Visualizing data: why an (interactive) picture is worth 1000 numbers

lectureOne of the most striking and unique aspects about this moment in human history is the amount of data we are generating. This data holds the promise of unlocking the mysteries of the universe, untangling complex natural and man-made systems, and allowing us to live longer, healthier, and more productive lives. But generating data is only the first step - developing methods to make sense of vast collections of information is now widely considered the major challenge. A key component of addressing this challenge is visualization, which supports sense making by representing data as pictures and supporting exploration through human-computer interactions. Through the design of intuitive representations of data, visualization designers arc able to harness our perceptual system for quickly finding interesting patterns and trends in a sea of data, instead of relying on our more limited memory and cognition. Creating effective visualizations, however, relies on a combination of knowledge about computer science, design, application domains, and how people internalize the meaning of data. This talk discusses what we know about how to design effective, interactive visualizations, as well as some of the open challenges left to solve. It will also provide examples of how scientists use these tools to glean insight from complex data

Poemage Prototype

During 2013-14, our group developed the algorithm for a computational framework for interpreting sound in poetry, which allows us to detect sonic patterns and relationships in poetry. We can define these patterns algebraically and so describe them computationally through rules supported by a data abstraction. Using an NEH start-up grant to pay a postdoctoral fellow in English and a graduate student in Computer Science, we will use an innovative interactive design process to develop a prototype visualization tool, Poemage. Because our framework allows us to identify and visualize complex configurations and dynamics of sound, including but not limited to rhyme, in real time, Poemage will allow users to detect these dynamics in poems of their choosing, while inviting them to identify (and adjust for) what they deem interesting

Visualizing biological data

poste

Design activity framework for visualization design

pre-printAn important aspect in visualization design is the connection between what a designer does and the decisions the designer makes. Existing design process models, however, do not explicitly link back to models for visualization design decisions. We bridge this gap by introducing the design activity framework, a process model that explicitly connects to the nested model, a well-known visualization design decision model. The framework includes four overlapping activities that characterize the design process, with each activity explicating outcomes related to the nested model. Additionally, we describe and characterize a list of exemplar methods and how they overlap among these activities. The design activity framework is the result of reflective discussions from a collaboration on a visualization redesign project, the details of which we describe to ground the framework in a real-world design process. Lastly, from this redesign project we provide several research outcomes in the domain of cybersecurity, including an extended data abstraction and rich opportunities for future visualization research

Particle-Based Sampling and Meshing of Surfaces in Multimaterial Volumes

Methods that faithfully and robustly capture the geometry of complex material interfaces in labeled volume data are important for generating realistic and accurate visualizations and simulations of real-world objects. The generation of such multimaterial models from measured data poses two unique challenges: first, the surfaces must be well-sampled with regular, efficient tessellations that are consistent across material boundaries; and second, the resulting meshes must respect the nonmanifold geometry of the multimaterial interfaces. This paper proposes a strategy for sampling and meshing multimaterial volumes using dynamic particle systems, including a novel, differentiable representation of the material junctions that allows the particle system to explicitly sample corners, edges, and surfaces of material intersections. The distributions of particles are controlled by fundamental sampling constraints, allowing Delaunay-based meshing algorithms to reliably extract watertight meshes of consistently high-quality.Engineering and Applied Science

Volume MLS Ray Casting

The method of Moving Least Squares (MLS) is a popular framework for reconstructing continuous functions from scattered data due to its rich mathematical properties and well-understood theoretical foundations. This paper applies MLS to volume rendering, providing a unified mathematical framework for ray casting of scalar data stored over regular as well as irregular grids. We use the MLS reconstruction to render smooth isosurfaces and to compute accurate derivatives for high-quality shading effects. We also present a novel, adaptive preintegration scheme to improve the efficiency of the ray casting algorithm by reducing the overall number of function evaluations, and an efficient implementation of our framework exploiting modern graphics hardware. The resulting system enables high-quality volume integration and shaded isosurface rendering for regular and irregular volume data.Engineering and Applied Science