A new method for the synthesis of dense, vector-field aligned textures on curved surfaces is presented, called IBFVS. The method is based on Image Based Flow Visualization (IBFV). In IBFV twodimensional animated textures are produced by defining each frame of a flow animation as a blend between a warped version of the previous image and a number of filtered white noise images. We produce flow aligned texture on arbitrary three-dimensional triangle meshes in the same spirit as the original method: Texture is generated directly in image space. We show that IBFVS is efficient and effective. High performance (typically fifty frames or more per second) is achieved by exploiting graphics hardware. Also, IBFVS can easily be implemented and a variety of effects can be achieved. Applications are flow visualization and surface rendering. Specifically, we show how to visualize the wind field on the earth and how to render a dirty bronze bunny.

In this paper we present a novel visualization technique -- kinetic visualization -- that uses motion along a surface to aid in the perception of 3D shape and structure of static objects. The method uses particle systems, with rules such that particles flow over the surface of an object to not only bring out, but also attract attention to information on a shape that might not be readily visible with a conventional rendering method which uses lighting and view changes. Replacing still images with animations in this fashion, we demonstrate with both surface and volumetric models in the accompanying videos that in many cases the resulting visualizations effectively enhance the perception of three-dimensional shape and structure. We also describe how for both types of data a texture-based representation of this motion be rendered using PC graphics hardware for interactive visualization. Finally, the results of a user study that we have conducted is presented, which show evidence that the supplemental motion cues can be helpful.

We present a side-by-side analysis of two recent image space approaches for the visualization of vector fields on surfaces. The two methods, Image Space Advection (ISA) and Image Based Flow Visualization for Curved Surfaces (IBFVS) generate dense representations of time-dependent vector fields with high spatio-temporal correlation. While the 3D vector fields are associated with arbitrary surfaces represented by triangular meshes, the generation and advection of texture properties is confined to image space. Fast frame rates are achieved by exploiting frame-to-frame coherency and graphics hardware. In our comparison of ISA and IBFVS we point out the strengths and weaknesses of each approach and give recommendations as to when and where they are best applied.

Rendering a lot of data results in cluttered visualizations. It is difficult for a user to find regions of interest from contextual data especially when occlusion is considered. We incorporate animations into visualization by adding positional motion and opacity change as a highlighting mechanism. By leveraging our knowledge on motion perception, we can help a user to visually filter out her selected data by rendering it with animation. Our framework of adding animation is the animation transfer function, where it provides a mapping from data and animation frame index to a changing visual property. The animation transfer function describes animations for user selected regions of interest. In addition to our framework, we explain the implementation of animations as a modification of the rendering pipeline. The animation rendering pipeline allows us to easily incorporate animations into existing software and hardware based volume renderers. Figure 1. Animation of the opacity of a foot data set. 1.

This paper gives a short review of different display techniques for Virtual Environments (VE). It presents a classification system containing three categories: Visualization, Presentation and Navigation. The term Smart 3d View is defined as a (3d) view using smart presentation, smart navigation or both. Evaluations of applications by users are summarized and the need for formal user effectiveness and efficiency studies is established.

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