Computer Science 22C:251, Spring 2009

First Class Period: Tuesday January 20th, 10:55-12:10, 442 EPB (English-Philosophy Building)

Classes Starting January 23rd: MWF 12:30-1:20, Room: 218 MLH (MacLean Hall)

[ Download a Syllabus ]

Professor: Chris Wyman E-mail: cwyman@cs.uiowa.edu (Preferred contact method) Office: 101J MacLean Hall Phone: (319) 353-2549 (Please use e-mail when possible) Office Hours: MW 1:30 am - 3:00 pm (tentative)

Course Requirements Comfort with calculus and linear algebra. A basic grasp of OpenGL or other graphics APIs will prove very helpful, but is not required. However, if you do not have graphics experience, please talk to me before registering for the course. Course Synopsis This course explores the concept of visualization, a collection of techniques that aims to present data to users clearly, allowing viewers to understand trends and patterns not readily apparent from the raw data. Visualization spans the gamut from user interfaces to perception to algorithms and data structures.

Required Textbook:

• The Visualization Toolkit: An Object-Oriented Approach to 3D Graphics (4th Edition), by Will Schroeder, Ken Martin, and Bill Lorensen. ISBN: 1-930-93419-X.

Additional Material:

• The Visualization Handbook, edited by Charles Hansen and Christopher Johnson. ISBN: 0-123-87582-X.
• Information Visualization: Design for Interaction (2nd Edition), by Robert Spence. ISBN: 0-132-06550-9.
• Envisioning Information, by Edward Tufte. ISBN: 0-961-39211-8.
• OpenGL Programming Guide, 6th Edition, by Dave Shreiner, Mason Woo, Jackie Neider, and Tom Davis. ISBN: 0-321-48100-3

Announcements:

• (5/1/09) -- To make sure I hold sufficient office hours between now and the final project presentation, I will have office hours today (Friday, May 1st) from 1:45-3:00, next Monday (May 4th) from 1:45-3:00, and next Friday (May 8th) from 1:45-3:00. Please note, due to travel I will not have office hours next Wednesday (May 6th).
• (5/1/09) -- The links for the papers discussed today ("Particle-Based Labeling: Fast Point-Feature Labeling without Obscuring Other Visual Features") and last Friday ("Texture-based Transfer Functions for Direct Volume Rendering") are posted.
• (4/20/09) -- The links for the papers discussed on Friday ("A Multiresolution Representation for Massive Meshes") and today ("Size-Based Transfer Fucntions: A New Volume Exploration Technique") are posted.
• (4/8/09) -- Homework #3 has (finally) been posted. It is due on April 24th. This is meant to be relatively simple, allowing you to focus mostly on your final project.
• (3/26/09) -- Reminder! I will be out of town all next week (see the conference webpage). We will not have class on Monday, March 30th. On Wednesday April 1st and Friday April 3rd, my student Greg Nichols will talk about his research on interactive global illumination. While this is not visualization, it is "advanced graphics," and will give you some idea of my research interests.
• (3/22/09) -- Some information about the final project has been posted. We will discuss this tomorrow in class. Homework #3 should be posted early this week.
• (3/5/09) -- Homework #2 has been posted, due March 25th. Data files and futher web resources will continue to be added, below, over the next day.
• (2/8/09) -- Homework #1 has been posted, due Feburary 24th. Data files and futher web resources will continue to be added, below, over the next day.
• (2/6/09) -- Instructions for compiling VTK using CMake and g++ and CMake and Visual Studio are now posted.
  • Both links also describe how to use the compiled libraries in your program.
  • Also, I have posted my precompiled VTK libraries for Vindows.
• (1/25/09) -- An interesting read on user perception and ability to distinguish between categories.
• (1/20/09) -- Our new class time and location has been finalized. We will begin meeting MWF 12:30-1:20 starting on January 23rd. We will meet in MacLean 218.
• (11/03/08) -- We will be using VTK for at least some assignments in this class. You may wish to consider downloading the most recent version if you plan to work from home.

Assignments:

	Homework #3 (Due: April 24th) Example Flow Visualization Code: flowVisSample.cpp Vector Data Sets: Carotid (76x49x45), Test Data 1 (36x36x1), Test Data 2 (357x357x1) In addition to the VTK text, I have tried to specifically mention all required classes by name, so you can search Google for Kitware's online class documentation if you need additional ideas how to start. However, the modifications to the code for this assignment should be relatively straightforward.
	Homework #2 (Due: March 25th) To clarify the goal of this assignment somewhat: When you are developing a real visualization application, it is likely you'll be given a volume in some format you have never seen and without knowledge of where interesting surfaces are located. You'll either need to convert the volume to a format you understand or search your API (VTK) for a class that reads your volume. You will also have to add some code to either identify interesting surfaces (i.e., using a histogramming approach) or allow you to interact with the volume to select good surfaces (say, by interactively changing the isovalue used for contouring until you find good surfaces). This assignment essentially asks you to do both. Example Code for Problem 1: Isosurface.cpp, RayMarching.cpp, vtkKeypress.cpp Sample Volumes: VTK Head Dataset (64x64x93), Whole Frog Dataset (256x256x44), Aneruism Dataset (256x256x256), Teapot Dataset (256x256x178), Foot Dataset (256x256x256) Voxel Sample Ratios: Head: 3.2:3.2:1.5, Frog: ~1:1:2.2, Aneurism: 1:1:1, Teapot: 1:1:1, Foot: 1:1:1 Other Sources of Volume Data: VolVis, University of Erlangen, Iowa Radiology Department, Visible Human, Chapel Hill Volume Rendering Test Data, University of Stuttgart, Stanford, Turbulent Combustion Simulation (UC Davis)
	Homework #1 (Due: February 24th) Cone Example for Problem 1: Cone.cpp Images for Problem 2: MR_knee.png, CT_chest.png, usincome.png, flow_density.png, and rose_512.png Data for Various Color Scales: From Haim Levkowitz in tabulated form. Image Statistics: imageData.txt Sample Image Viewer: ExampleImageViewer.cpp

Student Web Pages:

1. Chris Bush
2. Bharani Chikbala Venkatesha
3. Joseph Eichholz
4. Samatha Gaddam
5. Jonathan Hall
6. Thomas Hansen
7. Brandyn Kusenda
8. Dan Lee
9. Akihiro Minoguchi
10. Ruxton Smith
11. Qi Song
12. Shanhui Sun
13. Matt Ternus
14. Amber Thiesen
15. Mark Tucker
16. Kefei Wei
17. More to come... Please send me your links!

Notes About Graphics Hardware Requirements:

Unlike some of my courses, there is no specialized hardware required for this course. Give that this is a very visual course, for some assignments the better your graphics hardware the faster and more interactive your assignments will be. Because of this, you may wish to be aware that not all machines in our MLH 301 lab are equivalent! At least when it comes to graphics acceleration. nVidia generously donated five GeForce 8600 GPUs that are in the machines l-lnx126 through 1-lnx130. These are along the back row in the MLH 301 lab.