This paper describes the design and implementation of an interactive web-based geospatial and aco... more This paper describes the design and implementation of an interactive web-based geospatial and acoustic visualization interface for the Atlantic Deepwater Ecosystem Observatory Network (ADEON) project. An array of hydrophones deployed along the U.S. Mid- and South Atlantic Outer Continental Shelf collected four years of acoustic measurements. The overwhelming size of the resulting datasets (over 73 terabytes) poses an accessibility problem for researchers and the public. A web-based visualization interface was developed to allow anyone to easily explore the massive datasets generated by the project in order to gain insight about the ecology and soundscape of the region.
In July of 2004 we used synchronous motion, digital acoustic recording tags (DTAGs) to investigat... more In July of 2004 we used synchronous motion, digital acoustic recording tags (DTAGs) to investigate the underwater behavior of humpback whales in the Great South Channel. Tag attachments to four animals resulted in ~50 hours of data in water depths from 70 - 90m. We conducted a detailed analysis of dive patterns, including apparent bottom feeding and associated sounds. We partitioned dive records into 3 categories: descent, ascent, and at-depth. All four animals traversed a majority of the descent in freeglide (86%, 78%, 84%, and 70%), and fluke-strokes were confined to the upper portions of the water column [ending at: -11.2 m (0.22), -16.1 m (2.9), -12.0 m (2.9), -25.5 m (6.8)]. On ascent, fluke-strokes were in much more of the water column [ending at: -19.9 m (2.4), -39.6 m (11.0), -24.4 m (6.0), -28.6 m (5.6)], but animals still traversed a substantial portion in free-glide (24%, 54%, 33%, and 33%). Thus, descent and ascent demonstrated buoyancy related adaptations for locomotor efficiency. At-depth behavior consisted primarily of presumed foraging activity. In 95% of flat-bottomed dives whales exhibited a characteristic “side-roll” behavior. Side-rolls involved the animal rolling laterally more than 40º from dorsal and holding that position for a consistent duration, usually more than 10 seconds. Mean number of side-rolls per dive for each animal was 2.84, 6.7, 3.15, and 4.32. Two animals had a consistent mean sideroll duration (in seconds), while mean duration for the other two was more varied [17.7 s (4.0), 24.6 s (11.5), 13.1 s (2.6), 19.1 s (14.4)]. For each animal the angle of roll was consistent [96.7º (7.7), -73º (17.6), - 80.5º (3.7), -84.2º (23)], and they maintained a head-down pitch angle [28.5º (3.2), 24.4º (9.3), 10.7º (4.8), 32.2º (2.6)]. Between side-rolls, animals returned to a dorsal-ventral orientation. Side-rolls occurred at or within a few meters of the sea floor and were often preceded by a stereotypic sound. We speculate that side-rolls indicate periods of consumatory feeding. Data have management implications with regards to whale entanglement and fishing gear modification
Direct, underwater observation of marine mammals for extended time periods is technically infeasi... more Direct, underwater observation of marine mammals for extended time periods is technically infeasible. As a result scientists have resorted to deploying a variety of devices on animals to measure and depict motor behavior. For example, the DTAG logs body pitch, roll, heading and depth, while simultaneously recording sounds emitted and received by the tagged animal. However, the dynamic nature of these data (and the animal) is usually depicted by static images or animations of simple data fields (e.g., time and location). In addition, key aspects of the environment, such as human activity that might influence whale behavior, are often difficult to incorporate into visualizations and analysis. GeoZui4D is a geo-referenced data visualization system that allows the integration of multiple data sources (e.g., pitch, roll, heading, and depth) to create a dynamic visualization of whale motor behavior that can be synchronized to sound or other files. The results allow virtual visualization of the underwater activities of the tagged animal, concurrent with sounds the animal makes and hears, shipping tracks or other measured aspects of the environment. For example, using GeoZui4D to combine DTAG data from a humpback whale with vessel tracks from boats in the vicinity allowed us to view the behavior of the virtual whale swimming along the seafloor and hear the vessel sounds received at the whale, while observing boat movements (including a continuous calculation of the distance between boat and whale). In addition, time in GeoZui4D can be sped up or slowed down, depending on the need of the investigator. Similarly, the system has a zooming user interface allowing for fine or large scale viewing from multiple perspectives. We will provide examples of GeoZui4D visualizations using DTAG data collected from humpback whales and describe the power of such visualizations in a policy setting
