Using Wavefront Tracing for the Visualization and Optimization of Progressive Lenses

Progressive addition lenses are a relatively new approach to compensate for defects of the human visual system. While traditional spectacles use rotationally symmetric lenses, progressive lenses require the specification of free-form surfaces. This poses difficult problems for the optimal design and its visual evaluation.
This paper presents two new techniques for the visualization of optical systems and the optimization of progressive lenses. Both are based on the same wavefront tracing approach to accurately evaluate the refraction properties of complex optical systems.
We use the results of wavefront tracing for continuously re-focusing the eye during rendering. Together with distribution ray tracing, this yields high-quality images that accurately simulate the visual quality of an optical system. The design of progressive lenses is difficult due to the trade-off between the desired properties of the lens and unavoidable optical errors, such as astigmatism and distortions. We use wavefront tracing to derive an accurate error functional describing the desired properties and the optical error across a lens. Minimizing this error yields optimal free-form lens surfaces.
While the basic approach is much more general, in this paper, we describe its application to the particular problem of designing and evaluating progressive lenses and demonstrate the benefits of the new approach with several example images.     

Interactive Lenses for Visualization: An Extended Survey

The elegance of using virtual interactive lenses to provide alternative visual representations for selected regions of interest is highly valued, especially in the realm of visualization. Today, more than 50 lens techniques are known in the closer context of visualization, far more in related fields. In this paper, we extend our previous survey on interactive lenses for visualization. We propose a definition and a conceptual model of lenses as extensions of the classic visualization pipeline. An extensive review of the literature covers lens techniques for different types of data and different user tasks and also includes the technologies employed to display lenses and to interact with them. We introduce a taxonomy of lenses for visualization and illustrate its utility by dissecting in detail a multi‐touch lens for exploring large graph layouts. As a conclusion of our review, we identify challenges and unsolved problems to be addressed in future research.     

Overview + Detail Visualization for Ensembles of Diffusion Tensors

A Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) group study consists of a collection of volumetric diffusion tensor datasets (i.e., an ensemble) acquired from a group of subjects. The multivariate nature of the diffusion tensor imposes challenges on the analysis and the visualization. These challenges are commonly tackled by reducing the diffusion tensors to scalar‐valued quantities that can be analyzed with common statistical tools. However, reducing tensors to scalars poses the risk of losing intrinsic information about the tensor. Visualization of tensor ensemble data without loss of information is still a largely unsolved problem. In this work, we propose an overview + detail visualization to facilitate the tensor ensemble exploration. We define an ensemble representative tensor and variations in terms of the three intrinsic tensor properties (i.e., scale, shape, and orientation) separately. The ensemble summary information is visually encoded into the newly designed aggregate tensor glyph which, in a spatial layout, functions as the overview. The aggregate tensor glyph guides the analyst to interesting areas that would need further detailed inspection. The detail views reveal the original information that is lost during aggregation. It helps the analyst to further understand the sources of variation and formulate hypotheses. To illustrate the applicability of our prototype, we compare with most relevant previous work through a user study and we present a case study on the analysis of a brain diffusion tensor dataset ensemble from healthy volunteers.     

多比例尺下细节层次可视化的实现机制

基于空间数据库技术提出了一种多比例尺下细节层次可视化的实现机制.通过建立V-R eactive树索引结构,可以表示不同的细节层次,同时集成了实现多比例尺综合技术.通过采用透视查询算法,简化了该机制实现的复杂度.根据三维可视化的特点,对V-Reactive树进行优化,增强了图像质量.实验结果表明,该机制适用于具有海量数据的三维GIS中.     

单张图像去雨的多流细节加强网络

对于低等级的计算机视觉任务来说,图像去雨一直是一个热点问题.由于图像中雨线的密度不均一,导致单张图片中去雨成为极富有挑战性的问题.针对目标图像重点关注的两个部分：图像的整体结构和图像的细节,本文提出一种新颖的多流特征融合的卷积神经网络算法,通过多样的网络框架呈现优越的性能.该网络算法采用三条分支网络提取复杂多向的雨线特征,并运用级联的方式特征融合,通过与原图像结合去除有雨图的雨线,再经过细节加强网络获得高质量的无雨图.在合成的数据集以及真实雨图集下的去雨性能表明,所提出的算法与现有的基于深度学习的去雨算法相比,能够在去除雨线的同时保留更多的细节,保证了图片的质量.     

Using GPU Shaders for Visualization

GPU shaders seem used mostly for gaming and other forms of entertainment and simulation. But they have less-obvious visualization uses, for the same reasons that interest the gaming community: improved appearance and performance. This column looks at the use of shaders and the OpenGL shading language (GLSL) in two common visualization applications: point clouds and contour cutting planes.     

