Interaction Techniques for Coupling Personal Mobile Devices with Large Displays

We aim to use 3D stereo display to visualize a data bank of characteristics common to spiral galaxies. We plan to use an immersive environment at the Industrial Technology Centre's Virtual Reality Centre (VRC), i.e. a "half]cave" in which the user walks around and interacts with the data. Our approach will use advanced computer algorithms, supplied by nQube, working in combination with the human vision system to select colours which will be optimized for emphasizing relationships between galaxy characteristics. For example, a position in 3D space can be used to pinpoint how fast a galaxy is rotating and effects of dark matter. Colour can represent other characteristics (e.g. amount of gas), and intensity can represent galaxy brightness. We aim to expose relationships between galaxy characteristics and connect these with a classification scheme. Our partners, ITC/VRC and nQube, will benefit by establishing an interaction and by acquiring new visualization algorithms, psychological and behavioural data, and cementing relationships between University of Manitoba and Swinburne University of Technology, suppliers of the plotting software.

Faculty Supervisor:

Dr. Pourang Irani

Student:

David McCallum/Cary Williams/Khalad Hassan/Bayan Houshmad

Partner:

Industrial Technology Centre

Discipline:

Computer science

Sector:

Information and communications technologies

University:

University of Manitoba