Interactive Exploratory Visualization of 2D Vector Fields

Description:

We present several techniques to interactively explore representations of 2D vector fields. Through a set of simple hand postures used on large, touch-sensitive displays, our approach allows individuals to custom-design glyphs (arrows, lines, etc.) that best reveal patterns of the underlying dataset. Interactive exploration of vector fields is facilitated through freedom of glyph placement, glyph density control, and animation. The custom glyphs can be applied individually to probe specific areas of the data but can also be applied in groups to explore larger regions of a vector field. Re-positionable sources from which glyphs—animated according to the local vector field—continue to emerge are used to examine the vector field dynamically. The combination of these techniques results in an engaging visualization with which the user can rapidly explore and analyze varying types of 2D vector fields, using a virtually infinite number of custom-designed glyphs.

Paper download: (2.4 MB)

Video:

Download the video as AVI-MPEG4 (12.7MB) or watch it on YouTube.

Demo:

You can download a demo of the Interactive Exploratory Visualization of 2D Vector Fields (Win32, 37.9 MB) and try it out for yourself. To be fully functional, however, the demo requires Smart DViT hardware.

Pictures:

Visualization of storm Emma over Europe, interactively created with the above technique:

Cross-References:

This technique is based on a buffer framework for supporting responsive interaction as well as hand posture driven stroke-based non-photorealistic rendering.

Main Reference:

Tobias Isenberg, Maarten H. Everts, Jens Grubert, and Sheelagh Carpendale (2008) Interactive Exploratory Visualization of 2D Vector Fields. Computer Graphics Forum, 27(3):983–990, May 2008.

BibTeX entry:



@ARTICLE{Isenberg:2008:IEV,
  author      = {Tobias Isenberg and Maarten H. Everts and Jens Grubert and Sheelagh Carpendale},
  title       = {Interactive Exploratory Visualization of {2D} Vector Fields},
  journal     = {Computer Graphics Forum},
  year        = {2008},
  volume      = {27},
  number      = {3},
  month       = may,
  pages       = {983--990},
  doi         = {10.1111/j.1467-8659.2008.01233.x},
  doi_url     = {https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8659.2008.01233.x},
  url         = {https://tobias.isenberg.cc/p/Isenberg2008IEV},
  pdf         = {https://tobias.isenberg.cc/personal/papers/Isenberg_2008_IEV.pdf},
}

Other References:

Tobias Isenberg, Jens Grubert, Maarten H. Everts, and Sheelagh Carpendale (2008) Hands-On Analysis and Illustration: Interactive Exploratory Visualization of Vector Fields. In Proceedings of the Fourteenth Annual Conference of the Advanced School for Computing and Imaging (ASCI CONFERENCE, June 11–13, Het Heijderbos, Heijen, The Netherlands)., pages 222–229, 2008. Also see the article in Computer Graphics Forum.

BibTeX entry:



@INPROCEEDINGS{Isenberg:2008:HAI,
  author      = {Tobias Isenberg and Jens Grubert and Maarten H. Everts and Sheelagh Carpendale},
  title       = {Hands-On Analysis and Illustration: Interactive Exploratory Visualization of Vector Fields},
  booktitle   = {Proceedings of the Fourteenth Annual Conference of the Advanced School for Computing and Imaging (ASCI CONFERENCE, June 11--13, Het Heijderbos, Heijen, The Netherlands)},
  year        = {2008},
  pages       = {222--229},
  url         = {https://tobias.isenberg.cc/p/Isenberg2008IEV},
  pdf         = {https://tobias.isenberg.cc/personal/papers/Isenberg_2008_HAI.pdf},
}

Jens Grubert, Sheelagh Carpendale, and Tobias Isenberg (2008) Interactive Stroke-Based NPR using Hand Postures on Large Displays. In Katerina Mania and Erik Reinhard, eds., Short Papers at Eurographics (EG, April 14–18, Crete, Greece). Eurographics Association, Goslar, Germany, pages 279–282, 2008. Short paper.

