CSE564 Visualization and Visual

Computing
Hong Qin
Rm. 151, New CS, Department of Computer Science
Stony Brook University (SUNY at Stony Brook)
Stony Brook, New York 11794-2424
Tel: (631)632-8450; Fax: (631)632-8334
[email protected], or [email protected]
http://www.cs.stonybrook.edu/~qin

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 Scientific Visualization Example
Scientific visualization employs graphical techniques to represent
complex data from fields like meteorology, medicine, and physics.

For example, it can visualize fluid dynamics in weather forecasting

or show molecular structures in chemistry.

This visual representation helps researchers and professionals

better understand and interpret the data.

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 CSE564 Visualization and
Visual Computing
• Instructor: Professor Hong Qin ([email protected] or
[email protected] )
• Lecture time and place: OLD CS 2120, TuTh 1pm-2:20pm
• Office hours: TuTh 2:20pm-4pm, or by appointment (Please
feel free to email or chat with me about the course!)
• Course home page:
www3.cs.stonybrook.edu/~qin/courses/visualization/visualiz
ation.html
• Be sure to visit the course home page frequently for
announcements, handouts, etc.

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Center for Visual Computing STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK
 Course Objectives (Synopsis)
• Emphasizes a “hands-on” approach to both the better understanding of
scientific/information visualization concept/theory/algorithms and the effective
utility of scientific/information visualization techniques in various visual
computing applications.
• Provide a comprehensive knowledge on scientific/information visualization
concepts, theory, algorithms, techniques, and applications for data
acquisition/simulation procedures, data modeling techniques, commonly-used
conventional visualization techniques, visualization and rendering processes,
visualization of 2D, volumetric, higher-dimensional, and time-series datasets,
human-computer interactions, and other key elements of visual computing.
• Demonstrate the significant of these mathematical and computational tools and
visualization algorithms in visual computing and relevant areas.
• Time permitting, this course will also try to introduce some advanced
visualization topics, including (but not just limited to), visual perception,
cognitive science, information visualization basics, visual analytics, and the
possible coupling of artificial intelligence with visualization.
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 Course Topics
Course topics: scientific visualization, visual
perception, basic computer graphics and imaging
concepts, volume and surface rendering, volume
visualization, case studies, advanced research
subjects, current research trends, and many more!

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 Visualization is the graphical representation

Visualization
of data or concepts to provide insight or
understanding.

• Data acquisition, representation, and modeling

• Imaging processing
• Visualization (displaying) methods and
Different visualization methods include wireframe, solid, and textured
algorithms rendering, while algorithms like ray tracing, rasterization, and voxelization
are used for modeling and displaying 3D objects.

• More advanced research topics

Data acquisition in visualization is collecting and processing raw data
for visual representation.
Representation in visualization is how data is visually depicted or
presented.
In modeling, representation is how objects are depicted using
mathematical or digital methods.
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 The Visualization Pipeline processes
data to produce visual representations.

Visualization Pipeline
• Data acquisition and representation
Data acquisition involves collecting raw data, while representation transforms this data into a visual form

• Modeling data and their (time-varying)

behaviors (e.g., physical experiments or
computational simulations)
Modeling data captures time-varying behaviors for visualization from experiments or simulations.
• Graphics system for data rendering
a graphics system transforms data into visual representations for analysis.
• Image-based techniques
Image-based techniques include texture mapping, environment mapping, and image-
based lighting.
Numerical simulations use computation to study complex systems or phenomena.

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 Data acquisition is gathering information, and processing is analyzing and
manipulating that data for insights.
Data Acquisition and Processing
Pixels are the smallest units of a 2D image, while
• Pixels and voxels voxels are their 3D counterparts, representing
volume elements in a three-dimensional space.
• Regular & irregular grids Regular grids have evenly spaced and
• Numerical simulations consistent cell sizes, while irregular grids
have varying and non-uniform cell sizes.
• Surface or volumetric data
• Scalar, vector, tensor data with multiple attributes
• Higher-dimensional and/or time-varying data
varying data includes extra dimensions or changes over time.
• Popular techniques
– Contouring, iso-surfaces, triangulation, marching cubes, slicing,
segmentation, volume rendering, reconstruction
• Image-based processing techniques see slide 12
– Sampling, filtering, anti-aliasing, image analysis and manipulation
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Surface or volumetric data represents objects or phenomena in either 2D surfaces or 3D volumes.
Scalar data has a single value at each point, vector data has magnitude and direction, and tensor

Data Sources
data has multiple attributes, often used to represent complex physical properties.

