LOD Map for Navigating Multiresolution Rendering

In multiresolution volume visualization, a visual representation of level-of-detail (LOD) quality is important for us to examine, compare, and validate different LOD selection algorithms. While traditional methods rely on ultimate images for quality measurement, we introduce the LOD map - an alternative representation of LOD quality and a visual interface for navigating multiresolution data exploration. Our measure for LOD quality is based on the formulation of entropy from information theory. The measure takes into account the distortion and contribution of multiresolution data blocks. A LOD map is generated through the mapping of key LOD ingredients to a treemap representation. This visual interface not only indicates the quality of LODs in an intuitive way, but also provides immediate suggestions for possible LOD improvement through visually-striking features. It also allows us to compare different views and perform rendering budget control. A set of interactive techniques is proposed to make the LOD adjustment a simple and easy task. This work has been published in IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, Vol. 12, No. 5, 2006. [pdf]

Credits: This work was supported by NSF ITR Grant ACI-0325934, NSF RI Grant CNS-0403342, DOE Early Career Principal Investigator Award DE-FG02-03ER25572, NSF Career Award CCF-0346883, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory Contract 400045529. The RMI data set is courtesy of Mark A. Duchaineau at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.