Collaborative VR/AR Data Visualization Tool

Computational physicists and diagnosticians need to analyze 3D data to gain understanding of their simulations or diagnostic results.Visualizing 3D Physics effects by use of 2D screens can limit understanding or even create misunderstandings.Communication of results between collaborators can be difficult when using 2D images or movies, sent by email with written explanations: one finds oneself repeating or missing important information.3D models can be seen with the use of stereoscopic motion-tracking head-mounted displays such as Oculus VR’s Oculus Rift[1] or Microsoft’s Hololens[4].These devices attach to the head like oversized ski goggles and project separate images to each eye creating an illusion to the user of a 3-dimensional immersive space.By immersing the user into a virtual reality, the user can more easily visualize, explore, and interact with their data and can view, explore, and interact their data with colleagues as if it were physically in the room with them in real-time, facilitating quick and accurate information transfer.Existing simulation code and diagnostics data would not need to be modified for use with this program.In Phase I we developed a prototype collaborative VR data visualization tool for high performance computing applications, taking input from a wide range of alpha testers (in HPC) and with input from Kitware, building a user interface, integrating analysis, data handling (of most data types) and building a capable data management system, and testing with datasets provided by the scientific community.In the Phase II we propose to develop our basic VR platform for use in international collaborations, and extend capabilities to AR.We will work with 4 groups in the US and abroad to develop the functionality that is needed to facilitate communication of data with their collaborators.This development will follow on from the Phase I ’horizontal’ development for user interfaces, integrated analysis, data handling, etc.With the development in hand, we will extend the use of the VR application (for use with the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive) to AR by developing for the 2nd generation Hololens.Once we have these case examples built and tested, we will generalize the capabilities, crystalizing the knowledge into customizations that will be providing within the application.This application will then be released as Software as a Service (SaaS) as a commercial application.