These images have nothing to do with physical visualizations: they are not data-driven but abstract, and they are not even physical but instead photo-realistic computer-generated images. However, these images from digital artist Lee Griggs give an idea of what physical visualizations may look like in the near future once we overcome the limitations of today's digital fabrication technology: they will be visually and haptically elaborate, colorful, rich, and beautiful. Make sure you look at the full-res images. Sources: Colin Lecher (2014) This artist's colorful renderings look like Atlantis - Cities made from code. Lee Griggs (2014) XGen rendered with Arnold for Maya.

As part of the VIS'14 Workshop Death of the Desktop, infovis researcher Wesley Willett imagines how nano drone swarms may be used in 2033 both to capture and visualize data directly in the real world: At barely 1.5 centimeters across, each Cetonia scarab is a marvel of precision engineering. Designed from the ground up for agile flight, their integrated hydrogen chambers and a high-efficiency hover mode permit 15+ minutes of air time between charges. The hueSHIFT carapace is capable of displaying over 22 million possible colors and provides clear visual feedback in day or night with visibilities up to 1.5 kilometers. Integrated camera and sensor arrays permit full 6D reconstructions with composition profiling. From your wrist or a personal field station you can quickly deploy flights in automated formations to survey, measure, record, and manipulate almost anything. Source: Wesley Willett (2014) Cetonia - A Dynamic Swarm at your Fingertips.

In 1965 Ivan Sutherland already mentioned programmable matter as the ultimate computer display: The ultimate display would, of course, be a room within which the computer can control the existence of matter. A chair displayed in such a room would be good enough to sit in. Handcuffs displayed in such a room would be confining, and a bullet displayed in such a room would be fatal. With appropriate programming such a display could literally be the Wonderland into which Alice walked. Several research labs have been exploring ways to implement programmable matter through nanoscale robotics. This line of research goes by many names: dynamic physical rendering, smart dust, synthetic reality, utility fog, radical atoms or programmable matter. Looking at current publications and demos, we are far from being there yet. But in a few decades, we will have physical displays that offer full control over their shape, color and other material properties. Cephalopods won't feel alone anymore. With programmable matter, physical visualizations will be able to accomodate any data set, they will be fully dynamic and interactive, and will allow both data analysts and lay people to perform complex data exploration tasks. Plugins will be available that will let people play with several of the physical visualizations listed here, in their original physical form. The two concept videos above show how some designers and scientists envision interaction with programmable matter in a 3D modelling context. The first one is from the Carnegie Mellon University, the second one is from the MIT Media Lab. Will programmable also be free floating, as we've seen in movies? Sources: Sutherland (1965) The Ultimate Display. Carnegie Mellon University (2004) Claytronics. Hiroshi Ishii et al (2012) Radical Atoms: Beyond Tangible Bits, Toward Transformable Materials.