Approaches to uncertainty visualization

Abstract

Visualized data often have dubious origins and quality. Different forms of uncertainty and errors are also introduced as the data are derived, transformed, interpolated, and finally rendered. In the absence of integrated presentation of data and uncertainty, the analysis of the visualization is incomplete at best and often leads to inaccurate or incorrect conclusions. This paper surveys techniques for presenting data together with uncertainty. These uncertainty visualization techniques present data in such a manner that users are made aware of the locations and degree of uncertainties in their data so as to make more informed analyses and decisions. The techniques include adding glyphs, adding geometry, modifying geometry, modifying attributes, animation, sonification, and psycho-visual approaches. We present our results in uncertainty visualization for environmental visualization, surface interpolation, global illumination with radiosity, flow visualization, and figure animation. We also present a classification of the possibilities in uncertainty visualization, and locate our contributions within this classification.