Collaborative Virtual Environments For Scientific Visualization: AMMI Lab. Contributions to The WestGrid Project

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Collaborative Virtual Environments For Scientific
Visualization AMMI Lab.Contributions to The
WestGrid Project
Department of Computing Science University of
Alberta

• Dr. Pierre Boulanger
• Advanced Man-Machine Interface Laboratory
• University of Alberta
• http//www.cs.ualberta.ca/ammi

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Western Canada Grid
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MACI Cluster Located at the UofA
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The UofA MACI Cluster
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The Grid From a Services Viewpoint
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Definition of Virtual Reality

• A virtual reality system is an interface
  between a man and a machine capable of creating a
  real-time sensory experience of real and
  artificial worlds through the various human
  sensory channels. These sensory channels for man
  are Vision, Audition, Touch, Smell, and Taste.
• Burdea, 1993

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The Three Is of Virtual Reality
Immersion
Imagination
Interaction
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Lets Start With An Example

• Collaboration
• Moritz Heimpel, Institute for Geophysical
  Research, Department of Physics, UofA
• Pierre Boulanger, Advanced Man Machine Interface
  Lab., Department of Computing Science, UofA
• The Problem
• Simulation and 3D Visualization of The Planetary
  Dynamo Problem

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The Planetary Dynamo Problem

• The Earths magnetic field
• Spatial structure, an approximate dipole
• Time history, geomagnetic reversals
• Inversion for outer core flow structure
• Inner core differential rotation
• Planetary dynamos
• Origin and structure of magnetic fields

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Core Geometry The Radius Ratio c ri/ro
Earth (c 0.35) Mercury (c 0.75) Ganymede
(c0.2) Io (c 0.50 ) Jupiter (c 0.85)
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Equations of Motion
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Some Non-Dimensional Parameters Typical Values
for the Numerical Simulations
Number Definition Value Magnetic
Reynolds Rm VD/? ??? Ekman number E
?/(?D2) 10-3 -10-4 Rayleigh number Ra
?go?TD3/(??) 105 -107 Prandtl number Pr
?/??? ? Magnetic Prandtl Pm ?????
1 - ? Radius Ratio ? ri/ro
0.1 0.9
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Comparison of Earth Magnetic Field With Dynamo
Model
(U. Christensen et al., 1999)
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Model Geometry
LEFT ? 0.35 (Earths core) RIGHT ? 0.75
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Numerical Dynamo c 0.35, E 10-4, Pm 1, Ra
10Rac
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Single Plume Dynamo, c 0.15

• Temperature Isosurfaces
• Magnetic field lines
• Radial Magnetic Field at CMB

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Initial Magnetic Field Lines, Field Magnitude
Slice and Equatorial Temperature Slice
c 0.35 Ra 4 Rac E 10-3 P 1 Pm 5 Weak
initial magnetic field
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Velocity Magnetic Field

• c 0.35
• Ra 4 Rac
• E 10-3
• P 1
• Pm 5
• Weak initial magnetic field

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Steady Dynamo Various Visualizations
a) Vorticity isosurfaces velocity
streamlines b) Volume vorticity magnetic
fieldlines c) Velocity magnitude d) Z magnetic
field
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Real time visualization Motivation

• Understanding the variation of radius ratio could
  be a key for understanding the magnetic fields of
  planetary dynamos
• Dynamos of intermediate shell thickness are
  surprisingly Earth-like.
• Thick shell dynamos typically have single plume
  flow field.
• Thin shell dynamos have weaker dipole fields and
  are characterized by smaller scale flow and
  magnetic field scaling.
• Construction of real-time visualization system
  will aid interpretation of field structures.

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Project CyberCell

• Fundamentally, biology is a visual science.
• Up until very recently, nearly everything in
  biology was described in terms of what could be
  seen or inferred through the naked eye.
• Therefore, the principle objective of all of
  Project CyberCell's simulation efforts is to
  produce visually and informationally rich
  reconstructions of cellular activity.

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Project CyberCell

• In other words we want to create spatially and
  temporally correct models of what really happens
  inside a cell.
• http//www.projectcybercell.com/
• The Institute for Biomolecular Design (IBD) was
  established in 1998 as a 25.6 million investment
  

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Project CyberCell

• The objective of Project CyberCell is to develop
  an accurate simulation of a living cell within
  the virtual environment of a computer, one that
  can be manipulated at different levels of
  molecular resolution, and, that can respond,
  adapt and evolve to exploit this virtual
  environment.
• Project CyberCell has selected the bacterium E.
  coli as its model.

