From kim Fri Aug 27 17:06:40 1993
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To: haupt, nikos, podgorny, gcheng, paulc
Subject: help on infomall 
Date: Fri, 27 Aug 93 17:06:32 -0400
From: kim
Status: RO

As part of InfoMall, we are revising the TRP proposal to serve as a 
more general description of the program.  Geoffrey would like to add 
NPAC technologies, applications, and organizations (listed below) to 
the program description.  Could you please write a 1/2 page 
description of your work in these areas, organization description one 
paragraph.  I've included parts of the InfoMall proposal to serve as a 
guide, you could also look at the complete InfoMall document for 
other examples.

thank you, Kim


Technologies
HPF: Tom
mesh: Nikos
database: Marek
AVS as integration software: Gang

Applications
data assimilation: Kim
NiMo application: Paul
GIS: Kim

Organizations
SRC: Gang
NiMo: Paul
NASA Goddard: Kim


--------- these examples may make it easier to write a section --------

2.2.3  Qualifications of InfoMall Partners

InfoMall is designed to be a scalable organization that can respond 
rapidly to new opportunities by changing membership.  The present 
proposal is based on contributions from 25 major partners.  This 
Section provides a short description each major partner, which are 
presented alphabetically. 

Abrams/Gentile Entertainment, Inc. (AGE) was founded in 1986 to 
pursue a range of entertainment products and services.  The firm 
developed and licensed the PowerGlove, a Virtual Reality input device 
widely used for consumer video games.  AGE products have generated 
more than $400 million in revenue, and the firm has produced more 
than 26 hours of television.  AGE involvement in InfoMall includes 
use of HPCC in theme parks, low-cost consumer virtual reality 
systems and the edutainment areas described in Sec. 2.3.3.2.8.  AGE 
will link InfoMall to leading consumer entertainment and education 
software companies.

Center for Research in Parallel Computation (CRPC) is an NSF Science 
and Technology Center devoted to developing the software and 
algorithms that will make parallel computing usable. CRPC is led by 
Ken Kennedy at Rice University; other major institutions involved are 
Caltech, Syracuse University, University of Tennessee and the DoE 
laboratories at Argonne and Los Alamos.  In InfoMall, CRPC will lead 
the InfoTech program; this is an extension of the existing CRPC 
technology dissemination program.

MasPar HPCC SIMD systems are a key component of InfoMall 
facilities.  In InfoMall, MasPar involvement includes dual-use 
applications to signal processing and other areas.  In addition, the 
broad collaboration in InfoMall will be exploited by MasPar to 
investigate heterogeneous computing solutions involving one or more 
MasPar systems combined, if necessary, with MIMD capabilities.

Northeast Parallel Architectures Center  (NPAC) was established in 
1987 at Syracuse University.  Under the leadership of Geoffrey Fox, 
NPAC addresses both basic research and development as well as the 
real-world HPCC outreach exhibited by the ACTION program 
(described in Sec. 2.2.1) and by the present proposal.  Basic research 
and development efforts at NPAC are federally funded, and are 
centered on the CRPC collaboration (High Performance Fortran, 
Parallel I/O, distributed computing and runtime libraries are current 
major projects).  NPAC employs 15 administrative/technical staff 
members, 10 Ph.D. applications/research scientists, and 
approximately 50 graduate students.  NPAC staff also collaborates 
regularly with Syracuse University faculty in computer science, 
engineering and the sciences.

NYNEX is a regional Bell Operating Company that will participate in 
InfoMall through both its Science and Technology (S&T) and New 
York Telephone divisions.  NYNEX S&T conducts research in the areas 
of high speed communications, expert systems, multimedia 
communications and video technologies.  A particular focus has been 
the use of high speed networks to support medical services both from 
the perspective of decision support systems and cost reduction 
potential.  In InfoMall, NYNEX will plan and implement NYNET, a 
gigabit network linking leading research institutions within New York 
State for the purpose of furthering research in fields related to the 
advancement of communication technologies and the development of 
new applications.


2.3.3.1  RTPs Re-Usable Technology Pieces

2.3.3.1.1  Kodak:  Kodak Image Library Technology
This technology has taken on two forms, each being a "sister 
program", leveraging technology development from the other to meet 
the needs of a specific market segment.  First, is the Kodak Picture 
Exchange (Kodak PX).  As a viable commercial example of a global 
imagery on-demand application, the Kodak PX provides a premier, 
centralized on-line imaging service. One call over the public network 
provides instant visual access to high quality color images from 
around the world.  Beginning in September 1993, global users of 
commercial stock photography will have access to hundreds of 
thousands of images via the public narrow band telecommunications 
infrastructure.  Using the power of visual keywords and full text 
retrieval, the Kodak PX user gains the advantage of true imagery on-
demand in the marketplace of stock photography.  Once enabled in an 
HPCC broad band network environment, high resolution and high 
performance will combine to make high quality color images available 
on-demand in real time.
Second, the Kodak Commercial Image Library(CIL) will provide an on-
line imagery and image information repository for distributed servers 
used for import, management, and export of digital images to be used 
by a particular organization.  The features of import/export allow the 
"image librarian" to manage the repository in a disciplined and 
automated manner, while still allowing users to connect to their 
"production" environments for CD authoring and high quality hard 
copy production.  When available as a commercial product in early 
1994, the CIL will meet the image information management needs of 
a small enterprise, by supporting a network enabled (shared) CD-ROM 
juke-box.  This will provide the library infrastructure required to 
manage the import, storage and export of up to 50,000 images (at 35 
mm resolution). Again, the GIODE objective is to leverage this 
advantage by extending CIL technology into an HPCC RTP.


