Visualisation of Long in Time Dynamic Networks on Large Touch Displays

Any dataset containing information about relationships between entities can be modelled as a network. This network can be static, where the entities/relationships do not change over time, or dynamic, where the entities/relationships change over time. Network data that changes over time, dynamic network data, is a powerful resource when studying many important phenomena, across wide-ranging fields from travel networks to epidemiology.However, it is very difficult to analyse this data, especially if it covers a long period of time (e.g, one month) with respect to its temporal resolution (e.g. seconds). In this thesis, we address the problem of visualising long in time dynamic networks: networks that may not be particularly large in terms of the number of entities or relationships, but are long in terms of the length of time they cover when compared to their temporal resolution.We first introduce Dynamic Network Plaid, a system for the visualisation and analysis of long in time dynamic networks. We design and build for an 84" touch-screen vertically-mounted display as existing work reports positive results for the use of these in a visualisation context, and that they are useful for collaboration. The Plaid integrates multiple views and we prioritise the visualisation of interaction provenance. In this system we also introduce a novel method of time exploration called ‘interactive timeslicing’. This allows the selection and comparison of points that are far apart in time, a feature not offered by existing visualisation systems. The Plaid is validated through an expert user evaluation with three public health researchers.To confirm observations of the expert user evaluation, we then carry out a formal laboratory study with a large touch-screen display to verify our novel method of time navigation against existing animation and small multiples approaches. From this study, we find that interactive timeslicing outperforms animation and small multiples for complex tasks requiring a compari-son between multiple points that are far apart in time. We also find that small multiples is best suited to comparisons of multiple sequential points in time across a time interval.To generalise the results of this experiment, we later run a second formal laboratory study in the same format as the first, but this time using standard-sized displays with indirect mouse input. The second study reaffirms the results of the first, showing that our novel method of time navigation can facilitate the visual comparison of points that are distant in time in a way that existing approaches, small multiples and animation, cannot. The study demonstrates that our previous results generalise across display size and interaction type (touch vs mouse).In this thesis we introduce novel representations and time interaction techniques to improve the visualisation of long in time dynamic networks, and experimentally show that our novel method of time interaction outperforms other popular methods for some task types

Remediation Technology Collaboration Development - A Compendium

During its multi-year period of performance, the Remediation Technology Collaboration Development (RTCD) task orders initial goals were to enhance the capability to specifically target reductions in the long-term liabilities associated with NASAs most challenging remediation sites. This was accomplished by identifying existing remediation processes and conditions, researching site-specific technologies (both past and present) while simultaneously looking for parallel situations where these technologies could be applied. In addition, the most promising of these solutions were developed from comprehensive research and bench studies into pilot studies or demonstration projects, which contributed significantly to the success of the RTCD program

Collaborative Human-Computer Interaction with Big Wall Displays - BigWallHCI 2013 3rd JRC ECML Crisis Management Technology Workshop

The 3rd JRC ECML Crisis Management Technology Workshop on Human-Computer Interaction with Big Wall Displays in Situation Rooms and Monitoring Centres was co-organised by the European Commission Joint Research Centre and the University of Applied Sciences St. Pölten, Austria. It took place in the European Crisis Management Laboratory (ECML) of the JRC in Ispra, Italy, from 18 to 19 April 2013. 40 participants from stakeholders in the EC, civil protection bodies, academia, and industry attended the workshop. The hardware of large display areas is on the one hand mature since many years and on the other hand changing rapidly and improving constantly. This high pace developments promise amazing new setups with respect to e.g., pixel density or touch interaction. On the software side there are two components with room for improvement: 1. the software provided by the display manufacturers to operate their video walls (source selection, windowing system, layout control) and 2. dedicated ICT systems developed to the very needs of crisis management practitioners and monitoring centre operators. While industry starts to focus more on the collaborative aspects of their operating software already, the customized and tailored ICT applications needed are still missing, unsatisfactory, or very expensive since they have to be developed from scratch many times. Main challenges identified to enhance big wall display systems in crisis management and situation monitoring contexts include: 1. Interaction: Overcome static layouts and/or passive information consumption. 2. Participatory Design & Development: Software needs to meet users’ needs. 3. Development and/or application of Information Visualisation & Visual Analytics principle to support the transition from data to information to knowledge. 4. Information Overload: Proper methods for attention management, automatic interpretation, incident detection, and alarm triggering are needed to deal with the ever growing amount of data to be analysed.JRC.G.2-Global security and crisis managemen

NASA Capability Roadmaps Executive Summary

This document is the result of eight months of hard work and dedication from NASA, industry, other government agencies, and academic experts from across the nation. It provides a summary of the capabilities necessary to execute the Vision for Space Exploration and the key architecture decisions that drive the direction for those capabilities. This report is being provided to the Exploration Systems Architecture Study (ESAS) team for consideration in development of an architecture approach and investment strategy to support NASA future mission, programs and budget requests. In addition, it will be an excellent reference for NASA's strategic planning. A more detailed set of roadmaps at the technology and sub-capability levels are available on CD. These detailed products include key driving assumptions, capability maturation assessments, and technology and capability development roadmaps

Planck early results. VI. The High Frequency Instrument data processing

We describe the processing of the 336 billion raw data samples from the High Frequency Instrument (HFI) which we performed to produce six temperature maps from the first 295 days of Planck-HFI survey data. These maps provide an accurate rendition of the sky emission at 100, 143, 217, 353, 545 and 857 GHz with an angular resolution ranging from 9.9 to 4.4^2. The white noise level is around 1.5 {\mu}K degree or less in the 3 main CMB channels (100--217GHz). The photometric accuracy is better than 2% at frequencies between 100 and 353 GHz and around 7% at the two highest frequencies. The maps created by the HFI Data Processing Centre reach our goals in terms of sensitivity, resolution, and photometric accuracy. They are already sufficiently accurate and well-characterised to allow scientific analyses which are presented in an accompanying series of early papers. At this stage, HFI data appears to be of high quality and we expect that with further refinements of the data processing we should be able to achieve, or exceed, the science goals of the Planck project.Comment: Replaced by the accepted version for publication, as part of a package of papers describing first results of the Planck mission The paper with figures at full resolution and full color tables can also be downloaded from the ESA site http://www.rssd.esa.int/Planc

