Two Can Explore!

Visualization really ought to be a team activity, allowing a research group to analyse a set of results collectively. However existing systems do not allow this - they are designed for the single user.

But now there is a solution. The COVISA toolkit extends IRIS Explorer into a multi-user visualization system. Individuals in a research team can create their own visualizations as normal, by linking modules into a dataflow pipeline. In addition they can now link these pipelines - on different machines anywhere on the Internet - into a multi-user visualization network. This allows a wide variety of options:

all team members can collaborate on the same visualization pipeline
different team members can work individually but share their final images
the team can program whatever collaboration they want.

The collaborative visualization network can be built 'on the fly' by wiring the COVISA collaborative modules in the IRIS Explorer Map Editor, or end-user collaborative applications can be pre-programmed using the toolkit.

The COVISA toolkit was originally designed at the University of Leeds by Jason Wood and Helen Wright (now at University of Hull) and is described in the paper 'Collaborative Visualization' (by Wood, Wright and Brodlie) presented at IEEE Visualization97. This production version has been developed by Jason Wood, within the University of Leeds, IRIS Explorer Centre of Excellence. It is available, now, free, from http://www.scs.leeds.ac.uk/iecoe

The IRIS Explorer Centre of Excellence is a collaboration between the University of Leeds and NAG Ltd, who develop and distribute IRIS Explorer. The Web site, http://www.scs.leeds.ac.uk/iecoe has full details of the Centre including:

the COVISA software described above
other software which enhances IRIS Explorer, including Web rendering
module repository
tutorial.

Ken Brodlie and Jason Wood
IRIS Explorer Centre of Excellence
School of Computer Studies
University of Leeds
kwb@scs.leeds.ac.uk
jason@scs.leeds.ac.uk