Scientific Visualization

References & Resources:

1. Andy Johnson's CS 491 - Visualization and Visual Analytics web site.
2. Edward Tufte:
   1. "Visual Display of Quantitative Information, 2nd edition"
   2. "Envisioning Information"
   3. "Visual Explanations - Images and Quantities, Evidence and Narrative"
3. Wikipedia: Scientific Visualization
4. K.W. Brodlie, "Scientific Visualization: Techniques and Applications"

General Overview

• Engineers and Scientists generate overwhelming amounts of data ( both measured and simulated ) which must be visualized in some manner before it can be properly comprehended. The goal of Scientific Visualization is to provide the scientist with quick and accurate comprehension and insight into the scientific phenomenon that lies behind the data.
• Related to scientific visualization is Information Visualization, with the key difference being that the data being examined is not scientific or technical in nature. ( For example, visualizing the complete works of Shakespeare or the complete collections of the National Archives to try and find important patterns in the data. ) One of my favorite applications of information visualization is the Interactive Information Visualization of a Million Items project conducte at the University of Maryland.
• One of the top conferences in the field of scientific visualization is the IEEE Visualization conference. The web site for the IEEE VisWeek 2009 is available on-line. The proceedings can be found via the IEEE Digital Library.

Classification of Scientific Visualization

There are many different ways to classify ( scientific ) information visualizations. One way is the dimensionality of the domain over which the data is defined, and the dimensionality of the data to be displayed at each location. Data can also be categorized as to whether it is continuous or categorical. For example:

• A weather map is typical of a single data value defined over a two-dimensional domain:

• The addition of relative humidity and wind vectors produces a display of two scalars and a two-dimensional vector defined over a two-dimensional domain. ( Assuming that the wind vectors do not include a vertical component. )

Here is an example of a single icon illustrating 4 values, independant of its position in 3-D space. Color indicates termperature, height indicates volume, shape indicates pressure, and sound indicates entropy.