Touch-Table Collaboration
ADVANCED DISPLAY TECHNOLOGIES BRING TABLE DISCUSSIONS INTO THE DIGITAL AGE.
Touch tables and other forms of collaborative technology are an increasingly popular means of helping the military and intelligence community work together effectively to do geospatial and other types of analysis.
Leaders in the field of touch-table collaboration include companies such as Panoram Technologies, Mitsubishi Electric Research Labs, RGB Spectrum and TouchTable.
The significance of touch table technology is that it is a new interface tool for small group collaboration. Decision makers can work together in small or large teams to analyze critical projects in real time.
Touch table data can be manipulated, updated and shared easily. A large display surface allows people to view more data, increasing analysis capabilities. The technology can be used to improve military decision making as it spearheads analysis and debate.
Light tables can be used for the most critical applications. Defense and intelligence companies can use touch tables to get a complete situational overview when evaluating tactical operations. This may include data for satellite, terrain, 3-D overlays, and population insight. A touch table’s simple interface and collaborative networking abilities create greater efficiency and control.
Panoram Technologies, for example, offers advanced display technologies designed to let users see more, understand better and decide more quickly. The DIT-2 is the company’s second-generation digital imaging table. This visualization system features the 4K (4096h X 2160v) format at over 8.5 million pixels in resolution. The print quality image provided by this surface computing light table is designed for the most critical imaging applications such as image analysis for intelligence, GIS mapping, and command and control.
The DIT-2 brings table discussions into the digital age with a clear image of a resolution that rivals paper, with over 3,000 pixels per square inch. The information can be updated and manipulated electronically in real-time. It can be layered, marked up, composited, analyzed, explored, re-distributed and, if needed, printed back onto paper.
The DIT-2’s resolution is unprecedented in a visual system, according to Theo Mayer, president and chief executive officer of Panoram Technologies. The 4K represents 500 times more resolution than what previously existed, he noted.
DIT-2 addresses both field of view and resolution. “The table at 4096h X 2160v or the 4K format is the first technology for the industry that addresses both of those at once,” Mayer said. “You can see more so you can understand better so you can analyze and come to decisions quicker.”
Panoram’s push is to the GIS community at large. “Intelligence certainly is a big part of that,” Mayer said. “What a military decision maker wants to see is a big high-resolution picture so he can do his assessment; if it’s a print still picture, then he can’t leverage all of those layers of electronic data that he might need.
“The PixelBlaster used in oil, gas and command and control has the same resolution, but usually we are doing an image that is 16 feet by 8 foot—something you can stand in front of and walk around in front of,” Mayer added. “That versus the table is an ergonomic discussion. They are both of this new revolutionary resolution that changes the workflow and the whole paradigm.”
Panoram’s PixelBlaster Series of PanoWalls are based on a new projection technology that puts more pixels on the screen than has ever been possible. The PixelBlaster Series is a high-brightness, low-maintenance visualization system with 8.3 million pixels of resolution.
The PixelBlaster solution is a fully engineered, feature rich, user friendly, multi-input, multi-platform system that features user-configurable show modes and mode snapshots; accommodates 12 or more sources, including full eight MPixel resolution workstations, laptops, HDTV and video; and has the ability to show four or more separate SXGA+ sources in full resolution at once.
MULTI-USER INTERFACE
Mitsubishi Electric Research Labs (MERL) conducts application-motivated research and advanced development in computer and communication technologies. MERL’s DiamondTouch table is a multi-user, debris-tolerant, touch-andgesture- activated screen used for small group collaboration. DiamondTouch was first created in 2001 as an experimental multi-user interface device. Over the past few years, MERL has manufactured about 100 DiamondTouch tables, providing them to universities and research organizations around the world.
The company received funding from the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) a few years ago to do research work centered around the DiamondTouch table, said Adam Bogue, vice president of business development at MERL.
“The NGA has some DiamondTouch tables, and there are other three-letter agencies that have DiamondTouch tables. The reason we’ve had some interest within the intelligence community is that DiamondTouch is a new type of interface tool for supporting small group collaboration,” Bogue said. “It’s the world’s first multi-user touch technology; the typical use for it is in table form. People can gather around a table, they can be face to face and interact with the same thing at the same time.”
Uses of DiamondTouch for group planning include for mission planning or other projects where decision makers are working together in small teams.
Because MERL has been getting a lot of interest within the GIS community, the company has been working on some software extensions for ESRI software. MERL has made a multi-user extension for ESRI software that allows several people to interact simultaneously using the DiamondTouch table with their software.
“The interesting thing about DiamondTouch is multiple people can do things at once,” Bogue said. “There hasn’t been a lot of multi-user software applications out there because there hasn’t been multi-user hardware, so we’ve got a chicken and the egg problem. With DiamondTouch, we now have the chicken. We’re looking to have software that takes advantage of that.”
The ESRI extension that MERL is working on makes one of the most popular pieces of software in GIS suddenly multi-user, the company contends. MERL has an open API and software developer’s kit that allows other people to write application software that would be multi-user or gesture based. So if someone wanted to write a gesture interface for some existing software, or to make a new software application that was multi-user in nature, he or she could do so using MERL’s software developer’s kit
The equivalent of a digital sand table for military training and in the field could be developed using the DiamondTouch table, for example.
“The software that would run it would be something you could develop with our software developer’s kit,” Bogue said. “We’ve been working with some of the big defense contractor system integrator companies. Almost all of them have DiamondTouch tables, and they’ve been working internally to develop systems that would be useful for their military customers.”
