webVis/instant3DHub: visual computing as a service infrastructure to deliver adaptive, secure and scalable user centric data visualisation

Abstract

This paper presents the webVis/instant3DHub platform, which combines a novel Web-Components based framework and a Visual Computing as a Service infrastructure to deliver an interactive 3D data visualisation solution. The system focuses on minimising resource consumption, while maximising the end-user experience. It utilises an adaptive and automated combination of client, server and hybrid visualisation techniques, while orchestrating transmission, caching and rendering services to deliver structural and semantically complex data sets on any device class and network architecture. The API and Web Component framework allow the application developer to compose and manipulate complex data setups with a simple set of commands inside the browser, without requiring knowledge about the underlying service infrastructure, interfaces and the fully automated processes. This results in a new class of interactive applications, built around a canvas for real-time visualisation of massive data sets.