Visualizing 3D vector fields is challenging because of occlusion problems and the difficulty of p... more Visualizing 3D vector fields is challenging because of occlusion problems and the difficulty of providing depth cues that adequately support the perception of direction of flow lines in 3D space. One of the depth cues that has proven most valuable for the perception of other kinds of 3D data, notably 3D networks and 3D point clouds, is structure‐from‐motion (also called the Kinetic Depth Effect); another powerful depth cue is stereoscopic viewing. We carried out an experiment of the perception of direction for short streamlines passing through a cutting plane. The conditions included viewing with and without structure‐from‐motion and with and without stereoscopic depth. Conditions also include comparing streamtubes to lines. The results show that for this particular task, stereo provided an effective depth cue, but structure‐from‐motion did not. Ringed streamtubes and streamcones provided good 3D direction information, even without stereoscopic viewing. We conclude with guidelines f...
Psychologists of visual perception have used special pictures, some made by artists, to investiga... more Psychologists of visual perception have used special pictures, some made by artists, to investigate the phenomenon of subjective or phantom lines and surfaces. The authors have extended the investigations to 3-dimensional constructions of their design. Eight constructions are described and an account is given of the results obtained with human subjects. Differences between the phenomenon perceived in pictures and in the constructions are pointed out and attention is drawn to a new phenomenon—the perception of a subjective or phantom volume.
Probably the most common method for visualizing univariate data maps is through pseudocoloring an... more Probably the most common method for visualizing univariate data maps is through pseudocoloring and one of the most commonly cited requirements of a good colormap is that it be perceptually uniform. This means that differences between adjacent colors in the sequence be equally distinct. The practical value of uniformity is for features in the data to be equally distinctive no matter where they lie in the colormap, but there are reasons for thinking that uniformity in terms of feature detection may not be achieved by current methods which are based on the use of uniform color spaces. In this paper we provide a new method for directly evaluating colormaps in terms of their capacity for feature resolution. We apply the method in a study using Amazon Mechanical Turk to evaluate seven colormaps. Among other findings the results show that two new double ended sequences have the highest discriminative power and good uniformity. Ways in which the technique can be applied include the design o...
information is commonly structured, presented and communicated using diagrams. One particular typ... more information is commonly structured, presented and communicated using diagrams. One particular type of diagram that has played a predominant role in the Information Sciences is the node-link diagram. Nodes that represent entities, objects, or units and links that represent relationships of various kinds between the nodes characterize this type of diagram. Visually these nodes are represented using outline forms such as boxes and circles and the links have been depicted with lines consisting of different characteristics. Recent advances in perception present evidence that our visual system is endowed with I am thankful to my friends, near and far, who have constantly provided me their sincere support, encouragement and friendship at times when these were most needed. I hope to repay in kind if they allow me to do so.
