Introduction to the Electronic Visualization Laboratory @ UIC

The Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) was founded in 1973. Throughout all that time, EVL has focused on the same basic areas. We primarily do research in the areas of advanced display design, visualization and digital analytics, high-speed networking, interaction and collaboration. Almost all the work done at EVL is interdisciplinary and collaborative; we work with people in art, the earth sciences, learning sciences, biomedical researchers, education, cognitive science, and other fields to apply our expertise to real problems in those disciplines. At EVL, we develop a new display device every couple of years to support new ways for visualizing and interacting with data. In the ’90s, we revolutionized virtual reality by creating the projector-based CAVE. In the 2000’s, we created the highest resolution display wall on the planet. We also create desks and tables, and tabletop displays. All of these displays are big to support collaborative, interdisciplinary work. Some of our students focus on integrating the hardware, others on writing the middleware that drive the hardware; some focus on working with domain scientists to create new applications to take advantage of that hardware. And, others study the way users interact with displays like these. For example, a couple years ago we built a high-resolution 100-touch table called TacTile. This table is used by museums to teach their visitors about water flow and rising sea levels, but also by scientists at Argonne …