Recently there has been lots of comments flying around about the LITE Center in Lafayette. Now there are several pieces to this puzzle and I am not going to beat the political horse. This is about the research and technology side of things.
LITE is a visualization center. Now for those of you who do not completely understand what visulization is all about, let me give you this example:
You are a doctor. A patient comes to you complaining of heart issues. You also notice that they are rubbing their jaw. Now, you can run a whole battery of various tests and the like concentrating on heart problems. The results come back and give a variety of possible answers. The physician can consult numerous online and local electronic references that link and cross reference data much like Google. The query returns over 30,000 possible hits. Maybe they have a tag cloud that shows different keywords in various sizes based on how they are related to the original search term. However, this also yields hundreds of keyword possibilities.
Now, let us spin this around to a more visual interface. The doctor steps into a total immersion space. A “TIS” as it is know is basically what they have at LITE in the “egg”. This is a space where images are projected all around you 360 degrees so that you appear to be standing inside this virtual world. This could also be a 3D display at a workstation.
Within the TIS, the doctor sees a human body. With a click of the “mouse” he selects heart problems. Instantly, the body becomes transparent and visual links to every possible part of the body that can contribute to heart problems becomes visible. We can see that most are surrounding the heart itself but the doctor notices one link to the mouth and remembers the patient holding his jaw. He clicks that link and a document about gum diseases contributing to heart problems appears. Along with that, real world visual images from patients with gum disease and heart problems map themselves onto the visual skeleton in front of the doctor so that he may compare it to the live subject.
Now this is just a watered down example. However, one can see that by visually displaying the links in the data rather then “Cloud Tags” or flat searches how this could lead to quicker diagnoses. We are visual creatures and as technology allows us to create and display in 3D or TIS space, we will begin to see a shift in how we relate to our data.
Imagine a Wikipedia article in 3D space. Instead of traditional hyperlinks, there are images or movie clips surrounding the article, linked and color coded for people, places, etc. Searches might take you in a direction that you would have never though of before.
The future will be a 3D and TIS based world. Currently the major box houses are selling 3D ready televisions. Panasonic has introduced a true 3D video camera with other manufacturers right behind. Lafayette is ahead of the curve in many areas and LITE is one of them. I believe that like NASA, we need to fund such programs. True not all of them will sound logical at the time and some will seem like a downright waste of time and money. However as we look at all of the advances that have come from NASA, we too should look to the potential of what LITE has to offer.
If you are one of the folks out there who do not like the way the administration works, then do something about it. Quit complaining and get involved. Attend meetings, be on the board. Ask questions. Don’t just sit there and bitch about it.
Personally, I have worked with several of the staff at the LITE center. Those I have met with were nothing but nice and professional. It is true that like all technology based organizations they have their issues but that is the price to pay with technology. As long as we continue to see progress and everything is “above board” with the funding and resources, all of us in the geek community need to support the LITE center and it’s future potential.
Tags: 3D, LITE, Visualization