• Scanned, computed, modeled data

• The first process is data-gathering
• Large variety of data sources
Contouring visualizes lines of constant value on a surface.
•Iso-surfaces
Extremely
surface.
large-scale
represent points in a 3D volumedatasets
that share the same scalar value, visualized as a

Triangulation is a method of dividing a polygon or shape into triangles to facilitate rendering and
computation.
Marching cubes is an algorithm used to create a polygonal mesh from volumetric data, commonly
used in medical imaging and computer graphics.
Slicing involves displaying cross-sectional views of a 3D dataset.
Segmentation is the process of dividing an image into multiple regions or segments.
Volume rendering visualizes 3D volumetric data as 2D images.
Reconstruction builds a 3D model from 2D image slices or data.

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 Pre-requisites
• Mathematical skills: fundamental knowledge on calculus,
linear algebra, analytic geometry, etc. (Basic mathematical
training at the undergraduate level).
• Computer science background: programming skills, basic
visualization/graphics/visual-computing courses (or
knowledge) at the undergraduate level.
• Essentially, you will need to have an undergraduate
education in computer science or engineering with basic
knowledge on visualization/graphics/visual-computing.
• You will need to speak to the instructor if you are not sure
about your background knowledge and course
prerequisites.
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 TA Information for CSE564
• TA: (Computer Science PhD student):
• TBA
• TA OFFICE HOURS: TBA (Monday and
Wednesday)!!!
• OpenGL Tutorials: 3 lectures in
September/October timeframe (tentatively 9/26 or
9/28, 10/10, 10/12 or 10/17)
• http://www3.cs.sunysb.edu/~xyz/cse528/
• My TA is moving these stuff to his own website!
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 Sampling: Selecting discrete points from a continuous signal to represent it digitally.
Filtering: Adjusting or enhancing a signal by modifying its frequency components.
Anti-aliasing: Smoothing out jagged edges in images to reduce visual artifacts.
Image analysis: Evaluating and extracting information or features from images.
Image manipulation: Altering or enhancing images for artistic or practical purposes.

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 Programming Assignment, Paper
Reading, Final Course Project
• On programming assignment (due at 12:50pm on
Tuesday 2/20): 10%
• Paper reading and technical report for literature review
(total 7 papers, throughout the semester, due at
12:50pm Tuesday 4/24): 10%
• Course project: 50%
• Class attendance and asking questions during office
hours: 5%
• Extra, bonus points: 10% extra for additional paper
reading and additional functionalities on your final
project

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Center for Visual Computing STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK
 Two Mid-term Exams
• Tentatively scheduled on 2/22 and 4/17
• The first mid-term exam is 10%
• The second mid-term exam is 15%

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 Course Project (50%)
• One-page project proposal (due at 12:50pm, Thursday
3/1): 5%
• Mid-term software demo with preliminary results
(Thursday 4/5): (3+6)%
• A working system + software codes (due at 9am 5/5):
30%
• Oral presentation and final demo in class (due at 9am
5/5): 3%
• Final course project report (due at 9am 5/5): 3%
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 Course Project
• Basic project requirements
– Interactive interface (graphics-based)
– Intuitive and easy to understand
– Efficient (fast, high-performance)
– Basic functionalities
– Examples
– Flexible and easy to generalize

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 Final Project Submission Schedule

• Technical Report + Software + ppt file for your

final presentation: DUE May 5 (Saturday) 9am

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 Final Presentations (10-15 Minutes
Each)
• Tentatively, May 5 (Saturday) – 6 (Sunday)
• Location: TBA
• Signup sheets will be available late in the
semester!!!

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 Late Submission Penalty

• 25% per day!!!

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 Introduction to Visualization

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 What is Visualization
Visualization is a computational method of extracting
meaningful information from complex or
voluminous datasets through the use of interactive
graphics and imaging

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Center for Visual Computing STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK
 Visualization
• What is visualization
– Visual display of information (data), for example,
quantitative information, measured quantities, etc.
– Transformation of symbols and data into visual and
geometric forms
• Visualization is computation
– A new method of computing
• Why is visualization useful?