DISPARATE SOURCES
RGB Spectrum designs and manufactures cutting-edge videographic products for audio-visual, industrial and military applications. RGB Spectrum products allow the ability to integrate and centralize a variety of disparate data and visual sources and depict them on a single screen or group of screens to improve situational awareness, assessment and decision-making capability. Many offices in the military and federal government use them.
“The two main products that would fit into an application of military geospatial technology are the MediaWall multiscreen controllers and our SuperView and Quad- View multi-image display controllers,” said Michael Callahan, product marketing manager at RGB Spectrum.
The MediaWall is a real-time video/data wall processor for projectors, cubes or flat panel displays. MediaWall is based on a custom high-performance architecture rather than a PC, with faster updates, more display flexibility, robustness and security. Real-time display of inputs is guaranteed under all conditions, without any dropped frames.
The MediaWall 2500 processor can display up to eight graphics and eight video signals over six screens, while model 2000 can show six graphics and six videos over four screens, and model 1500, four graphics and two videos over two screens. Images can be displayed anywhere, at any size, within or across screens, in correct ratio or stretched to fit, in whole or zoomed to emphasize details.
The SuperView 4000 series is a new generation of windowing systems for displaying computer and video signals. Model 4000-4/4 simultaneously displays up to four RGB/DVI/HD signals and four video signals from 16 switched inputs. Model 4000-6/6 displays up to six RGB/DVI/HD signals and six video signals from 24 switched inputs, while model 4000-8/8 shows eight RGB/DVI/HD signals plus eight video signals from 32 switched inputs.
The QuadView XLRT is a ruggedized version of windowing systems, with the most powerful image processing ever available from RGB Spectrum. The Quad- View is ideal for any application requiring display of multiple images on a monitor or projector.
The QuadView XLRT is designed for use in mobile and harsh environments, including tactical operations centers, naval and airborne consoles, and military vehicles. It incorporates structural augmentations for dependable performance under severe conditions, including a stiffened enclosure, front-loaded air filters, and enhanced air flow.
U.S. Joint Forces Command Center uses QuadView to run an array of screens throughout the center. Six QuadView processors are installed. Personnel receive high-resolution computer inputs from a high bandwidth analog switcher that enables the center’s operators to simultaneously display any 24 of 80 on-line network servers.
Network trend analysis, load and traffic activity, alerts for equipment failures and breaches and other visuals are fed to the QuadView processors. When a breach is detected, center personnel respond by adjusting, reconfiguring and re-routing the network servers. During normal network system operation, staff also re-route servers and distribution to optimize system- wide data flow.
“You’re dealing with a group of disparate images, everything from satellite imagery to infrared to video to broadcast to network transmissions,” Callahan said. “You have to have a highly sophisticated device which is capable of locking to these various distinct sources. The second element is that you want real-time display. In these mission-critical environments, you cannot tolerate dropped frames. The system has got to keep up with all of these live sources and display them instantaneously in real time without dropped frames.”
RGB display processors are used on Navy destroyers, with the Phalanx Weapon Systems, in Pacific and Atlantic carrier fleets, and in tactical operation centers globally, predominantly with the Army and Marine Corps.
RGB generally releases a new product every two months. The MediaWall line now has three models, and a fourth model is also a wall processor.
LARGE-GROUP SYSTEM
TouchTable designs and manufactures collaboration systems that allow for accurate visualization, analysis and data sharing. TouchTable has two models used by the military/intelligence community.
The TouchTable TT84 is a large-group collaboration system for visualization, navigation and analysis of data. The TT84, functioning as both presentation and input device, displays data on the table surface where it can be manipulated using hand gestures. A touch- and pressure-enabled interface and the large display size and form factor of the TT84 allow users to gather around the table to participate in group discussions.
The TouchTable TT45 is a smallgroup collaboration system also used for visualization, navigation and data analysis. Functioning as a mobile presentation and input device, the TT45 displays data on a touch-sensitive table surface. Users gather around the table and manipulate this displayed information using simple hand gestures.
“Visual collaboration is an emerging technology in terms of what the productivity payoff is,” said Rocky Roccanova, chief executive officer of TouchTable. “To get into one of these defense organizations, you have to have an organizational concept of how they are going to use it in real-world problem solving.”
Defense organizations buy TouchTables as a concept evaluation, Roccanova said. They work with some of the big integrators to get their applications onto a device like the TouchTable. They try to develop a sweet spot for their operational concept and then they deploy it.
“In the case of the Defense Intelligence Agency, the DIA has an experimental kitchen where they have all kinds of collaborative technologies,” Roccanova said. “Once they understand how they are going to deploy it, it goes into their operational side and we never hear of it again.”
Distance collaboration is becoming more and more of an important feature to firms in the military industry. While Roccanova said he did not know where TouchTables are used overseas, he pointed out that a TouchTable was shipped to Korea for an exercise.
TouchTable’s real mission is GIS-based visual solution systems. “In case you have a lot of information and geographically dispersed outfits that you are trying to manage, the TouchTable is really good because people are interacting with their information space,” Roccanova said. “They get into a flow; you don’t know what you are going to look at next. Part of it is all about discovery.”
With visual collaboration systems, you have a shared visual representation. “When you have these complex pictures, they talk about information overload,” Roccanova said. “Key stakeholders in the decision process have a joint understanding; they all come to the same understanding together like a theater.
“It allows for flow, continuous human interaction with the information. You generate the ability to do spontaneous integration,” Roccanova said. “There is spontaneity that comes with being able to work with the data directly and see what it means visually. It’s about discovery and going where you want to in the information space.” ♦
