The Data Visualisation and Immersive Analytics Research Lab at Monash University

This article reviews two decades of research in topics in Information Visualisation emerging from the Data Visualisation and Immersive Analytics Lab at Monash University Australia(Monash IA Lab).The lab has been influential with contributions in algorithms,interaction techniques and experimental results in Network Visualisation,Interactive Optimisation and Geographic and Cartographic visualisation.It has also been a leader in the emerging topic of Immersive Analytics,which explores natural interactions and immersive display technologies in support of data analytics.We reflect on advances in these areas but also sketch our vision for future research and developments in data visualisation more broadly.

Spatially resolved transcriptomics in immersive environments

Spatially resolved transcriptomics is an emerging class of high-throughput technologies that enable biologists to systematically investigate the expression of genes along with spatial information.Upon data acquisition,one major hurdle is the subsequent interpretation and visualization of the datasets acquired.To address this challenge,VR-Cardiomics is presented,which is a novel data visualization system with interactive functionalities designed to help biologists interpret spatially resolved transcriptomic datasets.By implementing the system in two separate immersive environments,fish tank virtual reality(FTVR)and head-mounted display virtual reality(HMD-VR),biologists can interact with the data in novel ways not previously possible,such as visually exploring the gene expression patterns of an organ,and comparing genes based on their 3D expression profiles.Further,a biologist-driven use-case is presented,in which immersive environments facilitate biologists to explore and compare the heart expression profiles of different genes.

Beyond the horizon:immersive developments for animal ecology research

More diverse data on animal ecology are now available.This“data deluge”presents challenges for both biologists and computer scientists;however,it also creates opportunities to improve analysis and answer more holistic research questions.We aim to increase awareness of the current opportunity for interdisciplinary research between animal ecology researchers and computer scientists.Immersive analytics(IA)is an emerging research field in which investigations are performed into how immersive technologies,such as large display walls and virtual reality and augmented reality devices,can be used to improve data analysis,outcomes,and communication.These investigations have the potential to reduce the analysis effort and widen the range of questions that can be addressed.We propose that biologists and computer scientists combine their efforts to lay the foundation for IA in animal ecology research.We discuss the potential and the challenges and outline a path toward a structured approach.We imagine that a joint effort would combine the strengths and expertise of both communities,leading to a well-defined research agenda and design space,practical guidelines,robust and reusable software frameworks,reduced analysis effort,and better comparability of results.

Exploring the design space of immersive urban analytics

Recent years have witnessed the rapid development and wide adoption of immersive head-mounted devices,such as HTC VIVE,Oculus Rift,and Microsoft HoloLens.These immersive devices have the potential to significantly extend the methodology of urban visual analytics by providing critical 3D context information and creating a sense of presence.In this paper,we propose a theoretical model to characterize the visualizations in immersive urban analytics.Furthermore,based on our comprehensive and concise model,we contribute a typology of combination methods of 2D and 3D visualizations that distinguishes between linked views,embedded views,and mixed views.We also propose a supporting guideline to assist users in selecting a proper view under certain circumstances by considering visual geometry and spatial distribution of the 2D and 3D visualizations.Finally,based on existing work,possible future research opportunities are explored and discussed.

IVMS:An immersive virtual meteorological sandbox based on WYSIWYG

A novel approach to visually represent meteorological data has emerged with the maturation of Immersive Analytics(IA).We have proposed an immersive meteorological virtual sandbox as a solution to the limitations of 2D analysis in expressing and perceiving data.This innovative visual method enables users to interact directly with data through non-contact aerial gestures(NCAG).Referring to the“What you see is what you get”concept in scientific visualization,we proposed a novel approach for the visual exploration of meteorological data that aims to immerse users in the analysis process.We hope this approach can inspire immersive visualization techniques for other types of geographic data as well.Finally,we conducted a user questionnaire to evaluate our system and work.The evaluation results demonstrate that our system effectively reduces cognitive burden,alleviates mental workload,and enhances users’retention of analysis findings.

