RENCI Update: Combining Gaming and Visualization Technologies to Support Efficient and Effective Decision-Making

        RENCI stands for the Renaissance Computing Institute.  It is a multidisciplinary collaboration between UNC-Chapel Hill, Duke University, and North Carolina State University, with Engagement Sites at UNC Asheville, Duke University, Eastern Carolina University, North Carolina University, UNC Chapel Hill, UNC Charlotte, and the UNC Costal Studies Institute.  
        According to the mission statement, "RENCI develops and deploys advanced technologies to enable research discoveries and practical innovations."  Much of the work of RENCI focuses on large-scale information and data visualization.
        Why is this important?  It provides an effective visual-cognitive means of understanding complex data from a variety of disciplines, and also supports the collaboration of researchers across a variety of disciplines.   It has the potential to support larger-scale decision-making and problem-solving in our technology-dependent, interconnected world.  

Take a few minutes and explore what I've posted below:
       
Press release from RENCI about the interactive dome, pictured below (photo credit: RENCI-UNC Asheville):  "To understand human-induced global changes, there's no place like dome" Nancy Foltz, 10/12/11

RENCI: Gaming the Future
        The video below provides an overview of how innovative interactive visualization tools support decision-making across many disciplines.

RENCI: Unity 3D game engine to support immersive information visualization applications:

RENCI Situation Room Multi-touch Table, UNC-Charlotte:





RELATED

RENCI pioneering the visualization industry with innovative interfaces
Tracy Boyer Clark, Innovative Interactivity (II), 2/8/10
RENCI Visualization Center Update
Lynn Marentette, Interactive Multimedia Technology, 2/9/10
RENCI Tutorial: "Beautiful Code, Compelling Evidence: Functional Programming for Information Visualization and Visual Analytics" (pdf)  J.R. Heard
RENCI: Data to Decisions
Recent Publications from RENCI:

Y. Xin, I. Baldine, A. Mandal, C. Heermann, J. Chase, and A. Yumerefendi. “Embedding Virtual Topologies in Networked Clouds.”The 6th International Conference on Future Internet Technologies (CFI). Seoul, Korean, June 2011 
Y. Xin, I. Baldine, J. Chase, T. Beyene, B. Parkhurst, and A. Chakrabortty. “Virtual Smart Grid Architecture and Control Framework.” 2nd IEEE International Conference on Smart Grid Communications (IEEE SmartGridComm), Brussels, Belgium, Oct. 2011 
X. Ju, H. Zhang, W. Zeng,M. Sridharan, J. Li, A. Arora, R. Ramnath, Y. Xin. “LENS: Resource Specification for Wireless Sensor Network Experimentation Infrastructures. ” The 6th International Workshop on Wireless Network Testbeds, Experimental Evaluation and Characterization (WinTECH), Las Vegas, Nevada, Sep. 2011
RENCI's Facebook Page
Twitter: @RENCI

RENCI at UNC-Chapel Hill: Serious Gaming and Simulation, Unity 3D Platform

VIDEO
Running the Unity 3D Game Engine in a Global Immersion 4-Projector Dome System at the RENCI@UNC Engagement Center



For more information:
Serious Gaming and Simulation at RENCI@UNC

"The application of game technology to teaching, training, and research has been a topic of interest at RENCI@UNC. More specifically, the adaptation of game engines and 3D environments to the specialized visualization environments at the engagement center is a promising area for experimentation and collaboration...We very recently obtained copies of Unity, and have been working through some of the basics. One of the first activities was to create specialized code to show Unity-built 3D environments in our Global Immersion dome system. This was successfully accomplished with a good bit of code-hacking to render the proper camera views and viewports for the four channel dome system. There are some known issues with the Windows stand-alone viewer that we were able to work around. We did some imaginative manipulation of the Unity Plug-in using a browser embedded within a WPF application that allows arbitrary screen resolutions, as well as spanning across multiple displays. Look for a post later with some technical details."
FYI
Here are some pictures from RENCI: