[Bessig] BESSIG meeting *Tues*, 5/21, 4:00, Outlook Hotel

[Anne Wilson]

Hi BESSIG,

How about applying gaming technology to scientific data visualization?

A team from NOAA has done just that.  The May meeting of the Boulder 
Earth and Space Science Informatics Group (BESSIG) is next Tuesday 
(*not* Wednesday), when the team will present:

"NOAA Earth Information Services and TerraViz"

Eric Hackathorn, Julien Lynge, Jeff Smith, from TerraViz, NOAA
Jebb Stewart, Chris MacDermaid, from NEIS, NOAA

The NOAA Earth Information Services (NEIS) is a framework of layered 
services designed to help the discovery, access, understanding, and 
visualization of data from the past, present, and future. It includes a 
visualization component named TerraViz that is a multi-platform tool, 
running on desktops, web browsers, and mobile devices. The goal is to 
ingest "big data" and convert that information into efficient formats 
for real-time visualization. Designed for a world where everything is in 
motion, NEIS and TerraViz allow fluid data integration and interaction 
across 4D time and space, providing a tool for everything NOAA does and 
the people NOAA affects.

TerraViz is built using the Unity game engine.  While a game engine may 
seem a strange choice for data visualizations, our philosophy is to take 
advantage of existing technology whenever possible.  Video games are a 
multibillion-dollar industry, and are quite simply the most powerful 
tools for pushing millions of points of data to the user in real-time. 
Our presentation illustrated displaying environmental data in TerraViz 
at a global scale, visualizing regional data in “scenes” such as the 
flooding of the Washington DC area or rotating a coastal ecosystem in 
three axes, and developing environmental simulations/games like 
exploring the ocean floor in a submarine.

Complete details and pretty pictures are available at the web site, 
http://lasp.colorado.edu/galaxy/display/BESSIG/2013/04/11/BESSIG+Meeting+Tue%2C+May+21%2C+4+-+6+PM

Hope to see you there!

Anne