NCSA HPConvex Exemplar Systems 199597

1

Crumbs the CAVE app that keeps on truckin
ITG Forum December 3, 1998 Rachael Brady NCSA,
Univ. of IL
2
Outline

• Writing a VR application
• What is Crumbs?
• Audio
• Whos Using/Used Crumbs?
• Why is it still being used?
• Usability Study

3
CAVE System
4
Outline

• Writing a VR application
• What is Crumbs?
• Audio
• Whos Using/Used Crumbs?
• Why is it still being used?
• Usability Study

5
Writing a VR Application

• Virtual Reality adds constraints
• Frame refresh rate cannot fall below 10 fps
• Being inside needs different representation
• Navigation
• you move through the world
• you move the world (objects) around you
• wayfinding
• Interaction
• user input devices are very limited

6
Writing a VR Application (cont)

• Inside looking out viewpoint

7
Writing a VR Application for Scientists

• Navigation
• Driving/Flying paradigms only work with landmarks
  and horizon
• Interaction
• Object control
• Parameter setting
• Measuring
• Hardcopy

8
Outline

• Writing a VR application
• What is Crumbs?
• Audio
• Whos Using/Used Crumbs?
• Why is it still being used?
• Usability Study

9
Crumbs

• General viewing tool for regularly gridded 3D
  scalar data in the CAVE. Developed to trace and
  measure 1D fibers

10
What Crumbs Looks Like in Use
11
Crumbs

• Viewing Methods
• Slice planes
• Volume rendering window
• Navigation
• Pick up and move
• Interaction
• Marker placement
• Parameter Adjustment
• Menus
• Voice Command

12
Surface Rendering (cont)
13
Volume Rendering (cont)

• Texture Mapped

• Ray Traced

14
Original Coauthors

• Crumbs first began in March, 1994

15
Motivation of Crumbs
16
Outline

• Writing a VR application
• What is Crumbs?
• Audio
• Whos Using/Used Crumbs?
• Why is it still being used?
• Usability Study

17
Audio

• Ambient Sounds (mood music)
• Event Feedback
• Localization
• Sonification
• Can sound help in Crumbs placement?
• Must be fatigue resistant
• Must convey data value
• Must synchronize with graphical rendering task

Music
18
First Attempt

• Four Melodies
• Orchestration mapped to data value
• Implementation by Robin Bagar and Insook Choi

19
Current Implementation

• No MIDI device needed
• Implementation by Carlos Ricci

20
Outline

• Writing a VR application
• What is Crumbs?
• Audio
• Whos Using/Used Crumbs?
• Why is it still being used?
• Usability Study

21
Whos Using/Used Crumbs?

• Technology Enhancements
• EVAC Dec. 1995
• Dennis Strelow / Surface Relaxation
• Karla Miller / Silk Cursor
• Argonne / CAVEav / Remote Teaching
• Scientific Users
• Tim Karr / Sperm Tails
• Tom Budinger / Spine
• JoAnn Eurell / Chicken Embryos
• Burkhard Militzer / Nanomaterials
• Ken Downing / Protein Densities

22
Instrument Control (IWAY SC95)
EVAC

• Visual Environment
• Data Transfer
• Instrument Command/Control Stream
• Audio Collaboration Link (networked cellular
  phone)
• Video Collaboration Link

23
EVAC Coauthors

• Joe Lyding
• Nick Kisseberth
• Carl Gregory
• Jason Lindquist

24
Added Technology

• Dennis Strelow Surface Relaxation

• Karla Miller Silk Cursor

25
TI-Crumbs for Remote Teaching
26
Remote Teaching

• Combine Crumbs and CAVEav technology to teach
  developmental biology from the CAVE
• Collaborators

University High School Greg Smith David Stone
University of IL Jo Ann Eurell
NCSA Clint Potter Rachael Brady Stuart Levy John
Pixton Umesh Thakkar
Argonne Terry Ditz Lisa Childers Ivan
Judson Robert Olson
Urbana High School James Peterson
27
Drosophila Sperm Tails
28
Spinal Stenosis
Tom Schoenem Jon Maltz
Tom Budinger, LBL
29
48 Hour Old Chicken Embryo
30
Burkhard Militzers Reuse of Crumbs
See a visualization from path-integral Monte
Carlo simulations of hydrogen. The calculation is
used to study hydrogen transition from the plasma
state with free protons and electrons to a
molecular gas, and finally to molecular
metallic liquid.
This application represents technology transfer
from the Scientific Instruments AT team to
the Nanostructures AT team.
31
EM Crystalography

• Ken Downing
• Eva Nogles
• William Nicholson

LBL, UC Berkeley
32
Whos Using/Used Crumbs in Beckman?

• Joseph Lyding
• STM imagery
• David Brady
• Optical tomography

33
Scanning Tunnelling Microscopy
34
Optical Tomography
David Brady Electrical and Computer
Engineering UIUC
35
Outline

• Writing a VR application
• What is Crumbs?
• Audio
• Whos Using/Used Crumbs?
• Why is it still being used?
• Usability Study

36
Why is Crumbs still being used?

• Volume rendering requires no representation or
  mathematical modeling for the visualization

Raw Data
Representation
Instrument Simulation Database
Color Object Surface/Volume
Drawing Computer Model
Rendering
37
Why is crumbs still being used?

• Highly Interactive
• Simple Conceptually
• Home-grown software
• Clint Potter is a good salesman
• Im still here

38
Outline

• Writing a VR application
• What is Crumbs?
• Audio
• Whos Using/Used Crumbs?
• Why is it still being used?
• Usability Study

39
Usability Study

• Can scientists accomplish tasks easily?
• Is sonification useful?
• Does the CAVE installation matter?

• Deborah Hix, Kent Swartz, Joey Gabard
• Virginia Tech
• Umesh Thakkar
• NCSA

40
Usability Study - lessons so far

• Use consistent language
• Use consistent interaction techniques
• Take away unavailable options

41
For More Information

• Crumbs
• mayflower.ncsa.uiuc.edu/big.projects.crumbs.html
• CAVE Cavernus
• www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/VR/cavernus
• VR Taxonomy
• csgrad.cs.vt.edu/jgabbard/ve/taxonomy