Empirically evaluating virtual reality’s effect on reservoir engineering tasks

To help determine in what ways virtual reality(VR)technologies may benefit reservoir engineering workflows,we conducted a usability study on a prototype VR tool for performing reservoir model analysis tasks.By leveraging the strengths of VR technologies,this tool’s aim is to help advance reservoir analysis workflows beyond conventional methods by improving how one understands,analyzes,and interacts with reservoir model visualizations.To evaluate our tool’s VR approach to this,the study presented herein was conducted with reservoir engineering experts who used the VR tool to perform three common reservoir model analysis tasks:the spatial filtering of model cells using movable planes,the cross-comparison of multiple models,and well path planning.Our study found that accomplishing these tasks with the VR tool was generally regarded as easier,quicker,more effective,and more intuitive than traditional model analysis software while maintaining a feeling of low task workload on average.Overall,participants provided positive feedback regarding their experience with using VR to perform reservoir engineering work tasks,and in general,it was found to improve multi-model cross-analysis and rough object manipulation in 3D.This indicates the potential for VR to be better than conventional means for some work tasks and participants also expressed they could see it best utilized as an addition to current software in their reservoir model analysis workflows.There were,however,some concerns voiced when considering the full adoption of VR into their work that would be best first addressed before this took place.

RelicCARD:Enhancing cultural relics exploration through semantics-based augmented reality tangible interaction design

Cultural relics visualization brings digital archives of relics to broader audiences in many applications,such as education,historical research,and virtual museums.However,previous research mainly focused on modeling and rendering the relics.While enhancing accessibility,these techniques still provide limited ability to improve user engagement.In this paper,we introduce RelicCARD,a semantics-based augmented reality(AR)tangible interaction design for exploring cultural relics.Our design uses an easily available tangible interface to encourage the users to interact with a large collection of relics.The tangible interface allows users to explore,select,and arrange relics to form customized scenes.To guide the design of the interface,we formalize a design space by connecting the semantics in relics,the tangible interaction patterns,and the exploration tasks.We realize the design space as a tangible interactive prototype and examine its feasibility and effectiveness using multiple case studies and an expert evaluation.Finally,we discuss the findings in the evaluation and future directions to improve the design and implementation of the interactive design space.

FORSETI: A visual analysis environment enabling provenance awareness for the accountability of e-autopsy reports

Autopsy reports play a pivotal role in forensic science.Medical examiners(MEs)and diagnostic radiologists(DRs)cross-reference autopsy results in the form of autopsy reports,while judicial personnel derive legal documents from final autopsy reports.In our prior study,we presented a visual analysis system called the forensic autopsy system for e-court instruments(FORSETI)with an extended legal medicine markup language(x-LMML)that enables MEs and DRs to author and review e-autopsy reports.In this paper,we present our extended work to incorporate provenance infrastructure with authority management into FORSETI for forensic data accountability,which contains two features.The first is a novel provenance management mechanism that combines the forensic autopsy workflow management system(FAWfMS)and a version control system called lmmlgit for x-LMML files.This management mechanism allows much provenance data on e-autopsy reports and their documented autopsy processes to be individually parsed.The second is provenance-supported immersive analytics,which is intended to ensure that the DRs’and MEs’autopsy provenances can be viewed,listed,and analyzed so that a principal ME can author their own report through accountable autopsy referencing in an augmented reality setting.A fictitious case with a synthetic wounded body is used to demonstrate the effectiveness of the provenance-aware FORSETI system in terms of data accountability through the experience of experts in legal medicine.

X-Space:Interaction design of extending mixed reality space from Web2D visualization

Mixed reality offers a larger visualization space and more intuitive means of interaction for data exploration,and many works have been dedicated to combining 2D visualizations on screen with mixe reality.However,for each combination,we need to customize the implementation of the corresponding mixed reality 3D visualization.It is a challenge to simplify this development process and enable agile building of mixed reality 3D visualizations for 2D visualizations.In addition,many existing 2D visualizations do not provide interfaces oriented to immersive analytics,so how to extend the mixed reality 3D space from existing 2D visualizations is another challenge.This work presents an agile and flexible approach to interactively transfer visualizations from 2D screens to mixed reality 3D spaces.We designed an interactive process for spatial generation of mixed-reality 3D visualizations,defined a unified data transfer framework,integrated data deconstruction techniques for 2D visualizations,implemented interfaces to immersive visualization building tool-kits,and encapsulated these techniques into a tool named X-Space.We validated that the approach is feasible and effective through 2D visualization cases including scatter plots,stacked bar charts,and adjacency matrix.Finally,we conducted expert interviews to discuss the usability and value of the method.