Advances in visual display technologies allow researchers to more readily interpret data. By 'seeing' complex or abstract objects and concepts, researchers can better comprehend structure, patterns and inter-relationships in data.

Visualisation techniques enable researchers to inspect objects and 3D plots by rotating and zooming in on them. Visualisation can be used to enhance the display of two-dimensional data plots and is particularly useful for more complex three-dimensional displays. It also greatly improves our ability to understand abstract concepts where no real-world equivalents exist.

Visualisation is often used to see data that has already undergone a significant data modelling or simulation process, for example, using supercomputing resources. eResearch SA has a range of visualisation services and facilities available to South Australian researchers.

Stereoscopic imaging

Stereoscopic imaging techniques enhance the sense of depth in images produced from real world settings.

Stereoscopic imaging mimics human sight, where the separate vision streams produced by the eyes are interpreted in the brain as one image. Subtle differences between the two are perceived as depth. Stereoscopic imaging achieves the same effect by placing two cameras with their lens axes about 60mm apart. When the resulting images are viewed together using special equipment, each eye sees only the corresonding image of the stereo pair. This technique allows true representation of depth and is extremely useful for communicating information about the structure of objects both large and small. Stereoscopic imaging can be used to view three-dimensional images of crystals or microscopic bacteria, and it can be used to understand the geological structure and shape of vast landscapes viewed from the air.

Haptics

Haptics is an advanced form of visualisation that incorporates the sense of touch.

Using haptics technologies, researchers can 'touch' a visualised scene and interact with virtual objects in real time. The addition of this extra dimension of experience gives researchers access to an enriched, more complete understanding of their area of study.

Using a force-feedback stylus (a special piece of haptics hardware) researchers can move around in virtual space and interact with virtual objects. When the stylus comes into 'contact' with an object it applies resistance, which is experienced as touch.

Haptics is extremely useful in areas such as surgical training where it can significantly expand the range of learning activities available to medical staff. It is also the technology behind the emergence of remote surgery, where a surgeon can operate on a patient in a different city, even a different country.

Other applications for haptics include the applied arts, where it can be used for virtual sculpting and painting and forensic anthropology, where it can be used to reconstruct models of people's appearance using scanned images of their skeletal outlines.

Haptics can be used in any field where tactile interaction can help in the interpretation of data. Using theoretical data sets or those based on models of physical systems, researchers can touch visualised displays and 'feel' where changes in the data occur. This is an extra level of intuitive understanding that can enable new insights, particularly in the study of complex or abstract data sets.

eResearch SA has haptics facilities available for booking.