Direct Manipulation of Isosurfaces and Cutting Planes in Virtual Environments

Tom Meyer, Brown University, twm@cs.brown.edu
Al Globus, Computer Sciences Corporation, globus@nas.nasa.gov
Report RNR-93-019

21 December 1993

Abstract

This paper presents some novel interface techniques for the visualization of scalar field data in virtual reality environments. In particular, we discuss the direct manipulation of isosurfaces and cutting planes and give general guidelines for design of user interfaces and algorithms for scientific visualization in virtual environments. This work was motivated by the need to visualize scalar field data from computation fluid dynamics calculations interactively in the Virtual Wind Tunnel at NASA Ames, but the techniques are applicable to other problem areas, including medical imaging and geological and mathematical visualization.

Postscript version.