UIC's research goal is to move Tele-Immersion and Data Mining from the laboratory to the Next Generation Internet. Scientists are just now beginning to get access to high-speed networks to retrieve information from remote datasets (whether large disk farms, scientific instrumentation, or satellites), analyze that information using remote supercomputers, and use virtual reality (VR) to collaborate with distant colleagues. UIC has promoted VR and data mining in select communities of users, and now wishes to create the teams, tools, hardware, system software, and human-interface models to enable national-scale, multi-site collaborations to facilitate solutions to National Challenge and Grand Challenge problems.
Planned CAVE Research Network (CAVERN) activities are twofold: enabling technology development and application driver support. This proposal lays out several application disciplines- - computational science and engineering, education and training, and every citizen interfaces (ECI) with emphasis on rehabilitation for the disabled - - to drive the development of the tools and techniques for tele-immersion and data mining. Enabling technologies for tele-immersion and data mining include CAVERNsoft, ECI interfaces, data mining tools, video, and performance optimization.
