VizWiz: a Java applet for interactive 3D scientific visualization on the Web

VizWiz is a Java applet that provides basic interactive scientific visualization functionality, such as isosurfaces, cutting planes, and elevation plots, for 2D and 3D datasets that can be loaded into the applet by the user via, the applet´s Web server. VizWiz is unique in that it is a completely platform independent scientific visualization tool, and is usable over the Web, without being manually downloaded or installed. Its 3D graphics are implemented using only the Java AWT API, making them portable across all Java supporting platforms. The paper describes the implementation of VizWiz, including design tradeoffs. Graphics performance figures are provided for a number of different platforms. A solution to the problem of uploading user data files into a Java applet, working around security limitations, is demonstrated. The lessons learned from this project are discussed.