Center for Data Visualization and Collaboration
Located in USC's Science and Engineering Library, the USC Center for Data Visualization and Collaboration (DVC) houses three
different technologies that are designed to provide researchers with a way to teleconference, collaborate, and share complex
information in high-resolution visual forms.
The center is divided into two rooms. The main room houses an AccessGrid and a tiled display wall. The second room, known as
the High-Performance 3-D Display Room, contains an ImmersaDesk, powered by a multiprocessor Silicon Graphics workstation.
The center's video, audio, and networking equipment provides high-speed access to distributed data and computers. This equipment
also may be linked to support group-to-group interactions across USC's network and the Internet.
These three technologies-a tile wall, an AccessGrid, and an ImmersaDesk-are rarely found together in one space. Combined with
the supercomputing power of the HPCC, the DVC gives researchers powerful ways to view and share their simulation data.
AT&T Tile Wall
The AT&T Tile Wall, named in recognition of AT&T's support, provides researchers with an economic and scalable means of
displaying wall-sized images or computer simulations with very high resolution. Moving or still digital images are sliced up
into a dozen smaller images by a small cluster of computers and then projected by a dozen state-of-the-art digital projectors
onto a 14-foot-wide and 8-foot-high, monolithic all-glass screen.
The rear-projected composite image, which contains roughly 9.5 million pixels, has remarkable clarity both overall and when
viewed close up. In fact, the resolution of USC's tile wall is slightly higher than the screen-resolution standard set by
the film industry.
AccessGrid
The AccessGrid allows users to videoconference and collaborate interactively by way of the Internet. Three projectors,
suspended from the ceiling, project onto a wall-sized screen whatever collaborators wish to share, whether it be a computer
simulation, film, live television feed, PowerPoint presentation, or a website. Participants from a variety of
locations-ranging from university classrooms and labs to hotel lobbies and government offices-can come together virtually for meetings,
collaborative work sessions, seminars, lectures, tutorials, and training.
ImmersaDesk
ImmersaDesk users, wearing goggles and manipulating a wand, are able to experience simulations in three dimensions. On its
single screen-roughly 7 feet wide and 5 feet high-the ImmersaDesk creates a semi-immersive and interactive virtual
environment that makes users feels as if they are inside the image being projected. Thanks to head-tracking devices in the goggles,
users can move around in a 3-foot-by-8-foot area in front of the screen and have the sensation of what it would be like to
walk around inside the projected image.
The DVC Now and Tomorrow
The DVC gives USC faculty and graduate students an opportunity to use innovative technologies to test their current research
and learn how to manage them in a relatively risk-free setting.
Although it currently is not possible to link some of these technologies due to the speed of computer processors and
available bandwidth, such linkages may become possible in the future and even become the norm. In the meantime, USC faculty and
students have the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the individual technologies and learn how to apply them to their
own research interests.
