Understanding Researchers' Use of a Large, High-Resolution Display Across Disciplines

Abstract

A driving force behind the design of increasingly large and high resolution displays (LHRDs) has been the need to support the explosion of data in the natural sciences such as physics, chemistry, and biology. However, our experience with an LHRD accessible to researchers across multiple disciplines has shown that they are useful for a wide range of research activities involving large images and data. We conducted in-context, semi-structured interviews with researchers from a variety of disciplines about their experiences using the LHRD with their own data. Notably, it became apparent that the size and resolution of the LHRD supported a multitude of activities related to observation, for which zooming or other enlargement methods on standard resolution screens were not sufficient. The interview findings lead to implications for further research into supporting a broader range of disciplines in using large, high-resolution displays.

Personal Augmented Reality for Information Visualization on Large Interactive Displays

“…Large, interactive displays have been increasingly used for data analysis and visualization with positive impact [3,71]. Their screen size, the vast physical space in front of them [3,8,44], and their interaction capabilities make them a powerful foundation for exploring large amounts of data.…”

“…Dynamically correcting the user's perspective [63], images with multiple scales [40], lenses [49,50], and potentially using curved displays [67] have been explored to address the issue of distortion. Physical Navigation: Users move naturally in front of large displays [8,71] to utilize the increased space [3]. This physical navigation [8] usually seems to improve performance compared to virtual navigation [47] and increases spatial memory [3,44].…”

“…In contrast to a single visualization, multiple coordinated views are good at representing multivariate data sets. However, studies have shown that this is associated with many context and focus switches and that embedded visualizations may be preferable [71,90]. We therefore propose to display additional data in AR space located directly on corresponding data objects of an existing visualization (see Fig.…”

Visual Analytics on Large Displays: Exploring User Spatialization and How Size and Resolution Affect Task Performance

“…Moreover, the requirement for a cluster of machines to control all the monitors increases system complexity dramatically. The 34.5 million-pixel display wall at the University of Calgary, built with 15 rear projection screens [82], offered a solution to eliminating bezels and provided seamless images. Display size was 4.95m by 1.85m.…”

“…More recent systems became progressively more sophisticated. The 34.5 millionpixel display wall at University of Calgary was operated by a single computer and provided almost 10 square-meters area of display with 50 PPI density through rear projection technology [82]. However, as discussed earlier, projection-based systems have disadvantages and the Calgary system is no exception.…”