Investigating and understanding the theoretical constructs and technical impactors on immersive dome user experience

This thesis explores the novel area of immersive digital domes (IDEs), a unique virtual reality tool that allows more than one user, sometimes a lot of users, into a space to share in engaging, interactive or real-time experiences. Using an active commercial development program, in the form of a government backed knowledge transfer program, this thesis develops a theoretical design framework, and evaluates it via iterative technical implementation with the overall goal to advance the collective knowledge of user experience within immersive digital domes. Between September 2015 and September 2017, the project researched and analysed dedicated developments into the design, development and implementation of improvements in the host companies digital dome product. During this time, the project team was able to establish itself as a knowledge leader in both the experiences currently offered within digital domes, as well as the inherent flaws in both their technical creation and internal user experiences. Via detailed analysis of the available research, this thesis explores the relationship between existing interactive space paradigms and those found within immersive domes. With the aim to understand what components contribute to experience within IDEs and how these components act together to influence user perception of the social, interactive and experience. This knowledge is used to drive direct commercial change and impact in the design, development and technical advancement, as well as the inherent impactors on user experience within immersive interactive spaces. This direct connection to instant commercial implementation and iteration allow for a very pragmatic qualitative methodology within the research, which was conducted across two areas, or phases. Phase one focuses on the experiential aspect of IDE for the end user. This involved collection and analysis of data from end users, sampling of existing literature and scrutiny of previous experiences, thus allowing for the beginning of constructs in the evaluation of IDE experiences. Phase two focuses on the refinement of the developer experience. It does so by utilising direct influence from the theoretical learning the first half of the research to implement rapid prototyping, hands on iteration and real-world technical adaptations to further refine the understanding of the user experience within immersive dome environments. Below, chapters two, three and four explore the existing literature, background and give context to the project and novel area of study, proposing the initial research questions this work will answer. Chapter four specifically discusses the unique on-site, active and implemented research methodology employed by this project; including detail about how results and developments will be validated. Chapter five explores phase one – end user experience. It expands on the findings in current literature to outline the understanding and developments in the field of user experience design within immersive domes. Documenting the contributing elements to dome experience as extrapolated from within the existing literature and via detailed analysis with an assembled expert panel. Chapter five also revisits the initial research hypotheses for further refinement. Chapter six is the documentation of phase two. Outlining and analysing a number of technical implementation within the host digital dome, and how the implementations answer the identified areas outlined in the user experience hypotheses. Technical implementations cover both hardware and software refinements that each have a distinct purpose or issue to address. Each of these are mapped to the constructs of immersive dome UX. Finally, chapters seven and eight integrate the findings from each phase and explore the larger research crossover between the technical and end user experience areas. Chapter seven analyses the impact of the changes over the course of the 24-month period and discusses what further improvements are possible within user and technical experience based on the previous work and learnings. Chapter eight looks to future research, discussing the implications for the development of IDEs, future areas of work and the goal of a more measurable framework in the capturing and analysis of UX within immersive digital domes

BLAST : studying cosmic and Galactic star formation from a stratospheric balloon

Understanding the history of the formation of stars and evolution of galaxies is one of the foremost goals of astrophysics. While stars emit most of their energy at visible and ultraviolet wavelengths, during the early stages of star formation these photons are absorbed by the dusty molecular clouds that host and fuel the emerging stars, and re-emitted as thermal radiation at infrared and submillimeter wavelengths. The Balloon-borne Large Aperture Submillimeter Telescope (BLAST) was designed to study the history of obscured star forma- tion in galaxies at cosmological distances and witness the details of the star-formation processes in our own Galaxy, by conducting large- area surveys of the sky at 250, 350, and 500 �m from a long-duration stratospheric balloon platform. Its polarimetric adaptation, BLAST- Pol, will allow us to further probe the strength and morphology of magnetic fields in dust-enshrouded star-forming molecular clouds in our Galaxy. The study of these two diverse, yet highly complemen- tary, topics is the primary scientific motivation for this thesis, which is in two parts. Part One is concerned with the analysis of a combination of the extragalactic dataset collected by BLAST in the 2006 Antarctic cam- paign, which comprises maps containing hundreds of distant, highly dust-obscured, and actively star-forming galaxies, with a wealth of ancillary multi-wavelength data spanning the radio to the ultravio- let. The star-formation rates we observe in massive galaxies at high redshift support downsizing and size evolution. Part Two describes the BLAST-Pol instrument. In particular, we focus on the gondola's primary pointing sensors, the star cameras, and on the design, manufacture and characterization of a polarization IX modulation scheme, comprising a cryogenic achromatic half-wave plate and photolithographed polarizing grids, which has been effectively retrofitted on BLAST-Pol. We report on the construction and deployment of BLAST-Pol, which completed its first successful 9.5-day ight over Antarctica in January 2011 and mapped ten science targets with unprecedented combined mapping speed, sensitivity, and resolution.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Feasibility study: Atmospheric general circulation experiment, volume 2

The feasibility analysis of the atmospheric general circulation experiment (AGCE) are documented. The analysis performed in each technical area, the rationale and substantiation for the design approaches selected for the hardware, and the design details for the baseline AGCE are presented