DevLan/vispubs huggingface dataset:
Curve-Centric Volume Reformation for Comparative Visualization
Authors: Ove Daae Lampe, Carlos D. Correa, Kwan-Liu Ma, Helwig Hauser
Published at Vis, 2009

We present two visualization techniques for curve-centric volume reformation with the aim to create compelling comparative visualizations. A curve-centric volume reformation deforms a volume, with regards to a curve in space, to create a new space in which the curve evaluates to zero in two dimensions and spans its arc-length in the third. The volume surrounding the curve is deformed such that spatial neighborhood to the curve is preserved. The result of the curve-centric reformation produces images where one axis is aligned to arc-length, and thus allows researchers and practitioners to apply their arc-length parameterized data visualizations in parallel for comparison. Furthermore we show that when visualizing dense data, our technique provides an inside out projection, from the curve and out into the volume, which allows for inspection what is around the curve. Finally we demonstrate the usefulness of our techniques in the context of two application cases. We show that existing data visualizations of arc-length parameterized data can be enhanced by using our techniques, in addition to creating a new view and perspective on volumetric data around curves. Additionally we show how volumetric data can be brought into plotting environments that allow precise readouts. In the first case we inspect streamlines in a flow field around a car, and in the second we inspect seismic volumes and well logs from drilling.
Decoupling Illumination from Isosurface Generation Using 4D Light Transport
Authors: David C. Banks, Kevin Beason
Published at Vis, 2009

One way to provide global illumination for the scientist who performs an interactive sweep through a 3D scalar dataset is to pre-compute global illumination, resample the radiance onto a 3D grid, then use it as a 3D texture. The basic approach of repeatedly extracting isosurfaces, illuminating them, and then building a 3D illumination grid suffers from the non-uniform sampling that arises from coupling the sampling of radiance with the sampling of isosurfaces. We demonstrate how the illumination step can be decoupled from the isosurface extraction step by illuminating the entire 3D scalar function as a 3-manifold in 4-dimensional space. By reformulating light transport in a higher dimension, one can sample a 3D volume without requiring the radiance samples to aggregate along individual isosurfaces in the pre-computed illumination grid.
Depth-Dependent Halos: Illustrative Rendering of Dense Line Data
Authors: Maarten H. Everts, Henk Bekker, Jos B. T. M. Roerdink, Tobias Isenberg 0001
Published at Vis, 2009

We present a technique for the illustrative rendering of 3D line data at interactive frame rates. We create depth-dependent halos around lines to emphasize tight line bundles while less structured lines are de-emphasized. Moreover, the depth-dependent halos combined with depth cueing via line width attenuation increase depth perception, extending techniques from sparse line rendering to the illustrative visualization of dense line data. We demonstrate how the technique can be used, in particular, for illustrating DTI fiber tracts but also show examples from gas and fluid flow simulations and mathematics as well as describe how the technique extends to point data. We report on an informal evaluation of the illustrative DTI fiber tract visualizations with domain experts in neurosurgery and tractography who commented positively about the results and suggested a number of directions for future work.
Exploring 3D DTI fiber Tracts with Linked 2D Representations
Authors: Radu Jianu, Çagatay Demiralp, David H. Laidlaw
Published at Vis, 2009

We present a visual exploration paradigm that facilitates navigation through complex fiber tracts by combining traditional 3D model viewing with lower dimensional representations. To this end, we create standard streamtube models along with two two-dimensional representations, an embedding in the plane and a hierarchical clustering tree, for a given set of fiber tracts. We then link these three representations using both interaction and color obtained by embedding fiber tracts into a perceptually uniform color space. We describe an anecdotal evaluation with neuroscientists to assess the usefulness of our method in exploring anatomical and functional structures in the brain. Expert feedback indicates that, while a standalone clinical use of the proposed method would require anatomical landmarks in the lower dimensional representations, the approach would be particularly useful in accelerating tract bundle selection. Results also suggest that combining traditional 3D model viewing with lower dimensional representations can ease navigation through the complex fiber tract models, improving exploration of the connectivity in the brain.
Exploring the Millennium Run - Scalable Rendering of Large-Scale Cosmological Datasets
Authors: Roland Fraedrich, Jens Schneider 0002, Rüdiger Westermann
Published at Vis, 2009

