Life science research often involves analyzing large quantities of data, but being to simultaneously visualize different charts, graphs, images, and photos can be a challenge. To help present all this information in a comprehensive way to groups of people, the Millennium Science Complex at Penn State just got a huge high resolution video wall.
The screen is 7 feet x 13 feet (2.1 m x 4 m) and it’s soon to get touch functionality, so that it will operate like a gigantic tablet. The wall consists of 16 individual panels that work as one screen and can be manipulated by different people at the same time for each to share their own data. The facility is setup for video teleconferencing, so having similar setups in other institutions will lead to improved collaboration by scientists with large data sets to visualize.
From Penn State:
Szpara, an infectious disease expert who has already begun using the visualization wall to teach her graduate students, explains that large-scale illustration has become increasingly essential to biology and genome teaching, and training today.
“Human beings have a brain that is extremely visual, so large, high-quality images stimulate our ability to comprehend large datasets and solve problems creatively,” she said. “Large-scale representations are an important step in our grasping the variations and subtleties in enormous data sets — as well as our moving toward solutions and flexible technologies that can interpret information in a visually resonating way. The visualization wall is bringing us closer to this total-immersion environment.”
Link: Health researchers build bridges with Penn State’s new visualization wall…