Efficient 3D Interaction With Scientific Data Using 2D Input and Display Devices

Direct user interaction with data allows to regain specific information about the data that is behind a certain part of the displayed image. Since scientific data is often three-dimensional and time-dependent, interaction and display techniques in visualization need to be adapted to 3D navigation. In this paper we present an interaction environment, called the STAGE, which has been developed with the boundary conditions of using conventional input and display devices, such as the mouse and a graphics screen without stereo rendering capabilities. Software solutions were found enabling an efficient navigation of probes through 3D data fields. Special attention was given to the coherence of input and display signals, so that the navigation becomes 'natural' for the users. We integrated the STAGE interaction environment within a turnkey visualization system ICV (Interactive CFD Visualizer), where it is applied in tasks like point probing or interactive particle tracing for flow visualizati on