Chairperson
- Alan M. MacEachren,
Penn State U., Dept. of Geography, 302 Walker, University Park, PA
16802, USA; maceachren@psu.edu
Co-Chairperson
- Menno-Jan Kraak, ITC, Department of Geoinformatics,
P.O. Box 6 - 7500 AA Enschede - The Netherlands; kraak@itc.nl
Report
on Commission activities, Fall, 1996 - Summer, 1997
The
Commission on Visualization has continued to be active over the past
six months. The primary activities have been associated with a forthcoming
special issue of Computers & Geosciences, collaboration with ACM-SIGGRAPH
on the "Carto Project," and plans for a workshop/meeting
to be held just prior to Stockholm (June 19-21 in Gavle, Sweden).
A.
Special Issue
The
special journal issue will come out in both print and electronic form
(CD-ROM) this June. We expect it to be out in time for the ICA meeting.
This
special issue of Computers & Geosciences was initiated to serve
as a benchmark for progress on georeferenced visualization to date
and as a prompt to the international cartographic and geoscience communities
to initiate new and expanded visualization research efforts. The co
editors (Alan MacEachren and Menno-Jan Kraak) are chair and co-chair
(respectively) of the ICA Commission on Visualization and this issue
was sponsored by the Commission. About half of the papers are by Commission
members but all were submitted initially to our August 1996 Commission
meeting in Delft. Papers in this issue cover topics in: Exploratory
Spatial Data Analysis, hyperlinks and the World Wide Web, and Virtual
Reality.
We
believe that this issue is the first combined print‚electronic issue
of any journal to be directed to visualization of georeferenced data.
The motivation has been to stimulate cross disciplinary sharing of
research results and to provide a publication outlet that allows authors
to illustrate their approaches to dynamic interactive visualization
with dynamic interactive illustrations. This opportunity has brought
together contributions from six countries representing research efforts
within cartography, geography, geomatics/geoinformatics, land information,
computer science, statistics, remote sensing, and environmental systems
analysis. It is our hope that this publication stimulates interdisciplinary
collaboration directed to exploratory visualization of georeferenced
information.
B.
Collaboration with ACM-SIGGRAPH
The
commissions collaboration with ACM-SIGGRAPH has thus far emphasized
a survey conducted by Dave Taylor representing ACM SIGGRAPH and Theresa-Marie
Rhyne representing both groups. Their executive summary of the initial
analysis of survey results is below:
ACM SIGGRAPH Carto Project Survey Summary Report Executive Summary:
This
report reviews the results of a survey on cartographic and geographic
visualization conducted during January and February of 1997. This
effort is part of a three year special project funded by the Association
for Computing Machinery's Special Interest Group on Graphics (ACM
SIGGRAPH).
In
June 1996, a cross-organizational collaboration between the activities
of the Association for Computing Machinery's Special Interest Group
on Graphics (ACM SIGGRAPH) and the International Cartographic Association's
(ICA) Commission on Visualization began. The "Carto Project"
explores how viewpoints and techniques from the computer graphics
community can be effectively applied to cartographic and spatial data
sets. These efforts will continue into 1999, in conjunction with the
time frame of the ICA's Commission on Visualization. More information
on the ICA Commission on Visualization can be found on the World Wide
Web at: (http://www.geovista.psu.edu/ica/index.html)
The
survey discussed in this document provides a snapshot of current usage
of computer graphics and World Wide Web tools for cartographic and
geographic visualization. The profile that emerges from this survey
is that the respondent population is engaged in a wide and varied
assortment of computer graphics and cartographic endeavors. The tools
and data types respondents use are as diverse as the projects in which
they are engaged. Use of the Internet and World Wide Web is widespread,
particularly for data distribution and information sharing. Many respondents
are investigating the implications and potential uses of the Virtual
Reality Modeling Language (VRML). Few have incorporated it into their
current active projects in anyway.
Little
consistency is evident in the data types employed or in the tool sets
used by this group of computer graphics and cartographic professionals.
