Yesterday came an opportunity to visit the Louisiana Immersive Technologies Enterprise (LITE) in Lafayette, Louisiana. What I expected to be a small research center with a visualization wall and a few researchers turned out to be a $16 million architectural dazzler of a building with the world’s latest merger of supercomputing and immersive visualization technology. A member of the scientific visualization industry for almost a decade, let me assure that this facility is as high-tech as it gets now – yes, right here in Louisiana! Read just some of the computation and visualization specs:
– SGI Altix 350 cluster with 11 Altix 350 machines – each has 32 Intel Itanium processors and 32 GB of RAM. These machines are interconnected via “Infiniband” high-speed networking technology, which allows them to interact as a cluster
– SGI Altix 4700 system, 160 Intel Itanium II processing cores and 4.1TB of RAM, one of the largest memory footprints of any supercomputer in the world.
– 3D Immersive Visualization Cube – a six-sided immersive environment (4 walls, ceiling and floor) – comfortably holds 5 users while one of these users has data-interactive capability with a head-tracker and wand
– Immersive conference room for virtual collaboration on real data – same data-interactive capabilitiy as 3D Immersive Viz Cube
– Large lecture hall with 37 x 18-foot curved screen – projectors emit active and passive stereo
– Smaller conference room with a flat screen and two rear projection systems
– Office space for renters and collaborators from industry, academia, military, and state and city governments
Most importantly, the researchers here are truly world-class: Carolina Cruz-Neira is well-known as a pioneer in the immersive visualization field (developed the first CAVE® at eVL/UIC), Margaret Watson combines fine arts and visualization, Andreas Gerndt researches the high-performance computing workflow, Simon Su has just been hired to work on immersive environments and Johnny Lawson is their visualization systems manager a.k.a the guy who maintains and runs ALL of the cool toys, like I did at my own job a few years back.
Situated alongside the University of Louisiana – Lafayette campus (right next door to the CajunDome), collaborators include ULL computer science, geoscience and engineering professors (ULL’s geophysics staff rivals that of any university in Baton Rouge or Houston). Sitting in discussions and testing LITE’s various equipment and facilities with all of these scientists, I was truly among MY PEOPLE. These are imaginative and multi-disciplinary scientists who understand the combined value of computer science, applied mathematics, visual arts, spatial design, human psychology and collaboration to help solve complex, multi-variable problems or even simple ones that have a lot of facets.
What’s better is LITE’s refusal to marry with any particular OpenSource or proprietary software – the workflow is their product be it using Amira (proprietary) , VRJuggler (LGPL) and their clients’ favorite packages. Again, from a business perspective, I don’t predict LITE going the way of Geoff Dorn’s Visualization Center at CU-Boulder because of its manifestation as an independent institution, beyond the whims of the university and state.
The young yet smooth-running facility built in so short a time and all of its hardware is impressive, but I was most taken with concepts for the next generation of 3D data computation and human interactiveness with that data. It’s not enough to view the data in 3D or animated progress, while sitting in a chair or conference; how do we move beyond display? Real-time work can be performed in an immersive 3D environment in which the user manipulates the data to achieve simultaneous results. Immediate and continuous input of problem parameters/variables and delivery of computed results and volume rendering is necessary. What we want is real-time decisions, problem identification and avenues for progress. This is how we make tangible and tactile problems of the subsurface or remote sensing; this is how we readily interact with models of the unknown in a way known to us – to be in and manipulate the data.
While I climb off my Comp-Viz soapbox for the moment, realize what a monumental achievement LITE is for the state of Louisiana, which Governor Blanco, the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and the Lafayette Economic Development Authority were able to realize in so short a time and will continue to fund. These are the types of government-industry handshakes and far-sighted investments which ultimately help us grow. What will it take New Orleans to get here?
Edit: Thanks to Carmen for reminding me that LITE has a public open house on the first Wednesday of each month. D and Alexis are interested in a field trip, so far.
Thanks for the tip. My son has off Wednesday, so I may try to make the open house. I’ve been looking for something new to spark him.
I’d also like to chime in with this sentiment, understanding that science itself emanates from world experience and applications, and while you may hold this to be true of your field of employ, it is equally true of fields ranging from gnosticism to performance art to politics:
“Real-time work can be performed in an immersive 3D environment in which the user manipulates the data to achieve simultaneous results. Immediate and continuous input of problem parameters/variables and delivery of computed results and volume rendering is necessary.”
I am SO down for that particular field trip!
What frustrates me is how little impact this research has had. Check out an air traffic controller’s workstation. Everything is 2D. Everything. It’s basically a half step up from radar.
Humans aren’t good at processing a lot of this stuff. It’s sad that when designing software for pilots and heads-up displays, most of the hard work is figuring out what’s not important, so we don’t attempt to display it.
Right now I’m working on path planning underwater. So we have 3 axes of travel, but no propulsion system other than floating up and down. We’re dependent upon current, temperature, and salinity. Now we have to map that over time.
It’s fun and interesting, but I’m often frustruated at the results of complex visualization.
It ultimately depends on who’s doing the visualizing and giving them max control, doesn’t it? Now with OpenSource tools, such as Vis5D, you can learn to program your results based on your own required parameters. One of the pictures in my gallery is a time animation of a multi-variable system, including a scalar field and vector paths.
I’m not saying it’s not pretty. I’m saying that it isn’t having the drastic effect on decision makers that we thought it would. 2D is often trumping multiD in terms of use, even now.
It is a fabulous facility. I visited there in October and was floored. Across the street is another super computer at the USGS building. Amazing stuff! Too bad the newspapers are too busy writing about bad news and celebrity sex to cover this bit of news…
Peace,
Tim