It transforms the symbolic into the geometric, enabling researchers to observe their simulations and computations. Visualization offers a method for seeing the unseen. It enriches the process of scientific discovery and fosters profound and unexpected insights. In many fields it is already revolutionizing the way scientists do science.
Visualization embraces both image understanding and image synthesis.
That is, visualization is a tool both for interpreting image data fed into a computer, and for generating images from complex multi-dimensional datasets. It studies those mechanisms in humans and computers which allow them in concert to perceive, use and communicate visual information. The goal of visualization is to leverage existing scientfic methods by providing new scientific insight through visual methods. An estimated 50 percent of the computing aims to put that neurological machinery to work. This is being driven by the increasing use of computational simulations and digital data acquisition in research, and by the broadening spectrum of media available for the presentation of research results.