vzual

Experiencing your systems through interactive visualizations!

Work-In-Progress

Please note that the [vzual] project is a work-in-progress.

Introduction

[vzual] is a web application that allows you to build and use a graphical visualization of a system that is both animated and interactive. It visually reflects the state of your system in real-time. With vzual, you can experience your systems through an interactive visualization.

System

What is a "system" ... you may be asking? Well this term is purposfully abstract because it can be so many different things. Ultimately it is whatever is on the other end of a real-time communications protocol, conveying changes to a domain-specific data model. As an example, a system could be:

• a physical system (e.g. a processing plant, a distillation unit, a CNC machine, etc.). You may wish to monitor various sensor readings (ex: see the pressures and flows) or interact with the system (say open/close a valve).

• a microcontroller (MCU/EMCU)

• a playback recording of a physical system (for analysis purposes)

• an IoT home monitor (Internet of Things)

• a dashboard monitoring a system

• an engineering design tool, interfacing components under design, from a simulation of various physical properties (pressures, flows, etc.)

• an interactive game with another person or a computer

• etc.

Model

A vzual model has the following characteristics:

1. It is manifest through an interactive view, that contains graphical components that are recognizable as part of the system, for example:

   • pumps and valves and pipes
   • gauges and monitors
   • an IoT house monitor
   • an interactive game with various player pieces
   • etc.

   vzual's graphical IDE allows you to create both components, and scenes that model/visualize components.

2. It is backed by a data schema that will change over time through a communications protocol.

3. This data can be visualized and animated over time, for example:

   • visualizing the flow and pressure of a distillation unit
   • showing a pump as open or closed
   • showing house lights as on/off
   • showing the current position of a game's player piece
   • etc.

4. It is interactive in the sense that the user can set selected values it is capable of setting various aspects of the system (part of the communication protocol), for example:

   • a valve could be opened or closed through an interactive component
   • a game piece could be moved
   • etc.

5. Multiple concurrent views are supported, for example:

   • showing different functional aspects of the same system
   • etc.

Tools

The vzual application provides two primary tools:

• a build tool (a graphical IDE), where you create and orchestrate the components that make up your system model.

• a run-time visualization of the system model, that is both animated and interactive. This can be run stand-alone or embedded in a web page.

Learn More

Learn more at [vzual].