In this paper we investigate scalability limitations in the visualization of large-scale particle-based cosmological simulations, and we present methods to reduce these limitations on current PC architectures. To minimize the amount of data to be streamed from disk to the graphics subsystem, we propose a visually continuous level-of-detail (LOD) particle representation based on a hierarchical quantization scheme for particle coordinates and rules for generating coarse particle distributions. Given the maximal world space error per level, our LOD selection technique guarantees a sub-pixel screen space error during rendering. A brick-based page-tree allows to further reduce the number of disk seek operations to be performed. Additional particle quantities like density, velocity dispersion, and radius are compressed at no visible loss using vector quantization of logarithmically encoded floating point values. By fine-grain view-frustum culling and presence acceleration in a geometry shader the required geometry throughput on the GPU can be significantly reduced. We validate the quality and scalability of our method by presenting visualizations of a particle-based cosmological dark-matter simulation exceeding 10 billion elements.
Focus+Context Route Zooming and Information Overlay in 3D Urban Environments
Authors: Huamin Qu, Haomian Wang, Weiwei Cui, Yingcai Wu, Ming-Yuen Chan
Published at Vis, 2009

In this paper we present a novel focus+context zooming technique, which allows users to zoom into a route and its associated landmarks in a 3D urban environment from a 45-degree bird's-eye view. Through the creative utilization of the empty space in an urban environment, our technique can informatively reveal the focus region and minimize distortions to the context buildings. We first create more empty space in the 2D map by broadening the road with an adapted seam carving algorithm. A grid-based zooming technique is then used to enlarge the landmarks to reclaim the created empty space and thus reduce distortions to the other parts. Finally,an occlusion-free route visualization scheme adaptively scales the buildings occluding the route to make the route always visible to users. Our method can be conveniently integrated into Google Earth and Virtual Earth to provide seamless route zooming and help users better explore a city and plan their tours. It can also be used in other applications such as information overlay to a virtual city.
GL4D: A GPU-based Architecture for Interactive 4D Visualization
Authors: Alan Chu, Chi-Wing Fu, Andrew J. Hanson, Pheng-Ann Heng
Published at Vis, 2009

This paper describes GL4D, an interactive system for visualizing 2-manifolds and 3-manifolds embedded in four Euclidean dimensions and illuminated by 4D light sources. It is a tetrahedron-based rendering pipeline that projects geometry into volume images, an exact parallel to the conventional triangle-based rendering pipeline for 3D graphics. Novel features include GPU-based algorithms for real-time 4D occlusion handling and transparency compositing; we thus enable a previously impossible level of quality and interactivity for exploring lit 4D objects. The 4D tetrahedrons are stored in GPU memory as vertex buffer objects, and the vertex shader is used to perform per-vertex 4D modelview transformations and 4D-to-3D projection. The geometry shader extension is utilized to slice the projected tetrahedrons and rasterize the slices into individual 2D layers of voxel fragments. Finally, the fragment shader performs per-voxel operations such as lighting and alpha blending with previously computed layers. We account for 4D voxel occlusion along the 4D-to-3D projection ray by supporting a multi-pass back-to-front fragment composition along the projection ray; to accomplish this, we exploit a new adaptation of the dual depth peeling technique to produce correct volume image data and to simultaneously render the resulting volume data using 3D transfer functions into the final 2D image. Previous CPU implementations of the rendering of 4D-embedded 3-manifolds could not perform either the 4D depth-buffered projection or manipulation of the volume-rendered image in real-time; in particular, the dual depth peeling algorithm is a novel GPU-based solution to the real-time 4D depth-buffering problem. GL4D is implemented as an integrated OpenGL-style API library, so that the underlying shader operations are as transparent as possible to the user.
High-Quality, Semi-Analytical Volume Rendering for AMR Data
Authors: Stéphane Marchesin, Guillaume Colin de Verdière
Published at Vis, 2009

This paper presents a pipeline for high quality volume rendering of adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) datasets. We introduce a new method allowing high quality visualization of hexahedral cells in this context; this method avoids artifacts like discontinuities in the isosurfaces. To achieve this, we choose the number and placement of sampling points over the cast rays according to the analytical properties of the reconstructed signal inside each cell. We extend our method to handle volume shading of such cells. We propose an interpolation scheme that guarantees continuity between adjacent cells of different AMR levels. We introduce an efficient hybrid CPU-GPU mesh traversal technique. We present an implementation of our AMR visualization method on current graphics hardware, and show results demonstrating both the quality and performance of our method.
Hue-Preserving Color Blending
Authors: Johnson Chuang, Daniel Weiskopf, Torsten Möller
Published at Vis, 2009