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 What is (Scientific) Visualization?
• Transformation of data (or information) into pictures (visual outputs)
• Note this does not necessarily imply the use of computers!
• Classical visualization used hand-drawn figures and illustration
(primarily 2D means for visualization)
• Modern visualization is primarily 3D (via digital imaging for 3D
visualization)
• In both cases, the ultimate goal is to understand something important
(a.k.a. important insights) about the data through visual means
• We really do not care how we get the picture in visualization – what
picture we get is most important
• The technical ways to arrive at visual outputs are mainly depending
on computer graphics techniques
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 Visualization Definition
Visualization……
• Is a method of computing
• Transforms the symbolic into the visual
• Allows researchers / engineers / physicians / scientists to
observe their simulations and computations
• Offers a method of seeing the unseen
• Enriches the process of scientific / engineering / medical
discovery and fosters profound and sometimes unexpected
insight
• In some fields, revolutionizes the way scientists / engineers /
doctors practice their fields
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 Visualization Example

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 What Are Our Ultimate Goals?
• A large variety of datasets (acquired via
scanning devices, super-computer simulation,
mathematical descriptions, etc.)
• A pipeline of data processing that consists of
data modeling (reconstruction), representation,
manipulation (rigid transformation or
deformation), classification (segmentation),
feature extraction, simulation, analysis, visual
display, conversion, storage, etc.
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 What Are Our Ultimate Goals?
• Datasets that are huge, multi-dimensional, time-
evolving, unstructured, multi-attributes
(geometric info. + material distributions),
scattered (both temporal and spatial)…
• We are investigating mathematical tools and
computational techniques for data modeling,
reconstruction, manipulation, simulation,
analysis, and display

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 Why Visualization and Graphics
• A Chinese proverb: “ a picture is worth a
thousand words.”
• “A picture is worth more than a thousand
words.” – ancient proverb

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Center for Visual Computing STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK
 Visualization and Visual Computing
• Mathematical concepts, principles, and theory for
images, perception, and display
• Fundamental computational (algorithmic) components
that enable the entire graphics rendering pipeline
• Data modeling, representation, simulation,
manipulation, display techniques and processes
• A large variety of applications in visualization as well
as other visual computing areas
• Several advanced topics and they are all research-
oriented, representing the most sophisticated ones
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 Our Course
• A subset of key principles, theory, algorithms,
techniques, and applications
• Extensive topics with a main focus on our unique
course mission
• Comprehensive lectures (focusing on graphics
rendering, image and signal processing, data modeling,
and application needs)
• Numerous slides, figures, images, and videos for easy
understanding (after all, this is the nature of
visualization)
• Active students’ involvements (classroom attendance
and asking questions, worth 5% of the final grade)
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 How to Get an “A”?
• Programming assignment
• Two mid-term exams
• Paper reading and technical report on literature
review
• Final course project

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 Course Facts
• This is a graduate course!
• Can I take this course? YES, if YOU
– Are a graduate student with CS background, have skills in calculus
and linear algebra, have BASIC knowledge on graphics and
visualization, or talk to the instructor
• You do NOT need to take CSE328/CSE332 prior to this
course. However, you need to have gained equivalent
knowledge elsewhere (similar to CSE328, CSE332, or other
relevant courses)
• Several required and suggested textbooks (you don’t have to
buy them though)
• Lecture notes are important!!! Class attendance in critical!!!
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 Course Facts
• NOT a graphics course
• NOT a course to teach OpenGL or relevant
programming tools/languages comprehensively (basic
knowledge for programming skills should be acquired
elsewhere)
• Though we are using graphics techniques (display
pipeline) to visualize datasets, our course emphases and
foci are different from CSE528
• Study visualization processes and related applications!
• Course projects lead to MS thesis (project) or Ph.D
dissertation topics
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 Key Components
• Pictures and images
– Motivation, traditional visualization, visual perception,
visualization process
• Basic imaging and graphics (display) concepts and
pipelines
– Image processing, filter design, spatial transformation,
viewing, shading (illumination), rendering
• Volume graphics basics
– Iso-surfaces, volume rendering, transfer functions, data
modeling and acquisition, multi-dimensional data
visualization
• Information visualization and beyond
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 Why Visualization
• A Chinese proverb: “ a picture is worth a
thousand words.”
• “A picture is worth more than a thousand
words.” – ancient proverb

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 One Picture (Julia Set)
What on earth is this??

“A picture is worth more than a thousand words.” – ancient proverb

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 Many Words…

1000 words (or just 94 words), many letters though…

It looks like a swirl. There are smaller swirls at the

edges. It has different shades of red at the outside, and is
mostly green at the inside. The smaller swirls have
purple highlights. The green has also different shades.
Each small swirl is composed of even smaller ones. The
swirls go clockwise. Inside the object, there are also red
highlights. Those have different shades of red also. The
green shades vary in a fan, while the purple ones are
more uni-color. The green shades get darker towards the
outside of the fan…………………………………………..

