1. Slide 1 Tiled Display Walls - Relation to the Access Grid and Other Systems Mike Walterman, Manager of Graphics Programming, Scientific Computing and Visualization Group, Boston University

2. Slide 2 Introduction Thank you to Ivan Judson at Argonne National Labs Objective of the presentation - Provide an outline of the functional aspects of integrating AG nodes and DVDW - Address some of the anticipated technical challenges Main topics - Brief functional description of the DVDW - Brief functional description of the AG nodes - What it means to integrate the two systems - Technical challenges - Development directions - Conclusions

3. Slide 3 DVDW Functional Description Project at Boston University’s scientific computing and visualization group. Create large format display of, and interaction with, visual stereo imagery and directional sound Tiled display Content includes, but is not limited to: - Static images - Video/movies - 3D animation - Reactive environments - Directional audio

4. Slide 4 Tiled Display Wall (DVDW)

5. Slide 5 What Is an Access Grid Node An active space that provides a group interface to grid computing resources in a collaborative way. - The access grid defines a core set of digital streams, plus a set of interfaces and protocols for incorporating other content. - The core streams generated by a single access grid node include: * 4 320x240 H.261 video streams. * 1 16khz, 16 bit uncompressed audio stream. * Power point event streams display (if mastering the presentation). Each access grid node is enabled to receive the streams of the other collaborating nodes by providing a large format display device.

6. Slide 6 What Does It Mean to Integrate an AG Node With the DVDW What do you get? - High resolution immersive display system - More context transfer - More immersion for DVDW users - Better sense of presence - Distributed technology - Teleconferencing - Alternative Input Mechanisms - Better Audio

7. Slide 7 Approaches to Integration Two approaches - Extend AG nodes to include DVDW functionality - Extend DVDW to include AG node capability Extensions to AG nodes: - Use the AG virtualized display API (in development) - Use follow-on APIs for remaining AG components - Provide multi-panel display capabilities * Panel 1 is the traditional AG node video * Panel 2 is the DVDW - The video display node becomes a render farm - Video display node provides multiple image depth (for stereo) * Active (e.g. shuttered stereo glasses) * Passive (e.g. polarized glasses, anaglyph - color pair)

8. Slide 8 Approaches to Integration (Continued) - Alternate user/presenter input mechanisms * Motion Tracking * 6 Degree of Freedom Wand - Provide directional and non-directional sound * True directional sound * Conversion to non-directional Extensions of the DVDW - provide Multi-panel display capabilities * Panel 1 is the AG node video * Panel 2 is the DVDW - In addition to the render farm, a node is needed for AG video - Needs AG node control station - Provide for non-directional sound

9. Slide 9 Technical Challenges (not a complete list) Visual - Extend current Win2K video node with render farm - Handle non-video data streams (e.g. visual geometric primitives) - Convert visual stereo source imagery to local formats - Provide bandwidth/compression for dynamic visual application (animations, etc.) - Provide consistent and easy to use DVDW calibration mechanisms * geometric tile alignment * tile color blending

10. Slide 10 Technical Challenges (not a complete list) Audio - Provide consistent mechanism for installing, maintaining, and using directional sound - Handle data streams for directional sound User Input - Venue modifications to provide for presenter/user input - Provide consistent mechanism for installing, maintaining, and using motion tracking and 6 degree of freedom wand

11. Slide 11 Technical Challenges (not a complete list) Other - Creation of a distributed application model (data), view (display), controller (input) - Synchronization of directional sound with visual content - Use of distributed interactive applications

12. Slide 12 Development Directions Finish local development of DVDW Develop DVDWs in a distributed mode Integrate using Argonne’s API abstractions

13. Slide 13 Conclusions This is a serious integration effort Transforms the AG node-DVDW from a data stream processing system into a distributed applications system