We propose a new perception-guided compositing operator for color blending. The operator maintains the same rules for achromatic compositing as standard operators (such as the over operator), but it modifies the computation of the chromatic channels. Chromatic compositing aims at preserving the hue of the input colors; color continuity is achieved by reducing the saturation of colors that are to change their hue value. The main benefit of hue preservation is that color can be used for proper visual labeling, even under the constraint of transparency rendering or image overlays. Therefore, the visualization of nominal data is improved. Hue-preserving blending can be used in any existing compositing algorithm, and it is particularly useful for volume rendering. The usefulness of hue-preserving blending and its visual characteristics are shown for several examples of volume visualization.
Interactive Coordinated Multiple-View Visualization of Biomechanical Motion Data
Authors: Daniel F. Keefe, Marcus Ewert, William Ribarsky, Remco Chang
Published at Vis, 2009

We present an interactive framework for exploring space-time and form-function relationships in experimentally collected high-resolution biomechanical data sets. These data describe complex 3D motions (e.g. chewing, walking, flying) performed by animals and humans and captured via high-speed imaging technologies, such as biplane fluoroscopy. In analyzing these 3D biomechanical motions, interactive 3D visualizations are important, in particular, for supporting spatial analysis. However, as researchers in information visualization have pointed out, 2D visualizations can also be effective tools for multi-dimensional data analysis, especially for identifying trends over time. Our approach, therefore, combines techniques from both 3D and 2D visualizations. Specifically, it utilizes a multi-view visualization strategy including a small multiples view of motion sequences, a parallel coordinates view, and detailed 3D inspection views. The resulting framework follows an overview first, zoom and filter, then details-on-demand style of analysis, and it explicitly targets a limitation of current tools, namely, supporting analysis and comparison at the level of a collection of motions rather than sequential analysis of a single or small number of motions. Scientific motion collections appropriate for this style of analysis exist in clinical work in orthopedics and physical rehabilitation, in the study of functional morphology within evolutionary biology, and in other contexts. An application is described based on a collaboration with evolutionary biologists studying the mechanics of chewing motions in pigs. Interactive exploration of data describing a collection of more than one hundred experimentally captured pig chewing cycles is described.
Interactive Streak Surface Visualization on the GPU
Authors: Kai Bürger, Florian Ferstl, Holger Theisel, Rüdiger Westermann
Published at Vis, 2009

In this paper we present techniques for the visualization of unsteady flows using streak surfaces, which allow for the first time an adaptive integration and rendering of such surfaces in real-time. The techniques consist of two main components, which are both realized on the GPU to exploit computational and bandwidth capacities for numerical particle integration and to minimize bandwidth requirements in the rendering of the surface. In the construction stage, an adaptive surface representation is generated. Surface refinement and coarsening strategies are based on local surface properties like distortion and curvature. We compare two different methods to generate a streak surface: a) by computing a patch-based surface representation that avoids any interdependence between patches, and b) by computing a particle-based surface representation including particle connectivity, and by updating this connectivity during particle refinement and coarsening. In the rendering stage, the surface is either rendered as a set of quadrilateral surface patches using high-quality point-based approaches, or a surface triangulation is built in turn from the given particle connectivity and the resulting triangle mesh is rendered. We perform a comparative study of the proposed techniques with respect to surface quality, visual quality and performance by visualizing streak surfaces in real flows using different rendering options.
Interactive Visual Analysis of Complex Scientific Data as Families of Data Surfaces
Authors: Kresimir Matkovic, Denis Gracanin, Borislav Klarin, Helwig Hauser
Published at Vis, 2009

The widespread use of computational simulation in science and engineering provides challenging research opportunities. Multiple independent variables are considered and large and complex data are computed, especially in the case of multi-run simulation. Classical visualization techniques deal well with 2D or 3D data and also with time-dependent data. Additional independent dimensions, however, provide interesting new challenges. We present an advanced visual analysis approach that enables a thorough investigation of families of data surfaces, i.e., datasets, with respect to pairs of independent dimensions. While it is almost trivial to visualize one such data surface, the visual exploration and analysis of many such data surfaces is a grand challenge, stressing the users' perception and cognition. We propose an approach that integrates projections and aggregations of the data surfaces at different levels (one scalar aggregate per surface, a 1D profile per surface, or the surface as such). We demonstrate the necessity for a flexible visual analysis system that integrates many different (linked) views for making sense of this highly complex data. To demonstrate its usefulness, we exemplify our approach in the context of a meteorological multi-run simulation data case and in the context of the engineering domain, where our collaborators are working with the simulation of elastohydrodynamic (EHD) lubrication bearing in the automotive industry.
Interactive Visual Optimization and Analysis for RfiD Benchmarking
Authors: Yingcai Wu, Ka-Kei Chung, Huamin Qu, Xiaoru Yuan, Shing-Chi Cheung
Published at Vis, 2009

