Flatland Gallery

Static Images
Potpourri
Telehealth
Collaberative Environments
Graph Visualization
Nework Visualization
Multiple Network Representations
Planetarium
Neural Networks
Massively Parallel Processing
Visual Programming (Khoros Cantata)
Visual Programming Environment
Molecular Dynamics
The Craft
Movies
Parallel Processing
Khoros Cantata
Fly's Eyes

Static Images

Here are some images of applications running in Flatland. Click on the small images to expand them into larger images. Some of the images were captured from the screen of an SGI Onyx 2. The gamma has been corrected to look normal on a PC or non-SGI UNIX machine. Also, since the SGI screen is much wider than the normally used head-mounted display the edges of the image tend to be distorted. This effect is not seen when wearing the helmet.

Warning: These images can be quite large, up to a third of a megabyte. Download with care.

Potpourri

This image is a collection of several of the applications running simultaniously in one Flatland. From left to right: GDRD2, a general graph visualization tool; Planetarium, a simulation to be used to run Flatland on a planetarium dome; FlatlandTree, a tool that displays the current Flatland scene graph; and the three platforms of TemporalGraph, a tool to find paths in transaction data.

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Telehealth

The TOUCH telehealth project allows a student to diagnose and treat a virtual patient. The student uses the head mounted display and wands adapted from commercially avialable joysticks to manipulate virtual instruments. Two scenes are currently availabe: the crash site and the emergency room. Students at remote sites are able to follow the procedure remotely via the access grid.

In this case the world remains, but a cliff and an emergency room have been added by loading them in on top of the earth.

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Collaberative Environments

Flatland is being expanded to include collaberative environments. In this example two independent Flatland environments are displayed. The large, white rectilinear solids represent each of the participants, while the applications (the things on platforms) are shared and coordinated between the two environments.

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Graph Visualization

This example shows a graph visualization done in collaberation with Sandia National Laboratories. Three different styles of visualization were used. The problem involves trying to find paths in point-to-point transaction data in time.

The first two images are of the most obvious representation: a cube of data, with inputs, outputs, and time on orthoganal axes. The first image shows the cube with cut planes slicing through it, the second shows an image of the cut planes extracted from the cube.

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The second representation shows paths from a starting node to a target node of a fixed number of hops. The first image shows a simple 2D representation of all such transactions between nodes 0 and 15, the second shows the same data with time extruded in the third dimension. The remaining two images show alternate representations of the parallel lines of nodes.

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The following two images represent the "Dream Catcher" view of the data, named after the Native American art form of the same name. The first image shows a common adjacency matrix showing the connections between various points at a given time. The second image shows what happens when the upper row of nodes is rotated 270 degrees counterclockwise, so that the input and output nodes are coincident, and the rest of the figure is warped to match. This representation allows the tracing of paths by following the loops formed.

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Network Visualization

Los Alamos National Laboratories and Compaq are in the process of building the new ASCII Q machine, which will be the largest supercomputer in the world. Part of the development process for this machine is to simulate the network that connects the 4096 nodes of the machine. This network architecture currently is a fat tree. These visualizations show two different methods of looking at this network.

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Multiple Network Representations

The following images combine the two representations in the previous sections, and add the GDRD2 representation. All three are representations of the same data.

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Planetarium

We are currently in the process of porting Flatland to run on a planetarium dome. These images show the virtual dome we have constructed in Flatland to model the process. The grids represent the projector coverage areas. You can also see the projectors and extensions of their centerlines.

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Neural Networks

These images are of an application called eLoom. They show a self-simular method of representing graphs such as neural networks.

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Massively Parallel Processing

Parallel Processes images 1 through 6 visualizes an array of 49 parallel processors arranged in a square grid. The arrows depict communications between processes, while cube color represents processor state. Messages are color coded according to the MPI group used to send the message.

In the foreground are the bars of the craft and the top of the craft control panel. At the top of the panel are buttons for controlling the craft and the environment. The triangular object is a Remote Autonomous Vehicle (RAV), in these pictures being driven by an observer.

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Visual Programming (Khoros Cantata)

These images show a mapping of Khoros Cantata visual programs to the 3D environment. Each box represents a Cantata glyph, with input ports on the left and output ports on the right. Pipes interconnect between the ports representing the data flow connections. The glyphs change color based on their execution states, while the pipes change colors based on if there is data available in them or not.

Once again the craft control panel is visible in the foreground.

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Visual Programming Environment

These are immages of an environment, derived from the 3D Khoros Cantata work in the previous section. Here the world has been removed and replaced with a square box with a grid on it. Note that this is not a custom modification of Flatland. A standard Flatland was used with the environment cube substituted for the earth.

This setup was used for a human factors experiment where the visual program drew a picture, and subjects were asked to identify what program elements drew the highlighted picture elements. Note the proceedures which fade to transparency to reveal their contents.

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Molecular Dynamics

The molecular dynamics code simulates the interactions of water molecules in a box while under the influence of an electric field. The color of the molecules corresponds to their proximity to the electric field (inside, outside, or straddling). Control buttons on the panel of the craft allow the user to change the representation, coloring, and environment of the molecules. As a side note, this simulation is the one being calculated by the program visualized in the Massively Parallel Processing section.

A feature of note is the real-time projection of shadows onto the ground.

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The Craft

This image shows the craft and the molecular dynamics simulation as viewed from the RAV. The craft is a dodecahedron in which the user sits. An avitar head can be seen toward the top of the craft. As the user in the head-mounted display moves his head, the avitar head follows the movement. The control panel in the front of the craft exactly matches a physical panel in front of the real-life user. Virtual buttons and a display screen can be seen on the panel. Peeking out from under the panel are avitar hands gripping two control wands. The wands are in their neutral (off) position and therefore appear to be only one.

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Movies

The movies in this section are intended to show some of the dynamic capabilities and impact that a static image cannot convey. Any jerkiness in these presentations is due to the medium and my fumbling recording techniques, rather than an inherent hesitation in Flatland.

Warning: These movies can be very large, up to three megabytes. Download with care.

Parallel Processing

This is the same parallel processing visualization picutured above. But this one moves...

These movies show the ability of the craft to look at a problem from different angles and viewpoints, which can reveal information that may not be visible from a fixed viewpoint. Also the motion brings out the source and destination of each arrow, as well as the volume of traffic between those points, both items that are much harder to see in a static picture.

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Khoros Cantata

This video shows a Khoros Cantata program, as pictured above, being created then running. Output is not show in this video.

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Fly's Eyes

This simulation shows the neurochemical reaction of a fly's eye to a stimulus. In the upper left (as seen from the bottom of the visualization grid) is the stimulation, with the lower right being the final result in the eye.

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