The role of movement in data visualization: animation as an agent of meaning

If we look at data visualizations as signifying machines, in which every element is meaningful, what is the contribution of animation to the construction of meaning? What does motion or animation add in terms of significance to different kinds of graphics? Does it add something in terms of realism? How can animation be an implementer of meaning, dramatizing the sense of data or expressing doubt about the data itself

The Role of Movement in Data Visualization: Animation as an Agent of Meaning

If we look at data visualizations as signifying machines, in which every element is meaningful, what is the contribution of animation to the construction of meaning? What does motion or animation add in terms of significance to different kinds of graphics? Does it add something in terms of realism? How can animation be an implementer of meaning, dramatizing the sense of data or expressing doubt about the data itself

Dataflow methods in HPC, visualisation and analysis

The processing power available to scientists and engineers using supercomputers over the last few decades has grown exponentially, permitting significantly more sophisticated simulations, and as a consequence, generating proportionally larger output datasets. This change has taken place in tandem with a gradual shift in the design and implementation of simulation and post-processing software, with a shift from simulation as a first step and visualisation/analysis as a second, towards in-situ on the fly methods that provide immediate visual feedback, place less strain on file-systems and reduce overall data-movement and copying. Concurrently, processor speed increases have dramatically slowed and multi and many-core architectures have instead become the norm for virtually all High Performance computing (HPC) machines. This in turn has led to a shift away from the traditional distributed one rank per node model, to one rank per process, using multiple processes per multicore node, and then back towards one rank per node again, using distributed and multi-threaded frameworks combined. This thesis consists of a series of publications that demonstrate how software design for analysis and visualisation has tracked these architectural changes and pushed the boundaries of HPC visualisation using dataflow techniques in distributed environments. The first publication shows how support for the time dimension in parallel pipelines can be implemented, demonstrating how information flow within an application can be leveraged to optimise performance and add features such as analysis of time-dependent flows and comparison of datasets at different timesteps. A method of integrating dataflow pipelines with in-situ visualisation is subsequently presented, using asynchronous coupling of user driven GUI controls and a live simulation running on a supercomputer. The loose coupling of analysis and simulation allows for reduced IO, immediate feedback and the ability to change simulation parameters on the fly. A significant drawback of parallel pipelines is the inefficiency caused by improper load-balancing, particularly during interactive analysis where the user may select between different features of interest, this problem is addressed in the fourth publication by integrating a high performance partitioning library into the visualization pipeline and extending the information flow up and down the pipeline to support it. This extension is demonstrated in the third publication (published earlier) on massive meshes with extremely high complexity and shows that general purpose visualization tools such as ParaView can be made to compete with bespoke software written for a dedicated task. The future of software running on many-core architectures will involve task-based runtimes, with dynamic load-balancing, asynchronous execution based on dataflow graphs, work stealing and concurrent data sharing between simulation and analysis. The final paper of this thesis presents an optimisation for one such runtime, in support of these future HPC applications

Spatial Sound Rendering – A Survey

Simulating propagation of sound and audio rendering can improve the sense of realism and the immersion both in complex acoustic environments and dynamic virtual scenes. In studies of sound auralization, the focus has always been on room acoustics modeling, but most of the same methods are also applicable in the construction of virtual environments such as those developed to facilitate computer gaming, cognitive research, and simulated training scenarios. This paper is a review of state-of-the-art techniques that are based on acoustic principles that apply not only to real rooms but also in 3D virtual environments. The paper also highlights the need to expand the field of immersive sound in a web based browsing environment, because, despite the interest and many benefits, few developments seem to have taken place within this context. Moreover, the paper includes a list of the most effective algorithms used for modelling spatial sound propagation and reports their advantages and disadvantages. Finally, the paper emphasizes in the evaluation of these proposed works

Entwicklung eines semi-automatischen Workflows zur Ableitung ikonographischer Kartenzeichen

