SGER: Volume Comparisons

University Of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison WI

Investigators

Abstract

Volume data is a vital part of many types of scientific and medical inquiry. Volume visualization has provided tools to help scientists examine volume data: methods exist for display of massive datasets and to display moderate datasets interactively using commodity hardware. Synthetic appearance methods to provide fake lighting and stylized (e.g. non-photorealistic) rendering methods help make complex shapes easier to comprehend. However, all of these advances focus on tools to help a scientist examine a single volumetric dataset. There is a need for tools that explicitly help scientists make visual comparisons among volume datasets. For example, a scientist may need to find differences between two specimens or to look for trends in a sequence of volumes. The need for such tools will grow as the throughput of data generation increases: the proliferation of scanning means more specimens will be scanned; noninvasive imaging techniques allow for series of scans over the development of an animal; and grid-based supercomputing allows for large numbers of independent simulations to be run.