This book emerged from a DoE/NSF-sponsored workshop, held in Tahoe City, California, October 2000. About fifty invited participants presented state-of-the-art research on topics such as: - terrain modeling - multiresolution subdivision - wavelet-based scientific data compression - topology-based visualization - data structures, data organization and indexing schemes for scientific data visualization. All invited papers were carefully refereed, resulting in this collection. The book will be of great interest to researchers, graduate students and professionals dealing with scientific visualization and its applications.

The nature of the physical Universe has been increasingly better understood in recent years, and cosmological concepts have undergone a rapid evolution (see, e.g., [11], [2],or [5]). Although there are alternate theories, it is generally believed that the large-scale relationships and homogeneities that we see can only be explainedby having the universe expand suddenlyin a very early “in?ationary” period. Subsequent evolution of the Universe is described by the Hubble expansion, the observation that the galaxies are ?ying away from each other. We can attribute di?erent rates of this expansion to domination of di?erent cosmological processes, beginning with radiation, evolving to matter domination, and, relatively recently, to vacuum domination (the Cosmological Constant term)[4]. We assume throughout that we will be relying as much as possible on observational data, with simulations used only for limited purposes, e.g., the appearance of the Milky Wayfrom nearbyintergalactic viewpoints. The visualization of large-scale astronomical data sets using?xed, non-interactive animations has a long history. Several books and ?lms exist, ranging from “Cosmic View: The Universe in Forty Jumps” [3] by Kees Boeke to “Powers of 10” [6,13] by Charles and Ray Eames, and the recent Imax ?lm “Cosmic Voyage” [15]. We have added our own contribution [9], “Cosmic Clock,” which is an animation based entirely on the concepts and implementation described in this paper.

Geometric Modeling and Scientific Visualization are both established disciplines, each with their own series of workshops, conferences and journals. But clearly both disciplines overlap; this observation led to the idea of composing a book on Geometric Modeling for Scientific Visualization.

The goal of visualization is the accurate, interactive, and intuitive presentation of data. Complex numerical simulations, high-resolution imaging devices and incre- ingly common environment-embedded sensors are the primary generators of m- sive data sets. Being able to derive scienti?c insight from data increasingly depends on having mathematical and perceptual models to provide the necessary foundation for effective data analysis and comprehension. The peer-reviewed state-of-the-art research papers included in this book focus on continuous data models, such as is common in medical imaging or computational modeling. From the viewpoint of a visualization scientist, we typically collaborate with an application scientist or engineer who needs to visually explore or study an object which is given by a set of sample points, which originally may or may not have been connected by a mesh. At some point, one generally employs low-order piecewise polynomial approximationsof an object, using one or several dependent functions. In order to have an understanding of a higher-dimensional geometrical “object” or function, ef?cient algorithms supporting real-time analysis and manipulation (- tation, zooming) are needed. Often, the data represents 3D or even time-varying 3D phenomena (such as medical data), and the access to different layers (slices) and structures (the underlying topology) comprising such data is needed.

One of the greatest scientific challenges of the 21st century is how to master, organize and extract useful knowledge from the overwhelming flow of information made available by today’s data acquisition systems and computing resources. Visualization is the premium means of taking up this challenge. This book is based on selected lectures given by leading experts in scientific visualization during a workshop held at Schloss Dagstuhl, Germany. Topics include user issues in visualization, large data visualization, unstructured mesh processing for visualization, volumetric visualization, flow visualization, medical visualization and visualization systems. The book contains more than 350 color illustrations.

This book presents 13 peer-reviewed papers as written results from the 2005 workshop "Topology-Based Methods in Visualization" that was initiated to enable additional stimulation in this field. It contains a survey of the state-of-the-art, as well original work by leading experts that has not been published before, spanning both theory and applications. It captures key concepts and novel ideas and serves as an overview of current trends in its subject.

Mathematical Visualization is a young new discipline. It offers efficient visualization tools to the classical subjects of mathematics, and applies mathematical techniques to problems in computer graphics and scientific visualization. Originally, it started in the interdisciplinary area of differential geometry, numerical mathematics, and computer graphics. In recent years, the methods developed have found important applications. The current volume is the quintessence of an international workshop in September 1997 in Berlin, focusing on recent developments in this emerging area. Experts present selected research work on new algorithms for visualization problems, describe the application and experiments in geometry, and develop new numerical or computer graphical techniques.

The Visualization Handbook provides an overview of the field of visualization by presenting the basic concepts, providing a snapshot of current visualization software systems, and examining research topics that are advancing the field. This text is intended for a broad audience, including not only the visualization expert seeking advanced methods to solve a particular problem, but also the novice looking for general background information on visualization topics. The largest collection of state-of-the-art visualization research yet gathered in a single volume, this book includes articles by a "who's who of international scientific visualization researchers covering every aspect of the discipline, including:·Virtual environments for visualization·Basic visualization algorithms·Large-scale data visualization·Scalar data isosurface methods·Visualization software and frameworks·Scalar data volume rendering·Perceptual issues in visualization·Various application topics, including information visualization.* Edited by two of the best known people in the world on the subject; chapter authors are authoritative experts in their own fields;* Covers a wide range of topics, in 47 chapters, representing the state-of-the-art of scientific visualization.

The two-volume set LNCS 7066 and LNCS 7067 constitutes the proceedings of the Second International Visual Informatics Conference, IVIC 2011, held in Selangor, Malaysia, during November 9-11, 2011. The 71 revised papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected for inclusion in these proceedings. They are organized in topical sections named computer vision and simulation; virtual image processing and engineering; visual computing; and visualisation and social computing. In addition the first volume contains two keynote speeches in full paper length, and one keynote abstract.