Integrated control of distributed volume visaulization through the World-Wide-Web

The World-Wide-Web (WWW) has created a new paradigm for online information retrieval by providing immediate and ubiquitous access to digital information of any type from data repositories located throughout the world. The web's development enables not only effective access for the generic user but also more efficient and timely information exchange among scientists and researchers. We have extended the capabilities of the web to include access to three-dimensional volume data sets with integrated control of a distributed client-server volume visualization system. This paper provides a brief background on the World-Wide-Web, an overview of the extensions necessary to support these new data types and a description of an implementation of this approach in a WWW-compliant distributed visualization system. >