CAREER: Three-Dimensional Volume Visualization of Multi-Variate Data

计算机模拟甚至实验装置产生的都不止一个变量。 这些变量通常表现出复杂的相互依赖性，必须彻底理解这些相互依赖性以改进仿真代码并理解所研究的复杂系统。不幸的是，混乱阻碍了当前可视化系统实现这一点。因此，用户只能生成几种不同的表示，并在脑海中将它们合并在一起，这几乎是不可能的。这个项目的目标是提供新的方法，让科学家浏览他们的数据，寻找有趣的模式或不规则性。这个项目的第二个组成部分是说明新技术的实用性，以其余的计算机图形行业，包括有效的体积渲染对象，如火，云和水。这些解决方案将使计算科学家更接近研究多重模拟和模拟中复杂交互的无缝环境。从技术上讲，该项目将研究在三维网格拓扑上定义的复杂矢量场和多维标量场的新表示方法。一个特别的重点将是扩展的直接体绘制技术被称为“飞溅”，以提供多个数据变量的综合表示。(The这个名字来自于方法中的一个步骤，该步骤构造了一个用于将3D基函数投影到表面纹理上的轮廓或“splat”。）特别是，本研究将通过开发描绘非均匀或各向同性体的技术来扩展直接体绘制的最新技术。 这些体积纹理将沿着与高效的渲染技术，使他们能够加强或隔离体积的不同区域，控制时变数据的表示，并将表示应用于虚拟现实设置。

Computer simulations and even experimental devices generate more than asingle variable. These variables typically exhibit complexinterdependencies which must be thoroughly understood to improve thesimulation codes and understand the complex systems being studied.Unfortunately, cluttering prevents this from being achieved in currentvisualization systems. Users are thus left with generating severaldifferent representations and mentally merging them together, a nearlyimpossible feat. The goal of this project is to provide new methods thatwill let scientists browse through their terabytes of data searching forinteresting patterns or irregularities. A secondary component of thisproject is to illustrate the utility of the new technique to the rest ofthe computer graphics industry, including efficient volume rendering forobjects such as fire, clouds and water. These solutions will bringcomputational scientists one step closer to a seamless environment forstudying both multiple simulations and complex interactions within asimulation.Technically, the project will investigate new methods for representingcomplex vector fields and multi-dimensional scalar fields defined over athree-dimensional mesh topology. A particular emphasis will be on extendinga direct volume rendering technique known as "splatting" to provideintegrated representations of multiple data variables. (The name comes froma step in the method that constructs a footprint or "splat" used to project3D basis functions onto surface textures.) In particular, this researchwill extend the state-of-the-art in direct volume rendering by developingtechniques to depict non-homogenous or isotropic volumes. These volumetextures will be developed along with efficient rendering techniques toallow them to reinforce or segregate different regions of a volume,control representations of time-varying data, and apply the representationsto virtual reality settings.