With tomographic in situ visualization we present a novel approach to interactive data visualization and exploration. This visualization concept is useful for presentation of spatially co-located information that is normally not visible to the human's eye. The tomographic in situ display allows for interactive cutting through data in space by using a spatially tracked and calibrated display. In this paper we describe the technical apparatus of our prototype and describe an application for the tomographic in situ visualization in the field of indoor climate studies.

In this paper, we describe an improved method for visualization of thermographic data in the paper and pulp proc-ess industry. We present an application that allows process operators to freely choose how absolute temperatures and time varying changes of thermographic scans should be mapped to colors and/or 3D shapes. Of the possible combinations, we selected two different forms of 3D visualizations and an existing conventional 2D map visualiza-tion. We then evaluated these visualization forms with regard to their effectiveness in experimental field studies. The field tests were carried out to measure the operators’ performance in early detection of insulation damages on lime kilns. The results we obtained from the study show that the two new forms of 3D visualization lead to a reduc-tion of the detection times by about two-thirds and one-third, respectively, when compared to the conventional 2D map representation. Since lime kiln monitoring is based on the rather generic method of continuous thermographic imaging, we suggest that these results also hold for the control and surveillance of other processes.

Realistic visualization of plants and trees has recently received increased interest in various fields of applications. Limited computational power and the extreme complexity of botanical structures have called for tradeoffs between interactivity and realism. In this paper we present methods for the creation and real-time visualization of animated trees. In contrast to other previous research, our work is geared toward near-field visualization of highly detailed areas of forestry scenes with animation. We describe methods for rendering and shading of trees by utilizing the programmable hardware of consumer-grade graphics cards. We then describe a straightforward technique for animation of swaying stems and fluttering foliage that can be executed locally on a graphics processor. Our results show that highly detailed tree structures can be visualized at real-time frame rates and that animation of plant structures can be accomplished without sacrificing performance.