Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!ames!pasteur!ucbvax!ucsfcgl!pixar!flip
From: flip@pixar.UUCP (Flip Phillips)
Newsgroups: comp.graphics
Subject: Re: Scientific visualization
Message-ID: <1921@pixar.UUCP>
Date: 29 Jun 88 00:58:20 GMT
References: <10763@ames.arc.nasa.gov>
Reply-To: flip@pixar.UUCP (Flip Phillips)
Organization: Pixar -- Marin County, California
Lines: 61

In article <10763@ames.arc.nasa.gov> eugene@pioneer.UUCP (Eugene N. Miya) writes:
>Sorry, I can't take it many more.  I am getting tried of all the
>marketing hype of "scientific visualization."  Especially by marketing
>people who have no idea what they are talking about.  People just don't
>wantonly display scientific data.  It's not Enterainment Tonight.
[...]

Nor can I. It seems that the marketing community has taken of on a
buzzword and it will be a tough thing to stop.

It seems now that any information represented graphically is 
'Scientific Visualization'. In short, this is not true. 

[...]
> You don't just "look" at the data and get insight.

The point is presenting scads of data in a way that you 
CAN get insight. I.E. Reconstruction of a set of CT slices,
mapping electron clouds, etc. Not necessarily performing
false coloring of the CT slice, or presenting a plot 
describing characteristics of the electron cloud.

The plot & false coloring IS useful... Its just that
it doesnt seem to buy you as much as the other stuff.

[...]
> It takes
>a graphicist to understand the issues of good image generation
>(highlights, shading, refraction, etc.) so it also takes good people to
>understand how scientists view and analyze data. 
[...]

Well, actually it takes a scientist to understand how scientists
view and analyze data usually. A mathmatician normally can't
look at a rendered teapot and describe the associated
equations. A graphics person can. At a bare minimum it requires
scientists working with graphics people. Ohio State is heavily
involved in this as are several other institutions (Ind. SuperComp Proj,
etc)

A supercomputer, mr/ct scanner, can spew out tons of data. Organizing 
this data in a way which is representative of the datas structure,
content, or physical representation is a visualization.
A plot of the numbers usually isnt directly, but like I said before,
you use all of this information together. 

When a surgeon has a 3-d reconstruction of a broken hip he 
should and will refer back to the original CT slices. 
He also uses his eyes and hands when probing around in the actual 
patient. To do the operation blidfolded and only after looking
at the 3-d reconstruction would be silly. (But fun to watch)

Like all of the other tools, visualization tools are only part of
the scientists tool kit, 


>--eugene miya, NASA Ames Research Center, eugene@aurora.arc.nasa.gov
[...]
-- 
Flip Phillips                                        {sun | ucbvax}!pixar!flip
Pixar - Marin County, California