CAREER: Managing Complexity: Fidelity Control for Optimal Usability in 3D Graphics Systems

随着3D图形渲染硬件速度的提高，所显示的模型的大小也随之急剧增加。全系统CAD、3D模型扫描仪、程序生成的模型和可视化数据集现在的大小接近数亿甚至数十亿个多边形。试图展示这些模型的研究人员被迫要么降低显示速度和互动性，要么降低模型显示视图的保真度。在模型复杂性自动降低或“简化”的情况下，保持视觉逼真度的最佳方法是什么？在显示速度和视觉保真度之间取得折衷的最有效方法是什么？而在日益重要的图形可视化应用中，如何保存所显示数据中有意义的元素，并使用户有效地管理信息的复杂性？本研究将从上述三个问题中寻找三个相辅相成的研究方向。PI将开发原型系统，并通过用户研究来调查其有效性。其中许多研究将在驱动应用程序的背景下进行，这些应用程序是为与学术界和游戏行业的同事进行现有合作而开发的。具体目标将包括开发和评价衡量保真度的自动方法；审查保真度控制应尽量减少视觉误差的假设，无论这是通过视觉保真度或显示速度的折衷而引入的；对于抽象信息可视化，研究保真度测量和总结技术，不一定是受到自然界感知知识的启发。虽然许多技术解决方案都解决了测量相似性和汇总复杂数据的问题，但只有少数解决方案在严格的可用性研究中进行了评估。这项研究将填补这一空白，产生将提高交互式3D图形应用程序可用性的知识、指南、启发式方法和软件。

Improvements in the speed of 3D graphics rendering hardware have been accompanied by even more drastic increases in the size of displayed models. Full-system CAD, 3D model scanners, procedurally generated models, and visualization data sets are now approaching hundreds of millions or even billions of polygons in size. Researchers trying to display these models have been forced either to reduce display speed and interactivity, or instead to reduce the fidelity of the displayed views of their models. What are the best methods for preserving visual fidelity as model complexity is automatically reduced or "simplified"? What is the most effective way of striking the display speed vs. visual fidelity compromise? And in the increasingly important graphics application of visualization, how can we preserve the meaningful elements of the displayed data, and make users effective managers of information complexity? This research will take its three complementary directions from the three above questions. The PI will develop prototype systems and investigate their effectiveness with user studies. Many of these studies will take place in the context of driving applications developed for existing collaborations with colleagues in academia and the gaming industry. Specific goals will include the development and evaluation of automatic methods for measuring fidelity; an examination of the hypothesis that fidelity control should minimize visual error, whether it is introduced by compromises in visual fidelity or display speed; and for abstract information visualization, study of fidelity measures and summarization techniques not necessarily inspired by knowledge of perception in the natural world. While many technical solutions have addressed the issues of measuring similarity and summarizing complex data, only a few of them have been evaluated in rigorous usability studies. This research will fill this gap, producing knowledge, guidelines, heuristics and software that will improve the usability of interactive 3D graphics applications.