Designing for Mobile and Immersive Visual Analytics in the Field

Abstract

Fig. 1. We explore how visualization can enhance data use in the field for domains such as earth science and emergency response. Working with field analysts, we elicit recommendations for how mobile and immersive technologies might bridge spatial and temporal gaps in data collection and analysis. We use these recommendations to develop FieldView, an extensible prototype data collection and visualization system that uses mobile overviews and situated AR visualizations to communicate data about on-going operations.Abstract-Data collection and analysis in the field is critical for operations in domains such as environmental science and public safety. However, field workers currently face data-and platform-oriented issues in efficient data collection and analysis in the field, such as limited connectivity, screen space, and attentional resources. In this paper, we explore how visual analytics tools might transform field practices by more deeply integrating data into these operations. We use a design probe coupling mobile, cloud, and immersive analytics components to guide interviews with ten experts from five domains to explore how visual analytics could support data collection and analysis needs in the field. The results identify shortcomings of current approaches and target scenarios and design considerations for future field analysis systems. We embody these findings in FieldView, an extensible, open-source prototype designed to support critical use cases for situated field analysis. Our findings suggest the potential for integrating mobile and immersive technologies to enhance data's utility for various field operations and new directions for visual analytics tools to transform fieldwork.

Grand Challenges in Immersive Analytics

“…Whitlock et al [139] provide FieldView, an open-source toolkit for immersive mobile application in the field with conditions different from lab settings such as low connectivity and screenspace. Similarly, Prouzeau et al [109] present Corsican Twin, a tool for spatially embedded applications in industrial settings.…”

Developing the Next Generation of Augmented Reality Games for Pediatric Healthcare: An Open-Source Collaborative Framework Based on ARCore for Implementing Teaching, Training and Monitoring Applications

“…AR and MR are currently considered two of the most promising technologies for providing interfaces to visualize and explore information [9] and they present an opportunity to redefine the way in which people collaborate in fields like telemedicine [10] or intelligent transportation [11].…”

Evaluation of 1D Selection Techniques for Mobile Visualizations

“…Researchers have studied mobile visualizations in many contexts. Recent work has identified and evaluated appropriate visual encodings to display data on small screen devices [8,11,12,40]. Another research area in mobile visualizations is the use of visualizations on small screen devices to support navigation or analysis of data on large screen devices [7,24,37].…”

“…While some related work provide a good overview of the problems in mobile visualization [16], there are few with explicit solutions to these challenges. At VIS, four papers about visualization on mobile devices have been presented in total since 2013 [11,12,28,40]. The MobileVis workshop held at CHI 2018 [1] discussed the various types of challenges, yet few solutions were presented and established the need for more design guidelines for mobile visualization.…”