Visualization

Overview

Visualization is the science that enables human users to get insight into highly complex data in a visual way, exploiting the extremely high bandwidth of the human visual system to communicate information more effectively than is possible with non-visual means. We focus on interactive visualization that employs state-of-the-art computer graphics to generate images in real time, thus providing users with a maximum of flexibility and possibilities for data exploration.

Visualization can be used to obtain or communicate knowledge from a variety of different data sources and types, such as scientific data, medical data, or also general abstract information. In this research area, we focus on scientific visualization, including the traditional branches of flow visualization, medical visualization, and volume visualization.

Two of the most fundamental problems in visualization are handling the sheer size of the data generated by state-of-the-art acquisition techniques (e.g., Computed Tomography or Electron Microscopy) or simulation (e.g., Computational Fluid Dynamics), and the way in which human users can still be enabled to work with data of this complexity in an effective manner. We therefore perform research on widening the applicability and possibilities of scientific visualization via scalable, semantic approaches, which scale to massive data (terabytes to petabytes) and at the same time allow users to work in their own domain and terminology (e.g, fluid simulation, medicine, or neurobiology).

Cutting-edge research in these areas results in novel enabling technologies with a wide variety of applications in natural sciences and engineering disciplines, such as medicine, biology (e.g., neurobiology, molecular biology), geography and seismology, meteorology, nondestructive testing and materials research, fluid simulation and engine design, and many more.