ViCollAR: A Novel System for 3D Data Visualization using Collaborative Augmented Reality

Data visualization refers to the presentation of data in a pictorial or graphical format and it can significantly help users, e.g., decision makers, to see the analytics presented visually, such that they can grasp key concepts or identify new patterns rapidly. Various tools and systems have been developed towards data visualization, but they all suffer from different limitations towards immersive and interactive data visualization. In this paper, we presented our developed system, ViCollAR, which aims to achieve immersive, interactive and collaborative 3D data visualization leveraging Augmented Reality (AR) technologies. ViCollAR allows multiple users to simultaneously and collaboratively view and interact with the visualized data using their bare hands in 3D space, and it allows the users to freely navigate through the real spatial environment during interactions. A prototype has been successfully developed for the targeted system and tested by users.