Information Visualization Evaluation Using Crowdsourcing

Visualization researchers have been increasingly leveraging crowdsourcing approaches to overcome a number of limitations of controlled laboratory experiments, including small participant sample sizes and narrow demographic backgrounds of study participants. However, as a community, we have little understanding on when, where, and how researchers use crowdsourcing approaches for visualization research. In this paper, we review the use of crowdsourcing for evaluation in visualization research. We analyzed 190 crowdsourcing experiments, reported in 82 papers that were published in major visualization conferences and journals between 2006 and 2017. We tagged each experiment along 36 dimensions that we identified for crowdsourcing experiments. We grouped our dimensions into six important aspects: study design & procedure, task type, participants, measures & metrics, quality assurance, and reproducibility. We report on the main findings of our review and discuss challenges and opportunities for improvements in conducting crowdsourcing studies for visualization research.     

Continuous Levels‐of‐Detail and Visual Abstraction for Seamless Molecular Visualization

Molecular visualization is often challenged with rendering of large molecular structures in real time. We introduce a novel approach that enables us to show even large protein complexes. Our method is based on the level‐of‐detail concept, where we exploit three different abstractions combined in one visualization. Firstly, molecular surface abstraction exploits three different surfaces, solvent‐excluded surface (SES), Gaussian kernels and van der Waals spheres, combined as one surface by linear interpolation. Secondly, we introduce three shading abstraction levels and a method for creating seamless transitions between these representations. The SES representation with full shading and added contours stands in focus while on the other side a sphere representation of a cluster of atoms with constant shading and without contours provide the context. Thirdly, we propose a hierarchical abstraction based on a set of clusters formed on molecular atoms. All three abstraction models are driven by one importance function classifying the scene into the near‐, mid‐ and far‐field. Moreover, we introduce a methodology to render the entire molecule directly using the A‐buffer technique, which further improves the performance. The rendering performance is evaluated on series of molecules of varying atom counts.     

Visualization of Anomalies Using Mixture Models

Anomaly detection is important to learn from major past events and to prepare for future crises. We propose a new anomaly detection method that visualizes multivariate data in a 2- or 3-dimensional space based on the probability of belonging to a mixture component and the probability of not belonging to any components. It helps to visually understand not only the magnitude of anomalies but also the relationships among anomalous and normal samples. This may provide new knowledge in the data, since we can see it from a different viewpoint. We show the validity of the proposed method by using both an artificial and an economic time series.     

基于大圆航线的飞行动态信息三维可视化

针对飞行监视信息可视化问题,在大圆航线上,结合所需性能导航(RNP)与广播式自动相关监视(ADS-B)技术,分析了航空器信息与RNP保护区计算方法。利用三维地理信息系统World Wind Java的二次开发功能,提出了基于航迹运行模式的航空器动态信息与保护区可视化方法。在本地高分辨率地理环境下重点实现4D航迹模拟飞行、保护区设计、飞行标牌和地形剖面测量等功能。最后通过仿真分析,表明该方法能够直观准确地完成可视化仿真,可应用于飞行监视与规划。     

基于隐马尔科夫随机场邻域选择的细节保护图像分割

由于马尔科夫随机场（Markov Random Fields,MRF）区域标识模型的滤波效应,在合成孔径雷达（SAR）图像处理过程中,细节结构会被部分保留或者完全丢失。本文提出一种基于散射描述子的自适应邻域系统隐MRF（Hidden MRF,HMRF）图像分割方法,以实现更好地保留图像细节特征和边缘区域,从而改善图像的分割效果。为了提高可靠性和自适应性,将模糊c均值（Fuzzy c-means,FCM）聚类算法与散射变换相结合,实现邻域形状的自适应选择。从不同的邻域形状中,选择具有最高模糊隶属度的邻域形状进行HMRF区域标识过程。实验结果表明,相比较于一般HMRF使用固定形状的邻域系统,本文所提出的算法改善了分割效果,特别是图像细节结构信息得到了很好的保护。     

用Java构建的基于Web的气象可视化系统

随着Internet的飞速发展，在网上发布气象信息，应用网络进行交互式合作，成为气象可视化应用的一个重要发展方向，Java远程方法调用（RMI）通过Web链接使得对远程对象调用如同对本地对象调用一样简捷。     

Constrained Visualization Using the Shepard Interpolation Family

This paper discusses the problem of visualizing data where there are underlying constraints that must be preserved. For example, we may know that the data are inherently positive. We show how the Modified Quadratic Shepard method, which interpolates scattered data of any dimensionality, can be constrained to preserve positivity. We do this by forcing the quadratic basis functions to be positive. The method can be extended to handle other types of constraints, including lower bound of 0 and upper bound of 1—as occurs with fractional data. A further extension allows general range restrictions, creating an interpolant that lies between any two specified functions as the lower and upper bounds.     

