In a possible rebuttal to the “How many Pixels do we really need“, John Sviokla over at the Harvard Business blog discusses how Data Visualization is aiding Knowledge discovery in fascinating new ways. One great anecdotal piece of evidence is this:
In another instance, a group of neuroscientists, psychiatrists, neurophysiologists, and geneticists gathered together at Calit2, a supercomputer and visualization lab, headed by Dr. Larry Smarr — where there’s a 40 by ten-foot visualization wall which has tens of thousands of times more resolution than the most advanced HDTV at Best Buy. This team used the spectacular display space to simultaneously look at CAT scans, genetic and statistical data. By being able to see all the data together, and have the minds of all those experts working in harmony, they were able to identify two genes that they suspect are involved in causing schizophrenia. It is still early, but the participants claim that this vital discovery would not have been possible if they were not able to see all the data, in detail, and in its entirety as a group.
The article continues on to discuss how such large displays are routinely aiding in knowledge discovery, but that few (if any) corporate entities are actively pursuing the technology. It’s a bit misinformed, as several entities are actively engaged in visualizations of large-scale datasets and massive displays, but they don’t get the same kind of press coverage as other entities. It’s also a huge research problem, as there are still more questions than answers on how to effectively use the technology.
I think I smell another VizWorld feature coming along.
via It’s Time to Reinvent Knowledge Work – John Sviokla – HarvardBusiness.org.