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Project CyberCell
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Collaboration and Visualization Tools are
Essential for WestGrid

• WestGrid is predicated on creating unique
  regional collaborations between a diverse group
  of researchers distributed across a wide
  geographical area.
• It is essential that WestGrid researchers have
  access to innovative suites of tools that enable
  collaborations and natural interactions (as if in
  the same room) regardless of physical distance.

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Collaboration and Visualization Tools are
Essential for WestGrid

• It is these communications tools that will help
  create distinctive research capabilities and
  identities.
• By allowing researchers to interact both casually
  and formallyquickly and easily visualizing and
  manipulating datathe infrastructure will enhance
  investigations in all disciplines.

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Collaboration and Visualization Tools are
Essential for WestGrid

• Shared virtual environments, advanced multi-point
  video conferencing, shared applications well
  beyond white-boarding, new display technologies,
  and video streaming will be used together and
  separately for research collaborations and
  visualizations, as well as for resource
  management and training.

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Others Systems Developed Around the World

• DOE Advanced Photon Source
• TIDE the Tele-Immersive Data Explorer
• NASA Virtual Wind Tunnel
• The Collaborative Image Based Rendering Viewer
  (CIBR View)
• Argon Access Grid
• EVL The Collaborative Continuum
• National Tele-Immersion Initiative

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Virtualized Reality Allow On-line
Instrumentation
Advanced Photon Source
wide-area dissemination
desktop VR clients with shared controls
real-time collection
archival storage
tomographic reconstruction
DOE X-ray grand challenge ANL, USC/ISI, NIST,
U.Chicagosource Carl Kesselman
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TIDE the Tele-Immersive Data Explorer

• Electronic Visualization Laboratory University
  of Illinois at Chicago, USA
• National Center for Data Mining, University of
  Illinois at Chicago

TIDE is a CAVERNsoft-based collaborative,
immersive environment for querying and
visualizing data from massive and distributed
datastores.
www.evl.uic.edu/cavern www.ncdm.uic.edu
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NASA Virtual Wind Tunnel
NASA Virtual Wind Tunnel (VWT) is an application
of virtual reality interface technology to the
visualization of the results of modern
computational fluid dynamics simulations. The
highly interactive three-dimensional nature of
virtual reality provides an intuitive exploration
environment for the analysis of the complex
structures arising in time varying fluid flow
simulations. A variety of standard visualization
techniques are supported in the virtual wind
tunnel. These visualizations are controlled via a
direct manipulation paradigm by visualization
control tools.
http//www.nas.nasa.gov/Software/VWT/
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Tele-Immersive Image Based Rendering

• Electronic Visualization Laboratory, University
  of Illinois at Chicago, USA
• Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, USA

The Collaborative Image Based Rendering Viewer
(CIBR View) is a CAVERNsoft-based tool for
viewing animated sequences of image-based
renderings from volume data. CIBR View was
designed to allow DOE scientists to view volume
renderings composed of 2D image slices.
www.evl.uic.edu/cavern/cibr
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The Access Grid
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The Access Grid

• Access Grid does for people what the
  computational Grid does for machines
• The Access Grid project focus is to enable
  groups of people to interact with Grid resources
  and to use the Grid technology to support group
  to group collaboration at a distance
• Distributed Lectures and seminars
• Remote participation in panel discussions
• Virtual site visits meetings
• Complex distributed grid based demonstrations

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EVL The Collaborative Continuum
5Ghz 40Mbps 802.11a
Wireless mobile
Plasma Touch screen
Camera array for image based panorama
Persistent flip notes
Passive stereo
VR display
Wireless tablet PCs
Tiled display
cameras
velcroed
to wall
(LCD tiles for high resolution,
for private video or
or plasma screens)
persistent
postits
Electronic Visualization Laboratory
(EVL),University of Illinois at Chicago
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National Tele-Immersion Initiative
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Three WestGrid Collaborative Environments

• As part of WestGrid there will be three main
  hardware and software configurations
• A desktop grid interface
• An access grid room
• An advanced immersive collaborative environment

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First AMMI Lab. Contribution to WestGRID
CNS/ AMMI Lab. Passive Stereo Immersive Display
and Access Grid Room
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CNS/ AMMI Lab. Collaboration Room
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System Configuration
Local Network
Gentner XAP 800
Audio Computer
Video Computer
2D Display Computer
3D Display Computers
Control Computer
MM100
Network Switch
KVM Switch
CAnet 3
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UofA Low Cost Passive Stereo Projection Unit
Low Cost VR Wall
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Passive Stereo

• Two projectors are used for the single screen
  one for each eye's view.
• Differently polarizing filters are placed in
  front of each projector lens.
• Users wear polarizing glasses where each lens
  only admits the light from the corresponding
  projector.

