Visualization In Scientific Computing

The purpose of this text is to provide a reference source to scientists, engineers, and students who are new to scientific visualization or who are interested in expanding their knowledge in this subject. If used properly, it can also serve as an introduction and tutorial.

Visualization in scientific computing is getting more and more attention from many people. Especially in relation with the fast increase of com puting power, graphic tools are required in many cases for interpreting and presenting the results of various simulations, or for analyzing physical phenomena. The Eurographics Working Group on Visualization in Scientific Com puting has therefore organized a first workshop at Electricite de France (Clamart) in cooperation with ONERA (Chatillon). A wide range of pa pers were selected in order to cover most of the topics of interest for the members of the group, for this first edition, and 26 of them were presented in two days. Subsequently 18 papers were selected for this volume. 1'he presentations were organized in eight small sessions, in addition to discussions in small subgroups. The first two sessions were dedicated to the specific needs for visualization in computational sciences: the need for graphics support in large computing centres and high performance net works, needs of research and education in universities and academic cen tres, and the need for effective and efficient ways of integrating numerical computations or experimental data and graphics. Three of those papers are in Part I of this book. The third session discussed the importance and difficulties of using stan dards in visualization software, and was related to the fourth session where some reference models and distributed graphics systems were discussed. Part II has five papers from these sessions.

Visualization is now recognized as a powerful approach to get insight in large datasets produced by scientific experimentations and simulations. The contributions to this book cover technical aspects as well as concrete applications of visualization in various domains such as finance, physics, astronomy and medicine, providing researchers and engineers with valuable information for setting up new powerful environments.

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Visualization is the most important approach to extract relevant information from the huge amount of data produced in today’s computational and experimental sciences. Selected contributions from the fifth in a well established series of workshops on "Visualization in Scientific Computing”, organized by the EUROGRAPHICS Association, held at May 30 to June 1, 1994, in Rostock, Germany, treat topics of particular interest in current research: visualization of multidimensional data, flow visualization, data modeling, time control, interaction, and volume visualization. Examples of applications for instance come from flow simulation, chemistry, medical imaging, and geography. Readers will profit in getting insight in state-of-the-art techniques which might help them to solve their visualization problems.

This non-traditional introduction to the mathematics of scientific computation describes the principles behind the major methods, from statistics, applied mathematics, scientific visualization, and elsewhere, in a way that is accessible to a large part of the scientific community. Introductory material includes computational basics, a review of coordinate systems, an introduction to facets (planes and triangle meshes) and an introduction to computer graphics. The scientific computing part of the book covers topics in numerical linear algebra (basics, solving linear system, eigen-problems, SVD, and PCA) and numerical calculus (basics, data fitting, dynamic processes, root finding, and multivariate functions). The visualization component of the book is separated into three parts: empirical data, scalar values over 2D data, and volumes.

Visualization is nowadays indispensable to get insight into the huge amounts of data pro duced by large scale simulations or advanced measurement devices. The use of com puter graphics for scientific purposes has become a well established discipline, known as Scientific Visualization. Many problems still have to be solved, and hence the field is a very active area for research and development. This book represents results of the sixth in a well established series of international workshops on Visualization in Scien tific Computing organized by the EUROGRAPHICS Association in collaboration with CRS4 (Center for Advanced Studies, Research and Development in Sardinia), held from May 3 to May 5,1995, in Chia, Italy. The thirteen contributions selected for this volume cover a wide range of topics, ranging from detailed algorithmic studies to searches for new metaphors. A rough di vision can be made into the parts interaction, irregular meshes, volume rendering, and applications. Interaction in three dimensions is a challenging area for research. The use of three dimensional user interfaces for more natural manipulation of three-dimensional data and their visualization is natural, but is far from trivial to realize. Pang et al. investigate the use of common objects such as spray cans and carving knives as metaphors for visualiza tion tools, in order to provide an intuitive and natural three dimensional user interface. Gibson uses a voxel-based data representation, not only for visualization, but also for physical modeling of objects. A prototype system under development for haptic explo ration is discussed.

Scientific visualization is a new and rapidly growing area in which efforts from computer graphics research and many scientific and engineering disciplines are integrated. Its aim is to enhance interpretation and understanding by scientists of large amounts of data from measurements or complex computer simulations, using computer generated images and animation sequences. It exploits the power of human visual perception to identify trends and structures, and recognize shapes and patterns. Development of new numerical simulation methods in many areas increasingly depends on visualization as an effective way to obtain an intuitive understanding of a problem. This book contains a selection of papers presented at the second Eurographics workshop on Visualization in Scientific Computing, held in Delft, the Netherlands, in April 1991. Theissues addressed are visualization tool and system design, new presentation techniques for volume data and vector fields, and numerous case studies in scientific visualization. Application areas include geology, medicine, fluid dynamics, molecular science, and environmental protection. The book will interest researchers and students in computer graphics and scientists from many disciplines interested in recent results in visual data analysis and presentation. It reflects the state of the art in visualization research and shows a wide variety of experimental systems and imaginative applications.