Section: New Software and Platforms

Platforms

Platform: WILDER

Ultra-high-resolution wall-sized displays [31] feature a very high pixel density over a large physical surface. Such platforms have properties that make them well-suited to the visualization of very large datasets. They can represent the data with a high level of detail while at the same time retaining context: users can transition from an overview of the data to a detailed view simply by physically moving in front of the wall display. Wall displays also offer good support for collaborative work, enabling multiple users to simultaneously visualize and interact with the displayed data. To make them interactive, wall-sized displays are increasingly coupled with input devices such as touch frames, motion-tracking systems and wireless multitouch devices, in order to enable multi-device and multi-user interaction with the displayed data. Application areas for such visualization platforms range from the monitoring of complex infrastructures and crisis management situations to tools for the exploratory visualization of scientific data.

WILDER is the latest ultra-high-resolution wall-sized display set up at Inria Saclay, and is one of the nodes of the Digiscope EquipEx. We use this platform for multiple projects, both fundamental HCI research, and research and development activities for specific application areas such as geographical informations systems and astronomy (Figure 2).