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UofA Collaborative Room Extension
Access Grid
PC Based Passive VR Display System
Immersive Communication Device
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UofA Research Component in WestGrid Visualization
Project

• Immersive Video Display over High Speed Network
• Virtual Meeting Place Project
• Distributed Solution Server
• Advanced Collaborative Tools for the Analysis of
  Physical or Cellular Simulations
• Network issues with Immersive Collaborative
  Environments

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UofA Advanced Collaborative Immersive Environments
3D Graphic Rendering
New VizRoom
Massive Storage
Haptic Rendering
High Speed Network CAnet 4
3D Sound Rendering
Input Sensors
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UofA Upgrade of VizRoom to AG
Master Control Computer
3D Audio Server
AG Audio Capture Server
Interface Server
Front Display Pipe
Left Display Pipe
S1
M1
Joystick
Active Stereo Projectors
S2
M2
Inertial Tracker
Right Display Pipe
S3
M3
3D Tracker
M4
SGI ONYX 2 with 6 CPUs and 3 Graphic Pipes
Sn
Other Interface
Microphones
Speakers
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Immersive Desktop Video Display and Visualization
over High Speed Network
CAnet 3
Encoder H323
Encoder H323
Decoder H323
Network Controller
Decoder H323
Network Controller
Side By Side MPX
Side By Side MPX
Control PC
Control PC
DTI Glassless Stereo Display
DTI Glassless Stereo Display
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The UofA Virtual Meeting Place Project

• Goal the main goal of this project is to create
  a general man-machine interface allowing
  engineers and scientists to communicate their
  design and visualize their data over the
  internet, producing the equivalent of a virtual
  meeting place.

Live Stereo Texture and sound
Virtual Actuators
Collaborative Object And Data Manipulations and
Interactions
CAD Model or Scientific Data
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UofA Virtual Meeting Project
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UofA Virtual Meeting Project
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UofA Virtual Meeting Project
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Virtual Avatars Based on Stereo Textures
Left Image
Stereo Texture
Background Extraction Movie
Right Image
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WestGrid Solution Server

• There is a need to develop a solution server that
  will allow WestGrid members to minimally modify
  their code and display the result of the
  simulations on a advanced immersive visualization
  environment
• The code is under development at the UofA
  (Physics and Computing Science Department)
• The code will allow
• Truly distributed Simulation and Visualization
• It will allow to separate simulation time from
  real-time visualization requirements
• Allow multi-users to interact with the simulator
• Will allow real-time modifications of boundary
  conditions and simulation parameters

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Visualization vs Simulation Software Architecture
Processor n1 to nm
MAGIC Simulation Program
Share Memory
Visualization Program
Solution Formatter VTK Agents
Solution 1 Solution 2 Solution 3 .
. Solution n ---------------------- Simulatio
n Parameters
HIPPI-Net
Local Formatted Solution Memory
Solution Server
Storage Server
TCP/IP Connection
Processor 1
Processor 2
Server Control Commands Server Status Solution
Parameters Diagnostics
Stored Solutions
Based on Cavern Soft G2
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Visualization Toolkit - VTK

• Allow3D vis image processing
• Hundreds of algorithms
• Object oriented (C)
• Other language bindings for RPD (Tcl/Tk, Python,
  Java)
• Unix/Linux, Windows
• Threads, MPI support
• Active user community
• Open source
• www.kitware.com/vtk.html

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Advanced Collaborative Tools for the Analysis of
Physical Simulations

• In this project we will analyze and explore new
  types of interactive tools to explore the results
  of physical simulations.
• We will explore how sound can help in the
  perception of a field such as the magnetic field
  by correlating the position of a 3D wand with a
  sound generator.
• We will explore various particle tracer
  techniques to display vorticity and turbulent
  flow
• We will try to relate Sound, Haptics and Visual
  cues to give physicists a better understanding of
  complex fields

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Network issues with Immersive Collaborative
Environments

• Timing is essential in the operation of
  distributed virtual environment applications,
  since the perception of changes in the virtual
  environment is based on the timely delivery of
  messages, informing all the participants of the
  changes made by a user.
• Any action issued by any participant must reach
  the other participants within 200 ms.
• This task, challenging as it is, becomes even
  more challenging, when dealing with virtual
  environments with a large number of participants.
  

