VisAnywhere: Developing Multi-platform Scientific Visualization Applications

TL;DR

VisAnywhere demonstrates how a single web-based codebase can create multi-platform scientific visualization tools that support various devices and collaborative workflows, enhancing flexibility and accessibility.

Contribution

This work introduces a multi-platform visualization application leveraging web technologies, enabling flexible device use and remote collaboration with a unified codebase.

Findings

Supports visualization across mobile, large displays, and VR headsets

Enables co-located and remote collaborative analysis

Uses web technologies inspired by responsive design

Abstract

Scientists often explore and analyze large-scale scientific simulation data by leveraging two- and three-dimensional visualizations. The data and tasks can be complex and therefore best supported using myriad display technologies, from mobile devices to large high-resolution display walls to virtual reality headsets. Using a simulation of neuron connections in the human brain, we present our work leveraging various web technologies to create a multi-platform scientific visualization application. Users can spread visualization and interaction across multiple devices to support flexible user interfaces and both co-located and remote collaboration. Drawing inspiration from responsive web design principles, this work demonstrates that a single codebase can be adapted to develop scientific visualization applications that operate everywhere.