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 Why is Visualization Useful and
Important ?
because it simplifies complex data, aids in
• Which is more helpful: A or B?
understanding patterns and relationships, facilitates
decision-making, and enables effective
communication of information.

explanation of next slide is

Terrain geometry is the 3D representation of natural
landscapes in graphics.
16texture
Terrain million 3Dnatural
simulates points:landscapes like
mountains or forests in 3D environments.

5, 34,information
Time-varying 22, 56, 114, …changing data
includes
over time, like cloud cover, wind vectors (x,y,z), and
other dynamic factors such as temperature, rainfall,
or traffic patterns.

A B
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 Why Do We Need Visualization?
“A picture is worth more than a thousand numbers.” – new take on ancient proverb
• Terrain geometry
– x, y, z (elevation)
• Terrain texture
– r, g, b (colors)
• Time-varying info:
– Cloud cover (s)
– Wind vectors (x,y,z)
– What else?
• That’s a lot of data!
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 Example: Virtual Colonoscopy
• Enables doctors to use CT (Computed Tomography – X-rays) to
perform virtual exploration and endoscopy inside the human body
• Advantages: safer, cheaper, faster flight path

cancerous
polyp
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Department of Computer Science CSE564 Lectures STNY BRK
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 Visualization Examples

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 Why Visualization
• Enable scientists (also engineers, physicians,
general users) to observe their simulation and
computation
• Enable them to describe, explore, and summarize
their datasets (models) and gain insights
• Offer a method of SEEING the UNSEEN
• Reason about quantitative information
• Enrich the discovery process and facilitate new
inventions
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 Why Visualization
• Analyze and communicate information
• Revolutionize the way scientists/engineers/physicians
conduct research and advance technologies
• About 50% of the brain neurons are associated with
vision
• The gigabit bandwidth of human eye/visual system
permits much faster perception of visual information
and identify their spatial relationships than any other
modes
– Computerized human face recognition
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 More Examples

Points
Images
Volumes
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 More Examples

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 Visualization in medicine and healthcare aids in diagnosis, treatment planning, and
education. It enables doctors to understand complex anatomical structures, track

Medicine and Health-care

disease progression, and communicate with patients effectively.

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 Visualization Terminology
• Different fields of visualization
• Scientific visualization
– discipline of computer science
– visualization of scientific and engineering data-sets
• Scientific visualization touches on a number of
areas:
– data representations
– data processing algorithms
– visual representations
– user interfaces
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 Visualization Terminology
• Data visualization – includes data from other sources, such
as financial, marketing, business
• Sometimes involves statistical analysis and other analysis
techniques not employed in scientific visualization
(analytics)
• Can you think of an example of financial information we
might want to visualize?
• So we might say that scientific visualization is a type or
subset of data visualization
• We will be studying scientific visualization primarily, but
look at more general data visualization occasionally
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 Visualization Terminology
• Information visualization – abstract data sources, like
WWW pages and databases
• No natural mapping to spatial domain (2D, 3D or n-D)
• How/what would we visualize in Amazon.com’s book
database?

• Visual analysis of
customer call center
performance at British
Telecommunications:
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 Motivations of Visualization
• Make sense of huge data-sets
– NYSE makes hundreds of millions of transactions per day
– RHIC at BNL produces terabytes (240) of data with each
experiment
• Uncover insights hidden in the data
• Extract important features/aspects and meaningful
knowledge of the data to assist in the decision-
making process
• But why use visual means?
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 Motivations of Visualization
• Reduce time and save money
• Digital prototyping
– Design model in virtual reality (VR)
– Test model in VR
– Refine and re-test
• Flight simulation
– Why?
• Virtual training
– Why?
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 Examples of Visualization
• Medical imaging
• X-ray Computed Tomography (CT)
– pronounced as both “cat” or “see-tee”
• Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)
– uses very powerful magnetic fields

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 Examples of Visualization
• CT and MRI produce slice
planes
• Cross-sections of the patient
• Slices are combined to
produce a volumetric
representation
• But CT and MRI machines
just output numbers – where
do the gray values come
from?
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 Examples of Visualization
• A volumetric data-set is a 3D regular grid, or 3D raster,
of numbers that we map to a gray scale or gray level
• An 8-bit volume could represent 256 values [0,255]
• Human visual system naturally groups like-colored
points, or voxels, into regions

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 CT/MRI Data Flow

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 Volume Visualization Examples

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 Examples of Visualization
• Terrain visualization (Geographical Information
System)
• What are some
applications?
• Satellite imaging
• x, y, elevation
• Terrain texture
(photographs)
• Cloud cover
• What are someCSE564
others?
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 Examples of Visualization
• Scientific simulations (Computational Fluid
Dynamics)
• Visualize the results of
very sophisticated super-
computer simulations
• Computational fluid
dynamics example:
• What quantities are
being visualized?
• Why bother?
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 Visualization Examples
• Non-destructive exploration and dissection of:
– prehistoric artifacts (dinosaur eggs, fossils embedded in soil)
– artifacts from ancient cultures
1 2

The new way The old way

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 Examples of Visualization
• Virtual archaeology
• How is a mummy examined? A fossilized
dinosaur egg?
• What’s wrong with those methods?

