Medical Research Data Visualization on Tiled Display Wall

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Medical Research Data Visualization on Tiled
Display Wall

• Sirvard Nshanyan
• Melbourne, Australia
• August 1, 2008

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The Project Entails

• Setting up the first tiled display wall in Monash
  University
• Develop an efficient workflow to view microscope
  generated images on the wall
• Find and elaborate on software to convert
  heterogeneous row image formats to .osga to make
  them viewable in 3D environment of the display
  wall
• Work out a uniform storage mechanism
• Automate the processes involved to minimize
  manual interference and maximize user
  friendliness of the system

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Overview of Software Utilities

• Rocks operating system will run the tiled display
  wall
• Some format conversion utilities will include
  ImageMagik and OpenSceneGraph (additional
  software may need to be created for more specific
  file formats)
• Nimrod grid computing interface will be
  incorporated in order to achieve speedy format
  conversion of large image files
• Storage Resource Broker will act as a file server
  and client interface for data access
• Covise image viewing and manipulation environment
  will enable the display of images
• Kepler workflow automation tool will be utilized
  to automate the processes of image retrieval from
  the server, format conversion, display on the
  wall, and maybe more intermediate steps on
  between

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Progress over last 2 weeks

• Spent a large portion of the time trying to
  install, compile and set up osgdem utility for
  file format conversion
• Discovered a whole new side of Linux besides
  being a nice environment to store, compile and
  run programs in, Linux is packed with very useful
  utilities that I had no idea about (i.e. yum,
  rpm)
• Gained a substantial amount of working exposure
  with configuration files and system administrator
  tasks
• Participated in researcher collaboration meeting
  from different disciplines discussing the role of
  my project in a scheme of a much larger project
  involving cooperation with international
  enterprises and other academics
• Recruited Monash students at open day

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Progress over last 2 weeks (cultural)

• Interacted with Aussie natives in their natural
  habitat fed kangaroos, wallabies, watched the
  penguins return to land from the sea
• Toured gold mines and historic towns (Bendigo,
  Ballarat - Sovereign Hill) nearby Melbourne,
  which brought billions of worth of gold and
  significantly increased to population of the
  country
• Seen the longest Chinese dragon at the Museum of
  Chinese heritage in Bendigo
• Dived into cultural past and contemporary art of
  Melbourne by visiting the Melbourne Immigration
  Museum and Royal Museum of Melbourne

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Next Steps

• Gain more background knowledge on SAGE
• Configure SAGE
• Finalize installation of osgdem
• Bring up some images on the tiles
• Hopefully dock the panels to have a more complete
  hardware configuration to work with (if the
  hardware arrives)
• ---------------------------
• Explore the unexplored in Melbourne and the
  vicinity ?

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Bringing You into Our World ?