This class in data visualization began discussing the principles of presenting quantitative information visually - how to isolate and effectively present the important features of a dataset. Edward Tufte's work was cited frequently. The class continued with discussion regarding some important mathematical techniques used in visualization and went on to use the Win32 Graphics API to display data. We rounded out the quarter delving into the Visualization Toolkit, using this free library to build and display data in some presentable fashion.
     Dr. John McDonald provided the application framework form this classes' project. I wrote all of the code to specification, demonstrating a particular graphics technique. Topics discussed in class include:

•  research and communicative applications of visualization
•  principles of graphing:
  •  clarity
  •  data prominance
  •  clutter avoidance
•  Weber's Law of human perception
•  The Lie Factor
•  Perceptive Tasks:
  •  angle
  •  area
  •  hue
  •  saturation
  •  density
  •  length
  •  position along common scales
  •  position along non-aligned scales
  •  slope
  •  volume
•  logarithms in charting
•  ray/ray intersections for boundary location
•  map projections:
•  unprojected latitude/longitude
•  cylindrical projection
•  conformal conic projection
•  Marching Squares generation of isocurves
•  Delaunay Triangulation
•  scatter plotting
•  VTK architecture
•  elevation construction
•  VTK volume ray-tracing
•  Julia and Mandelbrot sets
•  polygonal subdivision:
•  butterfly subdivision
•  loop subdivision

     After extracting the zipped files, run the executables. There are a number of files included with the various programs - these are loaded by the programs that need them to generate data.

     :: Download the visualization programs ->

     The images to the left are screen shots of the programs included in the zip file. Here's a description of each executable:

•  Graphing.exe - Graphs a set of mathematic functions.
•  Charting.exe - uses CerealCompany.txt to build a set of bar charts.
•  Logorithm.exe - Loads intel.txt file to present Intel stock data raw and filtered through a set of logarithms (log base 2, log base 10 and natural log).
•  CityPlot.exe - Reads the CityWithTemperatureX.txt and USMap1.bmp files to apply a map of the US to a polygon and plot cities within the country with spheres.
•  MarchingSquares.exe - Uses the marching squares algorithm to build a set of isocurves, like a weather map would. Reads from the 'States' and 'Cities' directories.
•  DelaunayTriangulation.exe - Generates a random cloud of points and uses Delaunay triangulation to build a polygon mesh.
•  Fractals.exe - Uses the Mandelbrot and Julia sets to build a 3D representation of a fractal. I've created a seperate gallery of fractal images.
       :: Go to the fractals gallery. ->