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 Visualization Examples
• Classic application for volume rendering since datasets are inherently volumetric
• Modalities are: CT, MRI, Ultrasound, others
• Doctors use volume rendering to visualize organs, structures, and tissue of
interest
– can render unimportant structures (semi-)
transparent and emphasize important ones
– for example: render a brain tumor opaque
and the surrounding brain tissue as a faint hull
• The medical check-up of the future:
– get a full body scan with CT and MRI
– specialist doctors use volume visualization to investigate the state of the discretized
patient:
– a cardiologist checks coronary arteries for arteriosclerotic plaque
– a radiologist/proctologist flies through the virtual colon and checks for cancer
– simulate and plan a surgery or procedure on the digital patient if necessary
– keep the scan as a digital record of the patient for future reference
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 Examples of Visualization
• Map of artificial sky
brightness over Europe.
This is an effective tool
for measuring “light
pollution:” brightness
of lights on ground
affect ability to see
starlight. Black: many
stars visible. Red: few
stars visible.
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 Visualization Examples

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 Examples of Visualization
• Microtomography of Alaskan
bark beetle
• Correlation between bark beetle
and dying trees in Alaskan
forest
• Manganese discovered in
stomach of insects
• Poisonous to trees!
• Beetles exterminated, forest
recovered
Department of Computer Science
CSE564 Lectures STNY BRK
Center for Visual Computing STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK
 Visualization Examples
Alaskan bark beetle
• A few years ago, there was a high incidence of dying trees in the Alaskan forest. Barbara Illman from University
of Wisconsin obtained a grant from the U.S. Forest Service to investigate the issue. The study revealed that in all
areas with dying trees, the Alaskan bark beetle was also present. A few bugs were collected and brought to
BNL. They were CT scanned at the BNL microtomography facility, and the CT scans were then visualized
using volume rendering. Dense areas (colored in red) inside the bug became immediately apparent. A biologist
was brought in and the dense areas were identified as the gastro-intestinal tract. The substance in the gastro-
intestinal tract was analyzed and turned out to be manganese, which is poisonous to trees but apparently
harmless to the beetle. After ridding the forest from the bugs, the trees have fully recovered.

source:
Microtomography
facility at the
Brookhaven
National
Synchrotron Light
Source
Department of Computer Science CSE528 Lectures STNY BRK
Center for Visual Computing STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK
 Micrometeorite
• Shown above is a micrometeorite (0.2 mm diameter) with its outer surface (blue) cut away with
virtual visualization tools. The red mass at the upper left is a platinum nugget. The meteorites are
picked up off the ocean floor via a metal plate as they are magnetic. Three isosurfaces are shown.
The red platinum nugget has been found in every sample so far and is thought to be an important
clue in the meteorite’s formation.

source:
Microtomography
facility at the
Brookhaven National
Synchrotron Light
Source
Department of Computer Science CSE528 Lectures STNY BRK
Center for Visual Computing STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK
 Visualization Examples
• Industrial CT
– reverse
engineering
– inspection for
structural
failures

• Security
– airport luggage
CT
Department of Computer Science CSE564 Lectures STNY BRK
Center for Visual Computing STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK
 The Visualization Pipeline

Department of Computer Science CSE564 Lectures STNY BRK

Center for Visual Computing STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK
 Image Processing, Computer
Graphics & Visualization
• Image processing
– study and analysis of 2D pictures or images
• Computer graphics
– process of creating images with a computer
• Visualization
– process of exploring, transforming and viewing data
as images
• What’s in common?
• How do these three fields overlap?
Department of Computer Science CSE564 Lectures STNY BRK
Center for Visual Computing STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK
 Image Processing, Computer
Graphics & Visualization
• Computer graphics outputs an image
• Visualization may employ graphics to generate
images
• Visualization may employ image processing to
study images
• Visualization
– usually works with 3D or n-D data, for n >= 3
– employs data transformation to enhance meaning of the data
– is usually interactive and required human intervention
Department of Computer Science CSE564 Lectures STNY BRK
Center for Visual Computing STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK
 The Visualization Processes
1. Data acquisition/simulation/modeling
2. Data transformation
3. Data mapping (e.g., to shapes & color)
4. Data display/rendering (via computer graphics)
• Steps 2-4 are repeated as necessary to generate
multiple visualizations

