Visual Thinking and Analysis for Accelerating Science

Visual thinking and analysis can leverage human intelligence and
accelerate scientific progress.  Half of the brain is associated with
visual processing and visual pathways are the highest bandwidth inputs
to the brain, so it make sense to use the visual system to understand
complex 3D physical phenomena and data representing those phenomena.
I will present several scientific application areas where tools for
this kind of analysis are being developed here at Brown.  The areas
include 3D arterial fluid flow, flow around motion-capturing flying
bats, and the structure of white-matter tracts in the brain.  Through
building these applications and studying how scientists use them, we
can characterize the kinds of interaction techniques, visual
representations, and display technologies that best suit different
scientific areas.