Interactive Extraction of High-Frequency Aesthetically-Coherent Colormaps

Color transfer functions (i.e. colormaps) exhibiting a high frequency luminosity component have proven to be useful in the visualization of data where feature detection or iso-contours recognition is essential. Having these colormaps also display a wide range of color and an aesthetically pleasing composition holds the potential to further aid image understanding and analysis. However producing such colormaps in an efficient manner with current colormap creation tools is difficult. We hereby demonstrate an interactive technique for extracting colormaps from artwork and pictures. We show how the rich and careful color design and dynamic luminance range of an existing image can be gracefully captured in a colormap and be utilized effectively in the exploration of complex datasets

Distinct 3D Glyphs with Data Layering for Highly Dense Multivariate Data Plots

A carefully constructed scatterplot can reveal plenty about an underlying data set. However, in most cases visually mining and understanding a large multivariate data set requires more finesse, and greater level of interactivity to really grasp the full spectrum of the information being presented. We present a paradigm for glyph design and use in the creation of single plots presenting multiple variables of information. We center our design on two key concepts. The first concept is that visually it is easier to discriminate between completely distinct shapes rather than subtly different ones, specially when partially occluded. The second one is that users ingest information in layers, i.e. in an order of visual relevance. Using this paradigm, we present complex data as binned into desired and relevant discrete categories. We show results in the areas of high energy physics and security, displaying over 6 distinct data variables in each single plot, yielding a clear, highly readable, and effective visualization

Art from Ephemeral

[no abstract

Expressive Maps

Expressive Maps is an artistic visualization of a complete mouse DNA sequence, taken from embryonic mouse muscle tissue, stretched out in a line. Each individual spiral represents a single chromosome (mice have 20, versus 23 in humans), and active sections perform calls across the corresponding chromosome addresses. It displays three stages of development: before specialization, 60 hours after specialization, and 60 hours post-specialization with an inhibitor present. Each stage has been printed on vellum, so one “map” can be placed on top of another to reveal differences

Art from Ephemeral

[no abstract

Conceptual Design for Mechatronic Assemblies

This paper presents our initial efforts to develop a system for the conceptual design of mechatronic assemblies. CUP is a novel type of modeling system that we believe will become an important component in a conceptual design environment---enabling users to create a knowledge-level description of the design without having to perform detailed CAD and solid modeling. We are extending this work in several significant ways