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Harness visual acuity to convey vast data quickly using color, space, depth, and patterns. Understand Anscombe's Quartet and benefits of visualization like precision and data density. Explore visualization methods for different data types. Learn about the role of color in perception and visualization models. Discover techniques like scalar visualization, glyphs, isosurfaces, and volume rendering. Address challenges and open problems in visualization for science.
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Visualization for Science Bill Howe
Topics • Motivation • Color • SciVis vs. InfoVis • Core SciVis Techniques • Vis + DB • Open Problems
Check Assumptions: Why Visualize? • Problem: • How do you apprehend 100k tuples? • …when your short-term memory is 7-10 items. • Solution: • Harness the visual acuity of the eye to convey enormous amounts of information very quickly • Use color, space, depth, icons, patterns to increase information bandwidth • Caveat: • Easy to misrepresent the data with so many visual dimensions available
Anscombe’s Quartet (2) • mean of the x values = 9.0 • mean of the y values = 7.5 • equation of the least-squared regression line: y = 3 + 0.5x • sums of squared errors (about the mean) = 110.0 • regression sums of squared errors (variance accounted for by x) = 27.5 • residual sums of squared errors (about the regression line) = 13.75 • correlation coefficient = 0.82 • coefficient of determination = 0.67
Benefits of Visualization • More precise and revealing • Anscombe’s Quartet • Data density: numbers / cm^2 • Galaxy Map • Human eye is a very efficient pattern detector
Topics • Motivation • Color • SciVis vs. InfoVis • Core Techniques • Vis + DB • Open Problems
Color Matters Lloyd Treinish, IBM Research, http://www.research.ibm.com/people/l/lloydt/
Color: RGB • Carries a natural biological interpretation • as well as a techonolgical interpretation
HSV • More intuitive model for humans • Difficult to compute the additive RGB values “in your head”
Helps define a curve through the color space Common shapes: Linear S-Curve Common paths: “Rainbow” Color Map Tools
Color Matters (2) Lloyd Treinish, IBM Research, http://www.research.ibm.com/people/l/lloydt/
PRAVDA • Perceptual Rule-based Architecture for Visualizing Data Accurately • Guides color map selection based on human perception • Specifically, choices pruned using • spatial frequency • data type • (ordinal, interval, ratio) • user-selected visualization goal • (isomorphic, segmentation, highlighting)
Topics • Motivation • Color • SciVis vs. InfoVis • Core SciVis Techniques • Vis + DB • Open Problems
InfoVis vs. SciVis SciVis: Scientific & physically based InfoVis: Abstract [Card, Mackinlay, & Shneiderman 1999] SciVis: Spatialization given InfoVis: Spatialization chosen [Munzner 2003] Melanie Tory, Visualization 2003, used with permission
Problems with these categories • SciVis or InfoVis? • Scientific, but not physically based • Bioinformatics • Mathematics: e.g., f(i, j, k, w) = i2 + j2 + k2 + w2 • Physically based, but not necessarily scientific • Air traffic control systems • Maps Melanie Tory, Visualization 2003, used with permission
Continuous Data Discrete Data 1st Attempt: Continuous & Discrete Data Parallel Coordinates Direct Volume Rendering [Hauser et al.,Vis 2000] [Fua et al., Vis 1999] Isosurfaces Glyphs Scatter Plots Line Integral Convolution [http://www.axon.com/gn_Acuity.html] Node-link Diagrams [Cabral & Leedom,SIGGRAPH 1993] Streamlines [Lamping et al., CHI 1995] [Verma et al.,Vis 2000] Melanie Tory, Visualization 2003, used with permission
Problems with 1st Attempt BUT… • The same data can be visualized discretely orcontinuously • So, our interpretation of data is more important than characteristics of data [http://www.tvweather.com] [http://www.wunderground.com] Melanie Tory, Visualization 2003, used with permission
[Simeon Potts] [http://www.chem.swin.edu.au/modules/mod2/formats.html] 2nd Attempt: Model not Data Continuous Model Discrete Model Melanie Tory, Visualization 2003, used with permission
3rd Attempt: What about spatialization? • Visualization can be categorized according to whether the spatial layout is given or chosen [Munzner 2003] • We extend this idea to a continuum: Given Decreasing constraints Chosen [http://www.graphviz.org] [Llyod Treinish] [Heilmann et al., InfoVis 2004] Melanie Tory, Visualization 2003, used with permission
Ex: Biochemical Pathway Visualization source: Betsy Skovran
Ex: Biochemical Pathway Visualization source: Lauro Lins and Claudio Silva, SCI, Utah
Tangible Benefits • Reproducible Science • Visualization by Analogy • Reduce “Time to Insight”
Topics • Motivation • Color • SciVis vs. InfoVis • Core SciVis Techniques • Vis + DB • Open Problems
Visualization Techniques • Scalars • Glyphs • Color • Slices • Isosurface • Vectors • Barbs • Streamlines • Volume Rendering
Structured Grids • Regular topology • Potentially irregular geometry • Fast, but difficult to construct for complex domains
Unstructured Grids • Irregular Topology • Irregular Geometry • Easier to fit to complex domains, • but algorithms more complicated and slower
Isosurfaces (Isolines) • For each cell, mark nodes as above or below the isovalue • Problem: • Desired isosurface intersects cells in many different ways • Observation: • There is only a small number of configurations possible • …when considering algebraic equivalences
Isosurfaces (Isolines) • 2D Case
Isosurfaces • 3D case
Isosurfaces (done) • Marching Cubes: • Same 16 cases work for larger cubes consisting of many cells • Suggests an Out-of-core algorithm that works on a block of cells at a time
Streamlines • Algorithm • From a seed point, cast a ray in the direction of the vector field, repeat • Amounts to integrating the vector field • Design challenges • Evenly spaced streamlines • Discontinuities and boundaries
Topics • Motivation • Color • SciVis vs. InfoVis • Core SciVis Techniques • Vis + DB • Open Problems
Converging Requirements Vis DB
Why Vis Needs DB “Transferring the whole data generated … to a storage device or a visualization machine could become a serious bottleneck, because I/O would take most of the … time. A more feasible approach is to reduce and preparethe data in situ for subsequent visualization and data analysis tasks.” -- SciDAC Review Current Research Topics in Vis: • “Query-driven Visualization” • “In Situ Visualization” • “Remote Visualization”
Why DB Needs Vis (2) “What does the salt wedge look like?”