Deakin Uni, SAS set up data visualisation lab

Deakin University and SAS have set up a joint research laboratory to develop new ways of visualising big data, such as being able to move through the data in a virtual 3D environment.

The SAS Visual Analytics Collaboratory in Deakin's Elgar Road Campus was formally opened on Friday.

The researchers at the new centre have already been experimenting with different methods of visualising large data sets.

One project involves combining SAS visual analytics tools and Microsoft's motion sensing gaming device Kinect to represent big data in the forms of hills and valleys in a navigable terrain.

Using gestures, users are able to place markers, plot paths between data points and highlight locations of interest they want to explore more fully. A video demonstration of an early prototype of the system is available here.

The centre's lead researcher, Associate Professor Jacob Cybulski from Deakin's School of  Information and Business Analytics, said organisations today are working with way more data than can be easily represented on a spreadsheet or through traditional graphs.

The business world has been slow to embrace 3D visualisation of data, he said, "mainly because there hasn’t been a standard and uniform approach to representing the data".

But he predicted that interactive 3D visual analytics will become commonplace among the next generation of business leaders. "In 20 years' time as gamers and people familiar with gaming technology become decision-makers, their confidence will be with this technology rather than spreadsheets and pie charts," he said.

Image courtesy of Scott Maxwell/LuMaxArt under CC