Computer-generated Visualizations Research Articles

Are realistic details important for learning with visualizations or can depth cues provide sufficient guidance?

The optimal choice of the level of realism in instructional visualizations is a difficult task. Previous studies suggest that realism can overwhelm learners, but a growing body of research demonstrates that realistic details can enhance learning. In the first experiment (n = 107), it was assessed whether learning using realistic visualizations can be distracting and therefore particularly benefits from pre-training. Participants learned the anatomy of the parotid gland using labeled visualizations. While pre-training did not have an effect, a more realistic visualization enhanced learning compared to a schematic visualization. In the second experiment (n = 132), a schematic diagram was compared to a more realistic style featuring basic depth cues, and a highly realistic visualization containing a detailed surface. Regarding retention performance, no significant differences were found. However, an interesting pattern regarding subjective cognitive load ratings emerged: the schematic version received the highest cognitive load ratings, while the version featuring simplified shading was rated as least demanding. The version containing simplified depth cues also elicited lower cognitive load ratings than the detailed visualization. The two experiments demonstrate that fears concerning a detrimental effect of realistic details should not be over-generalized. While schematic visualizations may be easier to visually process in some cases, extracting depth information from contour drawings adds cognitive demands to a learning task. Thus, it is advisable that computer-generated visualizations contain at least simplified forms of shading, while the addition of details does not appear to have a strong positive effect.

Stark Effect of Electron-Proton System with Computer-generated Visualizations

The energy level and wave function obtained by solving the Schrödinger equation are extremely important in quantum mechanics. In this study, the solution to the Schrödinger equation of the electron-proton system by separation of variables was briefly described and the visualizations of the various solution were generated by Mathematica. The perturbation theory was discussed with the exclusion of the correction terms coming from the degenerate subspace. Applying the perturbation theory to the wavefunctions of the electron-proton system to study the Stark effect, the perturbation Hamiltonian is a constant electrostatic field. For the principal quantum numbers n=1, n=2 and n=3, this paper obtains the energy corrections to the first and second degree, the corrections of the wavefunction to the first degree. The visualizations of the perturbed wavefunctions were obtained by setting the summation limits k=20 and other parameters to 1. The visualizations of various unperturbed-states and perturbed-states were generated by Mathematica version 13.2.

Multimodal Discursivity: Framing European Union Borders in Live-Blogs

More than one million refugees fleeing war-torn areas reached Europe in 2015, making migrant (im)mobility and border dynamics breaking news in media reports. In this context, traditional news media’s adoption of live-blogs was particularly significant in the coverage. This new online news format offered frequently updated coverage and reader interactivity as events unfolded and through multiple modalities of communication, including text, photos, videos, social media posts, maps, graphics, hyperlinks, computer-generated visualizations, and readers’ comments. This study employs critical multimodal discourse analysis to examine the framing of the European Union borders in live-blogs produced for four European news outlets online. It discusses the three main frames that emerged from analysis—border management, borders as lived spaces, and borders as politically constructed spaces—and their implications for the construction of discourse on migration.

The Pascal's Triangle Project

Mathematical beauty is often an elusive concept. One might tell students that a solution is “elegant” or mention that fractal self-symmetry is “beautiful,” but computer-generated images and textbook visualizations seldom have the same reward as something built by hand. Triangle Day involved hands-on learning.

Between: Curating Representations of the Embodied Brain

This review is a reflection on the interdisciplinary exhibition and public engagement project Between: Embodiment and Identity (2012–13), co-curate­d by Karen Ingham with fellow artist–curator Susan Aldworth. It focuses on the 2012 manifestation of the project in the Inigo Rooms at Somerset House in London. Between questioned how the material relationship of brain to body influences the philosophical and metaphorical relationship of mind to matter, and how understandings of personal identity are influenced by a scientific culture that represents illness as disembodied digital data sets and 3-D computer-generated visualizations. A functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scan may be able to visually indicate where pain or a tumour is located in the body but it cannot actually convey what pain ‘feels’ like. This imagery of science, with its own distinct cultural potency and difference of interpretation, was explored and challenged by the project through the curation of artworks that offered a more holistic understanding of the brain and the illnesses that are a product of its disorder.

