visual computing

Visual computing is computing that lets you interact with and control work by manipulating visual images either as direct work objects or as objects representing other objects that are not necessarily visual themselves. The visual images can be photographs, 3-D scenes, video sequences, block diagrams, or simple icons. The term is generally used to describe either (or both) of these:

1. Any computer environment in which a visual paradigm rather than a conventional (text) paradigm is used
2. Applications that deal with large or numerous image files, such as video sequences and 3-D scenes

Intel's 64-bit Itanium microprocessor was marketed as portending a new era of visual computing at your workstation. High-bandwidth networks will help support visual computing, especially the shipping around of large amounts of video.