APPLICATIONS: Computer & Information Sciences Large Datasets & Visualization

Griz: Grid Visualization Over Optical Networks

Aura, a distributed parallel rendering toolkit, is used to remotely render data on available graphics resources (in Chicago and in Amsterdam) for local display at the iGrid conference. Aura is applied to real-world scientific problems; notably, the visualization of high-resolution isosurfaces of the Visible Human dataset and an interactive molecular dynamics simulation. Interactive and collaborative applications have a near-real-time requirement. For interaction over long distances, network delay is a key factor. Optical networks seem to have a predictable latency, making near-real-time interactive behavior easier, and the higher bandwidth allows faster access to large datasets and remote visualization machines. Acknowledgment: Data courtesy of the Visible Human Project, National Library of Medicine, USA; Quanta. Contact Henri Bal Vrije Universiteit, The Netherlands bal@cs.vu.nl Collaborators Henri Bal, Hans Spoelder, Luc Renambot, Desmond Germans, Tom van der Schaaf, Vrije Universiteit, The Netherlands Jason Leigh, Electronic Visualization Laboratory, University of Illinois at Chicago www.cs.vu.nl/~renambot/vr/html/intro.htm