Minerva: Applied Software Engineering for XR

Abstract

This article describes Minerva (Multiuser Intuitive Exploitation and Visualization), a proof of concept demonstrating a dynamic multiuser alternative to traditional file-oriented intelligence processing and dissemination pipelines. The main goal of the effort was to enable multiple clients to look at the same data in the ways that worked best for them depending on the type of device they were using. Although Minerva did not evolve into a fully developed software product, the team of developers at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) created a functional prototype and demonstrated effective use of standards and microservices for hosting and streaming static content. APL teams are applying the lessons learned from this effort to other projects seeking to take advantage of XR to improve traditional data production and representation pipelines.