Immersive Insights: A Hybrid Analytics System for Collaborative Exploratory Data Analysis

In the past few years, augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) technologies have experienced terrific improvements in both accessibility and hardware capabilities, encouraging the application of these devices across various domains. While researchers have demonstrated the possible advantages of AR and VR for certain data science tasks, it is still unclear how these technologies would perform in the context of exploratory data analysis (EDA) at large. In particular, we believe it is important to better understand which level of immersion EDA would concretely benefit from, and to quantify the contribution of AR and VR with respect to standard analysis workflows. In this work, we leverage a Dataspace reconfigurable hybrid reality environment to study how data scientists might perform EDA in a co-located, collaborative context. Specifically, we propose the design and implementation of Immersive Insights, a hybrid analytics system combining high-resolution displays, table projections, and augmented reality (AR) visualizations of the data. We conducted a two-part user study with twelve data scientists, in which we evaluated how different levels of data immersion affect the EDA process and compared the performance of Immersive Insights with a state-of-the-art, non-immersive data analysis system.Comment: VRST 201

トータルクラウド化による次世代情報環境の提案と基本ソフトウェア・ＵＩアーキテクチャの実現

人間は思考を中心とした行動が大部分を占めており、これを知的活動と呼ぶ。具体的には情報を収集し、取得した情報を比較・検証し、新たにアイデアを生み出す一連の流れ全体を指す。この知的活動を取り巻く環境を情報環境と呼ぶ。知的活動を支援する情報環境を遡ると、多数の本や紙の資料を媒体として情報を取得し多数並べ、配置を変更しながら比較・検討を実行し、ペンで情報をまとめるなど行っていた。取得可能な情報量は時代と共に増加しており、特に印刷技術の開発やインターネットにより急激に増加した。さらに、情報を扱う多種多様な入力デバイス、出力デバイスが開発されている。このように、情報環境は高度化され人間の知的活動を支援していると捉えられるが、増加した多数の情報を本のように並べて比較出来ているか、あるいは情報を扱う身の回りの多数のデバイスを最適に活用しているかどうか疑問である。つまり、現在の情報環境は良い部分と悪い部分が混在しており、情報環境が整っているかのようであるが、知的活動が阻害されている可能性がある。本研究では人間の知的活動を支援する現代の情報環境課題をトータルクラウド情報環境と呼ぶデータや機能だけでなく、入出力デバイスもクラウドから降ってくる情報環境を提案した。タスクに合わせて、多数の情報を最適な入出力デバイスを選択し、組み合わせて知的活動を支援する。提案するトータルクラウド情報環境を実現する上で、デバイスは物理物体でありクラウドから出現させるのは困難である。そこで、デバイスの管理だけをクラウドで行い、デバイスは実世界に散在することにした。対象とする入出力デバイスや機能の分析を行い、基本的なソフトウェアアーキテクチャの要件と基本UIアーキテクチャの要件を導く。要件を基に具体的なインタラクション設計を行い、基本的なトータルクラウド情報環境の実装を行う。最後に本システムの評価実験を行いビデオ解析やアンケートを用いた結果、想定する機能や提案する情報環境について高評価を得ることができ、トータルクラウド情報環境の有用性を検証できた。電気通信大学201

Characterization of multiphase flows integrating X-ray imaging and virtual reality

Multiphase flows are used in a wide variety of industries, from energy production to pharmaceutical manufacturing. However, because of the complexity of the flows and difficulty measuring them, it is challenging to characterize the phenomena inside a multiphase flow. To help overcome this challenge, researchers have used numerous types of noninvasive measurement techniques to record the phenomena that occur inside the flow. One technique that has shown much success is X-ray imaging. While capable of high spatial resolutions, X-ray imaging generally has poor temporal resolution. This research improves the characterization of multiphase flows in three ways. First, an X-ray image intensifier is modified to use a high-speed camera to push the temporal limits of what is possible with current tube source X-ray imaging technology. Using this system, sample flows were imaged at 1000 frames per second without a reduction in spatial resolution. Next, the sensitivity of X-ray computed tomography (CT) measurements to changes in acquisition parameters is analyzed. While in theory CT measurements should be stable over a range of acquisition parameters, previous research has indicated otherwise. The analysis of this sensitivity shows that, while raw CT values are strongly affected by changes to acquisition parameters, if proper calibration techniques are used, acquisition parameters do not significantly influence the results for multiphase flow imaging. Finally, two algorithms are analyzed for their suitability to reconstruct an approximate tomographic slice from only two X-ray projections. These algorithms increase the spatial error in the measurement, as compared to traditional CT; however, they allow for very high temporal resolutions for 3D imaging. The only limit on the speed of this measurement technique is the image intensifier-camera setup, which was shown to be capable of imaging at a rate of at least 1000 FPS. While advances in measurement techniques for multiphase flows are one part of improving multiphase flow characterization, the challenge extends beyond measurement techniques. For improved measurement techniques to be useful, the data must be accessible to scientists in a way that maximizes the comprehension of the phenomena. To this end, this work also presents a system for using the Microsoft Kinect sensor to provide natural, non-contact interaction with multiphase flow data. Furthermore, this system is constructed so that it is trivial to add natural, non-contact interaction to immersive visualization applications. Therefore, multiple visualization applications can be built that are optimized to specific types of data, but all leverage the same natural interaction. Finally, the research is concluded by proposing a system that integrates the improved X-ray measurements, with the Kinect interaction system, and a CAVE automatic virtual environment (CAVE) to present scientists with the multiphase flow measurements in an intuitive and inherently three-dimensional manner