Department of Computer Science CSE528 Lectures STNY BRK

Center for Visual Computing STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK
 Visualization Taxomomy

Department of Computer Science CSE564 Lectures STNY BRK

Center for Visual Computing STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK
 An (Alternate) Visualization
Pipeline

Department of Computer Science CSE564 Lectures STNY BRK

Center for Visual Computing STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK
 sensors, sampling/ computation/
super-
scanners, scanning
data simulation computers
cameras

polygonization
discretization

geometric computer image image

model graphics
(signal) processing
(structures) computer
vision

display film
device recorder

Department of Computer Science CSE564 Lectures STNY BRK

Center for Visual Computing STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK
 Relation to Other Fields
Visualization employs these largely independent but
convergent fields:
• Com puter Graphics (im age synthesis): d isplay (rend ering)
• Im age Processing: analysis or reconstruction of objects from im age d ata.
Basically, this is the inverse of computer graphics in that it starts w ith the im age
and w orks from there.
• Com putational Vision: im age und erstand ing and pattern recognition
• Com puter Generated Im agery (CGI): Prod u ction of im agery using com puters.
Includ es both com puter graphics and im age processing.
• Com puter Aid ed Design: integrated engineering
• User Interface Stud ies: H CI, hum an factors and evaluations
• Signal Processing:
• H um an-com puter interaction: m echanism s to com m unicate, use, perceive visual
inform ation
• N eurological/ physiological stud ies on hum an brain and our visual system

Department of Computer Science CSE564 Lectures STNY BRK

Center for Visual Computing STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK
 What is Computer Graphics
• Computer Graphics: The pictorial synthesis of
real or im aginary objects from their
com pu ter-generated -m od els.
• Com pu ter graphics is the prod u ction of
(u su ally) im ages w here none existed before.

Department of Computer Science CSE564 Lectures STNY BRK

Center for Visual Computing STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK
 Visualization Domain as Data
Sources
• Scanned, computed, modeled data
• The first process is data-gathering
• Large variety of data sources and attributes
• Extremely large-scale datasets
• Require real-time processing

Department of Computer Science CSE564 Lectures STNY BRK

Center for Visual Computing STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK
 Information Domain
• Sciences (e.g., statistics, physics)
• Engineering (e.g., empirical observations for
quality control)
• Social events (e.g., population census)
• Economic activities (e.g., stock trading)
• Medicine (e.g., computed tomograph (CT),
magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), X-rays,
ultrasound, various imaging modalities)
• Geology
Department of Computer Science CSE564 Lectures STNY BRK
Center for Visual Computing STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK
 Information Domain
• Biology (e.g., electronic microscopes, DNA sequences,
molecular models, drug design)
• Computer-based simulations (e.g., computational fluid
dynamics, differential equation solver, finite element
analysis)
• Satellite data (e.g., earth resource, military intelligence,
weather and atmospheric data)
• Spacecraft data (e.g., planetary data)
• Radio telescope, atmospheric radar, ocean sonar, etc.
• Instrumental devices recording geophysical and seismic
activities (e.g., earthquake)
Department of Computer Science CSE564 Lectures STNY BRK
Center for Visual Computing STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK
 Frequently, Volumetric Data
Are produced by:
• Medical scanners (MRI, CT, SPECT, PET, ultrasound)
• Some (e.g., CT) are also used for industrial purposes
(quality control, security)
• Biological scanners, electronic microscopes, confocal
microscopes
• Supercomputer simulations, such as computational fluid
dynamics, finite element analysis, PDEs
• Orbiting satellites, for military intelligence, weather and
atmospheric studies
• Spacecraft sending planetary and interplanetary data
• Geometric models in engineering
• Seismic devices for oil, precious metal exploitation, and
earthquake studies
Department of Computer Science CSE564 Lectures STNY BRK
Center for Visual Computing STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK
 Data Acquisition and Processing
• Pixels and voxels
• Regular & irregular grids
• Numerical simulations
• Surface or volumetric data
• Scalar, vector, tensor data with multiple attributes
• Higher-dimensional and/or time-varying data
• Popular techniques
– Contouring, iso-surfaces, triangulation, marching cubes, slicing,
segmentation, volume rendering, reconstruction
• Image-based processing techniques
– Sampling, filtering, anti-aliasing, image analysis and
manipulation
Department of Computer Science CSE564 Lectures STNY BRK
Center for Visual Computing STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK
 Visualization and Components
• Data acquisition, representation, and modeling
• Imaging processing
• Visualization (displaying) methods and
algorithms
• More advanced research topics

