Dr. Tudoreanu, equipped with special glasses and a device to alter the projection on the screen, moves about the interior of a virtual Falcon jet.

  • Dr. Tudoreanu, equipped with special glasses and a device to alter the projection on the screen, moves about the interior of a virtual Falcon jet. (Photo by Brian Chilson.)

This morning, UALR announced what we reported over the weekend: It has created a new center focused on data visualization. The George W. Donaghey Emerging Analytics Center (EAC) will be headed by Dr. Mary Good, Leslie Newell Peacock reports from the press conference announcing the center.

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Big data is the focus of the EAC. UPDATE: You can go here to watch the live demonstrations of the virtual environment that are happening this afternoon.

“The EAC and its potential to positively impact on large and small businesses in Arkansas are critical to our state’s economic growth,” Good said in a news release. “It will give all of us a competitive edge and position us for a bright future in the era of big data.”

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The new center is funded by a $5 million grant from the George W. Donaghey Foundation. It’s housed on the fourth floor of UALR’s Engineering and Information Technology (EIT) building. Good is the founding dean of the EIT college; she retired in June 2011.

According to a release (which is on the jump in full), the EAC features data visualization systems, the EmergiFLEX room-sized, touch-panel virtual reality environment that can wrap around the user and a smaller mobile version, “that are among the first of their kind in the world.”

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Some of the bells and whistles:

Linked through fiber optics to UALR’s Computational Research Center, the facility includes 35 screens and monitors with more than 50 million pixels offering high definition resolution for both 2D and 3D applications.

Unique features include a massive, 24 screen reconfigurable video wall providing 3D data immersion with additional 3D floor projection; the latest haptic interface technology to “touch” the data with force feedback sensations; and advanced video collaboration tools that include new robotic “telepresence” equipment.

The center aims to partner with a diverse group, including, obviously, businesses. Among those mentioned this morning were HP and Today’s Office, who are working on promoting the new technology. Members of the EAC’s board of advisors come from several segments of industry and science that could take advantage of the technology, including Michael Armistead of HP; CEO Nick Brown of Southwest Power Pool; Mike Hodapp, director of ecommerce for Dillard’s; Debbie Gracio of Battelle’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory; CEO David Hollenbach of DSoft Technology, which works on military, civil and space-related projects; President Charlie Lambert of SkySentry LLC, an aeronautics company, transmission planner Dr. Melinda Montgomery of Entergy, Dr. Phil Mui of Acxiom and others.

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At the press conference Gov. Mike Beebe said, “The easy way to understand the technology, which is unique worldwide, is ‘a picture is worth a thousand words.’ “

From Leslie:

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After the press conference of Dr. Edi Tudoreanu, a professor in information science at UALR, demonstrated what he called the Seven Degrees of Freedom Haptic Device that interfaces with the virtual three-dimensional environment provided by the video wall. The device is fitted with an handle that lets the user direct a virtual object multidirectionally while also simulating the weight and feel of the action — for example, what it would feel like to drill into a brain, he said. (Or practice a golf swing, the governor joked.) T. Glenn Pait, a neurosurgeon at UAMS who is also on the EAC advisory board, said students would get valuable training from the use of the device in the virtual room. Dr. Good said later that Pait is working with UALR to develop a proposal for research funding using the EmergiFLEX, and said having such technology will help researchers win grants they otherwise might not have.

UALR has had “state of the art” virtual technology, Good said. “The leap [in technology] here,” she explained, “is the resolution” and the systems’ ability “to handle huge data sets.” She gave architecture as an example of another one of the uses; she said architects, who already work digitally, could input data that would allow them to visualize three dimensionally their designs, saving them time and money by detecting needed changes quickly.

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Dassault Falcon was the first to use the technology, using it to design a hanger, Good said. She said the EmergiFLEX will be available for use for both students, professors and private business (the latter of which will be charged a fee).
The grant also pays for staff: a full-time post-doctoral student, two graduate students and support personnel.

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