FROM: Alan Scrivener, Human Interface Prototypes
  TO: David Warner, Mindtel, LLC
DATE: 11-30-01 [last update 11-29-01 9:27 PM]
  RE: progress report, Magic/Discover Project

First of all I want to say what a priveledge it is to be able
to participate in this project, and to contribute my skills to
the defense of San Diego, America and the world.

Prior to Sep. 11th I was already accumulating information on Biotech
companies for the purpose of marketing my business services to them,
and just because I enjoy geography, dabble in GIS and have a GPS
receiver, I was acquiring the coordinates for each location.

This already caused my focus to mainly be on the "golden traingle"
region of San Diego and La Jolla, roughly defined as everything
within a mile of the triangle formed by I-5, I-805 and Cal-52.

street map of the golden triangle of San Diego and La Jolla

After the Sep. 11th and the beginning of the anthrax attacks,
I offered my services to Dave Warner at Mindeltel for San Diego
homeland security, specifically the biotech assets.

Progress so far has included:

  • Receiving software and data from others on the Magic/Discover project, especially the Hawaii data gathering, and testing and exploring with what I have received.
  • Receiving NetaTools software and Thing hardware, learning to use it and teaching it to others just to be sure.
  • Participating in architecture and rendering design discussions via email.
  • Discovering sources of satellite photo data and learning how it is organized, and experimenting with it.

    7 and 1/2 minute "quads" of San Diego, as defined by USGS

    terraserver mosaic photos of the golden triangle of San Diego and La Jolla

    higher-res terraserver mosaic photos of the golden triangle of San Diego and La Jolla
  • Using the AVS software environment on Linux to rapidly prototye data displays and to do usability studies.


    AVS flow network editor
  • Experimenting with parater-controlled rendering of 3D primitives in AVS.

    parameter-driven torus module in AVS allows control of size, two radius values, number of facets, color, texture and orientation
  • Experimenting with plotting 3D primitives on satellite photo data, to understand issuses of callibration and scaling.

    colored sphere primitives plotted aginst terraserver mosaic photos of the golden triangle
  • Currently planning to plot non-sensitive data with obvious analogies to bio-threat scenarios: location of fast-food restaurants in golden triangle and nutritional value of their foods, visualized as linked colored rings.

    sketch of plan to visualize nutrtion of fast foods in golden triangle as linked rings
  • Researching ways to represent uncertainty in data, such as this paper found at the IEEE Visualization Conference 2001 in San Diego.

    illustration and caption from Visualizing 2D Probability Distributions from EOS Satellite Image-Derived Datasets: A Case Study by Kao, Dungan and Pang, IEEE Visualization 2001
  • Researching the history of probability theory and its roots in gambling, to look for ways to represent uncertainty. Found (on a side trip while in Las Vegas for the COMDEX computer conference) a museum of antique slot machines and got some books about them.

    antique slot machines show evolution of design
    from single "wheel of fortune" to three-reeled "one-armed bandit"
    This lead to several ideas.
  • Came up with way to visualize probablities from 0.1 to 1.0 as a pie chart that changes over time. On-line help for this display will show the pie spinning like a wheel of fortune.

    proposal to visualize probablities from 0.0 to 1.0 as pie slices
  • In the book: Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Consequences by John Allen Paulos, he introduces the concept of a Richter Scale of Risk, the log to base 10 of the odds against. A 1 in 1000 chance of death has a Risk Factor of 3. from A Richter Scale for Risks: Professor John Paling, a former Oxford University biologist now working as a risk analyst in the States, believes that half- understood health scares will periodically dominate the media until we develop an accessible means of quantifying relative risks. He has formulated a Richter Scale For Risks as a way of putting anxieties into perspective. "In order for the public to understand the relative levels of risk, there must be some way of comparing new levels of risk in daily life and those we are already familiar with", he said. He got the idea when he saw a woman smoking while trying to find out the benefits of buying a water-purification kit. (See also A lifetime of risk.) Came up with idea of representing small risks as a slot machine display. As in "Dungeons and Dragons" role playing games, one must randomly get a number higher than the risk number to avoid the risk. The number of reels is a rough approximation of the Richter Scale of Risk.

