Developing Project Proto-HEAD (Prototype Holographic Environment for Analysis of Data)

With Project Proto-HEAD, or Prototype Holographic Environment for Analysis of Data, a Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) team sought to learn more about augmented reality (AR) and whether it significantly improves simulation and data analysis over using a PC workstation. Proto-HEAD had a simple concept: given a 3-D data set, visualize that data set as a hologram within the physical world. The development process afforded the team significant insight into the challenges and potential approaches for visualizing and interacting with very large data sets. These insights are useful for new applications that visualize and interact with large data sets and complex models.