Is RoamBi for iPhone a Useful Tool for Visualizing Scientific Data?

By joel at Wed, May 20 2009 12:46am |

Today I came across the RoamBi App for iPhone and was admittedly impressed with its visualization capabilities. Apparently you can upload spreadsheet-based data to their web application and visualize it in a remote, interactive manner using the iPhone application. I had never heard of RoamBi before the iPhone app came on to my radar, but it appears they are primarily targeting their product to business users.

Although I haven't come across any scientific examples on the RoamBi site, it's not hard to imagine at least a few simple uses for such a service in science. For example, I often find myself referencing data from papers I previously published and often find myself trying to recreate the chart in the air using odd gesticulations, or through back-of-the-napkin scribbles. I think it would be great if I could upload barcharts and other data from previous papers that I could display and interact with on my iPhone on-demand. Can you think of any other scientific utility for a RoamBi like visualization application for iPhone.

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Wed, 2009-05-20 03:21 — sunfrost

Seems like a very useful

Seems like a very useful tool outside the business context as well.

Does it to simple XY plots as well? From a first look it only does piecharts, timeseries (like stock exchange stuff) and barplots. If it has simple XY or even XYZ plotting this would be a killer app.

Thu, 2009-05-21 12:44 — qalsbury

Absolutely!

Hey joel,

I am one of the founders, and the lead product designer from MeLLmo, makers of RoamBi. I just ran across your post and want answer with an emphatic yes, RoamBi can used very effectively for certain types of scientific data. Please feel free to email me directly with any questions, ideas, and other feedback you may have. I can also get you a much better screenshot to put with the article! : )

Thanks for your time.

Thu, 2009-05-21 12:51 — drc

Showcase

Hi,

Why not submit a "Showcase" article, like a review but written by the developer. I'd be very interested in seeing how it has been used.

Thu, 2009-06-04 22:20 — slashj

Not enough plot types for scientific purposes?

It looks really cool and I can see it can be quite handy.
But I agree with sunfrost, the current plot types are geared towards business and it need some xyz, scatter style plots.

Mon, 2009-06-22 07:05 — Polli

Useful

Now that really looks like something that will be a useful tool. I'm off to give it a go. Something tells me it will be a brilliant iPhone application. casino en ligne