TY - JOUR
T1 - Structuring feature space
T2 - A non-parametric method for volumetric transfer function generation
AU - MacIejewski, Ross
AU - Woo, Insoo
AU - Chen, Wei
AU - Ebert, David S.
N1 - Funding Information:
T his work has been funded by the US Department of Homeland Security Regional Visualization and Analytics Center (RVAC) Center of Excellence and the US National Science Foundation (NSF) under Grants 0328984 and 0121288 and NSF China (No. 60873123) and 973 program of China (2010CB732504).
PY - 2009/11
Y1 - 2009/11
N2 - The use of multi-dimensional transfer functions for direct volume rendering has been shown to be an effective means of extracting materials and their boundaries for both scalar and multivariate data. The most common multi-dimensional transfer function consists of a two-dimensional (2D) histogram with axes representing a subset of the feature space (e.g., value vs. value gradient magnitude), with each entry in the 2D histogram being the number of voxels at a given feature space pair. Users then assign color and opacity to the voxel distributions within the given feature space through the use of interactive widgets (e.g., box, circular, triangular selection). Unfortunately, such tools lead users through a trial-and-error approach as they assess which data values within the feature space map to a given area of interest within the volumetric space. In this work, we propose the addition of non-parametric clustering within the transfer function feature space in order to extract patterns and guide transfer function generation. We apply a non-parametric kernel density estimation to group voxels of similar features within the 2D histogram. These groups are then binned and colored based on their estimated density, and the user may interactively grow and shrink the binned regions to explore feature boundaries and extract regions of interest. We also extend this scheme to temporal volumetric data in which time steps of 2D histograms are composited into a histogram volume. A three-dimensional (3D) density estimation is then applied, and users can explore regions within the feature space across time without adjusting the transfer function at each time step. Our work enables users to effectively explore the structures found within a feature space of the volume and provide a context in which the user can understand how these structures relate to their volumetric data. We provide tools for enhanced exploration and manipulation of the transfer function, and we show that the initial transfer function generation serves as a reasonable base for volumetric rendering, reducing the trial-and-error overhead typically found in transfer function design.
AB - The use of multi-dimensional transfer functions for direct volume rendering has been shown to be an effective means of extracting materials and their boundaries for both scalar and multivariate data. The most common multi-dimensional transfer function consists of a two-dimensional (2D) histogram with axes representing a subset of the feature space (e.g., value vs. value gradient magnitude), with each entry in the 2D histogram being the number of voxels at a given feature space pair. Users then assign color and opacity to the voxel distributions within the given feature space through the use of interactive widgets (e.g., box, circular, triangular selection). Unfortunately, such tools lead users through a trial-and-error approach as they assess which data values within the feature space map to a given area of interest within the volumetric space. In this work, we propose the addition of non-parametric clustering within the transfer function feature space in order to extract patterns and guide transfer function generation. We apply a non-parametric kernel density estimation to group voxels of similar features within the 2D histogram. These groups are then binned and colored based on their estimated density, and the user may interactively grow and shrink the binned regions to explore feature boundaries and extract regions of interest. We also extend this scheme to temporal volumetric data in which time steps of 2D histograms are composited into a histogram volume. A three-dimensional (3D) density estimation is then applied, and users can explore regions within the feature space across time without adjusting the transfer function at each time step. Our work enables users to effectively explore the structures found within a feature space of the volume and provide a context in which the user can understand how these structures relate to their volumetric data. We provide tools for enhanced exploration and manipulation of the transfer function, and we show that the initial transfer function generation serves as a reasonable base for volumetric rendering, reducing the trial-and-error overhead typically found in transfer function design.
KW - Volume rendering
KW - kernel density estimation
KW - temporal volume rendering
KW - transfer function design
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U2 - 10.1109/TVCG.2009.185
DO - 10.1109/TVCG.2009.185
M3 - Article
C2 - 19834223
AN - SCOPUS:70350666812
SN - 1077-2626
VL - 15
SP - 1473
EP - 1480
JO - IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics
JF - IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics
IS - 6
M1 - 5290763
ER -