Smart/Scalable Amplified Group Environment (SAGE3 & SAGE2), Computer Science, Luc Renambot and Jason Leigh (2025). To think more clearly, ideate more creatively, and reach decisions with speed, accuracy and confidence, people need help working collaboratively and making sense of complex information. <a href="https://sage3.sagecommons.org/">SAGE3</a> provides users with an intuitive framework that integrates state-of-the-art Artificial Intelligence technologies with applications, workflows, smart visualizations and commercial collaboration services to help teams, both local and remote, access, share, explore and analyze their data. SAGE3 creates a unified platform, whether using laptops, tiled display walls, or rooms with projection technology. New Federal funding in 2020 motivated the UIC development team to take advantage of major technological advancements and the advent of hybrid home/work environments to create SAGE3, the successor to SAGE2, which was introduced in 2013. Several companies licensed SAGE2 and incorporated its concepts and codes in their products for collaboration, visualization, hybrid environments and critical decision making, though have expressed interest in SAGE3. SAGE3 is open source, and anyone can download from its <a href="https://www.sagecommons.org/">website</a> for use . Companies can use internally and can license it for use in products. 
SAGE3 is a collaborative research project with UIC, University of Hawaii Manoa and Virginia Tech, funded by NSF awards 2003800, 2004014 and 2003387. SAGE, SAGE2 and SAGE3 are trademarks of the University of Illinois Board of Trustees. 
<a href="https://today.uic.edu/top-10-innovations-from-uic-researchers/?j=153353&sfmc_sub=197729190&l=1247_HTML&u=2501189&mid=546003729&jb=4006&utm_source=MarketingCloud&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=UICtoday_FS_042925&utm_content=From+the+first+infant+incubator+to+designing+election+ballots%2c+UIC+researchers+have+left+their+legacy">See the full UIC Today article.</a>

EVL&rsquo;s SAGE Research Among Top 10 Innovations from UIC

EVL graduate research assistant Landon Dyken under the supervision of Sidharth Kumar is recognized for the publication entitled &ldquo;Enabling Fast and Accurate Crowdsourced Annotation for Elevation-Aware Flood Extent Mapping&rdquo;.   Mapping the extent of flood events is an important aspect of disaster management.  In recent years, deep learning methods have evolved as an effective tool to label high-resolution imagery and provide necessary flood extent mappings quickly.  These methods, though, require large amounts of annotated training data to create models that are accurate and robust to new flooded imagery.  FloodTrace, a web-based application that enables effective crowdsourcing of flooded region annotation for machine learning applications, helps address these challenges.

EVLers Pacific Vis 2025 Paper Recognize with an Honorable Mention

Dan Sandin, inventor of the Sandin Analog Image Processor (IP) participated in a panel presentation on &ldquo;The Radical Art of the Sandin Image Processor,&rdquo; sponsored by the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) at the Gene Siskel Film Center. The presentation not only featured Sandin, but artists who used the Sandin IP to create old and new works of art. The event was enhanced by the audience&rsquo;s capability to interact in person with a functioning IP! 
The Sandin Image Processor debuted in 1973 as a groundbreaking analog computer, enabling users to create astonishing video effects in real time. By encouraging other artists to &ldquo;copy-it-right,&rdquo; Sandin paved the way for producing dozens of image processors across the United States, making the machine one of the most influential tools for experimental video and performance art. More than 50 years later, the IP continues to inspire, connecting artists, hardware developers, and computer programmers across generations. To mark this anniversary, &ldquo;The Radical Art of the Sandin Image Processor,&rdquo; brings together a range of works created with the Sandin Image Processor over the years, including two new commissions by artists Lee Blalock and Jon Satrom. James Connolly engaged the audience with a live public performance of one of the SAIC&rsquo;s own IPs. 
The event was presented in partnership with <a Href="https://www.vdb.org/">Video Data Bank</a> and <a Href="https://mediaburn.org/https://mediaburn.org/">Media Burn Archive</a>. Special thanks SAIC. 
Thursday, April 17, 2025 
6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. CDT 
Gene Siskel Film Center Theater 1, 164 N State Street, Chicago

Dan Sandin Presents &ldquo;The Radical Art of the Sandin Image Processor&rdquo;

