Visualization Driven by Perceptual Statistics
Channel: Ivan Viola
Date: 20/03/2014

Visualization Driven by Perceptual Statistics

Vision science and data visualization are metaphorically speaking "communicating vessels". The outcome of vision science frequently serves as a guideline for the visualization or interaction design. These guidelines are usually justified by knowledge about human cognition and perception that is already widely accepted. While century-old Gestalt principles are considered in the visualization design, more recent outcome from psychophysics studies is not coupled with the visualization design. Interestingly enough, there is no apparent symmetry in this interdisciplinary crosspolination: the visualization research outcome is not utilized in the vision science.

In my talk I will discuss two examples how psychophysics studies drive the visualization design. Instead of a well-sedimented knowledge about human visual system, the statistical description of human visual performance is used as an input for designing visualization. The first discussed example shows how surface perception task can gradually modify an algorithmical shading model so that the match between the distal and the proximal stimulus is maximized. The second example describes a construction of a perceptually uniform motion that can finds its application in animated representation of flows. While these outcomes are relevant for the scientific field of data visualization, the statistically described human performance can be inspiring material for follow-up in-depth vision science studies.