Vizrt Collaborates with Lockheed Martin on Big Data Visualization

Vizrt has collaborated with Lockheed Martin to develop a solution that visualizes big data in an interactive platform called the Multi-Touch Executive Dashboard (MED). To graphically visualize big data, MED combines Lockheed Martin's real-time data asset management software, Microsoft's Perceptive Pixel displays, and Vizrt's Viz Artist for 3D modeling, animation, and graphics creation, and Viz Engine for real-time 3D graphics visualization and rendering at resolutions of up to 4K.

The first large-scale big data visualization implemented is Lockheed Martin's MED-E (Multi-Touch Executive Dashboard for Energy), designed to graphically illustrate layers of high-volume information about the status of energy resources, distribution, and supply. For example, WindOptimizer is a MED-E suite of cloud-based services that provide real-time sensor data, including weather forecast prediction and wind energy supplies, so that wind farms, power companies, and other energy companies can provide for more cost-efficient wind resource management.

Vizrt R&D teams in Europe along with designers and support in the United States worked closely with Lockheed Martin to design a system that had to meet a high-standard of quality for data visualization while at the same time be very flexible in its application. This allows for a wide range of industries to be able to utilize the product and have it customized for their specific needs.

In developing the MED-E platform, we wanted to push the boundaries of Viz Artist and Viz Engine as a powerful live data harvester and interactive visualization platform, says Petter Ole Jakobsen, Vizrt's CTO, based in Bergen, Norway. For MED-E, we're taking multiple silos of data sources and coalescing them into one final, scalable, big picture visualization representing all these different data layers. And we are doing it live when live data is available.

The MED platform interface allows multiple users to select icons that bring up multiple graphics and visual elements that they can then manipulate and interact with on Perceptive Pixel's 82-inch LCD display. Viz Artist was chosen for use in the MED and MED-E visualization platforms because its 64-bit environment features advanced data gathering tools and plugins. The plugins allow designers to integrate custom logic easily into a scene, creating interactive elements such as click buttons or support for touchscreens. And, as a powerful rendering engine, Viz Engine is used as the complete graphics and video layer for applications requiring high-fidelity, low latency content, and interactivity.

The MED platform can also be adapted to a wide range of vertical markets-such as medical imaging, military defense, energy exploration, geo-intelligence, and business information/intelligence systems and supply chain analytics-where knowledge workers need to make timely decisions based upon their understanding of relevant big data, says Matt Kier, principal project engineer for Lockheed Martin. Lockheed Martin and Vizrt have worked together on several projects and our relationship has been mutually beneficial. The Vizrt development teams in Norway, Austria, Thailand, and across the globe have helped us develop a platform that is easily integrated for our international customers, visually intuitive and tailored for any customer language.

This collaboration with Lockheed Martin is incredibly exciting, adds Jakobsen. Together we're developing a solution to one of today's most complex problems, that of capturing, harnessing, and managing big data using a very user-friendly, interactive, 3D graphics-rich data visualization platform.

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