MUVA: A Flexible Visualization Architecture for Multiple Client Platforms

Information visualization techniques are invaluable tools in numerous applications such as those involving large databases and document collections. Ubiquitous usage of such techniques can provide universal access to complex information. The main goal of our work is to provide such universal visual access to information through the proposed Multiplatform Universal Visualization Architecture (MUVA). MUVA is a collection of software modules that allow visualization of the same data across a wide range of platforms, from workstations to mobile phones, while automatically adapting the visualization and delivery modes to the particular platform. In the center of the architecture are the visualization tools, which represent various concepts of visualizing the data, such as 3D tree displays or simple 2D tables. The visualization tools are separated from actual client platforms by platform drivers, which adapt the output and delivery mode to each particular platform. On the input side, MUVA separates the data retrieval from the abstract visualization tools, so that any data source can be easily connected by implementing a thin application interface. In this way, MUVA can be used to provide ubiquitous information visualization for various services spanning a wide range of application domains. Implementation of the proposed architecture is demonstrated in two multiplatform visualization case studies; one for visualization of Grid monitoring data, and the other for weather data based on geographical location.