Interactive Datawall

What is it?
The Interactive DataWall (referred to as the 'datawall') consists of an ultra-high resolution wall display with various types of wireless input devices shared among multiple users. Such devices include: speech interaction, camera-tracked laser pointers, and flight sticks. The purpose of the datawall is to display large amounts of information in a contiguous area and to provide multiple users with an intuitive and unencumbered means of accessing and manipulating the data.

System Description
The datawall consists of three horizontally tiled video projectors each driven at 1200x1600 pixels (total resolution of approximately 6 million pixels). This produces a tiled display with a total resolution of 1200x4800 pixels across a screen area of 3' x 12'. However, each projector has a video bandwidth capacity approaching 2000x2500 pixels which will provide a future datawall with a total resolution of 15 million pixels. The datawall is powered by a Silicon Graphics ONYX machine with 3 Reality Engines. While the ONYX handles the majority of the processing, several other processes (mostly I/O) are being performed on various networked workstations. The datawall provides (at various stages of development) the following multi-user capabilities:

Background map display (National Imagery and Mapping Agency)
Multiple windows (e.g., gun camera, missile, and Unmanned Aerial Vehicle videos)
Display of message traffic
Real-time simulations
User independent voice recognition/interaction (BBN Hark)
Flight-stick controls (for aircraft flight applications - Thrustmaster, Inc.)
Wireless pointing devices (e.g., camera-tracked laser pointer)
Gesture recognition (using one or more cameras to monitor hand gestures)
Collaborative Map Annotator (CMA)

While certain applications may necessitate specialized hardware (e.g., a flight stick for flight applications), the main thrust of this research is to combine wireless pointing devices with speech input. For example, a commander might say "Computer, zoom in there" where 'there' would refer to an object or area currently being highlighted by one of the pointing devices.

Usefulness to the Air Force
With a datawall system, command center operators will be able to work either independently or collaboratively (locally and over networks) on the same physical display screen. This will reduce the duplication of effort, increase operator interactivity, and provide an easier means of sharing data. Through the consolidation of activities normally performed on several separate workstations, commanders and analysts would be presented with a more concise yet comprehensive overall view of battlefield operations.

With the exception of the camera-tracked laser pointer system (developed by Steve McCown and Jason Moore), all of the datawall components are commercially available. This will assist in the transition of the datawall from the laboratory to the field, as well as easing system maintenance requirements. Additionally, two major thrusts are underway:

Sun workstation-based implementation of the datawall
Deployable (i.e., portable) datawall

IF :: IFS :: IFSA :: ADII

Last Updated: 13 February 1998
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