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。一个好的可视化能清晰有效地传达复杂数据库中的基本信息，强调重要的特征，最大限度地减少无关的细节。一个特定的可视化技术的有用性可以根据它在多大程度上提高了给定应用程序的任务性能来量化。 这使得比较不同的方法或为给定的方法选择最佳参数值成为可能。然而，设计有效的可视化的过程在很大程度上仍然是一种黑色艺术，非常特别，主要由直觉引导。PI的研究是对这门艺术背后的科学的更深入理解的探索，由人类视觉感知的理论和实验见解指导。 这可以用来增强所有使用这里研究的元素的计算机界面。具体来说，研究的重点是研究基于感知的方法，以更有效地传达科学数据集中光滑曲面的三维形状和相对深度。这项工作的主要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联合可视化。研究者将开始通过使用受控的重复实验来彻底评估纹理作为增强形状感知的设备。这将识别和量化界面设计中的关键方面。研究人员还将追求自动生成的非真实感，钢笔和墨水风格的表示任意定义的对象的交互式应用程序。这种技术的优点是，一些数据集需要以比传统图形渲染更微妙的指示性风格来表示。补充该项目的研究部分是一个教育部分，针对本科生和研究生，旨在激发兴趣和培养创造力，通过实践经验的可视化。

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.