My research deals primarily with the areas of information visualizationand human-computer interaction. More specifically, my focus is on visualization for intelligence amplification: using visual tools for improving the perceptive, cognitive, and analytical capabilities of people to allow them to solve tasks that were previously too large or too complex. Humans have used technology to improve their capabilities and overcome their limitations since the beginning of time. Computers and interactive graphics are but tools in a long line of tools, but their potential for supporting the human in processing information is unparallelled.

In this section I give a general introduction to some of the major themes of my work, including a list of example projects. Please see my projects page for a complete list of my research projects.

Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) is the overall research area where my work is done, and is concerned with the thin layer between man and machine. The HCI field as a whole is truly huge and is still expanding---we have still to see its frontiers, and, as anyone who has used a computer recently can attest to, there is still a lot of work to be done. Beyond my exploration into visualization and virtual environments, I am also interested in intelligent environments, 3D interaction, and tangible interfaces (TUIs).

Example projects: Melange, HCI@Play, semantic 3D pointing.

Visualization is the art and science of graphically representing data on a computer for the purpose of amplifying cognition in the human user. A specialization of the field, information visualization deals with abstract data. Because the data is abstract, the choice of visual representation is left to the visualization designer. My research in this field deals with many different aspects: causality and software visualization, hypervariate visualization, and the use of metaphors for selecting suitable visual representations.

I am intrigued by the notion of amplifying intelligence using visualization---thus, a future goal of my research is to develop general techniques for augmenting our cognitive, perceptive, and analytical capabilities as humans to take us beyond our current limitations.

Example projects: ZAME, DataMeadow, causality visualization.

Virtual environments (VEs) encompass the whole range of combining artificial (computer-generated) and real 3D environments, from Augmented Reality (AR) through Mixed Reality (MR) to Virtual Reality (VR). My research in virtual environments include 3D interaction, occlusion management, and human factors in VEs.

Example projects: 3D navigation guidance, dynamic transparency, BalloonProbe.