DevLan/vispubs huggingface dataset:
Visualization of Topological Defects in Nematic Liquid Crystals Using Streamtubes, Streamsurfaces and Ellipsoids
Authors: Vadim A. Slavin, David H. Laidlaw, Robert Pelcovits, Song Zhang 0004, George Loriot, Andrew Callan-Jones
Published at Vis, 2004

Researchers in computational condensed matter physics deal with complex data sets consisting of time varying 3D tensor, vector, and scalar quantities. Particularly, in the research of topological defects in nematic liquid crystals (LC) displaying the results of the computer simulation of molecular dynamics presents a challenge. Combining existing immersive and interactive visualization methods we developed new methods that attempt to provide a clear, efficient, and intuitive way to visualize and explore LC data. In addition, the visualization of the data has presented us with a novel method of obtaining the locations of the topological defects present in a liquid crystal system.
Visualization of Vortices in Simulated Airflow around Bat Wings During Flight
Authors: Eduardo Hueso, Igor Pivkin, Sharon Swartz, David H. Laidlaw, George Em Karniadakis, Kenneth Breuer
Published at Vis, 2004

Introduction: We present visualizations that emphasize vortices in simulated airflow around a motion-captured bat model. These visualizations aim to help biologists gain understanding on the mechanics of bat flight. As suggested by our fluid dynamics collaborators, studying the formation and shedding of vortices in the flight of bats will help scientists understand the efficient mechanisms bats employ in generating lift. By understanding bat flight, we hope to make discoveries in areas such as biomechanics, aerodynamics, and evolutionary biology. This work is the time varying extension of R. Weinstein’s simulation and visualization of a still bat [7].
Visualizing Botanical Trees over Four Seasons
Authors: Derek Bradley
Published at Vis, 2004

Visualizing the growth process of botanical trees over the spring, summer, fall and winter seasons along with the natural effects of wind, ice and rain on the trees can be a useful tool for scientific research or even artistic display. This paper presents a method for visualizing the growth process of different botanical tree species over the four seasons of a year. The proposed method uses a data model to store a random three-dimensional tree and quickly render it using interactive 3D real-time animation. The tree model contains operations to sprout leaves and grow in the spring and summer, and to change the color of the leaves in the fall, which eventually fall off for the winter. This process can then be repeated interactively to show the full life cycle of a botanical tree. The extension of the system to realistically handle natural weather effects will also be outlined. Tree growth is based on a set of stochastic parameters that can be modified to produce different tree species. Results show efficient real-time animations of realistic looking random botanical trees.
Visualizing competitive behaviors in multi-user virtual environments
Authors: Nate Hoobler, Greg Humphreys, Maneesh Agrawala
Published at Vis, 2004

We present a system for enhancing observation of user interactions in virtual environments. In particular, we focus on analyzing behavior patterns in the popular team-based first-person perspective game Return to Castle Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory. This game belongs to a genre characterized by two moderate-sized teams (usually 6 to 12 players each) competing over a set of objectives. Our system allows spectators to visualize global features such as large-scale behaviors and team strategies, as opposed to the limited, local view that traditional spectating modes provide. We also add overlay visualizations of semantic information related to the action that might be important to a spectator in order to reduce the information overload that plagues traditional overview visualizations. These overlays can visualize information about abstract concepts such as player distribution over time and areas of intense combat activity, and also highlight important features like player paths, fire coverage, etc. This added information allows spectators to identify important game events more easily and reveals large-scale player behaviors that might otherwise be overlooked.
Visualizing cortical waves and timing from data
Authors: Kay A. Robbins, Mark A. Robinson, David M. Senseman
Published at Vis, 2004

Waves are a fundamental mechanism for conveying information in many physical problems. Direct visualization techniques are often used to display wave fronts. However, the information derived from such visualizations may not be as central to an investigation as an understanding of how the location, structure and time course of the wave change as key experimental parameters are varied. In experimental data, these questions are confounded by noise and incomplete data. Recognition of waves in networks of neurons is additionally complicated by the presence of long-range physical connections and recurrent excitation. This work applies visual techniques to analyze the structural details of waves in response data from the turtle visual cortex. We emphasize low-cost visualizations that allow comparisons across neural data sets and variables to reconstruct the choreography for a complex response.
Visualizing gyrokinetic simulations
Authors: David Crawford, Kwan-Liu Ma, Min-Yu Huang, Scott Klasky, Stéphane Ethier
Published at Vis, 2004