2.3.3.1.3  NYNEX:  Collaboration Technologies
In an effort to support real-time collaboration between professionals 
engaged in multimedia collaborative work sessions, NYNEX has 
developed a body of software, MEDOS, which provides an 
environment in which multimedia communications can be supported.  
This environment allows users to interact and collaborate with one 
another while sharing, displaying and manipulating various media 
types such as text, data, images, video and audio.  In effect, users in 
separate locations "converse" within a multimedia conference as if 
they were seated around a conference table.  In order to provide this 
communications environment, MEDOS has been designed to provide 
the following essential facilities: Session Management sets up and 
manages the multimedia environment for users; Transport 
Management provides and controls physical transport facilities; 
Billing/Call Detail tracks, summarizes and analyzes network usage on 
a user-by-user or session-by-session basis; Operations Administration 
and Maintenance (OA&M) provides overall control and status of 
system/network activity.  Under the TRP sponsorship we will pursue 
further development activities to enhance this program.  MEDOS must 
be expanded to support a redundant architecture to insure 
availability on a reliable basis at all items.  MEDOS also needs to have 
a capability for linking multiple processors which are all running the 
MEDOS software.  Work is also underway to define the requirements 
for providing MEDOS-like functionality in the public network through 
ATM technology.
The second part of this project concerns enhancements in 
functionality and target hardware for the MBS Application Toolkit.  
This allows application developers to develop end-user multimedia 
communication application RAPs with relative ease, and with 
significant reduction in development time and effort.  It will provide 
a mechanism to integrate access to MEDOS network services into 
applications, requiring minimal knowledge of the inner workings of 
the MBS network operating environment.  This set of RTPs form a 
library of support modules designed for applications that access 
network-based data which is distributed and composed of different 
media, which support simultaneous access by multiple users, and 
which support collaboration between them.


2.3.3.1.7 Cornell Center for Applied Mathematics: DsTool for 
Dynamical Systems
DsTool is a program that provides an efficient user computational 
environment for the simulation and analysis of nonlinear dynamical 
systems. The program is modular, extensible and evolving. The goal is 
to provide the user an interface to a comprehensive set of algorithms 
that are available to study these systems.  Nonlinear dynamical 
systems are ubiquitous throughout the sciences and engineering. 
Models for mechanical devices, electrical networks, chemical reactors, 
physiological and neural systems and fluid dynamics provide 
examples. DsTool "scales up" the computational methods used to 
discover universal phenomena in systems with few degrees of 
freedom.  The types of calculations DsTool performs are well matched 
to the capabilities of new parallel computing environments, and 
DsTool has been ported to the IBM SP-1.  The efficiency of its 
algorithms and user interface make it possible to perform extensive 
analyses of large, complex problems that are otherwise infeasible.
Industrial design problems often require one to construct systems 
with moderate numbers of degrees of freedom whose behavior meets 
performance criteria. This requires that one be able to analyze models 
efficiently.  To give just one example, the suspension system of an 
automobile or a railroad vehicle can be represented by a nonlinear 
system with approximately 10 degrees of freedom and many design 
parameters. We will provide the design engineer with a 
computational tool that will describe as completely and automatically 
as possible the behavior of the system as a design is modified and its 
parameters modified.



