An Interface Design for Future Cloud-Based Visualization Services

The pervasive concept of cloud computing suggests that visualization, which is both data and computing intensive, is a perfect cloud computing application. This paper presents a sketch of an interface design for an online visualization service. To make such a service attractive to a wider audience, its user interface must be simple and easy to use for both casual and expert users. We envision an interface that supports visualization processes mainly directed by browsing and assessing existing visualizations in terms of images and videos will be very appealing to, in particular, casual users. That is, the aim is to maximize the utilization of the rich visualization data on the web. Without losing generality, we consider volume data visualization applications for our interface design. We also discuss issues in organizing online visualization data, and constructing and managing a rendering cloud.