The continuing advancement of plasma science is central to realizing fusion as an inexpensive and safe energy source. Gryokinetic simulations of plasmas are fundamental to the understanding of turbulent transport in fusion plasma. This work discusses the visualization challenges presented by gyrokinetic simulations using magnetic field line following coordinates, and presents an effective solution exploiting programmable graphics hardware to enable interactive volume visualization of 3D plasma flow on a toroidal coordinate system. The new visualization capability can help scientists better understand three-dimensional structures of the modeled phenomena. Both the limitations and future promise of the hardware-accelerated approach are also discussed.
Visualizing the Energetics of the Dissociation of a Metastable Molecule
Authors: David Guzman, Reuben Reyes, Karla Vega, Kelly P. Gaither, Robert Wyatt
Published at Vis, 2004

Introduction Shown in Figure 1 is the simulation of the energetics of the dissociation of a metastable molecule. The simulation was computed by Dr. Robert Wyatt, a Professor of Chemistry at The University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Wyatt’s simulation uses a model molecule composed of two fragments, A and B. Starting from the molecular state AB, the simulation computes the probability that, under any given conditions, AB will dissociate into the separated components A + B. This may seem like a toy problem, but in real life many molecules demonstrate metastable behavior--a propensity to dissociate--and the work that this simulation is doing may ultimately have an impact on studies of the energetics of larger molecules. An important class of these is biomolecular. This work may be particularly applicable to energy transfer problems in biological systems.
Visualizing the Evolution of Horned Lizards Using 3D Morphing Techniques
Authors: Reuben Reyes, Wendy L. Hodges, Kelly P. Gaither
Published at Vis, 2004

Introduction Reconstructing the evolutionary history of diverse species is a basic goal of systematic biology and is essential to comparative biology. Phylogenies representing this history are constructed from the analyses of molecular or morphological data and used as tools for understanding the evolution of complex traits. Objectives of this research are to create visualization tools that dynamically reconstruct horn morphology in three-dimensions (3D) for horned lizards and show how changes occur along a phylogeny via metamorphosis (morphing). These objectives will be met by incorporating results from phylogenetic analyses with ancestral trait reconstructions applied to 3-D images generated from a highresolution x-ray computed tomography (CT) scanner. Ancestral reconstruction algorithms are incorporated with nonlinear morphing to accommodate different rates of change along and between lineages. The application of 3-D morphing to systematics and ancestral reconstruction is a novel approach in visualization methods and opens a new realm of collaborative learning and discovery. We believe these tools will provide a greater understanding of how complex traits have evolved by allowing scientists to peer into the past, to see what ancestral states look like, and to visualize changes through time.
Visualizing Turbulent Flow
Authors: Gregory P. Johnson, Kelly P. Gaither, Victor M. Calo
Published at Vis, 2004

Introduction The images shown in Figure 1 display a single time step of a turbulent flow simulation computed by Dr. Thomas J. R. Hughes, Professor of Aerospace Engineering, and Victor Calo at The University of Texas at Austin. This research examines how a fluid running over a flat plate suddenly becomes turbulent. The smooth flow seen at the left-hand side of the volume has low-amplitude fluctuations that interact with the smooth, laminar boundary layer of the fluid. As the energy of the fluctuations is convected downward into the boundary layer, there is a sudden explosion of the entire flow into turbulence. The left-most image of Figure 1 displays the left to right nature of the fluid as it passes over the flat plate, showing the turbulent boundary layer. The middle image shows the volumetric flow with sheet of particles inserted at designated locations to show increasing turbulent behavior. The right-most image in Figure 1 is a close up of particle sheets showing local velocity fluctuations inside the turbulent boundary layer.
Vol-a-Tile - A Tool for Interactive Exploration of Large Volumetric Data on Scalable Tiled Displays
Authors: Nicholas Schwarz, Shalini Venkataraman, Luc Renambot, Naveen K. Krishnaprasad, Venkatram Vishwanath, Jason Leigh, Andrew E. Johnson 0001, Graham Kent, Atul Nayak
Published at Vis, 2004

We present the current state of Vol-a-Tile, an interactive tool for exploring large volumetric data on scalable tiled displays. Vol-a-Tile presents a variety of features employed by scientists at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography on data collected from the Anatomy of a Ridge-Axis Discontinuity seismic experiment. Hardware texture mapping and level-of-detail techniques provide interactivity. A high-performance network protocol is used to connect remote data sources over high-bandwidth photonic networks.
Volume refinement fairing isosurfaces
Authors: Martin Hering-Bertram
Published at Vis, 2004

We propose an interpolating refinement method for two- and three-dimensional scalar fields defined on hexahedral grids. Iterative fairing of the underlying contours (isosurfaces) provides the function values of new grid points. Our method can be considered as a nonlinear variational subdivision scheme for volumes. It can be applied locally for adaptive mesh refinement in regions of high geometric complexity. We use our scheme to increase the quality of low-resolution data sets and to reduce interpolation artifacts in texture-based volume rendering.
Vorticity based flow analysis and visualization for Pelton turbine design optimization
Authors: Filip Sadlo, Ronald Peikert, Etienne Parkinson
Published at Vis, 2004

