|  Brain fibres image from Donald Tournier, Alan Connelly and Graeme Jackson, Brain Research Institute and Florey Neuroscience Institutes (Austin). [ Click to enlarge ] | |
‘OzIPortal’ taps into the Global brain
[ The University of Melbourne Voice Vol. 2, No. 1
4 - 18 February 2008 ]
Australia’s first ultra-broadband, high definition link – the OptIPortal (affectionately nicknamed ‘OzIPortal’) is set to revolutionise academic research, NERISSA HANNINK reports.
As the vision of a child’s epileptic fit plays on one half of a massive screen, doctors examine the green and purple fibres of his brain scan projected alongside.
The specialists have gathered to decide whether the boy can be operated on to reduce his seizures, without losing his sight.
The communication and analysis of data is essential for medical diagnosis, but for neuroscientist Professor Graeme Jackson (Brain Research Institute), this meeting is different.
Professor Jackson is in Australia talking to colleagues on the other side of the globe, but they are all able to see the same data, in pristine high definition at the same time.
Their interaction has been made possible by the OptIPortal, a dedicated ultra-broadband link between the University of Melbourne and the University of California San Diego (UCSD). It is Australia’s first ultra-broadband high definition, real time video collaboration system.
“The OptIPortal is a groundbreaking tool of communication that allows experts to fully communicate in a vastly improved visual environment without barriers of distance,“ says Professor Jackson.
The technology opens up a world of opportunities for collaboration across the Pacific and helps to ensure Australia’s place at the forefront of global collaborative research.
The ability to work in real time means a surgeon in Australia could direct emergency surgery by operating a robot in Antarctica; scientists in Australia and Japan could share research tools such as the Australian Synchrotron, or operate an underwater robot exploring the Great Barrier Reef – all from the comfort of an OptIPortal room.
“For the field of neuroscience, the OptIPortal means we have another tool for communication, collaboration, sharing data, and most important in my area, for visualisation of large amounts of data,” Professor Jackson says.
“In my particular field we often deal with very complex cases, with lots of data, from electrophysiology, imaging, functional data, biochemistry, and video feeds of what people do in real life. We’re trying to synthesise that into a simple answer; can we operate, where is it safe to do so, and what do we counsel the patient?
“The way we’re going to use this link is that it’s like having your own data in your own computer space. You can go to the primary data, you can manipulate it and you can ask a question in real time.”
The OptIPortal facility was created through a partnership between the University of Melbourne School of Engineering and Professor Larry Smarr’s California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2).
Under the leadership of Project Manager Mark Raphael it has taken a small team from the School of Engineering’s IT Services Unit over two months to build the OptIPortal visualisation system – affectionately known as the ‘OzIPortal’.
The OzIPortal encompases a wall of 24 ultra high definition monitors and 13 high powered PCs at the University of Melbourne connected to a similar wall at UCSD by a one gigabit per second link supplied by AARNet – the organisation that brought the Internet to Australia. The connection is over 250 times faster than current broadband connections in metropolitan Melbourne.
The ability to view such large amounts of complex data is thanks to the 96 million pixels of display space on the OzIPortal screen. This resolution is almost 50 times greater than the resolution of a standard PC and the whole system needs 100 times more memory than the average desktop PC to power it.
This is the first OptIPortal node in Australia and although large scale visual walls and high definition video collaboration technologies exist in Australia, this facility’s capability to combine both concepts in real time across great distances is unique.
The software that powers the OzIPortal is capable of magnifying images to a huge size and still keep high clarity. For instance, a brain scan can be magnified to the cellular level and yet maintain full definition.
Researchers across the globe will also be able to share unique instruments – MRIs, synchrotrons, supercomputers, square km radio telescope arrays – and collaborate to interpret, on the spot, complex data which could range in origin from the artistic world, gaming and cinematography, to leading-edge advances in the characterisation of brain function and the human genome.
For Australia, the faster communication of large quantities of information is put into context when we consider how far we are from the other side of the world, and the experts who work there. It is hoped the OptIPortal will make the world smaller for our medical specialists and academic researchers.
According to Professor Jackson: “At the moment it can take a week out of my schedule to attend a meeting in the US, so as someone who has a young family I will be enabled by the OptIPortal technology to conduct research in Australia while having the communication technology to participate in international research projects.
“I worked overseas for seven years and the availability of a resource like OzIPortal would have encouraged me to return sooner. The technology is essential to science, particularly communication between expert centres.”
Melbourne Vice-Chancellor Professor Glyn Davis experienced the first demonstration of the OptIPortal technology, at the other end of the link at UCSD.
“This extraordinary display of technology at one gigabit a second and the brief demonstrations give us a sense of what this makes possible, though it will take some time before the full potential is realised,” Professor Davis said.
“Our OzIPortal’s first run – its first public outing – was a fantastic demonstration and, despite the technical challenges, we can see the possibilities for research and for a network where we can have academics from around the world converse in real time, share their data and learn from each other.
“This technology will cut huge amounts of time from the research process. And it’s not just travel time and meeting time, but the capacity to share and interrogate data collectively, at the same time, with groups of people in different places.
“This is truly a glimpse of the future,” he said.
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