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Interaction to support visualization
:: 16 October, 2009
Imagine a wall of screens that displays high-resolution images. Imagine that, with just a simple wave of your hand, you can interact with them. We are not in a scene from “Minority Report” but rather in an actual project, unique in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). Inaugurated on June 19 this year, this interactive visualization platform goes far beyond science fiction, giving us a glimpse of the complexity of research in this domain as it seeks to simplify the technological world in which we live.
When you first arrive, you are struck by the huge number of screens, a ‘wall display’. Next, you realize that you can interact with it, for example, pointing to an object on the screen, and moving your hand to move it across the wall. By now, you expect to run into Tom Cruise… But the WILD platform (Wall-sized Interaction with Large Datasets) is not just about the wall display in science fiction. “The movie focuses mostly on gadgets” explain Emmanuel Pietriga and Michel Beaudouin-Lafon, co-directors of WILD. “In contrast, our goal is to create an environment where users can interact freely with a variety of devices, large and small, and easily exchange content with others standing next to them. This is clearly much more difficult.”
This is the heart of the paradox of research in Human-Computer Interaction: making technology simple for the user is extremely difficult!
This platform is a great example. Three teams, IN-SITU – Situated interaction (INRIA/LRI), AVIZ – Visual analytics (INRIA) and AMI – Models and architectures for interaction (LIMSI/CNRS) are collaborating on this project. At least twenty researchers and engineers are participating in this scientific adventure, made possible with financing from the Région Île-de-France, Digiteo, CNRS, INRIA, INRIA-MSR, Université Paris-Sud 11 and ANR.
However, the development of the hardware platform is only the first step. The primary use of the WILD platform is to support scientific research. Ten laboratories on the Plateau du Saclay have been involved in the project since the beginning. The first to display images was the Institut d’Astrophysique Spatiale - IAS (CNRS/Université Paris-Sud 11). Astronomers must manipulate extremely large images. To get an idea of the problem, even though the WILD platform can display 131 million pixels, this represents only 3% of a full-resolution image of the Milky Way galaxy!
The platform is thus a tool with multiple objectives: to advance research in Human-Computer Interaction, but also, to advance research in the scientific disciplines of the partner laboratories, by using an experimental tool that is unique in the world.
Release link: http://www.inria.fr/actualites/2009/insitu/index.en.html
Tags: visualization , wall of screen , high-resolution image , Human-Computer Interaction ,
