ITR: Visualization of Multi-valued Scientific Data: Applying Ideas from Art and Perceptual Psychology

Brown University, Providence RI

Investigators

Abstract

Visualization of Multi-valued Scientific Data: Applying Ideas from Art and Perceptual Psychology This is a multi-disciplinary research project to discover new visualization tools for interacting with and understanding multi-valued volumes of scientific data and the physical phenomena they measure. The tools will be developed and evaluated in close collaboration with scientists in three disciplines: neurobiologists studying neural development and disease via biological imaging, computational flow researchers studying blood flow through arteries, and geographers using remote sensing for environmental monitoring and resource management. We will factor out common patterns from the problems in these multiple disciplines to develop interaction metaphors and visualization techniques that are generalizable and widely applicable. This project develops new visualization evaluation methodologies, an area that has only begun to be addressed. And it compares the effectiveness of visualization applications in several interactive and static computing and display environments including a 4-wall Cave, a 40'x40' virtual environment with a head mounted display, stereo head-tracked workbenches, desktop workstations, paper, and 3D rapid-prototyping output. Immersive environments will be studied because the value of these non-traditional working environments has not been established and because they present an opportunity to explore fundamentally different interaction metaphors. Comparisons will be performed for both interactive and static cases with appropriate technology determined for each application. This project brings together experience from art and perceptual psychology for inspiration. Through several centuries, artists have evolved a tradition of techniques to create visual representations for particular communication goals. Art history provides a language for understanding that knowledge. We will draw inspiration from painting, sculpture, drawing, and graphic design and apply these techniques to the scientific problems. Beyond inspiration, perceptual psychology also brings a second set of knowledge to bear on scientific visualization problems. Evaluating the effectiveness of visualization methods is difficult because, not only are the goals difficult to define and codify, tests that evaluate them meaningfully are difficult to design and execute. These evaluations are akin to evaluating how the human perceptual system works. Perceptual psychologists have been developing experiments for understanding perception for decades, and they will help develop methodology and expertise for evaluating visualization methods in close collaboration with biologists, fluids researchers, geographers, artists, and computer scientists. While many of the individual components of this project are important alone, the collaborative aspects are the most notable. Mining ideas from art and perception will suggest unusually innovative visualization ideas. The application of new visualization techniques and collaboration with researchers in other fields will provide us with a unique opportunity to validate the techniques and ensure that they are responsive to the needs of the scientific problems. Because the techniques will be developed with application to multiple disciplines, they are likely to find further application within these and other disciplines. The assembled team brings strengths in all of the disciplines and has already demonstrated a track record of collaborative work. The broader impact of the proposed research lies not only in the information technology arena, where new methods will help scientists in many disciplines to more effectively interact with and understand their data and gain insight about the physical phenomena they represent, but also in the specific scientific domains we will study. The study of blood flow could lead to improved understanding of and treatment for cardiovascular pathologies. An understanding of early neural development could enable new therapies for birth defects, genetic disorders, and other diseases. Remote sensing advances could provide more effective resource monitoring and permit widespread improvements in global quality of life.