Nearly all respondents were aware of efforts in the geographic information
industry toward establishing standards. Only a few reported having
direct participation in these standards efforts.
Work
is underway to prepare for an ACM SIGGRAPH 97 Birds of a Feather session
to discuss geographic visualization, desktop virtual reality and cartography.
The intent is to foster the interaction between developers and contributors
to VRML and other interactive computer graphics techniques with cartographic
and geographic professionals. ACM SIGGRAPH 97 will be held in Los
Angeles, California form August 3-8, 1997. An agenda for the SIGGRAPH
97 BOF will be presented and reviewed at the June 1997 meeting of
the ICA's Commission on Visualization.
Theresa Marie Rhyne
Carto Project Director & ACM SIGGRAPH DIrector at Large
Dave
Taylor
Carto Project Administrator
At our Delft meeting in the summer of 1996, we made a decision
to pursue a research initiative in virtual reality applied to georeferenced
data (with emphasis at the global scale). We expect that this activity
will lead to further ACM-SIGGRAPH - ICA VIsualization collaboration.
One result of that initiative so far is a plan for two sessions at
our upcoming June, 1997 meeting that will address VR issues.
C.
Workshop/meeting in Gavle
We
plan to bring 20-25 individuals together in G”vle (June 19-21), where
we are having a joint workshop together with the Commission on Generalization.
At this point, the plan is to share social activities primarily, with
one likely joint session. Our program of activities are the meeting
is as follows:
We
plan a format that divides meeting time into periods during which
we will focus as a group on selected visualization themes, plus a
time in which sub-groups will split off to discuss research priorities
on particular themes, followed by a final session in which we come
back together to consider the research agenda ideas developed. Goals
of this exercise include: generating ideas for research collaborations,
for influencing research agendas of funding agencies in our respective
countries, for exploring research funding opportunities, and for developing
subsequent workshops, publications, etc.
Based
on our plans from the past meeting and the material submitted by those
applying to attend the workshop (and on the attempt to link with the
Generalization Commission in some small way), we have identified 5
theme areas that we propose as session topics. They are listed below,
along with the name of the organizer for that session:
animation
theory and its application to spatio-temporal analysis (Kraak)
multimedia & visualization (Cartwright)
visualization of uncertain information (Fisher)
desktop virtual reality (Camara)
spatial data generalization and visualization in a VR environment
(Fairbarin)
In
addition to these 5 specific research topics, we will also spend time
discussing the ACM SIGGRAPH Carto Project. Theresa-Marie Rhyne will
present results of the initial survey and lead that discussion.
SUMMARY
OF PROGRESS ON TERMS OF REFERENCE.
Each
term of reference is listed followed by progress to data.
1.
To study and report on the changing and expanding role of maps in
science, decision making, policy formulation, and society in general
due to the advent of intelligent dynamic maps that are designed as
visual thinking/decision-support tools.
Our
Delft Workshop in August 1996 focused on this issue. We posted 19
working papers on our WWW site as part of this workshop and launched
a research initiative in desktop virtual reality applied to georeferenced
data.
2.
To investigate and report on the links between scientific visualization
and cartographic visualization and identify ways to facilitate exchange
of ideas between cartographers and others working on problems in visualization.
Our
ACM-SIGGRAPH Carto Project collaboration is an initial step toward
this goal.
3.
To organize workshops and/or seminars for exploring the issues cited
above and facilitate transfer of cartographic visualization principles
and technology at the international level.
The
planned June workshop is the second we have held. We also plan to
have representatives of our Commission attend a "birds of a feather"
session at the upcoming ACM SIGGRAPH meeting (California, US in August).
4.
To establish a World Wide Web (WWW) site directed to disseminating
results of research on cartographic visualization and examples of
cartographic visualization products.
The
WWW site has been on line for more than one year. Within the next
two months, a major updating of the site is planned.
5.
To produce appropriate publications for dissemination of results of
the above efforts.
The
special issue of Computers & Geosceinces represents our progress
on this term of reference.
