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

该项目开发的连续体是一种网络基础设施工具，将高分辨率计算机增强的小组协作与环境传感器阵列相结合，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。房间本身被赋予了预测需求、改善互动、将时间集中在发现而不是技术上的能力。Continuum作为数字助理，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，支持持续的信息共享，并鼓励团队成员和信息之间的移动性。一个计算机增强的作战室，如连续体，其中1。将分布式团队与他们的数据连接起来（无论是存储在云中还是通过高速网络从主要计算资源流式传输），2.支持持久的数字文物，3.可同时观看超高分辨率2D和3D立体数字媒体; 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。正如NSF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沃茨）中产生更多数量和种类的数据一样，先进的可视化仪器充当这些数据生成器的“透镜（类似于以前的望远镜和显微镜），使研究人员能够窥视网络空间进行管理，访问和分析大数据。Continuum是该机构开发交互式仪器的四分之一世纪经验的结晶，从1992年的原始CAVE到2004年的超高分辨率LambdaVision平铺液晶显示墙，以及2012年的混合现实CAVE 2。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的发展集中在三个方面：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.提供一种替代方法来使用薄边框4K无源立体有机发光二极管（OLED）显示器构建高分辨率可视化显示墙，该显示器在明亮的房间中具有令人印象深刻的亮度、对比度、均匀性、离轴观看和低反射率;以及4.利用云计算对未来的Continuum空间进行原型设计，不需要本地高端计算和显示资源。来自天文学、天体物理学、生物学、燃烧学、地球物理学、神经科学、病理学、物理学、精神病学和高性能计算等当地机构的12个资助研究项目准备使用Continuum来满足其数据可视化需求。Continuum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会。Continuum还将直接支持UIC计算机科学，艺术与设计以及生物医学科学部门的10个课程。

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.