Visualization Friday Forum

Visualization at Duke

Rachael BradyVisualization Technology Group, CSEM, Pratt School of Engineering

September 12, 2003

Definition of Visualization

The classical definition of visualization is as follows: the formation of mental visual images, the act or process of interpreting in visual terms or of putting into visual form

• (whatis.com)Visualization is the process of representing abstract business or scientific

data as images that can aid in understanding the meaning of the data.• (G. Scott Owen)Visualization is essentially a mapping process from computer

representations to perceptual representations, choosing encoding techniques to maximize human understanding and communication. The goal of a viewer might be a deeper understanding of physical phenomena or mathematical concepts, but it also might be a visual proof of computer representations derived from such an initial stage.

Why the Visualization Friday Forum?

Visualization technology is based on the integration of [many] technologies, including computer graphics, image processing, computer vision, computer-aided design geometric modeling, approximation theory, perceptual psychology, and user interface studies. -Haber & McNabb

Visualization and Statistics

• Computational Visualization is as integral to scientific understanding as Statistics. The basics are well understood and commonly used, for example– 2-D plots are as common as the mean and standard deviation

– Pie charts are as common as percentage rankings

– Interactive rendering programs are used for exploration and intuitive understanding, like the histogram and X^2 test is for data fitting

– Much like statistics, the appropriate visualization method is specific to the particular problem. Resulting in a smorgasbord of techniques and software programs which can be difficult to choose from.

Uses of Visualization

• Personal Understanding of Data

• Illustration of Results / Publication

• Data Exploration

• Control of Visual Stimuli for Cognitive Experiments

Personal Understanding of Data

•Nine Day Run on NCSA Origin (128-processors) in June 1997

•Generated 2 Terabytes of Data, Visualized in 3 Days

Dave Porter, Paul Woodward, et al., LCSE, University of Minnesota

Personal Understanding of Data

Spiral CAT Scan of Human Spine

Data Source: Tom Budinger, Visualization: Crumbs

Illustration of Results / Publication

Colormap Choice Should be Linked to TaskAtmospheric Motion

Bergman, Rogowitz, Treinish, IEEE Vis ‘95

Colormap Choice Should be Linked to TaskPollution Levels

Bergman, Rogowitz, Treinish, IEEE Vis ‘95

Data Exploration

Control of Visual Stimuli for Cognitive Experiments

• How do We Detect Change?– Is age relevant?

– Is context relevant?

– Experiment using Blink Paradigm

– Context is Driving

Work by Art Kramer (PI) and Heather Pringle

AGE X SALIENCE X MEANINGFULNESS

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Specialty Application Areas

• Medical Imaging, Volumetric Imaging

• Molecular Modeling

• GIS, Terrains

• Architecture, Civil & Industrial Engineering

• CAD

• Animation, Gaming, & Entertainment

• Development Tools

• Imaging Software (Computer Vision)

• Virtual Reality for Therapy and Cognitive Experiments

• Business, Economics, BioInformatics (Genomics)

General Purpose Software at Duke

• Matlab – Duke has a site license. Very good data analysis package with many built in plotting and 3D computer graphics functions. Available from OIT

• Amira – Commercial product that has a very friendly user interface. This product contains good implementations of most visualization techniques. VTG manages a site license for this product and holds summer workshops on its use.

• VTK – Freeware. A visualization toolkit which grew out of work at GE and Bill Lorenson’s Laboratory. http://kitware.com

(All 3 packages are available on VTG computers (D212, C136 LSRC)

Facilities

• Cognitive Experiments

• Molecular Modeling (InsightII, VMD)

• Front Projection Stereographics

• HMD/EEG

• Graphics PC

• SGI Octane

C136 LSRC – 3D Visualization Facility

Acknowledge: Dr. Casey, Dr. Colvin, Dr. Gamcsik

Facilities

• Forest Simulation

• I/O Experiments

• VTG Projects

• Front Projection, Active Stereo

• Short-Range Tracker

• Graphics PCs

• SGI Octane

• SGI Onyx2

D215 LSRC – Applied Geometry Lab

Acknowledge: Dr. Edelsbrunner, Dr. Arge, Dr. Agarwal

Facilities

• Engineering of Systems

• Sonification

• Rear Projection Passive Stereo Screen

• LongRange Tracker

• 8 Dual Boot/Linux WinXP Graphics PCs

• Audio Mac

• 3D Printers

130B North – Visualization Laboratory

Acknowledge: Dr. Kepler, Dr. Edelsbrunner

Facilities

• Onyx2 (cave.cs.duke.edu)– Shared memory, 10 CPU computer

– 6 GB Memory

– Console available in rooms D215 and D106 for presentations or demonstrations

– Main Amira Server

Some Pretty Pictures

Visualization Friday Forum, Fall 2003

• September 19 Martin McKeown, Neurology – Brain Response to Dynamically Varying Visual Stimuli 

• September 26 John Hatten, Chemistry– Molecular Docking for Lead Discovery 

• October 3 David Schwartz, Center for Cognitive Neuroscience– The Statistical Structure of Speech Sounds Predicts Musical Universals

• October 10 Paul Bell and Rachael Brady, VTG – Introducing the Color 3D Printer 

• October 17 Thom LaBean, Computer Science– Looking at Self-assembling DNA Nanostructures -- Models and

Molecules 

Visualization Friday Forum, Fall 2003

•  October 24 John Bower, Music – Data Representation through Sound 

• October 31 Tom Heil, Hearing Research Laboratories– The Bionic Ear: Multimodal Approaches to Visualizing Intracochlear

Electrode Arrays 

• November 7 Kathy Nightingale, Biomedical Engineering– The Duke Medical Imaging Laboratory: Integrating Research Tools into the

Classroom and the Web 

• November 14 Fuhui Long, Center for Cognitive Neuroscience – Color Perception and Modeling 

• November 21 Tom Kepler, CBCB – 3D Simulation Studies of the Immune Response

Learn More

• IEEE Visualization 2003– vis.computer.org/vis2003/

– Seattle, October 18 - 23

• Summer 2004 CSEM WorkshopsJoin the Duke

• Visualization Email List

visualization@duke.edu