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These case studies showcase various ways that Eye-Sys has been used to visualize data or solve a problem.
This example is taken from one of the tutorial systems in the Eye-Sys User Manual. It demonstrates the creation of a visualization system from scratch using data from a bouncing ball simulation. This system illustrates basic Eye-Sys operation and covers common tasks such as importing data, plotting data, building scene graphs, animating objects, and data manipulation.
The accompanying time-lapse video shows the creation of the system from start to finish. It is presented at twice the speed at which it was captured to show the following progression in a timely manner:
Download a free evaluation copy to see this tutorial and other example systems.
The Advanced Logistics Delivery System (ALDS) project was completed for the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Carderock Division (NSWCCD, www.dt.navy.mil) under a contract with the Office of Naval Research (ONR). The ALDS is a conceptual ship designed to transport supplies to inland troops via unmanned aircraft. IDV and Eye-Sys became involved in the project to produce a brief visualization of the ship to be used as an accompaniment to other presentation material in use by the ALDS team at NSWCCD.
Input for the launching portion of the visualization system consisted of several CAD models comprising the significant portions of the ship's structure and a brief presentation describing the ship and its mission. The CAD models were prepared for real-time visualization in 3D Studio Max (polygonal clean up, texture assignment, etc.) and imported into Eye-Sys using a series of 3D Model objects, each responsible for loading a single, animatible component of the ship. Animation was governed by a series of spline paths and scripts generated in Eye-Sys and driven by a real-time driver (forcing the animation to play in 80 seconds, regardless of frame rate). Environmental objects such as the ocean and sky (single primitives in Eye-Sys) were included to enhance realism. Callout objects were added to label important ship components.
The map portion of the visualization system was created using the standard GIS objects that ship with Eye-Sys. An ESRI shapefile object renders the map, Geography Tags with Alpha Spot shadows mark the map locations, and animated Data Paths convey the position of the drone.
Both portions of this visualization system were created using objects that ship with Eye-Sys. This fact demonstrates that although Eye-Sys can be extended using the SDK, it is a powerful visualization system "out of the box" and can be effectively used to convey concepts and combine visualization techniques from multiple disciplines (in this case, Naval architecture and GIS).
The Global Supply Chain demonstration was based on work done by IDV under a U.S. Navy Phase II SBIR (Small Business Innovation Research) contract. The “Cereal Problem” represents a common type of data analysis in the intelligence field. In this demonstration, the assembly and consumption of cereal acts as an unclassified analogy for real-world supply and demand scenarios.
IDV created a simulation based on this problem to demonstrate the ability of Eye-Sys to visualize complex data and interact with third party applications. This simulation is its own, separate application and is in no way part of Eye-Sys. The simulation is fictitious and is not intended to produce real data.
The simulation application uses the Eye-Sys COM interface to establish a two-way link, allowing the Eye-Sys user to perturb the live simulation by deactivating parts of the network while instantly viewing the simulation's response, providing an optimal environment for playing “what if” scenarios in real-time.
This is a demo system created specifically to demonstrate the wide range of visualizations Eye-Sys is capable of implementing. While not scientifically accurate on the whole, the planet radii and average distances from the sun are accurate, as are the planetary rotation periods. The system visualizes the eight planets in the solar system, the Sun, and Pluto.
Due to the scale of the solar system, the planets are virtually invisible when viewing whole orbital paths in a single window. To make the visualization more interesting, scale controls were added to allow the user to scale the planet up to 200 times their actual size. The rotational periods of the planets are also scalable.
The Docking Display System bar contains the control panel with the planet, sun, and rotational period scales, as well as a radio button box that lets the user select the active planet. The 3D window will track the actively selected planet.
* Planet textures courtesy of James Hastings-Trew (www.planetpixelemporium.com)
Introduction
Eye-Sys was used to visualize data from MIT's BioInstrumentation Lab (bioinstrumentation.mit.edu). The data was taken from an experiment designed to study the vestibulo-ocular reflex (the eye movement responsible for stabilizing images on the retina during eye movement).
During the experiment, subjects were asked to follow a target dot projected on the screen (represented here by the green sphere). The target moved back and forth across the screen while the subject's head was slightly but repeatedly twisted by an external force (represented here by the arrow above the head). Sensors were used to measure the angle of the head and the angle of the eyes relative to the head. This numeric data was collected and recorded in a text data file.
Understanding the Data
First, the angles and torque data were imported into Eye-Sys via a standard text file reading object. Using the graph plotter, the data relations were reviewed to establish a full understanding of the data (see pic. 1). In this specific instance, the correlation of eye position to target position was especially relevant, though head torque and other positions were key to a full understanding of the information.
To make a solid visual tool to understand the given data, a simulation-based design was used to show the movements of the head, as well as the overall results of eye tracing against the screen.
