New Course Announcement for Winter 1998
Topics in Visualization Research
Instructor: Prof. Victoria Interrante
Time and Place: Tues/Thurs 9:45-11:00am, Murphy 311
EE/CS 6-202.
Course Outline:
Visual communication is a powerful medium for conveying
information - yet our understanding of the scientific principles that underlie
effective visual representation is still in its infancy. Creating a
visualization that 'works' remains largely an art. My goal in this class
is to investigate the science behind the art of successful visual
representation to gain insight into why certain approaches are more
effective than others, to begin to construct a firm theoretical basis for
knowing how to go about designing paradigms for visual representation
that can better facilitate an accurate, efficient and intuitive understanding
of the essential content of a complex set of data.
Through a combination of lectures, discussion, paper presentations and
diverse readings from the current literature in psychology, computer graphics,
visualization, art and illustration, I hope to provide insight into some
interesting and exciting cross-disciplinary research directions in this area.
Maintaining a primary focus on practical applications in computer graphics,
including scientific and information visualization, photorealistic rendering,
and virtual environments, we will survey a wide range of topic areas, in each
case building from theory to practice. Selected topics will include
things like: the perception, representation and effective use of color;
context and organization in visual representation and perception; the use of
texture for conveying 3D shape and depth; haptic perception and its
interactions with vision; the perception and representation of depth and
distance in real and virtual environments; and much more.
The intent throughout will be to see how insight from fundamental findings
in vision and perception, together with inspiration and example from art and
design, can be used to guide the development of algorithms for more efficiently
and effectively communicating information through images.
Course Requirements:
Students will be responsible, on a weekly basis, for
reading approximately 4-6 papers, writing briefly about each, and participating
in class discussions. Over the course of the quarter, each student will
be required to make two conference-style presentations to the rest of the class
on papers of his or her choice from the reading list. In addition,
students will have the option of either implementing a final project related
to the material covered in class (I will provide a list of possible
suggestions), or composing a literature review. There will be no
midterm or final exam. Students should anticipate having to expend
approximately 2-3 hours of effort outside of class for each hour in class.
Grading:
Final project/paper......50%
Paper presentations.....30%
Paper summaries.........10%
Class participation......10%
Text: Readings will be drawn from a variety of sources including books,
journals, technical reports and conference proceedings, and will be assembled
into a course pack.
Prerequisites: The most important prerequisite is interest and
motivation. The official prerequisite is graduate standing or permission
of the instructor.