Autostereoscopic display of large-scale scientific visualization

Abstract

Modern computational science poses two challenges for scientific visualization: managing the size of resulting datasets and extracting maximum knowledge from them. While our team attacks the first problem by implementing parallel visualization algorithms on supercomputing architectures at vast scale, we are experimenting with autostereoscopic display technology to aid scientists in the second challenge. We are building a visualization framework connecting parallel visualization algorithms running on one of the world's most powerful supercomputers with high-quality autostereo display systems. This paper is a case study of the development of an end-to-end solution that couples scalable volume rendering on thousands of supercomputer cores to the scientists' interaction with autostereo volume rendering at their desktops and larger display spaces. We discuss modifications to our volume rendering algorithm to produce perspective stereo images, their transport from supercomputer to display system, and the scientists' 3D interactions. A lightweight display client software architecture supports a variety of monoscopic and autostereoscopic display technologies through a flexible configuration framework. This case study provides a foundation that future research can build upon in order to examine how autostereo immersion in scientific data can improve understanding and perhaps enable new discoveries.

Stereo pairs in Astrophysics

“…Testing our sTi stereo pairs on several students and astronomers at the Mount Stromlo Observatory revealed that they represent a good tradeoff, by being able to convey a satisfactory feeling of depth from any viewpoint, and by being as effective as standard Toe-in stereo pairs with an elevation lower that |θ 0 | ∼ 50 • . The tests also revealed that sTi stereo pairs provide more depth structure around the data itself as compared to their equivalent Offset stereo pairs, and that the sTi method is in that respect more appropriate for creating stereo pairs in Astrophysics, a fact already observed by Peterka et al (2009).…”

“…In other words, if the object appears, with the Offset technique, to be popping out of the screen, it does not contain itself much depth information. Peterka et al (2009) reached a similar conclusion when building a stereoscopic movie of 3D simulations of a core-collapse supernova (Blondin et al 2003) : " [The Offset technique] ... created a plausible facsimile of 3D. However, the trained observer noticed the flatness in the center of the sphere, and we did not want to rely on 2D depth cues such as lighting and shading to convey 3D information."…”

A simultaneous 2D/3D autostereo workstation

“…The TCP networking protocol was chosen to ensure that image data was not lost or reordered. The protocol in Peterka et al 13 sends each image as packets consisting of a header followed by image data. The 12-byte header is used to determine the size of the image and whether it is a left or right image of the pair.…”

“…The work presented here is a continuation of the Dynallax system 11,12 development and the software that drives it, Dynamic View Client (DVC). 13 DVC leverages OpenGL shaders and MPI 14 to maintain a dynamic parallax barrier and a corresponding interlaced stereo image. Previously, developing Dynallax applications often required altering the DVC library itself to manage custom input events and new input devices.…”

The future of the CAVE

“…Without special VR glasses, there are no synchronization or polarization issues to prevent users from multi-tasking; for example, viewers could see 3D while taking notes on paper or looking at other computer screens. EVL has extensively researched autostereoscopic display systems for over twenty years [35] (Figure 19) and has prototyped static and dynamic parallax barrier systems (Varrier [36,37], Dynallax [38][39][40][41]). The primary benefit of an autostereoscopic system is that it eliminates the need to wear special 3D glasses, which is associated with all other types of VR systems.…”