GeoWall: Lowcost 3Dimensional Display Technology for the Remote Sensing Sciences

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GeoWallLow-cost 3-Dimensional Display
Technologyfor the Remote Sensing Sciences

• Brian Davis, USGS/EROS Data Center
• Paul Morin, University of Minnesota
• Luc Renambot, Andrew Johnson, Jason Leigh,
  University of Illinois - Chicago
• International Workshop
• on Earth Observation Technology and Application
• Prospects for Cooperation in Earth Observation
• 18th Committee on Earth Observing Satellites
  (CEOS) Plenary Meeting and Associated Events
• November 17, 2004 - Beijing, China
• Topic 1 Earth Observation Technology and Plans
• Session 2 Instrument and Measurement Technologies

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State of the Wall

• Past
• Present
• Future

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PAST

• CAVEs - Virtual Reality - Very Expensive
• Dual-output (Stereo) graphics cards for PC
  Motherboards
• CAVElib port to linux
• GeoWall Consortium

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Present

• Recently-developed, affordable 3D stereo
  visualization
• Research collaborations initiated
• Over 300 by Dec. 2003, current est. 500
• 10 of all U.S. Geology undergraduates
• Over 15 museums
• 20 papers and presentations at 2003 AGU, One
  half-day Session at 2004 AGU
• Potential to serve satellite remote sensing

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Future

• Commercial GIS Software
• ESRI ArcGIS, MDL Chime, DGI EarthVision, MMK
  Roma, IVS Fledermaus, VRCO VGEO, AGI Satellite
  Tool Kit
• GeoWall2

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Future

• Commercial GIS Software
• ESRI ArcGIS, MDL Chime, DGI EarthVision, MMK
  Roma, IVS Fledermaus, VRCO VGEO, AGI Satellite
  Tool Kit
• GeoWall2
• PG2 Personal GeoWall2
• Stereo
• Science Museum of Minnesota St. Paul

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Future

• Commercial GIS Software
• ESRI ArcGIS, MDL Chime, DGI EarthVision, MMK
  Roma, IVS Fledermaus, VRCO VGEO, AGI Satellite
  Tool Kit
• GeoWall2
• PG2 Personal GeoWall2
• Stereo
• Science Museum of Minnesota St. Paul
• Printed Maps

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Low-End GeoWall
Stereo Printed Maps

• Topography without contours
• No crashing
• Inexpensive
• Will work next year
• Can be used in the field

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Future

• Commercial GIS Software
• ESRI ArcGIS, MDL Chime, DGI EarthVision, MMK
  Roma, IVS Fledermaus, VRCO VGEO, AGI Satellite
  Tool Kit
• GeoWall2
• PG2 Personal GeoWall2
• Stereo
• Science Museum of Minnesota St. Paul
• Printed maps
• Passive Stereo LCDs Interlaced pixels for an
  audience of one no glasses
• Stereo Photographs

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Demonstration Wall Evolution

• Earthquake Epicenters
• Landsat Stereo Pairs
• ESRI ArcScene 4-D Animation
• Stereo Photography

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Additional Information

• PG2 at USGS Exhibit Booth
• Bibliography
• Contacts
• References
• This PowerPoint Document at
• http//GeoWall.org/edc/Docs/GeoWallCEOS.ppt

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Bibliography

• Research is supported in part by grants from the
  National Science Foundation (ANI-0225642,
  EAR-0219246, and EAR-0218918)
• Steinwand, D., Davis, B., Weeks, N., 2003,
  GeoWall Investigations into Low-Cost Stereo
  Display Technologies, USGS Open File Report
  03-198
• Leigh, J., Morin, P., Johnson, A., DeFanti, T.,
  Brown, M., Sandin, D., Rack, F., Vernon, F.,
  Orcutt, J., Davis, B., van Keken, P., Smarr, L.,
  2003, GeoWall-2 a Scalable Display System for
  the GeoSciences, Fall 2003 American Geophysical
  Union Conference, San Francisco, CA, December
  8-12, 2003
• Davis, B., 2004, Virtual Reality Meets GIS 3D
  on the Wall, ArcNews, Summer 2004, Vol. 26 No.2
• Davis, B., 2004, Affordable Systems for Viewing
  Spatial Data in Stereo, ArcUSer, July-September
  2004
• Davis, B., Morin, P., Ramstad, M., 2004,
  Three-Dimensional Anaglyph of the Earth, ESRI
  Map Book Volume Nineteen, 2004
• Leigh, J., Renambot, L., Johnson, A., Brown, M.,
  Sandin, J., DeFanti, T., Ellisman, M., Orcutt,
  J., Smarr, L., Davis, B., Morin, P., Ito, E.,
  Rack, F., 2004, Challenges in Ultra-High-Resoluti
  on Visualization and Collaboration, 2004, High
  Information Content Display Systems Symposium,
  Arlington, VA, September 13-14, 2004,
• Krishnaprasad, N., Vishwanath, V., Venkataraman,
  S., Rao, A., Renambot, L., Leigh, J., Johnson,
  A., Davis, B., 2004, JuxtaView A Tool for
  Interactive Visualization of Large Imagery on
  Scalable Tiled Displays, Cluster Computing 2004,
  San Diego, CA, Sep. 20-23, 2004

