scientific

Scientists use a variety of visualization techniques to help understand computational fluid dynamics (CFD) datasets, but the interfaces to these techniques are generally two-dimensional and therefore are separated from the 3D view. Both rapid interactive exploration of datasets and precise control over the parameters and placement of visualization techniques are required to understand complex phenomena contained in these datasets. In this paper, we present work in progress on a 3D user interface for exploratory visualization of these datasets.

Many tasks require users to extract information from diverse sources, to edit or process this information locally, and to explore how the end results are affected by changes in the information or in its processing. We present the RecipeSheet, a general-purpose tool for assisting users in such tasks. The RecipeSheet lets users create information processors, called recipes, which may take input in a variety of forms such as text, Web pages, or XML, and produce results in a similar variety of forms. The processing carried out by a recipe may be specified using a macro or query language, of which we currently support Rexx, Smalltalk and XQuery, or by capturing the behaviour of a Web application or Web service. In the RecipeSheet's spreadsheet-inspired user interface, information appears in cells, with inter-cell dependencies defined by recipes rather than formulas. Users can also intervene manually to control which information flows through the dependency connections. Through a series of examples we illustrate how tasks that would be challenging in existing environments are supported by the RecipeSheet.