Vorticity is the quantity used to describe the creation, transformation and extinction of vortices. It is present not only in vortices but also in shear flow. Especially in ducted flows, most of the overall vorticity is usually contained in the boundary layer. When a vortex develops from the boundary layer, this can be described by transport of vorticity. For a better understanding of a flow it is therefore of interest to examine vorticity in all of its different roles. The goal of this application study was not primarily the visualization of vortices but of vorticity distribution and its role in vortex phenomena. The underlying industrial case is a design optimization for a Pelton turbine. An important industrial objective is to improve the quality of the water jets driving the runner. Jet quality is affected mostly by vortices originating in the distributor ring. For a better understanding of this interrelation, it is crucial to not only visualize these vortices but also to analyze the mechanisms of their creation. We used various techniques for the visualization of vorticity, including field lines and modified isosurfaces. For field line based visualization, we extended the image-guided streamline placement algorithm of Turk and Banks to data-guided field line placement on three-dimensional unstructured grids.
A Comparison of the Readability of Graphs Using Node-Link and Matrix-Based Representations
Authors: Mohammad Ghoniem, Jean-Daniel Fekete, Philippe Castagliola
Published at InfoVis, 2004

In this paper, we describe a taxonomy of generic graph related tasks and an evaluation aiming at assessing the readability of two representations of graphs: matrix-based representations and node-link diagrams. This evaluation bears on seven generic tasks and leads to important recommendations with regard to the representation of graphs according to their size and density. For instance, we show that when graphs are bigger than twenty vertices, the matrix-based visualization performs better than node-link diagrams on most tasks. Only path finding is consistently in favor of node-link diagrams throughout the evaluation
A History Mechanism for Visual Data Mining
Authors: Matthias Kreuseler, Thomas Nocke, Heidrun Schumann
Published at InfoVis, 2004

A major challenge of current visualization and visual data mining (VDM) frameworks is to support users in the orientation in complex visual mining scenarios. An important aspect to increase user support and user orientation is to use a history mechanism that, first of all, provides un- and redoing functionality. In this paper, we present a new approach to include such history functionality into a VDM framework. Therefore, we introduce the theoretical background, outline design and implementation aspects of a history management unit, and conclude with a discussion showing the usefulness of our history management in a VDM framework
A Knowledge Task-Based Framework for Design and Evaluation of Information Visualizations
Authors: Robert A. Amar, John T. Stasko
Published at InfoVis, 2004

The design and evaluation of most current information visualization systems descend from an emphasis on a user's ability to "unpack" the representations of data of interest and operate on them independently. Too often, successful decision-making and analysis are more a matter of serendipity and user experience than of intentional design and specific support for such tasks; although humans have considerable abilities in analyzing relationships from data, the utility of visualizations remains relatively variable across users, data sets, and domains. In this paper, we discuss the notion of analytic gaps, which represent obstacles faced by visualizations in facilitating higher-level analytic tasks, such as decision-making and learning. We discuss support for bridging the analytic gap, propose a framework for design and evaluation of information visualization systems, and demonstrate its use
A Rank-by-Feature Framework for Unsupervised Multidimensional Data Exploration Using Low Dimensional Projections
Authors: Jinwook Seo, Ben Shneiderman
Published at InfoVis, 2004

Exploratory analysis of multidimensional data sets is challenging because of the difficulty in comprehending more than three dimensions. Two fundamental statistical principles for the exploratory analysis are (1) to examine each dimension first and then find relationships among dimensions, and (2) to try graphical displays first and then find numerical summaries (D.S. Moore, (1999). We implement these principles in a novel conceptual framework called the rank-by-feature framework. In the framework, users can choose a ranking criterion interesting to them and sort 1D or 2D axis-parallel projections according to the criterion. We introduce the rank-by-feature prism that is a color-coded lower-triangular matrix that guides users to desired features. Statistical graphs (histogram, boxplot, and scatterplot) and information visualization techniques (overview, coordination, and dynamic query) are combined to help users effectively traverse 1D and 2D axis-parallel projections, and finally to help them interactively find interesting features
An Associative Information Visualizer
Authors: Howard D. White, Xia Lin, Jan W. Buzydlowski
Published at InfoVis, 2004

The following item is made available as a courtesy to scholars by the author(s) and Drexel University Library and may contain materials and content, including computer code and tags, artwork, text, graphics, images, and illustrations (Material) which may be protected by copyright law. Unless otherwise noted, the Material is made available for non profit and educational purposes, such as research, teaching and private study. For these limited purposes, you may reproduce (print, download or make copies) the Material without prior permission. All copies must include any copyright notice originally included with the Material. You must seek permission from the authors or copyright owners for all uses that are not allowed by fair use and other provisions of the U.S. Copyright Law. The responsibility for making an independent legal assessment and securing any necessary permission rests with persons desiring to reproduce or use the Material.
An Evaluation of Microarray Visualization Tools for Biological Insight
Authors: Purvi Saraiya, Chris North 0001, Karen Duca
Published at InfoVis, 2004

