MRI - Development of Continuum: A Virtualized Attentive Environment for Amplified Collaboration

该项目开发了Continuum，这是一种网络基础设施工具，将高分辨率的计算机增强的团队协作工作空间与环境传感器阵列统一起来，旨在使用户能够更有效地利用作战室与本地和远程同事及其数据进行协作，从而使协作受益。房间本身被赋予了预测需求、改善互动的能力，并将时间集中在发现而不是技术上。Continum作为一个数字助手，为新的计算机科学研究提供基础，使全球科学合作机构受益。作战室有利于协作，因为它们支持团队成员的持续交互和意识，实现持久的信息共享，并鼓励团队成员和信息之间的流动性。计算机增强的作战室，如Continuum，它1.将分散的团队与他们的数据(无论是存储在云中还是通过高速网络从主要计算资源流传输)连接起来，2.支持持久的数字人工制品，3.使超高分辨率的2D和3D立体数字媒体能够被同时观看，4.支持无处不在的直观交互，创建一个强大且易于使用的信息丰富的环境，以支持科学发现。就像NSF的网络基础设施从数据存储系统、在线仪器和主要计算资源(如XSEDE和Blue Waters)产生更大数量和更多种类的数据一样，先进的可视化仪器充当这些数据生成器的“透镜”(类似于过去的望远镜和显微镜)，使研究人员能够凝视网络空间来管理、访问和分析大数据。Continuum是该机构开发交互仪器四分之一个世纪经验的巅峰，从1992年的原始CAVE，到2004年的超高分辨率LambdaVision瓷砖LCD墙，再到2012年的混合现实CAVE2。每一代新的可视化仪器都为科学界提供了更先进的功能。Continuum开发专注于三个领域：1.将响应用户命令的被动显示墙转变为专注的显示墙，监控房间中的用户并预测他们的需求，以改善他们的体验；2.提供一种替代方法，使用薄边界4K无源立体有机电致发光二极管(OLED)显示器构建高分辨率可视化显示墙，在明亮的房间中具有令人印象深刻的亮度、对比度、一致性、离轴观看和低反射率；以及4.利用云计算为未来不需要本地高端计算和显示资源的Continuum空间提供原型。来自当地机构的12个资助研究项目，包括天文学、天体物理学、生物学、燃烧、地球物理、神经科学、病理学、物理学、精神病学和高性能计算，准备使用Continuum来满足他们的数据可视化需求。该连续体将在大规模数据可视化、人机交互和高速网络的交叉点上为计算机科学研究开辟新的机遇。Continuum还将直接支持UIC计算机科学、艺术与设计和生物医学科学系的10门课程。

This project, developing The Continuum, a cyberinfrastructure instrument that unifies high-resolution computer-enhanced group collaboration workspaces with arrays of ambient sensors, aims to enable users to collaborate with local and remote colleagues and their data more effectively utilizing a War room to benefit the collaboration. The room itself is given the ability to anticipate needs, improve interaction, and focus the time on discovery rather than the technology. Continuum serves as a digital assistant providing a foundation for new computer science research, benefits global scientific collaboratories. War rooms benefit collaboration because they support continuous interaction and awareness of team members, enable persistent information sharing, and encourage mobility among team members and information. A computer enhanced war room, such as The Continuum, which 1. Connects distributed teams with their data (whether stored in the cloud or streamed from major computational resources over high-speed networks), 2. Supports persistent digital artifacts, 3. Enables ultra-high-resolution 2D and 3D stereoscopic digital media to be simultaneously viewed, and 4. Supports ubiquitous and intuitive interaction, creates a powerful and easy-to-use information-rich environment in support of scientific discovery. Just as NSF cyberinfrastructure produces greater volumes and varieties of data from data storage systems, online instrumentation and major computational resources like XSEDE and Blue Waters, advanced visualization instruments serve as the 'lenses' of these data generators (similar to the telescopes and microscopes of yore), enabling researchers to peer into cyberspace to manage, access and analyze big data.Continuum is the culmination of a quarter century of experience at the institution developing interactive instruments, from the original CAVE in 1992, to the ultra-high-resolution LambdaVision tiled LCD wall in 2004, and the hybrid-reality CAVE2 in 2012. Each new generation of visualization instrumentation provided scientific communities with more advanced features. Continuum development focuses on three areas: 1. Transforming passive display walls that respond to user commands into attentive display walls that monitor the users in a room and anticipate their needs to improve their experience; 2. Providing an alternative approach to constructing high-resolution visualization display walls using thin-border 4K passive stereo Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED) displays that have impressive brightness, contrast, uniformity, off-axis viewing, and low reflectivity in brightly lit rooms; and 4. Utilizing cloud computing to prototype future Continuum spaces that do not require local high-end compute and display resources. Twelve funded research projects from local institutions, in Astronomy, Astrophysics, Biology, Combustion, Geophysics, Neuroscience, Pathology, Physics, Psychiatry, and High Performance Computing, are poised to use Continuum for their data visualization needs. The Continuum will open up new opportunities in computer science research at the intersection of large-scale data visualization, human-computer interaction, and high-speed networking. Continuum will also directly support 10 classes taught in the UIC Computer Science, Art and Design, and Biomedical Science departments.