Information visualization on the Web

A thin client, by definition, have minimal software requirements necessary to function as a user interface front-end for a Web enabled application and raises the issue of client vs. server data visualization rendering. Real-time visual data manipulation doesn't translate well into a "thin" client. While the VRML file format allows distribution of visualization scenes to the Web, the user has no access to the actual underlying data source. The "mapping" of numerical data into geometry format (VRML) takes place at the server side. Local data manipulation, information drill-down technique, context sensitive menus, object picking and other interactive user interface functions that traditionally have been available on the client are now controlled by the visualization server. In the "thin" client model, nearly all functionality is delivered from the server side of the visualization engine while the client perform very simple display and querying functions. Web components and Plug-ins are now being used to overcome some of these limitations. Java allows the creation of "applets" and "JavaBeans" and we have Windows/COM components. These components together with data reduction methods can significantly increase the data interaction between the client application and user, and allow tasks to be executed on the client. Highly interactive user interface tasks are delivered that provide point-and-click navigation through multidimensional data structures. Visual data interfaces such as information drilling, moving a cutting plane through a volume data set etc can be supported. The implication of using a static VRML environment with reduced geometry is compared to sending compressed data to the client and perform interactive client data visualization on a desktop.