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Contacts

• http//GeoWall.org
• bdavis_at_usgs.gov

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References

• http//edc.usgs.gov
• http//GeoWall.org
• http//www.evl.uic.edu/cavern/optiputer/

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Background

• USGS Research Project Information Technologies
  Research Project Lead
• Momentum from development of GeoWall Consortium
• Geo Geology (Geography Geometry Geo)
• Wall One wall of a cave descendent of CAVElib
• 3-D Viz on the cheap
• GeoWall Consortium - formulation without funding
• Jason Leigh University of Illinois Chicago
  (UIC), Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL)
  Cave Technology
• Peter van Keken, University of Michigan - Geology
• Paul Morin, U of Minnesota Geology
  Visualization, Wall Evangelist
• Brian Davis, EROS Data Pimp

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Number of GeoWalls 12/03
15,000
6,000
2-10 new systems a week
(Cost of a modest system)
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Cost of a Modest System
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GeoWall Index
(With respect to Harpers Index, as of 12/03)
Approximate number of GeoWalls 250 Number
outside the US 30 Percentage in the classroom
75 Percentage of non-major earth science
students that see a GeoWall in the US
15-25 Average cost of one CAVE 1.5 million
Cost of the GeoWalls currently in educational
service 1.5 million Most popular material
USGSs Stereo LANDSAT Imagery Data transferred
from GeoWall.org 279 Gigabytes Busiest day on
GeoWall.org 300,000 hits in 8 hours on September
1, 2002 (Slashdot.org article) Publications
beginning to appear
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Road Shows

• National Park Service Regional HQ, Omaha
• SDSMT
• Sinte Gleska University
• Missouri River Institute, USD
• Grand Canyon National Park
• Russell Senate Office Building
• 03 SD Technology Summit
• Space Days, Washington Pavilion
• MIB (Main Interior Building), Washington, D.C.
• USGS Headquarters (x2)
• ESRI User Conference, San Diego, CA
• GIS Day, EPA HQ
• 04 DSU CECIS Symposium
• EDC Auditorium

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Notable Audiences

• Under-Secretaries of DOI
• SD Sen. Tom Daschle
• NASA deputy director
• SD Governor Mike Rounds
• CBS News
• Federal Agency and Academic Collaborators
• Various USGS HQ staff
• BOR
• Jamie Rounds, SD 2010 Initiative
• FEMA Regional Director
• Students
• Teachers
• USGS Directors

• Ukrainian Land and Resource Management Center
• National Wetlands Inventory Coordinator
• National Volcano Hazards Program Coordinator
• Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance
• Canadian Center for Remote Sensing
• Naval Oceanographic Office
• Chinese Bureau of Mapping
• NIMA
• State-wide LewisClark Meeting
• SD Geography Bee

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Development Direction Thus Far

• Hardware development
• Now stable and spun off to 4 companies
• Software development
• Seed applications freely distributed
• Encourage the support of GeoWall software by key
  vendors
• ESRI ArcGIS, MDL Chime, DGI EarthVision, MMK
  Roma, IVS Fledermaus, VRCO VGEO, AGI Satellite
  Tool Kit
• Establishment of GeoWall community
• 4th Annual GeoWall Meeting Spring May 2004
• Special interest groups being established
• Museum community underway

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GeoWall Museum Network
Alaska The Imaginarium, Anchorage. Illinois Sci
Tech Hands on Museum, Aurora Discovery Center,
Rockford Lake County Discovery Museum, Wauconda
Lakeview Museum, Peoria. Indiana Evansville
Museum of Arts and Science, Evansville Science
Central, Fort Wayne Childrens Science and
Technology Museum, Terre Haute. Iowa Bluedorn
Science Imaginarium, Waterloo. Texas Don
Harrington Discovery Center, Amarillo Other
Museums Chicago Museum of Science and
Industry Adler Planetarium, Chicago Science
Museum of Minnesota Lowell Observatory Texas
Memorial Museum - UT Austin
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Final Points

• GeoWall is now going beyond earth sciences
• Price cant get much lower
• Basic technology is ready
• Vendors are supporting the community
• Critical mass has been reached in the geosciences
• Assessment is just beginning
• Timing for feedback is excellent
• Opportunities for collaborative research