The threads of Web-based visualization. Rather than transfer visualization data or software across the Web, they proposed a system in which the visualization was executed on a remote server, and the resulting graphics returned over the Web for viewing in a browser. In Figure 2 we try to reflect the distinction between these three approaches. We now examine how each thread has developed, and indeed how the threads have intertwined. This thread makes minimal use of the Web, relying on it simply as a data communication medium and exploiting the MIME-typing concept to divert data to a particular application.
Users continue to use their own software, on their own platform.
The user then selects the options in Vis5D to create whatever visualization is required. This approach can be extended to any turnkey system with fixed functionality. Here one wants to be able to send not only the data, but also the specification of the pipeline to process it. On receiving this file, the browser invokes an application that interprets the file and executes the commands. The command set can also include a series of instructions to control the subsequent interactive session, changing parameter values on modules and so on.