To display patterns of winds or water currents researchers and forecasters mostly resort to graph... more To display patterns of winds or water currents researchers and forecasters mostly resort to graphical representations such as streamlines or grids of little arrows representing the vector field. Arrow grids are still the most common method despite an empirical evaluation (Laidlaw et al.) showing them to be ineffective. We developed an optimization process for the production of a high quality visualization. Our starting point was the theory of human contour perception which suggests that head-to-tail graphical elements which we call streaklets. We used Jobard and Lefer\u27s algorithm to displaying streaklets along evenly spaced streamlines. An interactive interface was developed to give users control of 28 parameters that controlled the mapping between the data and the shape color and spacing of the streaklets. Through a process of human in the loop hill climbing 176 optimized representations of a flow pattern were generated with random starting points in the space of possible representation. Study participants who included designers from the Rhode Island School of Design and meteorologists and visualization experts. The results were then ranked into four categories from good to bad by independent designers and the findings have been incorporated into a package called FlowVis2D that can reliably and automatically produce superior representations of flow patterns. This package can be run on a server to automatically produce images for web mapping sites (e.g. NOAA\u27s nowCOAST) or it can be used as an interactive design tool. Figure 1 shows an image of the atmosphere at 350 millibars
Acoustic studies of baleen whales are becoming increasingly common. However, a minority of studie... more Acoustic studies of baleen whales are becoming increasingly common. However, a minority of studies combine acoustic data with technologies that allow sound production to be placed in a behavioral context. Noninvasive digital acoustic recording tags (DTAGS) were attached to humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) on the western North Atlantic’s Great South Channel feeding grounds during July 2004 to study foraging and acoustic behavior. Acoustic records totaling 48.4 data hours from four attachments were aurally and automatically analyzed, and a novel sound was identified. The sounds are repetitive, complex bursts, consisting of two components (approximately 50 ms each, peak frequencies between 50 and 400 Hz), and produced at an average rate of 1.6 (±SD 0.25 s) pulsed pairs per second. The bursts were heard in bouts ranging from 0.5 to 79 seconds (mean 17 s). These sounds were recorded from all four tagged whales, totaling 344 clear bouts of pulses. Acoustic properties were consistent among the four individuals, though there was some variation in bout duration. Acoustic analysis was combined with virtual behavioral study using GeoZui4D and other track visualization software to investigate whether the sounds were associated with foraging behavior. The bursts only occurred during portions of the dive cycle greater than 60m in depth (mean depth 77 m, ±SD 3.7 m), usually within a few meters of the sea floor. Bouts often began upon reaching the foot of a dive, or were associated with animals sharply rolling on their side. Passive recordings of these sounds could indicate geographical locations of subsurface feeding by humpback whales. However, the frequency range and received levels (subsampling indicated a maximum sound pressure level of approximately 145 dB peak re 1µPa — substantially lower than humpback whale song) overlap with sounds from commercial shipping, suggesting that the signals could be masked by ocean noise
This paper describes the design and implementation of an interactive web-based geospatial and aco... more This paper describes the design and implementation of an interactive web-based geospatial and acoustic visualization interface for the Atlantic Deepwater Ecosystem Observatory Network (ADEON) project. An array of hydrophones deployed along the U.S. Mid- and South Atlantic Outer Continental Shelf collected four years of acoustic measurements. The overwhelming size of the resulting datasets (over 73 terabytes) poses an accessibility problem for researchers and the public. A web-based visualization interface was developed to allow anyone to easily explore the massive datasets generated by the project in order to gain insight about the ecology and soundscape of the region.
