SCHOOL OF INFORMATION

UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN

www.si.umich.edu

A different take on virtual worlds

Thomas A. Finholt and Erik Hofer

School of Inform

ation

University of Michigan

SCHOOL OF INFORMATION

UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN

www.si.umich.edu

Outline

�Challe

nges of virtual organizing

–Understand cultural differences

�Overview of CI usage

–Netw

orking

–Computing

�CI-based applications -VISIT

–HD Video Conferencing

–Im

mersive visualization

–Next-generation evaluation techniques

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Lessons from virtual organizing

SCHOOL OF INFORMATION

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Unde

rsta

nd c

ultu

ral d

iffer

ence

s

SCHOOL OF INFORMATION

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www.si.umich.edu

Dom

ain

scie

ntis

tsD

omai

n sc

ient

ists

Dom

ain

scie

ntis

tsD

omai

n sc

ient

ists

•Power distance

–Hierarchical

–Bias toward seniority

•Individualist

–“individual genius”

–Solo PI model

•Masculine

–Adversarial

–Competitive

•Uncertainty avoidance

–Highly skeptical of new

technologies

SCHOOL OF INFORMATION

UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN

www.si.umich.edu

CI d

evel

oper

sC

I dev

elop

ers

CI d

evel

oper

sC

I dev

elop

ers

•Power distance

–Egalitgarian

–Bias toward talent

•Individualist

–Use the Internet to

create worldwide

communities

–Project m

odel

•Masculine

–Adversarial

–Competitive

•Uncertainty

avoidance

–Extrem

ely open to new

technologies

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Plan

for f

irst c

onta

ctPl

an fo

r firs

t con

tact

Plan

for f

irst c

onta

ctPl

an fo

r firs

t con

tact

Unde

rsta

nd c

ultu

ral d

iffer

ence

s

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SCHOOL OF INFORMATION

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Com

mun

icate

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SCHOOL OF INFORMATION

UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN

www.si.umich.edu

Seek

com

mon

gro

und

Seek

com

mon

gro

und

Seek

com

mon

gro

und

Seek

com

mon

gro

und

SCHOOL OF INFORMATION

UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN

www.si.umich.edu

SCHOOL OF INFORMATION

UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN

www.si.umich.edu

Seek

com

mon

gro

und

SCHOOL OF INFORMATION

UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN

www.si.umich.edu

Tink

erTi

nker

Tink

erTi

nker

SCHOOL OF INFORMATION

UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN

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•Se

ek s

mal

l win

s an

d le

vera

ge th

e w

ork

of o

ther

s–

Linu

sTo

rval

ds's

style

of

deve

lopm

ent—

rele

ase

early

and

of

ten,

del

egat

e ev

eryt

hing

you

can

, be

ope

n to

the

poin

t of p

rom

iscui

ty—

cam

e as

a s

urpr

ise. N

o qu

iet,

reve

rent

cat

hedr

al-b

uild

ing

here

—ra

ther

, the

Lin

ux c

omm

unity

see

med

to

rese

mbl

e a

grea

t bab

blin

g ba

zaar

of

diff

erin

g ag

enda

s an

d ap

proa

ches

. (E

ric R

aym

ond)

•Ti

nker

and

exp

erim

ent

–To

take

adv

anta

ge o

f the

tech

nolo

gy

one

mus

t eng

age

dire

ctly

with

it, a

nd

one

mus

t allo

w tra

ditio

ns o

f pra

ctice

to

be

flexib

ly in

fluen

ced

by it

. (AC

LS

repo

rt)

SCHOOL OF INFORMATION

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Sust

ain

Sust

ain

Sust

ain

Sust

ain

Sust

ain

SCHOOL OF INFORMATION

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Infrastructure for ultra-resolution

collaboration

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SI maintains an experimental high perform

ance

network, with 10 G

b/s links to SI North and W

est Hall

via r-bin-m

ilr (located at SEB). Michigan Lambda R

ail

(MiLR) provides high perform

ance connectivity to

colla

borating sites (Wayne State, UIC, NCSA, U.

Washington) and national networks.

SCHOOL OF INFORMATION

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SI is not a m

ajor consumer of HPC resources. A 6-

node AMD O

pteron visualization cluster meets m

ost

of VISIT's needs, though a TeraGrid development

allo

cation is under review for a joint project with

AOSS.

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www.si.umich.eduVarious ultra-resolution

applications

SCHOOL OF INFORMATION

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www.si.umich.edu

SCHOOL OF INFORMATION

UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN

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SI colla

borates in the development and

demonstration of high-quality video conferencing

technologies. Using the iHD1500 software, we

transmit low-latency, studio-quality HD video over

advanced networks at 1.5 G

b/s.

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The STIET IGERT program, run in cooperation with

Wayne State University, uses an uncompressed

iHD1500 link to hold a weekly research seminar

between Ann Arbor and Detroit, using M

iLR.

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SCHOOL OF INFORMATION

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SI recently completed the construction of a new 100

megapixel OptIPortal tiled display. This cluster-driven

tiled display runs the Rocks Linux distribution and the

SAGE graphics m

iddleware from UIC.

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SCHOOL OF INFORMATION

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SI colla

borates extensively with other units on the

application of advanced CI technologies. The

Department of Atm

ospheric, Oceanic and Space

Sciences colla

borated with SI in the development of a

50-m

egapixel OptIPortal.

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Engagement with other units allo

ws SI to study the

use of advanced CI 'in the wild

.' An SI PhD student

and CoE U

ROP U

ndergraduate are working w

ith the

AOSS display on study of visualization in the

classroom.

SCHOOL OF INFORMATION

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In addition to visualization, SI is developing

colla

boration technologies that use these O

ptIPortals

as a platform

. Component technologies include

laptop screen projection and m

ultiple flavors of HD

video (uncompressed, DVCProHD, HDV)

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In addition to 'b

ig networking'-based projects, SI is

deploying a sensor network testbed to evaluate the

use of wireless sensors in studying the use of new

technologies.

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These sensors monitor audio level in build

ings as a

proxy for social activity. Visualizations of sensor data

provide 'social weather maps,' tracking pockets of

social activity in a space. O

ver a long tim

e frame, we

can m

easure how new technologies (i.e. public

displays) change how physical space is used.

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We are also developing ways to instrument CI

systems. W

e have embedded cameras in the seams

of our latest OptIPortal, which we will use to colle

ct

usage data about the system.

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We use the data from these cameras to compute eye

tracking coordinates, attention levels or other metrics

of interest in real time using computer-vision

techniques.

SCHOOL OF INFORMATION

UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN

www.si.umich.edu

The future: Combining ultra-

resolution with virtual worlds

�Multitouch, integrated instrumentation, social

sensing, and O

ptIPortals

–Context-aware ultra-resolution colla

boration

�OptIPortalavaila

bility

–International netw

ork of OptIPortals(~70)

–Approxim

ately $900 per megapixel

�OptIPortals

as bridge between real and virtual

worlds

–Life-sized representation of avatars

–Reflection of real world into the virtual space