Transcript VR Project Introduction

Department of Computing Science
University of Alberta
Collaborative Virtual Environments
For Scientific Visualization:
AMMI Lab.
Contributions to The WestGrid Project
Dr. Pierre Boulanger
Advanced Man-Machine Interface Laboratory
University of Alberta
http://www.cs.ualberta.ca/ammi
Western Canada Grid
Computational
Resources
Immersive
Visualization
Research Centre
Grid
Storage
Graphics
Workstation
UofA
Advanced
Collaborative
Environment
UBC/Triumf/NEWMIC
UofC
Banff Center
SFU
UofL
MACI Cluster Located at the UofA
The UofA MACI Cluster
The Grid From a Services
Viewpoint
Applications
Chemistry
Physics
Earth Dynamo
Environment
Cosmology
Biology
Cyber Cell
Nanotechnology
Application
Toolkits
Distributed
DataRemote
Problem
Collaborative
Computing
Intensive
Visualization
Solving
Applications
Applications Applications
Applications Applications
Toolkit
Toolkit
Toolkit
Toolkit
Toolkit
Grid Services
(Middleware)
Resource-independent and application-independent
services
:
Remote
Instrumentation
Applications
Toolkit
E.g.,authentication, authorization, resource location, resource allocation, events, accounting,
remote data access, information, policy, fault detection
Resource-specific implementations of basic services
:
Grid Fabric
Transport protocols, name servers, differentiated services, CPU schedulers, public key
(Resources) E.g.,
infrastructure, site accounting, directory service, OS bypass
Definition of Virtual Reality
“ A virtual reality system is an interface
between a man and a machine
capable of creating a real-time
sensory experience of real and
artificial worlds through the various
human sensory channels. These
sensory channels for man are:
Vision, Audition, Touch, Smell, and
Taste.”
Burdea, 1993
The Three I’s of Virtual Reality
Immersion
Interaction
Imagination
Lets Start With An Example
Collaboration:
• Moritz Heimpel, Institute for Geophysical
Research, Department of Physics, UofA
• Pierre Boulanger, Advanced Man Machine
Interface Lab., Department of Computing
Science, UofA
The Problem:
Simulation and 3D Visualization of The
Planetary Dynamo Problem
The Planetary Dynamo Problem
The Earth’s magnetic field
•
•
•
•
Spatial structure, an approximate dipole
Time history, geomagnetic reversals
Inversion for outer core flow structure
Inner core differential rotation
Planetary dynamos
• Origin and structure of magnetic fields
Core Geometry:
The Radius Ratio c = ri/ro
Earth (c = 0.35)
Mercury (c ~ 0.75)
Ganymede (c~0.2)
Io (c ~ 0.50 )
Jupiter (c ~ 0.85)
Equations of Motion
Some Non-Dimensional Parameters &
Typical Values for the Numerical
Simulations
Number
Magnetic Reynolds
Ekman number
Rayleigh number
Prandtl number
Magnetic Prandtl
Radius Ratio
Definition
Value
Rm = VD/

E = /(D2)
10-3 -10-4
Ra = goTD3/() 105 -107
Pr = /

Pm = 
-
c = ri/ro
0.1 – 0.9
Comparison of Earth Magnetic Field
With Dynamo Model
(U. Christensen et al., 1999)
Model Geometry
LEFT: c = 0.35 (Earth’s core); RIGHT: c = 0.75
Numerical Dynamo: c = 0.35,
E = 10-4, Pm = 1, Ra = 10Rac
Single Plume Dynamo, c = 0.15
• Temperature Isosurfaces
• Magnetic field lines
• Radial Magnetic Field at CMB
Initial Magnetic Field Lines, Field
Magnitude Slice and Equatorial
Temperature Slice
c = 0.35
Ra = 4 Rac
E = 10-3
P=1
Pm = 5
Weak initial
magnetic
field
Velocity & Magnetic Field
c
= 0.35
Ra
E
= 4 Rac
= 10-3
P =
Pm
1
=5
Weak
initial
magnetic field
Steady Dynamo: Various
Visualizations
a) Vorticity
isosurfaces &
velocity
streamlines
b) Volume
vorticity &
magnetic
fieldlines
c) Velocity
magnitude
d) Z – magnetic
field
Real time visualization: Motivation
• Understanding the variation of radius ratio could
be a key for understanding the magnetic fields
of planetary dynamos
• Dynamos of intermediate shell thickness are
surprisingly Earth-like.
• Thick shell dynamos typically have single plume
flow field.
• Thin shell dynamos have weaker dipole fields
and are characterized by smaller scale flow and
magnetic field scaling.
• Construction of real-time visualization system
will aid interpretation of field structures.
Project CyberCell
• Fundamentally, biology is a visual
science.
• Up until very recently, nearly everything in
biology was described in terms of what could be
seen or inferred through the naked eye.
• Therefore, the principle objective of all of Project
CyberCell's simulation efforts is to produce
visually and informationally rich reconstructions
of cellular activity.
Project CyberCell
• In other words we want to create spatially and
temporally correct models of what really
happens inside a cell.
• http://www.projectcybercell.com/
• The Institute for Biomolecular Design
(IBD) was established in 1998 as a
$25.6 million investment
Project CyberCell
The objective of Project CyberCell is to
develop an accurate simulation of a living cell
within the virtual environment of a computer,
one that can be manipulated at different levels
of molecular resolution, and, that can
respond, adapt and evolve to exploit this
virtual environment.
• Project CyberCell has selected the
bacterium E. coli as its model.
•
Project CyberCell
Collaboration and Visualization
Tools are Essential for WestGrid
• WestGrid is predicated on creating unique
regional collaborations between a diverse
group of researchers distributed across a
wide geographical area.
• It is essential that WestGrid researchers
have access to innovative suites of tools
that enable collaborations and natural
interactions (as if in the same room)
regardless of physical distance.
Collaboration and Visualization
Tools are Essential for WestGrid
• It is these communications tools that will
help create distinctive research
capabilities and identities.
• By allowing researchers to interact both
casually and formally—quickly and easily
visualizing and manipulating data—the
infrastructure will enhance investigations
in all disciplines.
Collaboration and Visualization
Tools are Essential for WestGrid
Shared virtual environments, advanced
multi-point video conferencing, shared
applications well beyond white-boarding,
new display technologies, and video
streaming will be used together and
separately for research collaborations
and visualizations, as well as for
resource management and training.
Others Systems Developed Around
the World
•
•
•
•
DOE Advanced Photon Source
TIDE: the Tele-Immersive Data Explorer
NASA Virtual Wind Tunnel
The Collaborative Image Based
Rendering Viewer (CIBR View)
• Argon Access Grid
• EVL: The Collaborative Continuum
• National Tele-Immersion Initiative
Virtualized Reality Allow On-line
Instrumentation
Advanced Photon
Source
wide-area
dissemination
real-time
collection
archival
storage
tomographic reconstruction
DOE X-ray grand challenge: ANL, USC/ISI, NIST, U.Chicago—source: Carl
Kesselman
desktop & VR clients
with shared controls
TIDE: the Tele-Immersive Data
Explorer
Electronic Visualization
Laboratory University of
Illinois at Chicago, USA
National Center for Data
Mining, University of Illinois at
Chicago
TIDE is a CAVERNsoft-based
collaborative, immersive
environment for querying and
visualizing data from massive
and distributed datastores.
www.evl.uic.edu/cavern
www.ncdm.uic.edu
NASA Virtual Wind Tunnel
NASA Virtual Wind Tunnel (VWT) is
an application of virtual reality interface
technology to the visualization of the
results of modern computational fluid
dynamics simulations. The highly
interactive three-dimensional nature of
virtual reality provides an intuitive
exploration environment for the analysis
of the complex structures arising in time
varying fluid flow simulations. A variety
of standard visualization techniques are
supported in the virtual wind tunnel.
These visualizations are controlled via a
direct manipulation paradigm by
visualization control tools.
http://www.nas.nasa.gov/Software/VWT/
Tele-Immersive Image Based
Rendering
Electronic Visualization
Laboratory, University of
Illinois at Chicago, USA
Lawrence Berkeley
National Laboratory, USA
The Collaborative Image Based
Rendering Viewer (CIBR View) is a
CAVERNsoft-based tool for viewing
animated sequences of image-based
renderings from volume data. CIBR View
was designed to allow DOE scientists to
view volume renderings composed of
2D image slices.
www.evl.uic.edu/cavern/cibr
The Access Grid
The Access Grid
Access Grid does for people what the
computational Grid does for machines
The Access Grid project focus is to
enable groups of people to interact with
Grid resources and to use the Grid
technology to support group to group
collaboration at a distance
•
•
•
•
Distributed Lectures and seminars
Remote participation in panel discussions
Virtual site visits meetings
Complex distributed grid based
demonstrations
EVL: The Collaborative
Continuum
5Ghz 40Mbps 802.11a
Camera array for image based panorama
Wireless mobile
Plasma Touch screen
Persistent flip notes
Passive stereo
VR display
Wireless tablet PCs +
cameras velcroed to wall
for private video or
persistent postits
Tiled display
(LCD tiles for high resolution,
or plasma screens)
Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL),
University of Illinois at Chicago
National Tele-Immersion
Initiative
Three WestGrid Collaborative
Environments
As part of WestGrid there will be
three main hardware and
software configurations:
• A desktop grid interface
• An access grid room
• An advanced immersive
collaborative environment
First AMMI Lab. Contribution
to WestGRID
CNS/ AMMI Lab. Passive
Stereo Immersive Display and
Access Grid Room
CNS/ AMMI Lab. Collaboration
Room
System Configuration
Local Network
Gentner
XAP 800
Control
Computer
MM100
Audio
Computer
Video
Computer
2D Display
Computer
3D Display
Computers
Network
Switch
KVM
Switch
CA*net 3
UofA Low Cost Passive Stereo
Projection Unit
Screen
Low Cost VR Wall
Stereo
Glasses
Projectors
Graphic
Server
Passive Stereo
• Two projectors are used for
the single screen one for
each eye's view.
• Differently polarizing filters
are placed in front of each
projector lens.
• Users wear polarizing
glasses where each lens
only admits the light from
the corresponding
projector.
Circular Polarizers
Left Eye
Right Eye
UofA Collaborative Room
Extension
PC Based
Passive VR Display
System
Access Grid
Immersive
Communication
Device
UofA Research Component in
WestGrid Visualization Project
• Immersive Video Display over High Speed
Network
• Virtual Meeting Place Project
• Distributed Solution Server
• Advanced Collaborative Tools for the
Analysis of Physical or Cellular
Simulations
• Network issues with Immersive
Collaborative Environments
UofA Advanced Collaborative
Immersive Environments
New VizRoom
3D
Graphic
Rendering
Massive
Storage
Haptic
Rendering
3D Sound
Rendering
Input
Sensors
High Speed Network
CA*net 4
UofA Upgrade of VizRoom to AG
Master
Control
Computer
AG Audio
Capture
Server
AG Video
Server
Interface
Server
S1
M1
C1
Joystick
S2
M2
C2
Inertial
Tracker
S3
M3
C3
3D Tracker
M4
Sn
Speakers
Microphones
Cn
Video
Cameras
Other
Interface
Front
Display
Pipe
Left
Display
Pipe
Right
Display
Pipe
SGI ONYX 2
with 6 CPUs and
3 Graphic Pipes
Active Stereo Projectors
3D
Audio
Server
Immersive Desktop Video Display and
Visualization over High Speed Network
CA*net 3
Decoder
H323
Network
Controller
Encoder
H323
CR
Control
PC
CL
Side
By
Side
MPX
DTI Glassless Stereo Display
Decoder
H323
Network
Controller
Encoder
H323
CR
Control
PC
CL
Side
By
Side
MPX
DTI Glassless Stereo Display
The UofA Virtual Meeting Place
Project
Goal: the main goal of this project is to create a
general man-machine interface allowing
engineers and scientists to communicate their
design and visualize their data over the internet,
producing the equivalent of a virtual meeting
place.
Live Stereo Texture and sound
Virtual
Actuators
Collaborative Object
And Data
Manipulations and
Interactions
CAD Model or
Scientific Data
UofA Virtual Meeting Project
UofA Virtual Meeting Project
UofA Virtual Meeting
Project
Virtual Avatars Based on
Stereo Textures
Left Image
Stereo Texture
Background
Extraction
Movie
Right Image
WestGrid Solution Server
• There is a need to develop a solution server that
will allow WestGrid members to minimally
modify their code and display the result of the
simulations on a advanced immersive
visualization environment
• The code is under development at the UofA
(Physics and Computing Science Department)
• The code will allow:
• Truly distributed Simulation and Visualization
• It will allow to separate simulation time from real-time
visualization requirements
• Allow multi-users to interact with the simulator
• Will allow real-time modifications of boundary
conditions and simulation parameters
Visualization vs Simulation:
Software Architecture
Processor n+1 to n+m
MAGIC
Simulation
Program
Processor #2
Storage
Server
Stored
Solutions
Share Memory
Solution #1
Solution #2
Solution #3
.
.
Solution #n
---------------------Simulation
Parameters
Processor #1
Solution
Server
Solution
Formatter
VTK Agents
HIPPI-Net
Local
Formatted
Solution
Memory
Formatted
Solutions
Visualization
Program
TCP/IP Connection
Server Control Commands
Server Status
Solution Parameters
Diagnostics
Based on Cavern Soft G2
Visualization Toolkit - VTK
• Allow3D vis & image
processing
• Hundreds of algorithms
• Object oriented (C++)
• Other language bindings
for RPD (Tcl/Tk, Python,
Java)
• Unix/Linux, Windows
• Threads, MPI support
• Active user community
• Open source
• www.kitware.com/vtk.html
Advanced Collaborative Tools
for the Analysis of Physical
Simulations
In this project we will analyze and explore
new types of interactive tools to explore
the results of physical simulations.
• We will explore how sound can help in the
perception of a field such as the magnetic field
by correlating the position of a 3D wand with a
sound generator.
• We will explore various particle tracer
techniques to display vorticity and turbulent flow
• We will try to relate Sound, Haptics and Visual
cues to give physicists a better understanding of
complex fields
Network issues with Immersive
Collaborative Environments
• Timing is essential in the operation of
distributed virtual environment
applications, since the perception of
changes in the virtual environment is
based on the timely delivery of messages,
informing all the participants of the
changes made by a user.
• Any action issued by any participant
must reach the other participants
within 200 ms.
• This task, challenging as it is, becomes
even more challenging, when dealing with
virtual environments with a large number
UofA WestGrid Local Network
Configuration
SGI ONYX2
3 Graphic Pipes
6 CPUs
Vis-server V3.0
1Gb/s
1Gb/s
1Gb/s
BigBangWidth
Switch
BigBangWidth
Switch
New WestGrid
Super-Computer
100Mb/s
1Gb/s
100Mb/s
AMMI Lab
Access Grid
BigBangWidth
Switch
10Gb/s
UofA
Computer
Networking
Services
Access Grid
AMMI Lab
Virtualized Reality
Servers
1Gb/s
Netera Dedicated ( Using
One of the Lambda) Optical
Line To Calgary
CanNet*4
NewMic/SFU
Vancouver
Netera/UofC
Calgary
UofL
Lethbridge
Gigapop
Banff Center
Banff
WED Virtualized Reality Server
Configuration I (Video Avatar)
PC Server
For
Camera Bank 3
Display Client
#2
BBW
Switch
PC Server
For
Camera Bank 4
PC Server
For
Camera Bank 1
BBW
Switch
PC Server
For
Camera Bank 2
Display Client
#1
WED Virtualized Reality Server
Configuration II (Virtual Guards)
Tour
PC Server
For
Camera Bank 3
Display Client
#1
BBW
Switch
PC Server
For
Camera Bank 1
PC Server
For
Camera Bank 4
BBW
Switch
PC Server
For
Camera Bank 2
Display Client
#2
Heritage Visual Area Networking
UofA Computer Networking Services
1Gb/s
1Gb/s
SGI ONYX2
3 Graphic Pipes
6 CPUs
Vis-Server V3.0
BigBangWidth
Switch
BigBangWidth
Switch
UofA Computing Science
Netera Dedicated (Using One
Lambda) Optical Line To Calgary
CanNet*4
Gigapop
U of C/ Netera
BBW Switch
Vis
Client
U of T
BBW Switch
Vis
Client
SFU
BBW Switch
Vis
Client
Network issues with
Immersive Collaborative
Environments
• The high level of dynamicity in group
structure and topology increases the
complexity of the problem.
• Participants might join and leave the
session dynamically.
• The requirement that the developed
DVE applications will be supporting
collaborative functions, makes timing
even more important.
Network issues with Immersive
Collaborative Environments
In this project, will attempt to:
• Identify and quantify the end-system
and network parameters that are
crucial to the operation of the virtual
reality application;
• Develop technology to support the
strict requirements of these
applications;
• Use and improve CAVERNsoft*G2, a
C++ toolkit for building collaborative
networked applications.
High-bandwidth connectivity
• The University of Alberta is proposing to
work with industrial partner, BigBangwidth, to
experiment and test advanced network
connectivity solutions within the WestGrid
network.
• The purpose of the project is to provide
researchers, high-bandwidth access to the
WestGrid network to enable effective grid
computing applications, especially
visualization
• This project is part of a 2M$ WED grant that
will be hopefully funded at the beginning of
next year.
High-bandwidth connectivity
The BigBangwidth BroadLAN
System
Objectives
The main categories of technical measurements to be
tested in this project will include:
• Raw Bangwidth Baseline Performance
benchmarking
• Demonstration of removal of network congestion
with BroadLAN
• Demonstration of automated traffic control using
BroadLAN
• Demonstration of distributed network control and
security
• Demonstration of distributed application
functionality
• Final Demonstration of GRID digital information
network
Cave to Cave Visualization Using
BigBangWidth Switch
CanNet3
NewMic
VizServer
UofA
Visualization
Software
Proposed Demonstrations
• One or Two Collaborative Visualization
demonstrations for 4D Simulation over the
Grid using immersive display, BroadLAN
switch, and UofA collaborative
Visualization Software.
• First Demonstration with the UofA
Department of Physics: Earth Dynamo.
• Second demonstration with IBD
CyberCell: the bacterium E. coli simulation
Proposed Time Line for Key
Demos
• Integration and testing of CNS Room and
VizRoom to Access Grid: April to end of May
2003
• Development of the first solution server
prototype: Now to June 2003
• Integration and testing of BigBandWidth switch
with UofA MACI computers and the VizRoom:
March-April 2003
• Integration of solution server to VizRoom
Software: June-September 2003.
• First Demo of Earth Dynamo Simulation:
Beginning of October 2003
Towards Wide Area Teleimmersion
Convergence of Virtual Reality,
Collaboration Technology and Active
Spaces
VR
Haptics
VR
VR
Haptics
Haptics