2.3.3.2  RAPs Re-Usable Application Pieces
2.3.3.2.2  Kodak/MCC/Cornell:  Medical Imagery On-Demand
The second feasibility demonstration for GIODE involves the 
integration of RAPs tailored to the medical imaging domain.  Medical 
application research and evaluation will be conducted in conjunction 
with the  Department of Radiology, Cornell University Medical School, 
and the Cornell Theory Center.  X-ray, CT scans, and magnetic 
resonance images provide the physician with invaluable "windows" 
into the body of a patient. The effective use of medical images 
requires timely acquisition, analysis, display and retrieval. But as 
medical imaging grows in importance, the number of images and their 
complexity requires HPCC to adequately deliver this essential 
information to physicians.   
Figure 7 here ********
We have chosen two areas where HPCC image processing technologies 
can be combined with GIODE to improve the quality and reduce the 
cost of medical service.  The first example will use computer 
radiography  (CR) images to detect catheters and disease in neonates 
and adult intensive care units (ICU).  Currently there are 55,000 ICU 
beds and misplacement of catheters occurs in 20% of cases.  Further, 
detection of pneumothoraxes (PTX) and effusions is very difficult 
even for a skilled radiologist.  This use of image analysis to detect and 
track catheters or identify PTXs would be very valuable.  The Cornell 
Hospital team will set up the necessary clinical experiments, while 
this TRP project will develop the necessary Image Processing 
Algorithms (IPAs) to analyze up to 2K by 2K X-ray or CR images.  
Component IPA algorithms (RTPs) to be developed include correction 
of spatial variation in image intensity through use  of internal and 
external markers; high-emphasis recursive filtering to delineate lung 
boundaries, heart and ribs; detection of local texture changes using 
local fractal dimensions and local gradient operators starting from 
edges of the lung and excluding the ribs and heart; region growing 
algorithms for segmentation; and assignment of tissue class based on 
a known data base.
The second example will use real time magnetic resonance  (MR) 
imaging for the analysis of congenital heart disease.  One percent of 
the 4 million children born each year in the U.S. have congenital heart 
disease. A significant number of these 40,000 children undergo 
cardiac catheterization for diagnosis and post-surgical follow-up. High 
speed, real-time MR imaging at 80 frames/sec is now possible and 
will be widely available in one to two years.  The replacement of 
pediatric angiograms by MR would be cost effective and would avoid 
the risks of ionizing radiation, contrast agent reactions, and misplaced 
catheters. In order for MR to replace angiography, real-time image 
processing is needed to enable 3D reconstruction of the heart, which 
would clearly delineate the number and location of the coronary 
arteries.  These 3D images would need to be rotated and examined by 
the radiologist at the time of the patient study.  Again the GIODE 
collaborators will develop the necessary image processing RTPs 
including image enhancement and filtering; object (such as heart 
muscle) identification and volume reconstruction.  These will be 
evolved and tested in the clinical experiments conduction by the 
Cornell Medical School.  This application would naturally be 
implemented as a central service (images managed by the Kodak 
Picture technologies, image analysis by central parallel 
supercomputers) using NYNET to deliver this information to satellite 
hospitals.



2.3.3.2.6  NYNEX/VA:  Collaborative Health Care
This health care application in the Veterans Administration Hospital 
is based on using collaborative technology, state-of-the-art, high-
speed networking and multimedia technology.  The initial phase of 
this project links the path of referral between cardiologists at the 
Syracuse VA Hospital with heart surgeons at the Buffalo VA Hospital.  
This practice of collaborative health care is the norm over the 170 VA 
Hospital sites in the nation--only ten sites perform heart surgery.  
The present communication link between cardiologists and surgeons 
at geographically distributed sites is limited to telephone and express 
mail delivery of laboratory results, images of the heart, and 
diagnoses.  The NYNEX Multimedia Broadband Services collaborative 
technology will be applied to provide a single-image database, and 
interactive, multi-media communication between cardiologists and 
surgeons to treat VA Hospital heart patients.

2.3.3.2.8  AGE/NPAC: "Edutainment'
AGE has identified two initial projects on which it will work with 
NPAC.  These projects will be managed by Chris Gentile of AGE, who is 
leading their new consumer virtual reality enterprise.  The first 
project will develop parallel computing as a mechanism to increase 
the performance of new AGE consumer products.  This is, of course, 
not a massively parallel application (although the new graphic 
processor has parallel functions on a chip) but the InfoMall 
architecture and software expertise will aid and accelerate product 
development for AGE.  The current crop of multimedia products for 
the entertainment market have largely adopted the "virtual book" or 
"virtual encyclopedia" formats.  AGE believes that students will be 
more interested in and hence learn more from "edutainment" 
products where the educational material is woven into a successful 
computer game format.  We will explore this concept using HPCC to 
generate and deliver realistic scenarios on which we can superimpose 
classical role-playing and adventure games.  NPAC expects to adapt 
the storm simulation produced at the NSF CAPS center at Oklahoma to 
act as the backdrop for a classic adventure games where high speed 
vehicles must avoid danger.  Students will learn about weather and 
its harbingers and expected development by viewing it as a 
dangerous environment which must be successfully navigated.

2.3.3.2.9  IBM PPS/NPAC:  Financial Modeling
This joint venture between IBM PPS and NPAC will focus on enabling 
financial high performance computing applications that can 
significantly benefit securities, banking and insurance companies.  
These organizations have an urgent need for applications that can 
provide more timely analysis of large amounts of economic and 
customer data using increasingly complex application logic to support 
their daily operations and executive decision making.  IBM will use its 
contacts in this area to form a consortium of users and establish 
requirements for RAPs in financial applications.  NPAC has developed 
parallel financially modeling for stock option pricing and this will be 
used as a model for other applications identified by the consortium.