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UofA WestGrid Local Network Configuration
SGI ONYX2 3 Graphic Pipes 6 CPUs Vis-server V3.0
New WestGrid Super-Computer
1Gb/s
1Gb/s
1Gb/s
BigBangWidth Switch
BigBangWidth Switch
100Mb/s
1Gb/s
AMMI Lab Access Grid
UofA Computer Networking Services Access Grid
100Mb/s
BigBangWidth Switch
10Gb/s
AMMI Lab Virtualized Reality Servers
1Gb/s
Netera Dedicated ( Using One of the Lambda)
Optical Line To Calgary
CanNet4
Gigapop
NewMic/SFU Vancouver
Netera/UofC Calgary
UofL Lethbridge
Banff Center Banff
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WED Virtualized Reality Server Configuration I
(Video Avatar)
PC Server For Camera Bank 1
PC Server For Camera Bank 3
Display Client 1
Display Client 2
BBW Switch
BBW Switch
PC Server For Camera Bank 4
PC Server For Camera Bank 2
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WED Virtualized Reality Server Configuration II
(Virtual Guards) Tour
PC Server For Camera Bank 3
PC Server For Camera Bank 4
Display Client 1
Display Client 2
BBW Switch
BBW Switch
PC Server For Camera Bank 1
PC Server For Camera Bank 2
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Heritage Visual Area Networking
UofA Computer Networking Services
SGI ONYX2 3 Graphic Pipes 6 CPUs Vis-Server V3.0
1Gb/s
1Gb/s
BigBangWidth Switch
BigBangWidth Switch
UofA Computing Science
Netera Dedicated (Using One Lambda) Optical Line
To Calgary
CanNet4
Gigapop
U of C/ Netera BBW Switch
U of T BBW Switch
SFU BBW Switch
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Network issues with Immersive Collaborative
Environments

• The high level of dynamicity in group structure
  and topology increases the complexity of the
  problem.
• Participants might join and leave the session
  dynamically.
• The requirement that the developed DVE
  applications will be supporting collaborative
  functions, makes timing even more important.

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Network issues with Immersive Collaborative
Environments

•  In this project, will attempt to
• Identify and quantify the end-system and network
  parameters that are crucial to the operation of
  the virtual reality application
• Develop technology to support the strict
  requirements of these applications
• Use and improve CAVERNsoftG2, a C toolkit for
  building collaborative networked applications.
•  

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High-bandwidth connectivity

• The University of Alberta is proposing to work
  with industrial partner, BigBangwidth, to
  experiment and test advanced network connectivity
  solutions within the WestGrid network.
• The purpose of the project is to provide
  researchers, high-bandwidth access to the
  WestGrid network to enable effective grid
  computing applications, especially visualization
• This project is part of a 2M WED grant that will
  be hopefully funded at the beginning of next year.

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High-bandwidth connectivity
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The BigBangwidth BroadLAN System
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Objectives

• The main categories of technical measurements to
  be
• tested in this project will include
• Raw Bangwidth Baseline Performance benchmarking
• Demonstration of removal of network congestion
  with BroadLAN
• Demonstration of automated traffic control using
  BroadLAN
• Demonstration of distributed network control and
  security
• Demonstration of distributed application
  functionality
• Final Demonstration of GRID digital information
  network

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Cave to Cave Visualization Using BigBangWidth
Switch
UofA Visualization Software
NewMic VizServer
CanNet3
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Proposed Demonstrations

• One or Two Collaborative Visualization
  demonstrations for 4D Simulation over the Grid
  using immersive display, BroadLAN switch, and
  UofA collaborative Visualization Software.
• First Demonstration with the UofA Department of
  Physics Earth Dynamo.
• Second demonstration with IBD CyberCell the
  bacterium E. coli simulation

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Proposed Time Line for Key Demos

• Integration and testing of CNS Room and VizRoom
  to Access Grid April to end of May 2003
• Development of the first solution server
  prototype Now to June 2003
• Integration and testing of BigBandWidth switch
  with UofA MACI computers and the VizRoom
  March-April 2003
• Integration of solution server to VizRoom
  Software June-September 2003.
• First Demo of Earth Dynamo Simulation Beginning
  of October 2003

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Towards Wide Area Teleimmersion

• Convergence of Virtual Reality, Collaboration
  Technology and Active Spaces

Visual
Audio
VR
Haptics
Visual
Visual
Audio
Audio
VR
VR
Haptics
Haptics