National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA)

Java 3D API Customer Success Stories

National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA)
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

The astronomy visualization tool, Astro3D, is being developed by the National Center for Supercomputing Application's (NCSA) Java 3D group using the Java 3D API. The three dimensional visualizations that the tool displays were created from data generated from radio telescopes. The radio telescope takes a series of 2D images at varying frequencies which are then combined to create a 3D representation of the data. By doing this, the image can reveal how interstellar clouds of gas move through space.

The astronomers who work with this data can use Astro3D to interact with the data in a way they haven't been able to before. Astro3D uses the University of Illinois Radio Astronomy Group's astronomy package, Horizon, to convert points in the data to real world coordinates interactively. By using the tools in the NCSA Portfolio Java 3D API library, astronomers can also annotate the data and save the modified file as a VRML97 file or as a JPEG image, each of which can be shared with colleagues. The resulting files can be used by a VRML viewer or a Web browser.

"We chose to use Java 3D API technology to develop Astro3D for several reasons. First, portability has always been a top priority for us. We can develop our Java platform- and Java 3D API-based applications once and have confidence that they can run anywhere. Another big issue is that the Java 3D API supports rendering on a variety of 3D devices. We want our users who have access to high-end graphics hardware, such as virtual reality CAVEs, to be able to run our application just as easily as users who use low-end PC hardware. By using Java 3D technology, we can achieve this goal."

Steve Pietrowicz
Project Manager
Java 3D Group
NCSA

NCSA
605 E. Springfield
Champaign, IL 61820
(217) 244-0072