一种超图的区域型可视化方法

针对超图绘制中超边表达困难、绘制算法复杂的问题,提出一种超图的快速可视化方法.该方法将超边节点沿其走势线垂线方向向两侧扩展,获得超边中各节点的扩展点;对扩展点根据位置关系重新组合,使用Catmull-Rom算法连接各扩展点,获得超边表示区域的平滑边界曲线;将超边表示区域划分为对偶子段和独立子段,并分别使用三角带和三角扇模式填充;最后根据色相环理论对超边表示区域进行着色,以增强各条超边的区分度.实验结果表明,文中方法能够对超图数据结构进行快速可视化,使用闭合区域包围所有超边节点,从而实现直观、有效的超边表示;对于100个节点/30条超边以内的超图,该方法的绘制效率能够满足实时交互的要求.     

Using Social Visualization to Motivate Social Production

In this paper we argue that social visualization can motivate contributors to social production projects, such as Wikipedia and open source development. As evidence, we present CodeSaw, a social visualization of open source software development that we studied with real open source communities. CodeSaw mines open source archives to visualize group dynamics that currently lie buried in textual databases. Furthermore, CodeSaw becomes an active social space itself by supporting comments directly inside the visualization. To demonstrate CodeSaw, we apply it to a popular open source project, showing how the visualization reveals group dynamics and individual roles. The paper concludes by presenting evidence that CodeSaw, and social visualization more generally, can motivate contributors to social production projects if the visualization leaves the laboratory and makes it to the community visualized.      

基于类三维地图的无人机路径规划

在无人机低空飞行时,障碍物的形状大都不规则,很难建立其准确的解析模型;针对该问题,在栅格法的基础上提出了一种利用类三维地图进行路径规划的方法;首先阐述了类三维地图的创建方法,并提出了下降方向和驻点等概念;分析了在不规则障碍环境下进行路径规划时如何避免死锁以及提高规划效率;给出了算法的具体实现步骤;仿真结果表明,在不规则障碍物环境下此方法能迅速得到较好的规划结果。     

基于Matlab的地表温度反演可视化系统

陆地表面温度(LST)是区域和全球尺度上陆地表面物理过程的一个关键参数,它综合了地表和大气相互作用以及能量交换的结果,研究地表温度对全球能量平衡的研究有着重要的意义.在项目已采用的昼/夜法和遗传算法基础上,利用Matlab强大的科学运算能力和高质量的图形用户界面设计能力,设计开发了地表温度反演可视化系统.系统主要由文件、反演地表温度、反演地表组分温度和帮助四大功能模块组成,实现了大气校正、温度反演和图像显示的一体化,提高了单纯利用文件读取进行温度反演的效率和可视化程度.最后选取温带半干旱地区的河北省怀来县Terra、Aqua卫星上的MODIS数据为例,通过系统完成了温度反演的全过程,验证了反演系统的可行性.     

旅行的笔触

朱炜是一名艺术家,这也决定了他的旅行和常人不一样。每到一个地方,他最关注的是那的博物馆有什么,最在乎的是站在艺术大家作品前和他们进行的时空交流。     

图像边缘细节增强方法及VC++实现

介绍了图像边缘细节增强技术,详细说明了边缘细节增强方法中的梯度算子、拉普拉斯算子和反锐化掩模的原理算法,并给出了Windows平台下以VisualC++6.0为开发工具实现及各种算法的处理结果。     

Processing Optimal Sequenced Route Queries Using Voronoi Diagrams

The Optimal Sequenced Route (OSR) query strives to find a route of minimum length starting from a given source location and passing through a number of typed locations in a specific sequence imposed on the types of the locations. In this paper, we propose a pre-computation approach to OSR query in both vector and metric spaces. We exploit the geometric properties of the solution space and theoretically prove its relation to additively weighted Voronoi diagrams. Our approach recursively accesses these diagrams to incrementally build the OSR. Introducing the analogous diagrams for the space of road networks, we show that our approach is also efficiently applicable to this metric space. Our experimental results verify that our pre-computation approach outperforms the previous index-based approaches in terms of query response time. This research has been funded in part by NSF grants EEC-9529152 (IMSC ERC), IIS-0238560 (PECASE), IIS-0324955 (ITR), IIS-0534761, and unrestricted cash gifts from Google and Microsoft. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the NSF.

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