Linking Scientific and Information Visualization with Interactive 3D Scatterplots

Robert Kosara, Gerald N. Sahling, Helwig Hauser
VRVis Research Center, Vienna, Austria
Basic Research Visualization
1040 Vienna
Austria

e-mail: Kosara@VRVis.at

http://www.VRVis.at/vis/

Abstract

3D scatterplots are an extension of the ubiquitous 2D
scatterplots that is conceptually simple, but so far proved hard
to use in practice. But by combining them with a state-of-the-art
volume rendering engine, multiple views, and interaction between
these views, 3D scatterplots become usable and, in fact, useful.

3D scatterplots can not only show abstract data dimensions, but
also the physical layout of points, and thus provide a link
between feature space and the actual object. Brushing reveals
connections between parts and features that otherwise are hard to
find. This link also works not only from feature space to the
spatial display, but also vice versa, which gives the user more
freedom in exploring the data.