The interlinked tori are an example where data would be represented by both the AM and FM components. Data regarding the tori radii and relative positioning would be contained within the Active Metadata mechanism. The surface meshes would naturally be represented by Field Model objects.

This demo presents technologies from two complementary projects, Active Metadata (AM) and Field Model (FM).

AM: Metadata -- data about data -- play an essential role in science. Typical metadata include experimental parameters, initial conditions, preliminary distillations of raw data, and so on. Traditionally, metadata have been recorded in lab notebooks; the integration of metadata and analysis tools has tended to be ad hoc and manual at best. An Ames team is developing a prototype using metadata to actively direct and enhance data analysis. The team envisions analysis tools that can automatically read and write metadata, utilizing the accumulated information to provide more
efficient and effective analyses.

The Field Model (FM) project is an effort to develop a common data model for field data. The FM design contains several features that make it particularly well-suited for the analysis of very large data sets, including a consistent demand-driven evaluation philosophy throughout. The team is implementing FM using templated C++ in order to achieve both object-oriented advantages and
high performance.

Together, the two projects will provide a more complete solution for the scientist. Field Model provides an efficient, extensible mechanism for handling large field data. Active Metadata provides the means to store and utilize the associated metadata, data that are typically much smaller in size but far more diverse in structure.

Additional information on AM/FM