Virtual Reality Exhibition in the CAVE2 
Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) 
Friday, March 21 @3-5pm 
842 W Taylor Street, Room 2036 
Global challenges pose significant threats to humanity&rsquo;s future. However, design and virtual reality offer innovative strategies to address the United Nations&rsquo; 17 Sustainable Development Goals. This VR exhibition showcases immersive projects that explore the intersections of design, theater, creative coding, and VR to tackle complex global issues - from combating climate change and improving health to promoting equality and protecting our oceans and forests. 
This VR exhibition highlights immersive projects that explore the intersections of design, theater, creative coding, and VR to tackle complex global issues. Between 2021 and 2024, CS+DES student teams collaborated on inspiring VR projects focused on global challenges within a Creative Coding course, advancing these crucial objectives. These projects have the potential to contribute meaningfully to the Sustainable Development Goals, fostering innovative solutions and promoting positive global change. 
We hope you can join us! 
Daria Tsoupikova 
CS+DES Chair I Design 
Professor, School of Design

VR Design for Sustainable and Inclusive Futures

EVL and Computer Science Professor G. Elisabeta Marai and Assistant Professor Sidhath Kumar participated in the 3rd AI Ecosystem Symposium held February 28, 2025, at UIC. The Symposium featured presentations on AI in Healthcare, Diagnostics, Informatics, and Wellness 
Dr. Marai&rsquo;s presentation focused on Bridging Human-Centered Data Science with Real World Problems. Dr. Kumar&rsquo;s presentation was &ldquo;﻿﻿Data to Decisions: A Topological Lens on High-Dimensional Biomedical Data.&rdquo; 
The Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research, the College of Engineering, and the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory sponsored the event.

EVL Faculty Present Research at the UIC Ecosystem Symposium 3

EVL co-director and professor emeritus Dan Sandin is named keynote speaker at Stereoscopic Displays and Applications (SD&A) 2025 XXXVI. SD&A will be held February 3-6, 2025 at the Hyatt Regency San Francisco Airport Hotel, Burlingame, CA held during the IS&T Electronic Imaging Symposium. 
Over the past fifty years, Dan has been a keen proponent of a wide range of stereoscopic developments. His presentation will reflect on how these technologies have shaped interdisciplinary collaboration and the evolution of electronic art and visualization techniques. Dan is director emeritus of the Electronic Visualization Lab (EVL) and a professor emeritus in the School of Art and Design at UIC. 
His presentation is scheduled for 9:30 am on Tuesday, February 4, 2025. 
See more details about SD&A 2025 on the <a href="http://www.stereoscopic.org/2025/">advance program web page</a>. 
Abstract: 
The Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL), established in 1973 at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), specialized in interactive electronic displays
even before the advent of the frame buffer. By ingeniously combining digital and analog systems, EVL enabled real-time interactive computer graphics through the Graphics Symbiosis System (GRASS). This system was instrumental for animator Larry Cuba in creating the computer graphics for the original 1977 &ldquo;Star Wars&rdquo; film, which was done frame by frame on 35mm film), as well as contributing to lesser-known movies like &ldquo;UFO: Target Earth&rdquo; for which the special effects were captured on video. SpiralPTL is a work preserved in the Museum of Modern Art&rsquo;s video art collection. Throughout the decades, EVL advanced the technology of computer graphics but also deeply integrated art, science, and education researchers and teaching faculty. This collaboration led to the creation of an interdisciplinary MFA program in Electronic Visualization, bridging UIC&rsquo;s Engineering College with its School of Art and Design. EVL&rsquo;s later innovations include the development of numerous interactive stereoscopic and autostereoscopic systems, most notably the Cave Automatic Virtual Environment (CAVE). This paper will describe and analyze these technological advancements, discussing both their successes and their challenges in adoption by scientists, engineers, and artists. The narrative will reflect on how these technologies have shaped interdisciplinary collaboration and the evolution of electronic art and visualization techniques over the past fifty years. 
Biography: 
Daniel J. Sandin is director emeritus of the Electronic Visualization Lab (EVL) and a professor emeritus in the School of Art and Design at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). As an artist, he has exhibited worldwide, and has received grants in support of his work from the Rockefeller Foundation, the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Science Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts. His video animation &ldquo;Spiral PTL&rdquo; is in the inaugural collection of video art at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. In 2007 Sandin received the IEEE VGTC Virtual Reality Technical Achievement Award. He went on to develop a series of VR display systems including Varrier, a stereo VR display that does not require 3D glasses, and CAVE2, a large (20-foot) cylindrical display based on LCDs.

EVL&rsquo;s Daniel J. Sandin Named Keynote Speaker at ﻿SD&A

The SAGE3 development team hosts a one-hour Zoom event to introduce the SAGE3 AI-enhanced collaboration platform developed jointly by the University of Hawaii, the University of Illinois at Chicago, and Virginia Tech January 21-23, 2025. 
Funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), SAGE3 is available to a wide range of scientific research & education communities at no charge. SAGE3 enables researchers and educators to seamlessly work together with data and visualizations, across devices - from laptops to large display walls. ﻿﻿Unleash spaces to think, collaborate, analyze, and make decisions with greater speed and confidence. See <a href="https://go.hawaii.edu/a5o">meeting details and registration information</a>. 
To learn more, please register for one of the upcoming 1-hour informational sessions. We will introduce newcomers to SAGE3 and update long-time users about its latest improvements.

SAGE3 AI-Enhanced Collaboration Platform Introduced

EVL alumni Sai Priya Jyothula and Arthur Nishimoto presented their Virtual Reality (VR) research at the 17th International Symposium on Visual Information Communication and Interaction (VINCI'24) held December 11-13, 2024, in Hsinchu, Taiwan. The VR project &ldquo;Hummingbird: Collaborative Virtual Reality for Tele-Immersive Interactive Theater&rdquo; was developed by Daria Tsoupikova, Sai Priya Jyothula, Arthur Nishimoto, Jo Cattell, Andrew Johnson and Lance Long. Their publication documenting the &rsquo;adventure&rsquo; over the years of developing, demonstrating, and engaging audiences in an innovative theater experience is recognized as the &ldquo;Best Art Paper&rdquo; of the Conference. 
VINCI is the premier international forum for researchers and industrial practitioners to discuss the state of the art in visual communication theories, designs, and applications. Visual communication through graphical or sign languages has long been conducted among humans of different backgrounds or cultures and, in recent decades, between humans and machines. In today's digital world, visual information is typically encoded with various metaphors commonly used in daily life to facilitate rapid comprehension and easy analysis during the communication process. Visual information communication generally encompasses information visualization, graphical user interfaces, visual analytics, and visual languages. Visual information is increasingly used to facilitate human-human communication through the Internet and mobile devices.

EVLers Present &ldquo;Hummingbird: Live Theater Adventure Empowering Collaboration in Virtual Reality&rdquo; & Win Best Art Paper Award at VINCI 2024

Candidate: Pantea Habibi 
Date and Time: Friday, November 1, 2024; 3:30 PM - 6:00 PM 
Location: ERF 2068 
Abstract: 
When interacting with large displays, virtual reality, or augmented reality, people often use mid-air gestures. During these touchless interactions, they may need to alternate between hands or use both hands simultaneously. Most individuals have a hand preference, and preferred and non-preferred hands in lateralized individuals perform differently due to cerebral hemispheric specialization. For example, in right-handed individuals, the right hand is typically better at sequential motor tasks - those requiring (sensory) feedback control - whereas the left hand is better at parallel processing or open-loop behavior. In this thesis, we examine how lateral asymmetry impacts user performance in touchless input. My research provides an empirical investigation to characterize touchless performance when using preferred, non-preferred, and both hands. It explores binding the related tasks sequentially and in parallel, as well as different phrase structures, considering how much muscular tension is involved. 
In this work, we compared preferred and non-preferred hand performance in simple and compound tasks, such as pointing and select-and-dragging, respectively. In right-handed individuals, we did not find any significant performance differences between their preferred and non-preferred hands in touchless pointing or dragging. However, between-hand performance differences were significant when using mouse and stylus input. 
Additionally, we studied how phrasing with both hands can support volumetric multi-selection in touchless input. We present an empirical comparison of mid-air multi-selection techniques spanning dominant and non-dominant hand actions. The symmetric-synchronous and high-tension asymmetric-asynchronous bimanual techniques were not significantly different in terms of efficiency, and accuracy for within-reach targets. Furthermore, there were no significant differences between low and high-tension asymmetric-asynchronous bimanual techniques. The symmetric-synchronous bimanual technique was most preferred by users. 
Lastly, we explored how different phrase structures in bimanual phrasing impact compound task performance, such as touchless multi-selection and manipulation (e.g., drag-and-drop). Our findings revealed that while accuracy remained consistent across different tension levels, higher tension led to faster completion times through continuous gesture engagement. Interestingly, participants preferred half-tension phrasing for its ergonomic balance, as it minimized fatigue without compromising efficiency. These empirical findings can inform the design of future bimanual and multimodal interaction techniques involving touchless input.

PhD Dissertation Announcement: &ldquo;Understanding Lateral Asymmetry in Touchless Interaction&rdquo;

EVL faculty and UIC Design Professor Daria Tsoupikova is featured in the Fall 2024 College Engineering RISE magazine issue. The article covers Daria&rsquo; collaboration with the Chicago Design Archive and Columbia College Chicago.   The project entitled &ldquo;Chicago Design Milestones 1920-2019&rdquo; focuses on design milestones in the city of Chicago from 1920-2019.  The media design installation features 3,200 examples of design work done in the city, and premiered on the 150 Media Stream screens in the lobby of 150 North Riverside Plaza on the Chicago River July 1, 2019.

EVL’s SAGE Research Among Top 10 Innovations from UIC

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