Radiofrequency identification (RFID) is a powerful automatic remote identification technique that has wide applications. To facilitate RFID deployment, an RFID benchmarking instrument called aGate has been invented to identify the strengths and weaknesses of different RFID technologies in various environments. However, the data acquired by aGate are usually complex time varying multidimensional 3D volumetric data, which are extremely challenging for engineers to analyze. In this paper, we introduce a set of visualization techniques, namely, parallel coordinate plots, orientation plots, a visual history mechanism, and a 3D spatial viewer, to help RFID engineers analyze benchmark data visually and intuitively. With the techniques, we further introduce two workflow procedures (a visual optimization procedure for finding the optimum reader antenna configuration and a visual analysis procedure for comparing the performance and identifying the flaws of RFID devices) for the RFID benchmarking, with focus on the performance analysis of the aGate system. The usefulness and usability of the system are demonstrated in the user evaluation.
Interactive Visualization of Molecular Surface Dynamics
Authors: Michael Krone, Katrin Bidmon, Thomas Ertl
Published at Vis, 2009

Molecular dynamics simulations of proteins play a growing role in various fields such as pharmaceutical, biochemical and medical research. Accordingly, the need for high quality visualization of these protein systems raises. Highly interactive visualization techniques are especially needed for the analysis of time-dependent molecular simulations. Beside various other molecular representations the surface representations are of high importance for these applications. So far, users had to accept a trade-off between rendering quality and performance - particularly when visualizing trajectories of time-dependent protein data. We present a new approach for visualizing the solvent excluded surface of proteins using a GPU ray casting technique and thus achieving interactive frame rates even for long protein trajectories where conventional methods based on precomputation are not applicable. Furthermore, we propose a semantic simplification of the raw protein data to reduce the visual complexity of the surface and thereby accelerate the rendering without impeding perception of the protein's basic shape. We also demonstrate the application of our solvent excluded surface method to visualize the spatial probability density for the protein atoms over the whole period of the trajectory in one frame, providing a qualitative analysis of the protein flexibility.
Interactive Volume Rendering of Functional Representations in Quantum Chemistry
Authors: Yun Jang, Ugo Varetto
Published at Vis, 2009

Simulation and computation in chemistry studies have been improved as computational power has increased over decades. Many types of chemistry simulation results are available, from atomic level bonding to volumetric representations of electron density. However, tools for the visualization of the results from quantum chemistry computations are still limited to showing atomic bonds and isosurfaces or isocontours corresponding to certain isovalues. In this work, we study the volumetric representations of the results from quantum chemistry computations, and evaluate and visualize the representations directly on the GPU without resampling the result in grid structures. Our visualization tool handles the direct evaluation of the approximated wavefunctions described as a combination of Gaussian-like primitive basis functions. For visualizations, we use a slice based volume rendering technique with a 2D transfer function, volume clipping, and illustrative rendering in order to reveal and enhance the quantum chemistry structure. Since there is no need of resampling the volume from the functional representations, two issues, data transfer and resampling resolution, can be ignored, therefore, it is possible to interactively explore large amount of different information in the computation results.
Intrinsic Geometric Scale Space by Shape Diffusion
Authors: Guangyu Zou, Jing Hua 0001, Zhaoqiang Lai, Xianfeng Gu, Ming Dong 0001
Published at Vis, 2009

This paper formalizes a novel, intrinsic geometric scale space (IGSS) of 3D surface shapes. The intrinsic geometry of a surface is diffused by means of the Ricci flow for the generation of a geometric scale space. We rigorously prove that this multiscale shape representation satisfies the axiomatic causality property. Within the theoretical framework, we further present a feature-based shape representation derived from IGSS processing, which is shown to be theoretically plausible and practically effective. By integrating the concept of scale-dependent saliency into the shape description, this representation is not only highly descriptive of the local structures, but also exhibits several desired characteristics of global shape representations, such as being compact, robust to noise and computationally efficient. We demonstrate the capabilities of our approach through salient geometric feature detection and highly discriminative matching of 3D scans.