Decision Theater is an advanced visualization center and immersive 3D theater environment equipped with interactive tools for collaborative decision making. It is a research center for model and simulation development with a focus on the integration of disparate datasets, bringing transparency and clarity to interconnections within complex systems. The Decision Theater facilitates multiple stakeholder decision making by integrating dynamic visualization, computation, and modeling efforts.
Technology
The Decision Theater facilitates participant input, interactivity, and immersion. The core component, called the Drum, accommodates up to 25 guests and features a 260-degree screen displaying panoramic computer graphics.
Decision Theater’s innovative Complex System Framework (CSF) is the computational brawn that drives DT’s modeling and simulation efforts. With the use of sophisticated dependency mapping, theCSF illuminates the interconnections between multiple, traditionally separated research efforts while overcoming format incompatibility issues between datasets.
The CSF’s design is capable of harmonizing the power of multiple computational models operating concurrently and enabling the creation of linked graphical dashboards. This permits interactivity within multi-screen environments and through external integrated mobile devices.
Utilization of parallel computing clusters allows for near-real time outputs while avoiding the processing delays experienced in most computing centers. Further, the integration of tablets and mobile devices allows for simultaneous use of models in multiple locations.
The Decision Theater has designed a mobile system utilizing off-the-shelf technology, via a high speed internet connection, the deployment of our unique visualizations and modeling tools at off-site locations and crisis situations.
Locations
The first ASU Decision Theater opened in 2005 on the Tempe Campus. The second location will open in Fall 2012 as part of the McCain Institute for International Leadership at ASU in Washington, D.C.
In addition to these locations, ASU has established The Global Decision Theater Alliance (GDTA), which is an interconnected network of institutions utilizing the Decision Theater framework at multiple locations in China with emerging centers in Bangalore, India; Denver, Colorado; Monterrey, Mexico; France; and Dubai.
