PECASE: Perceptual Issues in Data Visualization: Conveying 3D Shape and Depth through Texture

可视化--通过图像直观地表示信息--在广泛的科学和医学应用中至关重要。良好的可视化能够清晰而有效地传达复杂数据集中的基本信息，强调重要特征，最大限度地减少无关细节。一种特定的可视化技术的有用性可以用它改善特定应用程序的任务性能的程度来量化。这使得比较不同的方法或为给定方法选择最佳参数值成为可能。然而，设计有效可视化的过程在很大程度上仍然是一门黑艺术，非常特别，主要由直觉指导。PI的研究是在人类视觉感知的理论和实验洞察力的指导下，寻求对这门艺术背后的科学的更深层次理解。具体地说，研究的重点是研究基于感知的方法来更有效地表达科学数据集中光滑曲面的三维形状和相对深度。这项工作的关键应用包括三维标量场中叠加等值面的可视化，以及医学和CAD中外部和内部结构的组合可视化。研究人员将首先使用受控观察者实验来彻底评估纹理作为一种增强形状感知的装置。这将识别和量化界面设计中纹理的关键方面。研究人员还将致力于为交互应用程序自动生成任意多边形定义对象的非照片真实感笔墨样式演示文稿。这种技术的优点是，某些数据集需要以比传统图形渲染更具说明性的风格来表示。该项目的研究部分是针对本科生和研究生的教育部分，旨在通过实践经验激发兴趣和培养创造力。

Visualization - the visual representation of information through images -is vital in a broad range of scientific and medical applications. A goodvisualization conveys the essential information in a complex datasetclearly and effectively, emphasizing important features and minimizingextraneous detail. The usefulness of a particular visualization techniquecan be quantified in terms of the extent to which it improves taskperformance for a given application. This makes it possible to comparedifferent methods or to pick optimal parameter values for a given method.The process of designing an effective visualization, however, remains forthe most part a black art, terribly ad hoc, largely guided by intuition.The PI's research is a quest for a deeper understanding of the sciencebehind this art, guided by theoretical and experimental insights from humanvisual perception. This can be used to enhance all computer interfacesthat use elements studied here.Specifically, the focus of the research is to investigateperceptually-based methods for more effectively conveying thethree-dimensional shape and relative depth of smoothly curving surfaces inscientific datasets. Key applications for this work include thevisualization of superimposed isovalue surfaces in 3D scalar fields, andthe combined visualization of external and internal structures in medicineand CAD. The investigator will begin by using controlled observerexperiments to thoroughly evaluate texture as a device for enhancing theperception of shape. This will identify and quantify the key aspects oftexture in interface design. The investigator will also pursue theautomatic generation of non-photorealistic, pen-and-ink stylerepresentations of arbitrary polygonally-defined objects for interactive applications. The advantage of such techniques is that some datasets need to be represented in a moresubtly indicative style than traditional graphics renderings. Complementingthe research component of this project is an educational component,directed at both undergraduate and graduate students, aimed at inspiringinterest and fostering creativity through hands-on experiences invisualization.