Distributed Collaborative Data Analysis with Heterogeneous Visualisation Systems

Abstract

A system for the distributed, collaborative online visualisation in heterogeneous visualisation environments was developed and tested in the application project KoDaVis, which is part of the german optical network testbed VIOLA. The aim of KoDaVis is the visualisation of huge data sets from atmosphere research. The core of the presented distributed computer supported collaborative work system is a framework for the coupling of heterogeneous visualisation systems and the design and implementation of two distinct servers, one for the collaborative aspects and one for the direct remote access to centrally stored data. Interfaces to the VTK-based virtual reality visualisation system ViSTA and to the modular visualisation environment AVS/Express were implemented and tested. The successful coupling of these two different visualisation systems as well as the benefit of a fast optical network for parallel data access and for distributed collaboration could be demonstrated in a test setup.