II-NEW: Equipping the Allosphere, an Environment for Immersive Data Exploration

可视化和探索复杂多维数据的活动为科学和工程的几个领域的进步提供了至关重要的洞察力，在这些领域，数据的数量和复杂性压倒了传统的计算环境。该项目将开发Allosphere的第一个完整版本，该基础设施将提供强大的方法，通过将大规模数据的多模态表示与人类规模的可视化和交互技术集成在一个新的沉浸式环境中，对此类数据进行详细分析、综合和操作。智力优势：Allosphere包括一个直径10米的球形展示面，在一个三层的近消声建筑空间中，有一座桥穿过中心，最多可容纳25名参与者。当设备齐全时，Allosphere将包括高分辨率立体视频投影仪，以照亮整个球形显示表面，分布在表面外的大型扬声器阵列，以提供高质量的空间声音，一套传感器和交互设备，以实现与数据和模拟的丰富用户交互，以及计算基础设施，以实现所需的大容量计算，提供丰富的视觉，听觉，为用户提供互动体验。Allosphere将是世界上最大的可视化/勘探仪器之一，它将作为几个重要计算领域的持续研究试验台。此外，全息球将作为实验媒体创作和表演的环境，作为纳米系统、神经科学、量子计算和生物化学等领域科学发现的工具，以及作为教育和推广的工具。更广泛的影响：该基础设施项目将完成全息球的音频、交互和计算基础设施。第一个版本将以两种主要方式作为计算研究基础设施：(1)作为驱动计算研究所需的平台，以创建未来沉浸式多模态、多媒体可视化环境，提出存储、网络、渲染、软件虚拟化、实时仿真和人机交互方面的挑战性问题；(2)为科学和信息可视化、知识发现、可视化分析、复杂设计、大规模性能调试、数据挖掘和云计算等计算领域的研究提供沉浸式可视化环境。作为计算和科学探索的基础设施，全息球将使许多对社会有广泛影响的重要领域受益。该设施将提供给UCSB以外的研究人员和合作伙伴（学术界，工业界和政府）。该项目还将利用当地的外展计划来吸引K-12学生、代表性不足的群体和本科生，并让他们参与利用这种独特的沉浸式环境的科学项目和探索。该设施将被整合到UCSB几个部门的课程和研究项目中。结果将通过项目网站（http://allosphere.ucsb.edu）发布。

The activity of visualizing and exploring complex multi-dimensional data provides insight that is essential for progress in several areas of science and engineering, where the amount and complexity of the data overwhelms traditional computing environments. This project will develop the first complete version of the Allosphere, an infrastructure that will provide powerful methods for detailed analysis, synthesis, and manipulation of such data by integrating multimodal representations of large-scale data with human-scale visualization and interaction techniques in a novel immersive environment.Intellectual Merit: The Allosphere comprises a 10m diameter spherical display surface in a three-story near-anechoic building space, with a bridge running through the center that holds up to 25 participants. When fully equipped, the Allosphere will include high-resolution stereo video projectors to illuminate the complete spherical display surface, a large array of speakers distributed outside the surface to provide high quality spatial sound, 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 users. The Allosphere will be one of the largest visualization/exploration instruments in the world, and it will serve as an ongoing research testbed for several important areas of computing. In addition, the Allosphere will serve as an environment for experimental media creation and performance, as a tool for scientific discovery in areas such as nanosystems, neuroscience, quantum computing, and biochemistry, and as an instrument for education and outreach.Broader Impacts: This infrastructure project will complete the audio, interaction, and computational infrastructure of the Allosphere. This first version will serve as a computing research infrastructure in two primary ways: (1) as a platform for driving computing research needed to create future immersive multimodal, multimedia visualization environments, raising challenging problems in storage, networking, rendering, software virtualization, real-time simulation, and human-computer interaction; and (2) as an immersive visualization environment for research in computing areas such as scientific and information visualization, knowledge discovery, visual analytics, complex design, large-scale performance debugging, data mining, and cloud computing. As infrastructure for both computing and scientific exploration, the Allosphere will benefit a number of important fields that have wide impact on society. The facility will be made available to researchers and partners (in academia, industry, and government) beyond UCSB. The project will also leverage local outreach programs to attract K-12 students, underrepresented groups, and undergraduate students, and involve them in scientific projects and explorations that utilize this unique immersive environment. The facility will be integrated into courses and research projects in several departments at UCSB. Results will be disseminated via the project Web site (http://allosphere.ucsb.edu).