About IQ-Walls at IU

• Overview
• Benefits and features
• Locations and access
• Use an IQ-Wall
  • Use cases
  • Available software
• Articles
• Acknowledge AVL resources

Overview

IQ-Walls are large format, ultra-high resolution, tiled video display systems developed by the UITS Advanced Visualization Lab. Currently, over 18 IQ-Walls are available to all members of the IU community on multiple campuses, including IU Bloomington, IUPUI, IU East, IU Kokomo, and IU Northwest, with additional IQ-Walls under development or consideration. IQ-Walls are used for a wide variety of disciplines and activities where large size and very high resolutions are important and beneficial. Some installations support multi-touch interfaces, stereoscopic display, and spatial tracking for collaborative interaction or shared virtual reality experiences.

View a photo album of various IQ-Wall installations in use.

Benefits and features

• Ultra-high resolution: See much greater detail, see details in context, or view multiple sources side by side.
• Large format: Facilitate multiple concurrent users, multiple content sources, or physical navigation of the data.
• High performance interaction: Take advantage of powerful GPUs, multiple CPUs, and large memory for your more challenging visualization or graphics-intensive applications.
• Run any desktop or Web app: Because of underlying high-end Windows PCs, IQ-Walls run almost every Windows app or web-based content, but at a larger size and higher resolution.
• ADS login: Those who can authenticate at IU can access any public IQ-Wall. (Log in as you normally would in Windows; access is subject to room schedule and usage policies.)
• Collaboration: All IQ-Walls support video conferencing. Zoom works at high resolutions, and you can connect with other IQ-Walls.
• Advanced interface features: In select locations, you can use multi-touch interaction or stereoscopic 3D and spatial tracking for virtual reality.

Locations and access

There are more than 18 IQ-Walls on five different IU campuses. Some are in public locations, while others are in semi-public areas and limited-access research labs; access to these depends on the location. The public and semi-public IQ-Walls are:

Use an IQ-Wall

Using an IQ-Wall is much like using any Windows computer. IQ-Walls function like powerful workstations, but with the ability to display a tremendous amount of information and details. If you have an IU username and passphrase, you can log in to an available IQ-Wall. If it's your first time at that particular equipment, the login process may take a few minutes while the computer prepares your account.

Use cases

Activities on an IQ-Wall generally fall into one of three types:

• Type 1: Make use of existing applications and sample data (for example, view geo-spatial data with Google Earth or ultra-high resolution imagery from GigaPan).
• Type 2: Capture or create your own data, and use existing applications to view or present it (for example, use an Excel spreadsheet to work on your large data set or ParaView to visualize your scientific data).
• Type 3: Use authoring or other programming tools to create your own environment or application to view your data (for example, create a virtual environment with Unity or a web-based data visualization with D3).

Available software

Commonly available software includes:

• Office productivity:
  • Excel
  • PowerPoint
  • Word
• Media playback and editing: Adobe Creative Cloud applications
• 3D/VR editing and playback:
  • Stereoscopic Player
  • Unity
• Scientific and Information Visualization:
  • ParaView
  • Chimera
• Visualization and graphics: Additional software at IU
• Geospatial Mapping and Information:
  • ArcGIS
  • Google Earth Desktop

To discuss installing unique or custom software for your needs, contact the AVL.

Articles

• IT News and Events: State-of-the-art IQ-Wall at IU South Bend features 6th Annual Performing Media Festival

Acknowledge AVL resources