About Scientific Visualization

LTS Research Computing is home to The University of Arizona's Scientific Visualization Lab. The lab was established in 1990 for support of scientific visualization. The scientific visualization staff are members of the UITS Research Computing group, and provide graphics and visualization services and assistance for all UA faculty, staff and students. These services include consulting, training, demonstrations and equipment for high quality scientific visualization output and explorations.

AZ-LIVE is the premiere visualization resource of the lab. AZ-LIVE is a room where university researchers, faculty and students can be immersed in interactive, 3D, stereo, computer-generated worlds. AZ-LIVE is literally something you have to see to believe (make your demo appointment today)!

What Is Scientific Visualization?

Scientific Visualization is a computer-based field concerned with techniques that allow scientists to create graphical representations from the results of their computations and simulations. Its goal is to assist the researcher in developing a deeper understanding of the data under investigation and to provide new insight that relies on the human's powerful visual system. To achieve this goal, scientific visualization utilizes computer graphics, image processing, signal processing, user-interface methodology and system design.

Advances in scientific computation are allowing mathematical models and simulations to become extremely complex. Tremendously large amounts of data are being generated and collected. The problem that visualization attempts to solve is to convey all this information to the scientist in an effective manner using graphical representations. Computer generated images combined with human vision and perceptual psychology is the main foundation upon which scientific visualization is based.

In many cases, scientists not only want to analyze their data, they also want to interact with the data during the computations. Researchers want to be able to change representations and/or parameters and see the results in "close-to-real-time." This requirement emphasizes the need for modern high powered graphics workstations, with large amounts of disk space and memory. Software is also required that provides the scientist with an easy-to-use interface, capable of multiple representations for viewing their data.

References

• Visualization in Scientific Computing. Volume 21, Number 6, November 1987. Edited by B. McCormick, Th. DeFanti, M. Brown. ACM SIGGRAPH, USA.
• Scientific Visualization and Graphics Simulation. Edited by D. Thalmann. 1990. Wiley, England.
• Visualization in Scientific Computing. 1990. Written by G. Nielson and B. Shriver. IEEE Computer Society, USA.
• Volume Visualization. 1991. Written by A. Kaufman. IEEE Computer Society, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, USA.
• Scientific Visualization. Techniques and Applications. 1992. Edited by K. Brodlie, L. Carpenter, R. Earnshaw, J. Gallop, R. Hubbold, A. Mumford, C. Osland, P. Quarendon. Springer-Verlag, Germany.
• Scientific Visualization. Advances and Challenges. Edited by L. Rosenblum, R. Earnshaw, J. Encarnacao, H. Hagen, A. Kaufman, S. Klimenko, G. Nielson, F. Post, D. Thalmann. 1994. Academic Press in association with IEEE Computer Society, USA.
• Visualization Toolkit. An Object-Oriented Approach to 3D Graphics. 1996. Written by W. Schroeder, H. Martin, B. Lorensen. Prentice Hall PTR, USA.

NOTE: The sources are ordered by year of publication.