Department of Computer Science CSE564 Lectures STNY BRK

Center for Visual Computing STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK
 Applications
• Simulation and training: flight, driving
• Scientific visualization: weather, natural phenomena,
physical process, chemical reaction, nuclear process
• Science: Mathematics, physics (differential equations)
biology (molecular dynamics, structural biology)
• Environments sciences
• Engineering (computational fluid dynamics)
• Computer-aided design/manufacturing (CAD/CAM):
architecture, mechanical part, electrical design (VLSI)

Department of Computer Science CSE564 Lectures STNY BRK

Center for Visual Computing STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK
 Applications
• Art and Entertainment, animation, commercial advertising,
movies, games, and video
• Education, and graphical presentation
• Medicine: 3D medical imaging and analysis
• Financial world
• Law
• WWW: graphical design and e-commerce
• Communications, interface, interaction
• Military
• Others: geographic information system, graphical user interfaces,
image and geometric databases, virtual reality, etc.
Department of Computer Science CSE564 Lectures STNY BRK
Center for Visual Computing STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK
 Key Components
• Data acquisition/simulation/modeling and
processing: representation choices of different
datasets via different modeling techniques
• Transformation and pipelining: conversion of
data to visual formats in physical space
• Rendering: simulating light and shadow, camera
control, visibility, discretization of models,
enrich datasets with graphical means such as
color, texture, etc.
Department of Computer Science CSE564 Lectures STNY BRK
Center for Visual Computing STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK
 Historic Overview
• Visualization
– Scientific visualization
– Visualization in scientific computing
• BUT, visualization also includes
– Biomedical, financial, information data, and many
more!
• What are the information (data) from?

Department of Computer Science CSE564 Lectures STNY BRK

Center for Visual Computing STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK
 Current Trends in Visualization
• Scanning technologies (esp. MRI, CT) continue to
improve
• New applications (virtual medical exam) for an aging
population
• Multidimensional data (vector fields)
• Information visualization is very hot
• Homeland security generating new applications
(threat planning in NYC)
• Visual analytics, data mining, machine learning,
artificial intelligence, big data, cloud computing, etc.
Department of Computer Science CSE564 Lectures STNY BRK
Center for Visual Computing STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK
 Other Important Issues
• Accuracy
– Safety, time, money, efficiency, robustness
• Ethics
– What are some ethical concerns in visualization?
(consider medical visualization)
• Psychological
– Human visual/perception system
– What makes an effective visualization?

Department of Computer Science CSE564 Lectures STNY BRK

Center for Visual Computing STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK
 Visualization Trickery!!!
• Visualization can fool our perceptive system
– Imperfect image sampling by our eyes
– Imperfect image interpretation by our brains
– Beware of mischievous uses of visualization
– Optical illusions

Department of Computer Science CSE564 Lectures STNY BRK

Center for Visual Computing STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK
 Visualization as an Integrated Tool
• Primary education (Lawrence Berkeley National Lab virtual frog
dissection)
• Medical education for surgery (medical imaging)
• Part removal in engineering designs (virtual assembly)
• Surgical simulation for treatment planning
• Illustration of medical procedures to the patient
• Computational steering: feedback loop of visualization and parameter
adjustment
• Intra-operative visualization in brain surgery, biopsies, etc.
• Games with realistic 3D effects
• All of these can be coupled with haptic feedback devices
• Can you think of some other examples? (hint: daily news content)
Department of Computer Science CSE564 Lectures STNY BRK
Center for Visual Computing STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK
 What Do We Want to Achieve?

Department of Computer Science CSE564 Lectures STNY BRK

Center for Visual Computing STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK
 Challenges (Big Data)
• TOO MUCH data
• The number of data sources keeps increasing
• Sensor quality and resolution are increasing
• Existing instruments are still available
• The speed of supercomputer is faster than ever
• We must do something (besides collecting and storing
the datasets)
• We must deal with the huge datasets effectively
• Visual communication, improve our visual interaction
with data
Department of Computer Science CSE564 Lectures STNY BRK
Center for Visual Computing STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK
 Challenges
• Data-driving, scientific computing to steer
calculations
• Real-time interaction with computer and data
experimentation
• Drive and gain insight into the scientific
discovery process

Department of Computer Science CSE564 Lectures STNY BRK

Center for Visual Computing STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK
 • “The purpose of scientific computing is insight,
not numbers,” by Richard Hamming many years
ago
• These fields are all within computer science and
engineering, yet visualization spans multi-
disciplines
• Visualization (another definition)
– Application of computers to the disciplines of
sciences/engineering
Department of Computer Science CSE564 Lectures STNY BRK
Center for Visual Computing STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK
 Any Questions? From European
Space Agency

portion of
planet
shown

2D image &
elevation
map

3D
rendering
Why bother
with 3D?