In July of 2004 we used synchronous motion, digital acoustic recording tags (DTAGs) to investigat... more In July of 2004 we used synchronous motion, digital acoustic recording tags (DTAGs) to investigate the underwater behavior of humpback whales in the Great South Channel. Tag attachments to four animals resulted in ~50 hours of data in water depths from 70 - 90m. We conducted a detailed analysis of dive patterns, including apparent bottom feeding and associated sounds. We partitioned dive records into 3 categories: descent, ascent, and at-depth. All four animals traversed a majority of the descent in freeglide (86%, 78%, 84%, and 70%), and fluke-strokes were confined to the upper portions of the water column [ending at: -11.2 m (0.22), -16.1 m (2.9), -12.0 m (2.9), -25.5 m (6.8)]. On ascent, fluke-strokes were in much more of the water column [ending at: -19.9 m (2.4), -39.6 m (11.0), -24.4 m (6.0), -28.6 m (5.6)], but animals still traversed a substantial portion in free-glide (24%, 54%, 33%, and 33%). Thus, descent and ascent demonstrated buoyancy related adaptations for locomotor efficiency. At-depth behavior consisted primarily of presumed foraging activity. In 95% of flat-bottomed dives whales exhibited a characteristic “side-roll” behavior. Side-rolls involved the animal rolling laterally more than 40º from dorsal and holding that position for a consistent duration, usually more than 10 seconds. Mean number of side-rolls per dive for each animal was 2.84, 6.7, 3.15, and 4.32. Two animals had a consistent mean sideroll duration (in seconds), while mean duration for the other two was more varied [17.7 s (4.0), 24.6 s (11.5), 13.1 s (2.6), 19.1 s (14.4)]. For each animal the angle of roll was consistent [96.7º (7.7), -73º (17.6), - 80.5º (3.7), -84.2º (23)], and they maintained a head-down pitch angle [28.5º (3.2), 24.4º (9.3), 10.7º (4.8), 32.2º (2.6)]. Between side-rolls, animals returned to a dorsal-ventral orientation. Side-rolls occurred at or within a few meters of the sea floor and were often preceded by a stereotypic sound. We speculate that side-rolls indicate periods of consumatory feeding. Data have management implications with regards to whale entanglement and fishing gear modification
Direct, underwater observation of marine mammals for extended time periods is technically infeasi... more Direct, underwater observation of marine mammals for extended time periods is technically infeasible. As a result scientists have resorted to deploying a variety of devices on animals to measure and depict motor behavior. For example, the DTAG logs body pitch, roll, heading and depth, while simultaneously recording sounds emitted and received by the tagged animal. However, the dynamic nature of these data (and the animal) is usually depicted by static images or animations of simple data fields (e.g., time and location). In addition, key aspects of the environment, such as human activity that might influence whale behavior, are often difficult to incorporate into visualizations and analysis. GeoZui4D is a geo-referenced data visualization system that allows the integration of multiple data sources (e.g., pitch, roll, heading, and depth) to create a dynamic visualization of whale motor behavior that can be synchronized to sound or other files. The results allow virtual visualization of the underwater activities of the tagged animal, concurrent with sounds the animal makes and hears, shipping tracks or other measured aspects of the environment. For example, using GeoZui4D to combine DTAG data from a humpback whale with vessel tracks from boats in the vicinity allowed us to view the behavior of the virtual whale swimming along the seafloor and hear the vessel sounds received at the whale, while observing boat movements (including a continuous calculation of the distance between boat and whale). In addition, time in GeoZui4D can be sped up or slowed down, depending on the need of the investigator. Similarly, the system has a zooming user interface allowing for fine or large scale viewing from multiple perspectives. We will provide examples of GeoZui4D visualizations using DTAG data collected from humpback whales and describe the power of such visualizations in a policy setting
Visualizing 3D vector fields is challenging because of occlusion problems and the difficulty of p... more Visualizing 3D vector fields is challenging because of occlusion problems and the difficulty of providing depth cues that adequately support the perception of direction of flow lines in 3D space. One of the depth cues that has proven most valuable for the perception of other kinds of 3D data, notably 3D networks and 3D point clouds, is structure‐from‐motion (also called the Kinetic Depth Effect); another powerful depth cue is stereoscopic viewing. We carried out an experiment of the perception of direction for short streamlines passing through a cutting plane. The conditions included viewing with and without structure‐from‐motion and with and without stereoscopic depth. Conditions also include comparing streamtubes to lines. The results show that for this particular task, stereo provided an effective depth cue, but structure‐from‐motion did not. Ringed streamtubes and streamcones provided good 3D direction information, even without stereoscopic viewing. We conclude with guidelines f...
Psychologists of visual perception have used special pictures, some made by artists, to investiga... more Psychologists of visual perception have used special pictures, some made by artists, to investigate the phenomenon of subjective or phantom lines and surfaces. The authors have extended the investigations to 3-dimensional constructions of their design. Eight constructions are described and an account is given of the results obtained with human subjects. Differences between the phenomenon perceived in pictures and in the constructions are pointed out and attention is drawn to a new phenomenon—the perception of a subjective or phantom volume.