Whisper, Don't Scream: Grids and Transparency

Visual elements such as grids, labels, and contour lines act as reference structures that support the primary information being presented. Such structures need to be usefully visible, but not so obtrusive that they clutter the presentation. Visual designers know how to carefully manage transparency and layering in an image to balance these elements. We want the presentation of these structures in complex, dynamic, computer-generated visualizations to reflect the same subtlety and comfort of good design. Our goal is to determine the physical, perceptual, and cognitive characteristics of such structures in a way that enables automatic presentation. Our approach to this problem does not try to characterize "ideal” or "best,” but instead seeks boundary conditions that define a range of visible yet subtle legibility. All presentations that are clearly bad lie outside of this range, and can easily be avoided. In this paper, we report three experiments investigating the effects of grid color and spacing on these boundary conditions, defined by manipulating the transparency (alpha) of thin rectangular grids over scatter plots. Our results show that while there is some variation due to user preference and image properties, bounding alpha allows us to reliably predict a range of usable yet unobtrusive grids over a wide variety of conditions.

Using the clustered circular layout as an informative method for visualizing protein-protein interaction networks

The force-directed layout is commonly used in computer-generated visualizations of protein-protein interaction networks. While it is good for providing a visual outline of the protein complexes and their interactions, it has two limitations when used as a visual analysis method. The first is poor reproducibility. Repeated running of the algorithm does not necessarily generate the same layout, therefore, demanding cognitive readaptation on the investigator's part. The second limitation is that it does not explicitly display complementary biological information, e.g. Gene Ontology, other than the protein names or gene symbols. Here, we present an alternative layout called the clustered circular layout. Using the human DNA replication protein-protein interaction network as a case study, we compared the two network layouts for their merits and limitations in supporting visual analysis.

Somewhere over the rainbow – advantages and pitfalls of colourful visualizations in geosciences

Abstract. Computer-generated visualizations of geoscientific data, such as those from climate models are in high demand for a wide variety of usages; these include, among others, scientific publications, reports and graphical aides for the general public's improved understanding of complex developments. The paper will focus on the effects of colours in two-dimensional displays. Practical examples are given from which it becomes clear that considerable confusion or even damage can arise from an uninformed use of colour mapping and if results become, e.g., published in an unchecked manner by the media.

Visualizing a real forest

The authors collaborated with computer scientists, psychologists, artists, and others to create a highly realistic, computer-generated walkthrough of an existing forest. Funded by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service, this work supported current experiments at the University of Arizona's Department of Psychology. Researchers hope to determine the level of realism needed in computer-generated visualizations or animations of natural scenes for humans to reach conclusions about the virtual environment similar to those they would have reached by experiencing the actual site. The plan is to compare subjects' responses to actual, video taped, and photographed walkthroughs, and computer simulated walkthroughs.

Speech Viewer and ultrasonograph as a combined speech therapy instrument for deaf children

The Speech Viewer, a computer-assisted tool for speech and voice training, and ultrasonography of the tongue were used for rehabilitation of five deaf children aged three to six years. Three of these children underwent cochlear implantation before, two were supported with hearing aids. While the Speech Viewer presented audio-visual feedback connecting audible sounds with computer-generated visualizations, ultrasonography presented kinesthetic-visual feedback, since the sounds were associated with kinesthetic perception of the tongue and shape visualization of the tongue dorsum. The children practised the combined speech and voice training with high motivation and efficiency.

Research issues in vector and tensor field visualization

Today, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) research is almost impossible without computer-generated visualizations of the very large amounts of data resulting from numerical simulations. Although good techniques now exist for analysis of scalar data, most existing techniques for the visualization of vector fields-the predominant data type in CFD-meet only part of what is required. Common techniques such as arrow plots, streamlines, and particles work well for 2D applications, but for 3D data sets they often lead to cluttered displays. For tensors, which are much more complex and abstract entities the problem is even more severe. There is a real need for visualization, but there are no simple solutions. Many researchers have recognized this challenge and developed new techniques. We restrict ourselves to open research issues. We proceed in three ways. First, we propose a classification of existing vector and tensor field visualization techniques based on work by Delmarcelle and Hesselink (1994) and point out research gaps in this classification scheme. Second, we discuss feature-based visualization, which shows higher level descriptions derived from elementary data. Third, we consider the role of visualization in the research process, again revealing gaps in our current know-how concerning visualization of vector and tensor fields. >