Department of Computer Science CSE528 Lectures STNY BRK

Center for Visual Computing STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK
 Special Events
• From time to time we will have invited speakers who are experts in
particular aspects of visualization
• These will be excellent opportunities for you to learn about current
projects in the Department and search for project/thesis topics

Department of Computer Science CSE528 Lectures STNY BRK

Center for Visual Computing STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK
 Final Projects
• This course is a project-oriented graduate course
• Course (final) projects are based on recent research published in
scientific conference proceedings and journals
• I will meet with each of you briefly so you can tell me your topic
• It is my hope that everyone will select a different project
• Then you will write a short project proposal and keep a log on your
home page of your progresses
• Be sure to come talk to me if you are having difficulty with your
project so I can point you in the right direction
• At the end of the term, you will hand in a project summary and
give a short (10-15 minute) presentation of your work
Department of Computer Science CSE564 Lectures STNY BRK
Center for Visual Computing STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK
 Class Participation
• I am a strong believer that frequent in-class
discussion greatly aids the learning process and
makes classes much more interesting
• I expect that throughout the term there will be
ample opportunity for you to participate directly in
the class
• Based on our discussions, I can cover different
material in visualization that is of general interest
to everyone
• Plus, participating in class will give you some
practice for your final project presentation, which
you will all give orally during the last week of the
semester
Department of Computer Science
CSE564 Lectures STNY BRK
Center for Visual Computing STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK
 CSE564 Visualization and
Visual Computing
• Textbook: NO required textbooks
• Please carefully follow my lecture notes (published online)
• Also, reading papers is critical
• Grading policy:
– Assignment: 10%
– Paper review: 10%
– Two exams: 25%
– Final project: 50%
– Class participation: 5%
– Bonus (up to 10%)
Department of Computer Science CSE564 Lectures STNY BRK
Center for Visual Computing STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK
 Important Deadlines for CSE564
• February 20 (Tuesday, at 12:50pm): programming assignment
• February 22 (Thursday, 1-2:20pm): mid-term one
• March 1 (Thursday, at 12:50pm): One-page proposal for your
final course project
• April 5 (Thursday): mid-term system demo
• April 17 (Tuesday, 1-2:20pm): mid-term two
• April 24 (Tuesday, at 12:50pm): technical report on paper review
(total 7 papers)
• May 5 (Saturday, 9am): final course project
(report+software+ppt) due
• May 5-6: final course project presentation
Department of Computer Science CSE564 Lectures STNY BRK
Center for Visual Computing STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK
 Summary & Questions
• Visualization overview
• Important visualization terminology
• Fundamental techniques for scientific
visualization and computer graphics
• Applications of visualization
• Connection with other fields
• What’s the difference between computer
graphics and visualization?
Department of Computer Science CSE564 Lectures STNY BRK
Center for Visual Computing STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK
 Questionnaire
1. List your background courses/knowledge/education related to
graphics/visualization, your current education level
2. What is the main goal/purpose for you to take this course (e.g.,
learn the knowledge, pursue a career in this area)
3. How does this course help your future professional career
4. Your expectations on the course
5. Your studying plan
6. Other important issues that you can think of about the course

Department of Computer Science CSE564 Lectures STNY BRK

Center for Visual Computing STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK
 Pathway to Success
• Highly-motivated
• Hard-working
• Start as soon as possible
• Meet with Hong on a regular basis
• Actively interact with your fellow students
• Visit library and scholar.google.com frequently

Department of Computer Science CSE564 Lectures STNY BRK

Center for Visual Computing STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK
 If You are Serious
• Study on-line, electronic course notes
• Review the programming assignment carefully and start
to implement them
• Think about your course project
• Form a team (up to 2 people), write a proposal on your
project, and start to work on it
• Finish your project by the end of this semester
• Try to submit a paper if your project is really really new
• You are welcome to communicate with the instructors
via emails

Department of Computer Science CSE564 Lectures STNY BRK

Center for Visual Computing STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK