Piccolo: A Scalable Structured Graphics Toolkit

1
Piccolo A Scalable Structured Graphics Toolkit

• Aaron Clamage, Jesse Grosjean
• Ben Bederson
• University of Maryland
• Human-Computer Interaction Lab
• Computer Science Department

2
Piccolo What is it?

• Toolkit that supports
• structured canvas of graphical objects
• hierarchical scene-graph model
• creation of controls for use within Windows
  Forms
• Supports 2D object-oriented graphics
• hierarchies (transformation, transparency, etc.)
• animation, event handling
• cameras, layers, views
• efficiency mechanisms
• Missing structure that relies on underlying
  renderer
• GDI, Direct3D, OpenGL, Java2D, etc.
• gt Open, Extensible and Efficient

3
What Is It Good For?

• gt Structured graphics
• Custom interaction
• Zoomable User Interfaces

Gentleware.com - Poseidon
PaperLens Microsoft Research
University of Maryland
4
What Is It Good For?

• Structured graphics
• gt Custom interaction
• Zoomable User Interfaces

International Childrens Digital
Library www.icdlbooks.org
Demo
SpaceTree
Range Slider
5
What Is It Good For?

• Structured graphics
• Custom interaction
• gt Zoomable User Interfaces

U. Victoria Ontology Visualization
Demo
PhotoMesa www.photomesa.com
6
Where Does It Run?

• Almost everywhere
• Piccolo.NET
• (C) .NET for Windows
• PocketPiccolo.NET
• (C) Compact Framework for Pocket PC
• Piccolo.Java
• (Java) for everywhere else

7
How Does It Work?

• gt Monolithic scene-graph
• Simple class hierarchy
• Extend PNode to make new nodes
• Simple runtime structure
• Supports Custom Interaction
• Efficiency mechanisms
• Utilities for easy startup

8
How Does It Work?

• Monolithic scene-graph
• gt Efficiency Mechanisms
• Picking
• Validating bounds and updating display
• Damage/repair
• Driven by UI cycle
• Utilities for easy startup

9
How Does It Work?

• Monolithic scene-graph
• Efficiency Mechanisms
• gt Utilities for easy startup
• Embedded Piccolo canvas
• Designer enabled

using UMD.HCIL.Piccolo using UMD.HCIL.Piccolo.Nod
es using UMD.HCIL.PiccoloX public class
PHelloWorld PForm public override void
Initialize() PText text new
PText("Hello World!") Canvas.Layer.AddChi
ld(text) static void Main()
new PHelloWorld()
Code
10
Performance Analysis
Scenegraph manipulation speed
Rendering Speed
Bederson, Grosjean, Meyer - TSE 2004
11
Conclusions / Directions

• Scenegraphs are useful to
• Provide efficient picking and rendering
• Support highly customized interaction
• But at a cost
• Not always the best way to store the data
• Harder to plug in new visualizations
• Toolkits are usually worth their weight
• Piccolos Future
• Finish website, tutorials, etc.
• Hook up to other renderers
• (Direct3D, OpenGL)
• Build more apps!

• Funded by
• Microsoft
• Initially by
• DARPA
• NSF

www.cs.umd.edu/hcil/piccolo
12
My Interest in this Workshop

• I want to better understand
• Challenges other IV toolkit designers are facing
• How Piccolo fits in with other toolkits
• I want to explore the feasibility of creating a
  universally useful infrastructure