Probably the most common method for visualizing univariate data maps is through pseudocoloring an... more Probably the most common method for visualizing univariate data maps is through pseudocoloring and one of the most commonly cited requirements of a good colormap is that it be perceptually uniform. This means that differences between adjacent colors in the sequence be equally distinct. The practical value of uniformity is for features in the data to be equally distinctive no matter where they lie in the colormap, but there are reasons for thinking that uniformity in terms of feature detection may not be achieved by current methods which are based on the use of uniform color spaces. In this paper we provide a new method for directly evaluating colormaps in terms of their capacity for feature resolution. We apply the method in a study using Amazon Mechanical Turk to evaluate seven colormaps. Among other findings the results show that two new double ended sequences have the highest discriminative power and good uniformity. Ways in which the technique can be applied include the design o...
information is commonly structured, presented and communicated using diagrams. One particular typ... more information is commonly structured, presented and communicated using diagrams. One particular type of diagram that has played a predominant role in the Information Sciences is the node-link diagram. Nodes that represent entities, objects, or units and links that represent relationships of various kinds between the nodes characterize this type of diagram. Visually these nodes are represented using outline forms such as boxes and circles and the links have been depicted with lines consisting of different characteristics. Recent advances in perception present evidence that our visual system is endowed with I am thankful to my friends, near and far, who have constantly provided me their sincere support, encouragement and friendship at times when these were most needed. I hope to repay in kind if they allow me to do so.
To display patterns of winds or water currents researchers and forecasters mostly resort to graph... more To display patterns of winds or water currents researchers and forecasters mostly resort to graphical representations such as streamlines or grids of little arrows representing the vector field. Arrow grids are still the most common method despite an empirical evaluation (Laidlaw et al.) showing them to be ineffective. We developed an optimization process for the production of a high quality visualization. Our starting point was the theory of human contour perception which suggests that head-to-tail graphical elements which we call streaklets. We used Jobard and Lefer\u27s algorithm to displaying streaklets along evenly spaced streamlines. An interactive interface was developed to give users control of 28 parameters that controlled the mapping between the data and the shape color and spacing of the streaklets. Through a process of human in the loop hill climbing 176 optimized representations of a flow pattern were generated with random starting points in the space of possible representation. Study participants who included designers from the Rhode Island School of Design and meteorologists and visualization experts. The results were then ranked into four categories from good to bad by independent designers and the findings have been incorporated into a package called FlowVis2D that can reliably and automatically produce superior representations of flow patterns. This package can be run on a server to automatically produce images for web mapping sites (e.g. NOAA\u27s nowCOAST) or it can be used as an interactive design tool. Figure 1 shows an image of the atmosphere at 350 millibars
Acoustic studies of baleen whales are becoming increasingly common. However, a minority of studie... more Acoustic studies of baleen whales are becoming increasingly common. However, a minority of studies combine acoustic data with technologies that allow sound production to be placed in a behavioral context. Noninvasive digital acoustic recording tags (DTAGS) were attached to humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) on the western North Atlantic’s Great South Channel feeding grounds during July 2004 to study foraging and acoustic behavior. Acoustic records totaling 48.4 data hours from four attachments were aurally and automatically analyzed, and a novel sound was identified. The sounds are repetitive, complex bursts, consisting of two components (approximately 50 ms each, peak frequencies between 50 and 400 Hz), and produced at an average rate of 1.6 (±SD 0.25 s) pulsed pairs per second. The bursts were heard in bouts ranging from 0.5 to 79 seconds (mean 17 s). These sounds were recorded from all four tagged whales, totaling 344 clear bouts of pulses. Acoustic properties were consistent among the four individuals, though there was some variation in bout duration. Acoustic analysis was combined with virtual behavioral study using GeoZui4D and other track visualization software to investigate whether the sounds were associated with foraging behavior. The bursts only occurred during portions of the dive cycle greater than 60m in depth (mean depth 77 m, ±SD 3.7 m), usually within a few meters of the sea floor. Bouts often began upon reaching the foot of a dive, or were associated with animals sharply rolling on their side. Passive recordings of these sounds could indicate geographical locations of subsurface feeding by humpback whales. However, the frequency range and received levels (subsampling indicated a maximum sound pressure level of approximately 145 dB peak re 1µPa — substantially lower than humpback whale song) overlap with sounds from commercial shipping, suggesting that the signals could be masked by ocean noise
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Papers by Colin Ware