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With increasing computing power, it is possible to process more complex fluid simulations. However, a gap between increasing data size and our ability to visualize them still remains. Despite the great amount of progress that has been made in the field of flow visualization over the last two decades, a number of challenges remain. While the visualization of 2D flow has many good solutions, the visualization of 3D flow still poses many problems. Challenges such as domain coverage, speed of computation, and perception remain key directions for further research. Flow visualization with a focus on surface-based techniques forms the basis of this literature survey, including surface construction techniques and visualization methods applied to surfaces. We detail our investigation into these algorithms with discussions of their applicability and their relative strengths and drawbacks. We review the most important challenges when considering such visualizations. The result is an up-to-date overview of the current state-of-the-art that highlights both solved and unsolved problems in this rapidly evolving branch of research.

Lateralized behaviour refers to a preference for using a specific limb or direction of movement that is consistent across events. We investigated apparent lateralized behaviour in North Atlantic humpback whales, Megaptera novaeangliae, in the southern Gulf of Maine using digital acoustic tag (‘DTAG’) technology to analyse feeding behaviours during 2004–2009. An ideal tool to examine lateralized behaviours, DTAGs allowed continuous measurements of whale depth, heading, pitch and roll throughout the attachment period (less than 24 h). Side preference (right or left) in rolling behaviours (e.g. bottom rolling and side lunging) and directional preference (clockwise or anticlockwise) in feeding behaviours such as looping and spiraling were determined from visual examination of DTAG data. A ‘handedness index’ (HI) was used to quantify side bias and strength of preference. We found a population-level right-side bias similar to the 90/10 right-hand bias in humans. Furthermore, photos of jaw scuffing and direct tag data on rolling behaviour were used to assign a bottom-rolling side preference for 11 individuals for whom both of these data were available, 10 (90.9%) of which demonstrated a right-side bias. Consistent laterality was observed between individuals that performed bottom rolling and directional feeding behaviours, which was biased in the right/clockwise direction. Younger individuals tended to show weaker lateralization scores than older individuals, even among adults (P = 0.048), suggesting that lateralization develops, and continues to do so, beyond sexual maturity.

In this paper, we describe an empirical investigation of the utility of several perceptual properties of motion in information-dense displays applied to notification. Notification relates to awareness and how dynamic information is communicated from the system to the user. Key to a notification technique is how easily the notification is detected and identified. Our initial studies show that icons with simple motions, termed moticons, are effective coding techniques for notification and in fact are often better detected and identified than colour and shape codes, especially in the periphery. A subsequent experiment compared the detection and distraction effects of different motion types in several task conditions. Our resutts reveal how different attributes of motion contribute to detection, identification and distraction and provide initial guidelines on how motion codes can be designed to support awareness in information-rich interfaces while minimizing unwanted side effects of distraction and irritation.

Most systems for visualizing large information structures use 2D graphics to view networks of nodes and arcs that represent data. To understand large structures it is often necessary to show both small-scale and large-scale structures. This has been called the problem of focus and context. Distortion, rapid zooming, elision and multiple windows are all techniques that have been developed to provide both focus and context within single representations. We review these techniques and argue that 3D visualization has a number of advantages. A system called NestedVision3D (NV3D) will be presented that has been developed to investigate the use of 3D visualization for understanding the structure of large computer programs. NV3D is a system for visualizing large nested graphs using interactive 3D graphics. It has been tested with graphs containing more than 35,000 nodes and 100,000 relationships. We describe NV3D and its design philosophy. Basic navigation is facilitated by a set of 3D widgets, rapid scaling and interactive elision. More experimental features include animations called snakes, which are used to trace dynamic software behavior.

The combination of 3D magnetic resonance imaging data with polygon based computer graphic display software is ideally suited to the study of the Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction in extended volumes. In this paper we present the first true three dimensional visualization of experimental data from the Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction. The time evolution of a twisted scroll wave like isoconcentration surface and its organizing filament are demonstrated for the manganese-catalyzed B-Z mixture. These techniques extend the experimental study of the B-Z reaction as a class of pattern-forming systems to the third dimension. The limitations of the technique are discussed.

Experimental semiotics is defined as the elucidation of symbols that gain their meaning by being structured to take advantage of the human sensory apparatus. In making this definition a distinction is made between languages which are fundamentally sensory and those which are fundamentally conventional . Experimental semiotics is concerned with the former. Sensory representations are good (or bad) because they are well matched to the early stages of neural processing of sensory information. They tend to be stable across individuals and cultures. Conversely, conventional languages gain their power from culture and are dependent on the particular cultural milieu of an individual. This theoretical distinction provides a basis for testable predictions about the ease of learning for languages in the two classes. The examples given are mostly based on the visual modality, but the distinction also applies to other sensory modalities. Methods for testing claims about sensory versus conventional languages are discussed.

Stimulus-Response (S-R) animation requires that each actor recognizes the state of its environment and generates a response as a function of that state. This response becomes part of the state of the environment at the next iteration. Evidence from the psychological literature shows that certain simple motions of geometric objects can be evocative of animal-like or “animate” behaviour. Our objective is to harness this effect as an aid to animation. We present a classification of S-R systems based on 1) whether the animation is high- or low-level, 2) whether the animation is stochastic or deterministic, 3) its sensory and response capabilities, 4) whether message passing or “sensing” is used, 5) whether response is based on physics or heuristic rules, and 6) the temporal definition of the stimulus. We describe an interactive low-level deterministic system designed for the rapid prototyping of animated sequences, where the stimuli are defined over at most two previous time intervals. We model S-R relationships using “behaviour functions” which are created from simple mathematical primitives in a largely heuristic manner. Results are presented which illustrate the range of behaviours we have succeeded in synthesizing, together with comments from impartial observers.