A Perceptual Visualization Architecture

North Carolina State University, Raleigh NC

Investigators

Abstract

This project will perform fundamental investigations of the strenghts and limitations of the low-level human visual system. It will seek to identify image properties that people can see quickly, to test how those properties interact with one another, and to determine how to harness those properties. Understanding how we perceive the world around us will benefit many research areas including information display, image generation, image analysis, and the simulation of vision. This project will apply this knowledge to an important area of computer graphics: the visualization of large, complex, multidimensional datasets. The goal in this area is to design visualizations that support rapid and accurate exploration and analysis of such complex data. To do this, the project must display all of the data without overwhelming the viewer's visual system. It will solve this problem by constructing a perceptual visualization architecture, which will inclued a "visualization assistant". This assistant will use artificial intelligence search techniques to help viewers choose perceptually optimal methods of converting their data into effective visualizations.