    proposal to visualize small probablities (less than 10%) as slot machine displays
  • When the media report survey results and risk factor, they often talk about "margin of error." But statisticians tell us there is a second important number, which is the confidence level, a probablity from 0 to 1. From a glossary of social statistics: confidence interval The range within which it can be inferred that a population mean lies, with some specified degree of confidence. For example, the 95 per cent confidence interval is the range within which we can be confident that the population mean can be found. It is equal to the sample mean plus or minus 1.96 standard errors. confidence level The probability that a population mean lies within an interval. For example, at the 95 per cent confidence level, the population mean lies within plus or minus 1.96 standard errors of the sample mean (see confidence interval). Came up with the idea of combining the pie chart and slot machine visulaizations, to show both confidence interval and confidence level.
  • Continuing to acquire data on potential targets in San Diego and add to geographical database.
  • 
    ACADIA Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
    Acculaser
    Acon Laboratories
    ActivX Biosciences, Inc.
    Advanced Targeting Systems, Inc.
    Advanced Tissue Sciences
    Agouron Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a Pfizer Co.
    Alaris Medical Systems
    Alexion Antibody Technologies, Inc.
    Alliance Pharmaceutical Corp.
    Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
    Anadys Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
    Ancile Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
    AndroScience Corp.
    antennas for KFMB-TV 8, KGTV 10, KGTV-DT 25, KFMB-DT 55
    Applied Gene Technologies
    Applied Molecular Evolution - AME
    Arena Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
    Arizeke Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
    ATOPIX Pharmaceuticals Corporation
    Aurora Biosciences Corporation
    Avanir Pharmaceuticals
    Avanir Pharmaceuticals
    Aventa Biosciences Corp.
    Aviva Biosciences
    Axiom Biotechnologies, Inc.
    BD Biosciences PharMingen
    Biopraxis, Inc.
    Biosite Diagnostics Inc.
    Biota, Inc.
    CancerVax Corporation
    Canji, Inc.
    Celgene Corp., Signal Research Division
    Cell Genesys
    Ceregene, Inc.
    Chromagen, Inc.
    Chugai Biopharmaceuticals, Inc.
    CIStem Molecular Corporation
    Collateral Therapeutics, Inc.
    Conforma Therapeutics
    Cortex Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
    Corvas Int'l
    County of San Diego Health and Human Services Agancy
    Cypress Biosciences, Inc.
    Cyternex, Inc.
    CyThera, Inc.
    Dermatrends Inc.
    Digirad Corporation
    Digital Gene Technologies Inc.
    Diversa
    DuPont Pharmaceuticals Research Laboratories
    eBiosciences
    Egea Biosciences, Inc.
    Elan Pharmaceuticals
    Elitra Pharmaceuticals
    Endonetics
    Immusol, Inc.
    Invitrogen Corporation
    Jack in the Box Inc.
    National Steel and Shipbuilding Company (NASSCO),
      one of three shipyards in the Marine Systems group of
      General Dynamics Corporation
    San Diego Fire Communications/Dispatch Center
    San Diego Fire Repair Facility
    San Diego Fire Station 9
    San Diego Fire Station 21
    San Diego Fire Station 24
    San Diego Fire Station 27
    San Diego Fire Station 28
    San Diego Fire Station 35
    San Diego Fire Station 36
    San Diego Fire Station 41
    San Diego Fire Station 44
    San Diego Police, Northern Division
    San Diego Police, Carmel Valley Storefront
    San Diego Police, Clairemont Storefront
    San Diego Police, Pacific Beach Storefront
    San Diego Police, La Jolla Satellite
    San Diego Police, La Jolla Satellite
    Structural GenomiX
    Tx Selective Genetics

    a sampling of the places for which we are assembling geo-located data in San Diego