Collaborative Visual Analytics of Earth Science Data for Emergency Response Scenarios

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Collaborative Visual Analytics of Earth Science
Data for Emergency Response Scenarios

• Bruce Campbell
• Center for Environmental Visualization
• brucedc_at_u.washington.edu

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Relevant History of the CEV

• started in 1995 with high quality illustration
  work
• multimedia production work 1996
• exploration of virtual environments 1997
• development of specialized graphics engine
  2000
• oceanographers workbench current
• UW visualization and analytics center liaison
  current
• (we are six UW staff members with 2-3
  undergraduates interning at any one time)

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Demonstrations

• Illustrations (Earth and Ocean Processes)
• Animations (Earthquakes and Glacial Retreat)
• Virtual Environment (Big Beef Creek)
• 3D Presenter (Admiralty Inlet)

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(No Transcript)
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The Emerging Science of Visual Analytics

• Visual Analytics attempts to predict how human
  beings use their perception and cognition skills
  honed by walking about in our natural complex 3-D
  environment to identify expected patterns and
  discover unexpected patterns in abstract data
  sets, given a presentation and interaction tools
  for exploring that data.

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For Example, Consider Extrapolating from
Successes in the 2-D Realm
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The Oceanographers Workbench

• Investigators Toolkit
• Desktop Visualizer
• 3-D Presenter
• Visualization Server

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The RVAC Opportunity

• Five campuses across the US have been chosen to
  facilitate regional visualization and analytics
  centers.
• The UW-based PARVAC will coordinate visual
  analytic research around the Pacific Rim

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The NVAC (National Visualization and Analytics
Center)

• The national visualization and analytics center
  is run out of the Pacific Northwest National
  Laboratory in Richland, WA.
• We are the closest RVAC to the NVAC
• The NVAC has been developing abstract data
  visualization tools for ten years

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NVAC Visualization Tools
specialty text to terrain/galaxy (INSPIRE)
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A Goal Worthy of Discussion?

• How can we best design interactive tools for
  investigating earth and ocean data set layers
  such that targeted analyst groups can share the
  analytical discourse process over geographical
  distance and assess to make prevention,
  response, and recovery plans (even within
  stressful time constraints)?

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Assessing Collaborative Visual Analytics Tools

• An interesting research area concerns trying to
  quantify the success of using visual analytics
  tools to provide insights.
• Certainly, the humans, tasks, and data
  participating in the tool use each contain
  success components.
• How do you go about quantifying the metrics of
  success?

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Links of Interest

• CEV www.cev.washington.edu
• NVAC nvac.pnl.gov
• Visual Analytics Illuminating the Path
• nvac.pnl.gov/agenda.stm