Snap2Diverse: Coordinating Information Visualizations and Virtual Environments

The field of Information Visualization is concerned with improving how users perceive, understand, and interact with visual representations of abstract information. Immersive Virtual Environments (VEs) excel at a greater comprehension of spatial information. This project addresses the intersection of these two fields known as Information-Rich Virtual information, such as text, numeric data, hyperlinks, or multimedia resources. IRVEs present a number of important information. We describe a set of design issues for this type of integrated visualization and demonstrate a coordinated, multiple-views approach to support 2D and 3D visualization interactions such as overview, navigation, details-on-demand, and brushing-and-linking. In the CAVE, spatial information in a VE is interactively linked to embedded visualizations of related abstract information. Software architecture issues are discussed with details of our implementation applied to the domain of chemical information visualization. Lastly, we subject our system to an informal usability evaluation and identify usability issues with interaction and navigation that guides future work in these environments