IEEE VIS Publication Dataset

The VIS-5D system provides highly interactive visual access to five-dimensional data sets containing up to 50 million data points. VIS-5D runs on the Stardent ST-1000 and ST-2000 workstations and generates animated three-dimensional graphics from gridded data sets in real time. It provides a widget-based user interface and fast visual response which allows scientists to interactively explore their data sets. VIS-5D generates literal and intuitive depictions of data, has user controls that are data oriented rather than graphics oriented, and provides a WYSIWYG (what-you-see-is-what-you-get) response. The result is a system that enables scientists to produce and direct their own animations

The author applied image processing and volume rendering algorithms together with considerations on the physiology of the human visual system to improve the quality of perception of the information contained in positron emission tomography (PET) brain images, and to highlight the existing anatomical information. The psychophysical considerations for selecting color and brightness level are used to visualize functional and anatomical structures in three dimensions. One is able to perceive in the images the levels of rates of glucose metabolism of regions in the brain and their relative locations. In addition, some of the anatomic structures, such as the interhemispheric fissure, the caudate nucleus, and the thalamus, are apparent

This case study describes how visualization tools were used in a nonlinear finite-element method (FEM) analysis of rivet deformation. After summarizing the problem at hand, it is concluded that three factors that aided the visualization process in this case can be extracted as general principles: first, focus the viewer on the area of interest; second, do not confuse the viewer with strange color scales; and finally, do not try to convey too much information in one image. Images should convey a maximum amount of information with a minimum of confusion. In this particular case the most useful techniques proved to be animations of color-shaded contours, where the viewer could zoom in on any area of particular interest. Animation was used for each of the seven different data types produced by the analysis package

Summary form only given. The basic parameters of current TV, the origins of HDTV, and the various types of TV systems being proposed in Japan, America and Europe are reviewed. Available HDTV hardware, new applications that this hardware enables, and the economics involved are discussed. How HDTV fits into the film and television industries from the perspectives of production, distribution, and creativity, HDTV's demands upon telecommunications, and why data compression plays a critical role have been examined. The evolution of the present workstation from many analytical perspectives, leading up to the most recent product introductions of all the major vendors, developments in accelerator boards and interactive graphics peripherals, and the evolution of the man/machine interface are discussed

An algorithm that creates planar and arbitrarily curved sections of free-form volumes is presented. The definition of free-form volumes generalizes techniques from free-form curves and surfaces to trivariate representation. The definition is given for volumes in the Bernstein-Bezier representation. The author illustrates an intersection algorithm that can be used to perform intersection operations on free-form volumes. Some calculated examples are given. The algorithm can be used as a subroutine for algorithms which are able to perform more general intersections of free-form volumes, e.g. Boolean operations on two free-form volumes

The authors discuss effective techniques for representing scalar and vector valued functions that interpolate to irregularly located data. Special attention is given to the situations where the sampling domain is a two-dimensional plane, 3-D volume, or a closed 3-D surface. The authors first discuss the multiquadric and thin-plate spline methods for interpolating scalar data sampled at arbitrary locations in a plane. Straightforward generalizations are then made to data sampled in 3-D volumetric regions as well as in higher dimensional spaces. The globally defined interpolants can be evaluated on a fine regular grid and they can then be visualized using conventional techniques. Triangular and tetrahedral based visualization techniques are also presented

The authors describe some simple visualization techniques that may be used to explore dynamic three-dimensional scalar fields in an interactive way. Scalar data are assumed to have been already computed, and graphic manipulations are done afterwards on a graphics workstation. Structured grids (finite-difference grids) are used, leading to an easy and fast exploration of the interior of a volume. Smooth animation and simultaneous visualization of two or three scalar fields is described. These methods were tested on various types of data from different fields of petroleum engineering, i.e. oil reservoir simulation, geophysics, geology, and combustion engine simulations

A new hierarchical method of plotting is presented which allows one to interactively view millions of data points with up to 10 independent variables.

The authors describe a conceptual model, the memory hierarchy framework, and a visual language for using the model. The model is more faithful to the structure of computers than the Von Neumann and Turing models. It addresses the issues of data movement and exposes and unifies storage mechanisms such as cache, translation lookaside buffers, main memory, and disks. The visual language presents the details of a computer's memory hierarchy in a concise drawing composed of rectangles and connecting segments. Using this framework, the authors improved the performance of a matrix multiplication algorithm by more than an order of magnitude. The framework gives insight into computer architecture and performance bottlenecks by making effective use of human visual abilities

An approach that uses advanced computer graphics workstations and volume rendering algorithms for accurate reconstruction of volumetric microscopy data is described. It has been found that excellent reconstructions can be made from serial sections acquired using a charge-coupled device and a conventional light microscope. Both confocal and nonconfocal reconstructions are examined. The effects of differing light sources are considered 3D image processing results are presented

The authors discuss the special properties of volumetric cell data (e.g., noise, discontinuity, raggedness) and the particular difficulties encountered when trying to visualize them in three dimensions. The authors describe some of the solutions adopted, specifically in surface discrimination and shading. Nerve cells (neuroblastoma) grown in tissue culture were selected as the biological preparation because these cells possess very rich actin structures. The cells were stained with a fluorescent probe specific for actin (rhodamine-phalloidin) and were viewed and optically sectioned using the Bio-Rad MRC 600 confocal fluorescence microscope. The slice dataset was then reconstructed and processed in the BioCube environment, a comprehensive system developed for volume visualization of cellular structures. The actin cytoskeleton of single cells was visualized and manipulated using this system

The authors present a flexible and efficient method to simulate the Doppler shift. In this new method the spectral curves of surface properties and light composition are represented by spline functions of wavelength. These functions can cover the entire electromagnetic (EM) waves bandwidth, and incorporate the thermal radiation of objects into the surface property description. In particular, a temperature-dependent emission spectral distribution can be assigned to each object for imaging the nonvisible thermal spectra which may become visible due to blue shift. The Doppler shift and shading operations are performed through the manipulation of spline coefficients. The evaluation of the spline functions, which is computationally expensive, is only carried out once-at the end of each shading loop for generating the display RGB values