Partial mapping of abstract rich UI model

Visual UI editors generally have certain inflexibilities. For example, if a UI model is used to directly generate compilable code, a developer cannot modify the UI from the generated code. Further, tight coupling that exists between the UI model and the UI elements can make cross-platform development and reactive programming difficult, and can result in limited expressivity. This disclosure describes a rich, abstract, declarative UI model that encompasses layout, navigation, animation, and static visuals. The declarative UI techniques and partial scene mapping described herein can reduce developer workload and enable the building of two-way tooling, cross-platform development, gradual prototype-to-application evolution, separation of static and dynamic content, and dynamic handling of elements mapping

Optimizer for user-interface layout computations

User-interface (UI) developers use design tools such as layout managers to lay out UI elements. A good design tool enables developers to create efficient user interfaces, while itself being efficient to use. Current design tools sometimes produce designs that have inefficient user interfaces, e.g., inflexible (hard-to-change) layouts, or user interfaces with performance problems. This disclosure provides techniques that improve the efficiency of the computations underlying the UI design tool. Additionally, the techniques provide direct, visual feedback attributing computational cost to specific sub-areas of the screen, enabling developers to optimize the user interface

An agent-based visualisation system.

This thesis explores the concepts of visual supercomputing, where complex distributed systems are used toward interactive visualisation of large datasets. Such complex systems inherently trigger management and optimisation problems; in recent years the concepts of autonomic computing have arisen to address those issues. Distributed visualisation systems are a very challenging area to apply autonomic computing ideas as such systems are both latency and compute sensitive, while most autonomic computing implementations usually concentrate on one or the other but not both concurrently. A major contribution of this thesis is to provide a case study demonstrating the application of autonomic computing concepts to a computation intensive, real-time distributed visualisation system. The first part of the thesis proposes the realisation of a layered multi-agent system to enable autonomic visualisation. The implementation of a generic multi-agent system providing reflective features is described. This architecture is then used to create a flexible distributed graphic pipeline, oriented toward real-time visualisation of volume datasets. Performance evaluation of the pipeline is presented. The second part of the thesis explores the reflective nature of the system and presents high level architectures based on software agents, or visualisation strategies, that take advantage of the flexibility of the system to provide generic features. Autonomic capabilities are presented, with fault recovery and automatic resource configuration. Performance evaluation, simulation and prediction of the system are presented, exploring different use cases and optimisation scenarios. A performance exploration tool, Delphe, is described, which uses real-time data of the system to let users explore its performance

Agents Based Visualization and Strategies

This paper describes a flexible visualization architecture based on software agents, which enables the abstraction and reuse of rendering strategies. Using a reification of the rendering environment, the system is able to add new rendering strategies (such as distributed rendering or progressive rendering) to an existing pipeline, without any modification of the other components (controls components, display components, rendering algorithms, etc. ). The ability of changing strategies on the fly leads to a better adaptability to runtime constraints. The system uses an agent-based graphic pipeline, where each agent/component can be located on different computers; communications between agents use XML/RPC and data stream in order to easily integrate existing code in the system. Agents can add specific behavior to graphic pipelines, such as saving environments to reuse them, adapt information and knowledge from another pipeline, and generally modify and improve the entire system. Various visualization and control clients exist, enabling collaboration between platforms such as PDAs, Windows, Linux, MacOS X, and Web (using Java applets)

ABSTRACT

This paper describes a flexible visualization architecture based on software agents, which enables the abstraction and reuse of rendering strategies. Using a reification of the rendering environment, the system is able to add new rendering strategies (such as distributed rendering or progressive rendering) to an existing pipeline, without any modification of the other components (controls components, display components, rendering algorithms, etc.). The ability of changing strategies on the fly leads to a better adaptability to runtime constraints. The system uses an agent-based graphic pipeline, where each agent/component can be located on different computers; communications between agents use XML/RPC and data stream in order to easily integrate existing code in the system. Agents can add specific behavior to graphic pipelines, such as saving environments to reuse them, adapt information and knowledge from another pipeline, and generally modify and improve the entire system. Various visualization and control clients exist, enabling collaboration between platforms such as PDAs, Windows, Linux, MacOS X, and Web (using Java applets)

Visual Supercomputing – technologies, applications and challenges. Eurographics STAR- 2, State of the Art report. European Association for Computer Graphics: Switzerland. N.B. Revised version to be published in Computer Graphics Forum Issue 24 Number 2, 2

If we were to have a Grid infrastructure for visualization, what technologies would be needed to build such an infrastructure, what kind of applications would benefit from it, and what challenges are we facing in order to accomplish this goal? In this survey paper, we make use of the term ‘visual supercomputing ’ to encapsulate a subject domain concerning the infrastructural technology for visualization. We consider a broad range of scientific and technological advances in computer graphics and visualization, which are relevant to visual supercomputing. We identify the state-of-the-art technologies that have prepared us for building such an infrastructure. We examine a collection of applications that would benefit enormously from such an infrastructure, and discuss their technical requirements. We propose a set of challenges that may guide our strategic efforts in the coming years