High-throughput experiments such as gene expression microarrays in the life sciences result in large datasets. In response, a wide variety of visualization tools have been created to facilitate data analysis. Biologists often face a dilemma in choosing the best tool for their situation. The tool that works best for one biologist may not work well for another due to differences in the type of insight they seek from their data. A primary purpose of a visualization tool is to provide domain-relevant insight into the data. Ideally, any user wants maximum information in the least possible time. In this paper we identify several distinct characteristics of insight that enable us to recognize and quantify it. Based on this, we empirically evaluate five popular microarray visualization tools. Our conclusions can guide biologists in selecting the best tool for their data, and computer scientists in developing and evaluating visualizations
An Experimental Investigation of Magnification Lens Offset and Its Impact on Imagery Analysis
Authors: Erika Darling, Chris Newbern, Nikhil Kalghatgi, Aaron Burgman, Kristine Recktenwald
Published at InfoVis, 2004

A digital lens is a user interface mechanism that is a potential solution to information mangement problems. We investigated the use of digital lensing applied to imagery analysis. Participants completed three different types of tasks (locate, follow, and compare) using a magnification lens with three different degrees of offset (aligned, adjacent, and docked) over a high-resolution aerial photo. Although no lens offset mode was significantly better than another, most participants preferred the adjacent mode for the locate and compare tasks, and the docked mode for the follow tasks. This paper describes the results of a user study of magnification lenses and provides new insights into preferences of and interactions with digital lensing.
ARNA: Interactive Comparison and Alignment of RNA Secondary Structure
Authors: Gerald Gainant, David Auber
Published at InfoVis, 2004

ARNA is an interactive visualization system that supports comparison and alignment of RNA secondary structure. We present a new approach to RNA alignment that exploits the complex structure of the Smith-Waterman local distance matrix, allowing people to explore the space of possible partial alignments to discover a good global solution. The modular software architecture separates the user interface from computation, allowing the possibility of incorporating different alignment algorithms into the same framework.
Artifacts of the Presence Era: Using Information Visualization to Create an Evocative Souvenir
Authors: Fernanda B. Viégas, Ethan Perry, Ethan Howe, Judith S. Donath
Published at InfoVis, 2004

We present Artifacts of the Presence Era, a digital installation that uses a geological metaphor to visualize the events in a physical space over time. The piece captures video and audio from a museum and constructs an impressionistic visualization of the evolving history in the space. Instead of creating a visualization tool for data analysis, we chose to produce a piece that functions as a souvenir of a particular time and place. We describe the design choices we made in creating this installation, the visualization techniques we developed, and the reactions we observed from users and the media. We suggest that the same approach can be applied to a more general set of visualization contexts, ranging from email archives to newsgroups conversations
BinX: Dynamic Exploration of Time Series Datasets Across Aggregation Levels
Authors: Lior Berry, Tamara Munzner
Published at InfoVis, 2004

Many fields of study produce time series datasets, and both the size and number of theses datasets are increasing rapidly due to the improvement of data accumulation methods such as small, cheap sensors and routine logging of events. Humans often fail to comprehend the structure of a long time series dataset because of the overwhelming amount of data and the range of different time scales at which there may be meaningful patterns. BinX is an interactive tool that provides dynamic visualization and manipulation of long time series datasets. The dataset is visualized through user controlled aggregation, augmented by various information visualization techniques.
Building Highly-Coordinated Visualizations in Improvise
Authors: Chris E. Weaver
Published at InfoVis, 2004

Improvise is a fully-implemented system in which users build and browse multiview visualizations interactively using a simple shared-object coordination mechanism coupled with a flexible, expression-based visual abstraction language. By coupling visual abstraction with coordination, users gain precise control over how navigation and selection in the visualization affects the appearance of data in individual views. As a result, it is practical to build visualizations with more views and richer coordination in Improvise than in other visualization systems. Building and browsing activities are integrated in a single, live user interface that lets users alter visualizations quickly and incrementally during data exploration
Case Study: Visualizing Visualization
Authors: Frank van Ham
Published at InfoVis, 2004

In this case study we attempt to visualize a real-world dataset consisting of 600 recently published information visualization papers and their references. This is done by first creating a global layout of the entire graph that preserves any cluster structure present. We then use this layout as a basis to define a hierarchical clustering. The clusters in this hierarchy are labelled using keywords supplied with the dataset, allowing insight into the clusters semantics.