Navigation in time-varying scientific data

• Navigation in zeitveränderlichen wissenschaftlichen Daten

Wolter, Marc; Kuhlen, Torsten (Thesis advisor)

Aachen : Publikationsserver der RWTH Aachen University (2010)
Dissertation / PhD Thesis

Aachen, Techn. Hochsch., Diss., 2010

Abstract

The temporal resolution of today's simulated scientific data sets is constantly growing. Simulations spanning thousands of discrete time steps are common these days; simulations with a much higher resolution exist. The growing amount of discrete time steps leads to significant problems, particularly concerning the navigation through such data sets. This thesis presents a set of techniques that together enable an intuitive, interactive, and accurate navigation through time-varying scientific data. A time model that describes different time scales and their relations in scientific visualizations serves as a basis. Novel 3D interaction techniques for search and maneuver navigation tasks are developed and are evaluated in user studies. Based on initial user input, the temporal resolution of time-varying scientific data is adapted by a multi-objective optimization approach, which tries to combine conflicting analysis goals. In order to speed up the computation of time-varying visualizations during navigation, a remote parallel computation system using different user-centered scheduling strategies is presented. The developed approaches are evaluated using multiple large time-varying data sets from medicine, geosciences and flow mechanics. The heterogeneous techniques proposed - applied individually as well as in combination - enable or ease the analysis of large time-varying data in an interactive work process.

Institutions

• Virtual Reality Group [124170]
• Department of Computer Science [120000]