MRI: Development of the Allosphere, an Immersive Instrument for Scientific Exploration

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Proposal #: CNS 08-21858PI(s): Turk, Matthew Hollerer, Tobias H.; Hu, Evelyn L.; Kuchera-Morin, JoAnn C.; Wolski, RichardInstitution: University of California ? Santa Barbara Santa Barbara, CA 93106-2050Title: MRI/Dev.: Dev. of the Allosphere, an Immersive Instrument for Scientific Exploration Project Proposed:This project, contributing in the development of an advanced multimedia immersive environment and scientific instrument for large-scale data visualization and exploration, aims to provide powerful methods for detail analysis, synthesis, and manipulation of complex multi-dimensional data where the observed phenomena range from the very big to the very small. The instrument integrates the multimodal representation of large-scale data with human-scale visualization and interaction techniques in a novel immersive environment known as the Allosphere. The Allosphere is a three-story cubic space in the new California NanoSystems Institute, housing a large perforated metal sphere that serves as a display surface. A bridge that can hold 25 participants cuts through the center of the sphere from the second floor. The final Allosphere instrumentation design is expected to include 14 resolution stereo video projectors to light up the complete spherical display surface, 256 speakers distributed outside to provide high quality spatial sounds, a suite of sensors and interaction devices to enable rich user interaction with the data and simulations, and the computing infrastructure to enable the high volume computations necessary to provide a rich visual, aural, and interactive experience for the user. When fully constructed, the Allosphere is expected to be one of the largest scientific instruments in the world. It will serve as an ongoing research testbed for scientific visualization, numerical simulations, large-scale sensor networks, high-performance computing, data mining, knowledge discovery, multimedia systems, and human-computer interaction. This unique immersive exploration environment, with a full surrounding sphere of high quality stereo video and spatial sound and user tracking for rich interaction will support rich interaction and exploration. Partnering with faculty from several disciplines, it will also serve as a key tool for exploration in molecular dynamics, brain imaging, nanomaterials, earth science, and many other scientific fields. For example, navigating through fMRI data and exploring live geospatial datasets.Broader Impacts: This project benefits many important fields that have wide impact on society. The Allosphere will be made available to researchers and partners beyond the institution and will leverage local outreach programs to attract K-12 students involving them early in scientific exploration projects that utilize the environment. The Allosphere is likely to draw students of all ages and interests.