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

计算机模拟甚至实验设备产生的不只是一个变量。这些变量通常表现出复杂的相互依赖关系，必须彻底理解这种依赖关系，才能改进模拟代码并理解正在研究的复杂系统。不幸的是，混乱阻碍了这一点在当前的可视化系统中实现。因此，用户只需生成几种不同的表示并在精神上将它们合并在一起，这几乎是不可能的壮举。这个项目的目标是提供新的方法，让科学家们浏览他们的TB级数据，寻找有趣的模式或不规则性。该项目的一个次要部分是说明这项新技术对其他计算机图形行业的应用，包括对火、云和水等对象的高效体绘制。这些解决方案将使计算科学家更接近于在一个模拟中研究多个模拟和复杂相互作用的无缝环境。在技术上，该项目将研究新的方法来表示三维网格拓扑上定义的复杂矢量场和多维标量场。一个特别的重点将是扩展一种称为“飞溅”的直接体绘制技术，以提供多个数据变量的集成表示。(这个名字来自于构造足迹或用于将3D基函数投影到表面纹理上的方法中的一个步骤。)特别是，这项研究将通过开发描述非均匀或各向同性的技术来扩展直接体绘制的最新技术。这些体积纹理将与高效的渲染技术一起开发，以允许它们加强或分离体积的不同区域，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.