03/01/1995 09:00 AM
Computer Science
A new, modular and extensible scientific visualization environment is presented. It provides the ability for a user to define a visualization technique from basic components through visual programming. Unlike data-flow based modular visualization environments, where the network defines a program and the end result is the visualization, the composition in Mix&Match defines the overall behavior of a tool. Different tools can be used to visualize the same data in different ways. High level mode-settings allow different modes of interaction without necessarily requiring changes in composition. This greatly enhances the level of interactivity and emphasizes the exploratory nature of scientific visualization. Another distinguishing feature of the environment is the finer granularity of the components. Finer granularity allows greater flexibility in composition and results in a rich collection of techniques. The components are simple and small, permitting new ones to be readily added to the system, thereby encouraging the exploration of new visualization techniques. This is facilitated by an easy to use configuration manager. The tool behaviors are based on the same simple, particle based, template which acts as a unifying representation for visualization techniques. In addition to the development of the environment, traditional techniques are decomposed to fit this template and new visualization techniques are developed. Notes: Ph.D. Thesis