Making Numbers You Can See
Next, the base framework of the visualization was constructed. For the “head,” a simple cube was added, and a plane for projector board screen. Eye location as well as tracking point were indicated with points on the plane (see the “Scene Graph Renderer” window in pic. 2).
Using this basic construction, Eye-Sys’ real-time driver converted the data into an animation based on data connections established in the sandbox. (see the “Sandbox” in pic. 2) To allow users to slow the action for closer examination, a time scaling slider was added as a GUI component and connected to the real-time driver (see pic. 3). In addtion, direct readouts of the numeric data were added to the plane for easy reference by the user, as well as a visual indicator of the playback speed relative to real time (see pic. 3).
Producing an Amazing Final Product
In refining the production, Eye-Sys demonstrated its ability to use a variety of visualization tools. The projection screen model was imported as a graphic object from a 3DS model (see pic. 4). The other objects, such as the eyes and head, were all produced directly within Eye-Sys using Eye-Sys’ own design capabilities (see pic. 5). To create the path tracing for the eye and target projections, particle systems were attached to each position indicator (see pic. 6).
This system recreates key aspects of the graphic that ESRI made famous shortly after the 2004 United States Presidential election. It illustrates the number of votes cast for each candidate by projecting each state's counties as volumes where the height of each county represents the margin of votes for the winning candidate.
The 2004 Presidential election was quite close, but a two-dimensional color-coded projection might suggest that President Bush was a run-away winner. By giving each county a volume relative to the county's victory margin, it becomes clearer that Senator Kerry's votes were concentrated in heavily populated urban areas.
This Eye-Sys system is fully navigable, but it also adds an interactive component in that details of each county can be retrieved by simply moving the mouse over the map. These details are displayed in the flat overlay shown in the bottom left corner in the gallery images. The overlay displays the county name, the raw number of votes cast for each candidate, and two pie charts that break down some demographic data for county.
The data featured in this visualization was used with permission from Anthony Robinson.
The Transform Sensor system demonstrates a custom Eye-Sys object that takes generalized inputs from an external sensor and makes it available for linking to other Eye-Sys objects.
In one example, the Eye-Sys object polls an RS-232 port to receive periodic orientation information from an orientation sensor, or inertial measurement unit (IMU). In this case, an Inertia-Link® IMU developed by MicroStrain® www.microstrain.com, Williston, VT) was coupled to the Transform Sensor System. The orientation information was compiled by the object and reported as Euler angles via its "Roll", "Pitch", and "Yaw" properties. The object's transform is adjusted accordingly so that any Eye-Sys object can be made a child of the sensor object so that it will mirror the orientation of the actual sensor in real time.
The story behind the development of the sensor object is of particular interest to those considering using the Eye-Sys SDK to develop custom objects. IDV and MicroStrain met while hosting booths at an SBIR related trade show and agreed to develop the object for presentation at the conference. Engineers from both companies headed off to a hotel room, returning in about an hour with a functioning demonstration system.
MicroStrain has since gone on to interface Eye-Sys with LabVIEW® to enhance their ability to visualize the output of this and similar wireless sensors. This software provides a real time, 3-D visualization of the motion of everyday objects, such as tennis racquets & golf clubs, over 360 degrees, on all three axes of rotation. The software also provides a 3-D translational position estimate based solely on the inertial data. The 3-D orientation and position data from wireless Inertia-Link® sensors may be archived and plotted as a function of time for detailed analyses.
"We're very impressed with the power & flexibility of the Eye-Sys Transform Sensor System," said Steven Arms, MicroStrain's President. "The folks at Eye-Sys are extremely knowledgeable, and they've been a great help to our R&D engineers. They've made it easy to interface our sensors to their software, and we're really excited about their new software visualization tools."
The videos and screenshots presented in this case study represent a system assembled by IDV to demonstrate not only the sensor object but how it can interact with other Eye-Sys components (e.g., the particle system). The mixture of live data from an external source and standard, off-the-shelf Eye-Sys objects provide an excellent example of Eye-Sys' inherent flexibility and the ease and quickness with which Eye-Sys can be customized using the SDK.
This visualization shows the USS Lincoln (CVN-72) on the ocean, with three F/A-18 aircraft on the deck. A simple external application controls some of the carrier operations, including taxiing one F/A-18 around on the deck and launching another. There are numerous cameras in the scene, each showing an item of interest (chase cameras for the taxiing and launching aircraft, a view from the bridge, free navigation cameras, etc) and graphical details like steam venting from the aircraft catapult and sunlight glints on the ocean surface.
The external application, a simple dialog-based application written in C#, establishes a connection with Eye-Sys, queries information, and sends commands, all through a COM interface that Eye-Sys exposes for this purpose.
The aircraft carrier and aircraft models were purchased from an on-line model store and dropped directly into the visualization.
