Browsing by Author "Stegmaier, Simon"

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Open Access
Acceleration techniques for numerical flow visualization
(2006) Stegmaier, Simon; Ertl, Thomas (Prof. Dr.)
This thesis addresses the problem of making computer-aided flow visualization more efficient and more effective. More efficient because several new algorithms are presented for accelerating the visualization itself; more effective because accelerated visualization yields more productive work during data analysis. Whether there is a need for acceleration techniques depends on several parameters. Obviously, there is a strong dependence on the available computing hardware: what is reasonable on one hardware platform might be unbearable on another platform. This straightforwardly leads to the idea of switching to another (remote) visualization platform while keeping the researcher's workspace untouched. Alternatively, more efficient use of local hardware resources can be made, a direction followed in this thesis by balancing the workload between the (programmable) graphics hardware and the central processing unit. Instead of exploiting parallel processing, reduced accuracy can be traded for improved interactivity. In this work, this trade-off is made by converting the grid underlying the data to a representation that can be handled more efficiently. In the worst case, neither hardware approaches nor accuracy reduction sufficiently improve the data analysis. Consequently, data reduction must be employed to keep up with human cognition capabilities and limited graphics processing resources. This issue is addressed by flow feature extraction which aims at presenting a highly compact representation of the data. This work thus presents a unique multi-level approach for accelerating flow visualization, considering hardware resources, accuracy requirements, and cognitive issues. Due to the generality of the selected acceleration techniques presented in this thesis, some results do also have impact on other areas of scientific visualization. Furthermore, due to the layered approach addressing the acceleration on multiple abstraction levels, the presented techniques can be used stand-alone as well as in combination to yield a highly flexible toolbox that can be fine-tuned to the respective environment.
Open Access
The design and implementation of a presentation system for interactive 3D graphics applications
(2005) Stegmaier, Simon; Klein, Thomas; Strengert, Magnus; Ertl, Thomas
We present the design and implementation of a stand-alone system for presenting interactive 3D graphics applications and arbitrary multimedia contents to a public audience. The description includes technical details regarding the construction of a sturdy case to accommodate touchscreen, PC, video projector, and sound equipment, and details involved in the design of the presentation software. The presented system was evaluated during a week-long exhibition with several hundreds of users.