BibTeX entry:



@INPROCEEDINGS{Grubert:2008:ISN,
  author      = {Jens Grubert and Sheelagh Carpendale and Tobias Isenberg},
  title       = {Interactive Stroke-Based {NPR} using Hand Postures on Large Displays},
  booktitle   = {Short Papers at Eurographics (EG, April 14--18, Crete, Greece)},
  OPTeditor   = {Katerina Mania and Erik Reinhard},
  year        = {2008},
  pages       = {279--282},
  publisher   = {Eurographics Association},
  address     = {Goslar, Germany},
  doi         = {10.2312/egs.20081030},
  doi_url     = {https://doi.org/10.2312/egs.20081030},
  url         = {https://tobias.isenberg.cc/p/Grubert2008ISN},
  url2        = {http://innovis.cpsc.ucalgary.ca/Research/InteractiveCanvas},
  pdf         = {https://tobias.isenberg.cc/personal/papers/Grubert_2008_ISN.pdf},
}

Tobias Isenberg, Uta Hinrichs, and Sheelagh Carpendale (2009) Studying Direct-Touch Interaction for 2D Flow Visualization. In Petra Isenberg, Michael Sedlmair, Dominikus Baur, Tobias Isenberg, and Andreas Butz, eds., Proceedings of the VisWeek Workshop on Collaborative Visualization on Interactive Surfaces (CoVIS, October 11, Atlantic City, USA). University of Munich, Germany, Department of Computer Science, Media Informatics Group, Munich, pages 17–20, 2009. Proceedings published in April 2010 as a University of Munich, Germany, technical report # LMU-MI-2010-2.

BibTeX entry:



@INPROCEEDINGS{Isenberg:2009:SDT,
  author      = {Tobias Isenberg and Uta Hinrichs and Sheelagh Carpendale},
  title       = {Studying Direct-Touch Interaction for {2D} Flow Visualization},
  booktitle   = {Proceedings of the VisWeek Workshop on Collaborative Visualization on Interactive Surfaces (CoVIS, October 11, Atlantic City, USA)},
  OPTeditor   = {Petra Isenberg and Michael Sedlmair and Dominikus Baur and Tobias Isenberg and Andreas Butz},
  year        = {2009},
  pages       = {17--20},
  publisher   = {University of Munich, Germany, Department of Computer Science, Media Informatics Group},
  address     = {Munich},
  url         = {https://tobias.isenberg.cc/p/Isenberg2008IEV},
  pdf         = {https://tobias.isenberg.cc/personal/papers/Isenberg_2009_SDT.pdf},
}

Jens Grubert (2008) Interacting with Stroke-Based Non-Photorealistic Rendering on Large Displays. Honor’s thesis, Department of Computer Science, University of Magdeburg, Germany, February 2008.

BibTeX entry:



@MASTERSTHESIS{Grubert:2008:IWS,
  author      = {Jens Grubert},
  title       = {Interacting with Stroke-Based Non-Photorealistic Rendering on Large Displays},
  type        = {Honor's thesis},
  year        = {2008},
  school      = {Department of Computer Science, University of Magdeburg},
  month       = feb,
  address     = {Germany},
  url         = {http://innovis.cpsc.ucalgary.ca/Publications/Publications?action=bibentry&bibfile=BibTex.BibTex&bibref=Grubert:2008:IWS},
  url2        = {https://tobias.isenberg.cc/VideosAndDemos/Grubert2008ISN},
  pdf         = {https://tobias.isenberg.cc/personal/papers_students/Grubert_2008_IWS.pdf},
}

This work was done at the Scientific Visualization and Computer Graphics Lab of the University of Groningen, the Netherlands, in collaboration with and based on work done at the Innovis group at the Interactions Lab of the University of Calgary, Canada.