Virtual worlds for visualizing information

Virtual worlds are computer-generated environments created by coupling 3-D displays and interaction devices to powerful graphics workstations. The author describes work in the design of virtual worlds being carried out by Columbia´s Computer Graphics and User Interfaces Group Two of the main themes of this group´s research are exploiting true 3-D interaction and display devices to visualize and manipulate rich information spaces, and using artificial-intelligence techniques to automate the generation of effective graphics. The projects discussed address virtual worlds for visualizing multivariate data, hybrid user interfaces that merge 2-D and 3-D displays and interaction devices, and augmented realities in which the surrounding physical world is annotated with knowledge-based 3-D graphics