Die Verwendung von ikonographischen, bildhaften Kartenzeichen ist sehr beliebt bei der Darstellung von Sehenswürdigkeiten in touristischen Karten sowie bei Kartendarstellungen für Kinder und Jugendliche. Der Begriff des Non-Photorealistic Rendering (NPR) beschreibt einen zentralen Bereich in der Computergrafik, der sich mit der Erzeugung von Bildern auseinandersetzt, die scheinbar handgemacht sind und bewusst nicht dem physikalisch korrekten Abbild eines Modells entsprechen. Ein weiteres Trendthema zur Nachahmung eines bestimmten Stils eines Kunstwerks stellt der Neural Style Transfer (NST) dar. Hierbei werden künstlerische Bilder durch Trennung und Rekombination von Bildinhalt und Stil erzeugt. Im Rahmen der vorliegenden Arbeit ist ein semi-automatischer Workflow zur Erzeugung ikonographischer Gebäudedarstellungen für die Nutzung in zoombaren Webkarten entwickelt und in drei künstlerischen Stilvarianten unter Nutzung von Bildverarbeitungswerkzeugen in dem rasterbasierten Open Source Bildbearbeitungsprogramm GIMP, speziell mit der Filtersammlung G'MIC technisch umgesetzt worden. Außerdem zeigt die Masterarbeit das Potential der Ableitung von ikonographischen Signaturen durch den Style-Transfer mittels neuronaler Netze.:Selbstständigkeitserklärung III Inhaltsverzeichnis 5 Abbildungsverzeichnis 7 Tabellenverzeichnis 8 Abkürzungsverzeichnis 9 1 Einleitung 10 1.1 Motivation 10 1.2 Gliederung der Arbeit 10 2 Literaturstudium 11 2.1 Computergrafik 11 2.2 Non-Photorealistic Rendering 11 2.3 Neural Style Transfer 14 2.3.1 Einleitung 14 2.3.2 Convolutional Neural Network 15 2.3.3 Beschreibung des Algorithmus 17 3 Methodik 19 3.1 Technische Komponenten 19 3.2 Kriterien der Bildauswahl 19 3.3 Workflow „Ölmalerei“ 21 3.4 Workflow „Tuschezeichnung 22 3.5 Workflow „Silhouette“ 22 4 Praktischer Teil 23 4.1 Konkrete Umsetzung 23 4.1.1 Workflow „Ölmalerei“ 24 4.1.2 Workflow „Tuschezeichnung“ 32 4.1.3 Workflow „Silhouette“ 32 4.2 Implementierung eines Automatisierungsprozesses 35 4.3 Anwendung: Karte Dresden 39 4.4 Neural Style Transfer 43 4.4.1 Online-Anwendungen 43 4.4.2 Offline-Implementierung 45 5 Diskussion 51 5.1 Resultate 51 5.1.1 Bildverarbeitung 51 5.1.2 Neural Style Transfer 51 5.2 Ausblick 52 6 Zusammenfassung 52 Literaturverzeichnis 53The use of iconographic, pictorial map symbols is very popular for the representation of places of interest in tourist maps as well as for map presentations for children and young people. The term Non-Photorealistic Rendering (NPR) describes a prominent field in computer graphics that deals with the generation of images that are apparently handmade and deliberately do not correspond to the physically correct image of a model. Neural Style Transfer (NST) is another trend topic for imitating a certain style of an artwork. Here, artistic images are created by separating and recombining image content and style. In the context of the present work, a semi-automatic workflow for the creation of iconographic building representations for use in zoomable web maps has been developed and technically implemented in three artistic style variants using image processing tools in the raster-based open source image processing program GIMP, especially with the filter collection G'MIC. In addition, the master thesis demonstrates the potential of deriving iconographic signatures through style transfer using neural networks.:Selbstständigkeitserklärung III Inhaltsverzeichnis 5 Abbildungsverzeichnis 7 Tabellenverzeichnis 8 Abkürzungsverzeichnis 9 1 Einleitung 10 1.1 Motivation 10 1.2 Gliederung der Arbeit 10 2 Literaturstudium 11 2.1 Computergrafik 11 2.2 Non-Photorealistic Rendering 11 2.3 Neural Style Transfer 14 2.3.1 Einleitung 14 2.3.2 Convolutional Neural Network 15 2.3.3 Beschreibung des Algorithmus 17 3 Methodik 19 3.1 Technische Komponenten 19 3.2 Kriterien der Bildauswahl 19 3.3 Workflow „Ölmalerei“ 21 3.4 Workflow „Tuschezeichnung 22 3.5 Workflow „Silhouette“ 22 4 Praktischer Teil 23 4.1 Konkrete Umsetzung 23 4.1.1 Workflow „Ölmalerei“ 24 4.1.2 Workflow „Tuschezeichnung“ 32 4.1.3 Workflow „Silhouette“ 32 4.2 Implementierung eines Automatisierungsprozesses 35 4.3 Anwendung: Karte Dresden 39 4.4 Neural Style Transfer 43 4.4.1 Online-Anwendungen 43 4.4.2 Offline-Implementierung 45 5 Diskussion 51 5.1 Resultate 51 5.1.1 Bildverarbeitung 51 5.1.2 Neural Style Transfer 51 5.2 Ausblick 52 6 Zusammenfassung 52 Literaturverzeichnis 5

Designing a mobile application interface to support mid-career professionals in creating better financial futures

South Africans borrow more and save less than other nations (Discovery Bank, 2018). One reason is a lack of financial knowledge. If a mobile application could guide individuals to modify their financial habits slightly by spending less and saving more, they could dramatically improve their financial future. When designing visualisation systems such as a mobile application interface, users' qualitative design feedback and quantitative usability evaluation are both important and complementary. The benefit of usability feedback in software development is undisputed. The importance of qualitative design feedback from users however, seems to be controversial in Science. Gathering users' qualitative design feedback, ahead of usability evaluation, can have a substantial impact on downstream development costs. The researcher used design as a tool for thinking (imagining new possibilities) and communicating (sharing ideas). The purpose was to clarify ways in which a mobile application interface could support users in making better financial decisions and creating better financial futures for themselves and consequently for society. A user centred design (UCD) approach was followed, emphasising design before development, with a strong focus on user involvement in all three phases, namely requirements gathering, design and evaluation. A primary client archetype for mid-career professionals was developed, split into two personas, Alan and Zoe, based on personality and self-rated motivational attributes which were used in an unconventional way to inspire two parallel, diverse designs. In early design stages, before an idea is well formed, producing multiple contrasting designs in parallel and qualitative design feedback from users is beneficial to establishing utility (solving the right problem), tapping into users' domain knowledge, improving the quality of the design and reducing fixation on one idea. Once the concept has been socialised and evolved sufficiently with users' input, converging on one final design and testing usability (solving the problem in the right way) become more important. This research offers two refinements of the UCD process guidelines for the benefit of researchers and practitioners