this project, when one of these new modules is launched, it forms a line of communication not only with its local modules, but also those in the corresponding "neighbor" visualization environments. The CSCV project reports that it has successfully implemented this scheme in the MVE IRIS Explorer package.

Clearly, scientific visualization is a very important part of scientific analysis in today's computer age. Efforts such as that seen in the CSCV are enabling researchers to make the most of their resources, and continue to push the envelope in scientific computing.

The copyright of the article Extended Collaborative Visualization Models in Scientific Computing is owned by Adam Hughes. Permission to republish Extended Collaborative Visualization Models in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.