Peter M.A. Sloot
Section Computational Science, The University of Amsterdam,The Netherlands

The Design of Dynamic Exploration Environments for Computational Steering Simulations

Abstract:

Interactive simulation environments are systems that combine simulation, data presentation and interaction capabilities that together allow users to explore the results of computer simulation processes and influence the course of these simulations at run-time. The goal of these interactive environments is to shorten experimental cycles, decrease the cost of system resources and enhance the researcher's abilities for the exploration of data sets or problem spaces.

The conceptual idea of allowing users to interactively steer a computation while it is running is not new and examples of applications that benefit from it are abundant. However, very often these applications provide ad hoc solutions that are very specific to the problem at hand.

This paper investigates the issues that are involved with building an interactive computational steering environment in an attempt to improve the synergy between computational simulation and interactive exploration through a generalised architecture. The architecture is validated by analysis of a prototypical case study of simulated abdominal vascular reconstruction.